As a follow-up of the GNLG Steering Committee meeting in February 2006 and the Functional Workshop on GNLG held in Kyiv during the World Movement for Democracies Global Assembly in April this year, the Institute of Social Sciences is organising a day-long meeting on 11th December 2008 in Kolkata. It will be the regional meeting of the GNLG (South Asia and immediate neighbouring countries) to discuss the state of local government system, particularly gender budgeting and women’s participation as also the way forward. This one-day meeting will be followed by a two-day conference on the experience of the State of West Bengal in the area of local governance. Incidentally West Bengal is a leading state in India as far as the implementation of local government system is concerned. The GNLG meet and the two-day conference on 12 and 13 December 2008 will be held at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Joka, Kolkata.

We are inviting Local Government leaders from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand and of course from India. We expect nearly 40 participants for the GNLG special meeting on 11th December and more than 250 for the two-day conference on 12 and 13 December, 2008.