The ongoing local government elections are drawing to a close with the majority of positions already filled with only the elections for the bureau at the district level still due, besides polls for special interest groups at higher levels.

There are many positives witnessed during the latest cycle of local elections, including broader participation of mostly youthful candidates, including many with full-time jobs in corporate offices.

This should come as an advantage for local government leadership since these councillors presumably come with experience and perspectives from different backgrounds, as well as pragmatism and professionalism in general.

Notably, the fact that local government leadership teams are drawn different segments of society, including civil society, private sector, schools, faith-based organisations, the youth, and people living with disabilities, in addition to ensuring that both genders are represented by at least 30 per cent, should lead to inclusive development. This should help ensure that all development programmes take into consideration of the different needs and perspectives of different categories of people in the community.

Nonetheless, there are many instances where local leaders have failed previously despite this inclusive structural set-up, resulting in a very high turnover in local government. Some of the leaders were involved in corruption, others fell short of standards of ethical leadership, while others were simply incompetent.

While it is okay to replace leaders (and in many cases it has paid off, at least in Rwanda’s case), constant changes in leadership could affect delivery of socioeconomic programmes, potentially derailing the development agenda.

Fortunately for the new cohort of local leaders, they are not coming to start from scratch. Decentralisation has taken hold over the last 20 years with better returns each new cycle and therefore there is a bank of accumulated knowledge and experience that the new leadership can leverage and move their respective communities to the next level.