County Development Boards

County and City Development Boards (CDBs) were established nationwide in 2000. Their objective is to bring local government, state agencies, local development agencies and the social partners together to jointly develop an economic, social and cultural strategy for each city and county. The requirement for such a partnership approach came from a common perceived lack of communication, co-operation and co-ordination between agencies and a lack of participation by communities in local decision making structures or civil society.

Community participation in the county development process was facilitated by the establishment of Community & Voluntary Fora in each city and county also in 2000. These fora allow community groups to network around common issues and themes, to develop policy positions and feed these into local decision making structures such as the CDBs, Strategic Policy Committees of the County Council, County Childcare Committees, and so on. All agencies and bodies are now asked to seek their community representation through the Community Fora.

A National Task Force published guidelines for the development of local strategies by the Development Boards in May 2000 called ‘A Shared Vision’. After two years of thematic strategic planning through working groups, all CDBs throughout the country published their County Development Strategies in early 2002. In 2006 each County Development Board reviewed its strategy, and set priorities and targets for the next three years.