The Cook Islands consists of a total of 15 islands of which 12 are inhabited spread out over a total of 2.2 million square kilometers. The majority of the inhabitants of the Cook Islands live on the island of Rarotonga with the country’s capital, Avarua. Local government is made up of island councils headed by a mayor. Both the councils and the mayors were most recently elected at the beginning of 2011 for a period of four years following the national elections of 2010. The island councils are organized into district councils (vaka) and village committees which are functional institutions. The three vaka councils on the capital island of Rarotonga were abolished in 2007 after criticism from the central government concerning the lack of service delivery efficiency. Duties formerly connected to the vaka councils have been placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Three uninhabited islands are governed by nearby inhabited islands through the placement of a caretaker.
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Local government on the Cook Islands is provided for in the Outer Islands Local Government Act of 1987. This act grants powers concerning the improvement and/or maintenance of for example infrastructure, fishery, healthcare and education to all islands with the exception of Rarotonga. The Act was amended in 2004. Other legislation on local government can be found in the 1993 Act on Palmerston Island Local Government providing less than a thousand people of Palmerston island with more local government powers. The most recent adjustment to local government legislation was the above mentioned abolishment of the Rarotonga vaka councils.
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Development of localities and local governments takes place both at national as well as at international level . The CLGF Pacific Project aims to increase the role of participatory government, improve international and regional cooperation but also focuses on capacity building and local development within localities. The project also drafted an advisory report on the reinstatement of local government on Rarotonga. Other more specific projects focus on infrastructure, wastewater management and sanitation. One of these projects is a cooperation between the Cook Island Ministry of Infrastructure and Planning and a joint development fund from Australia and New Zealand.
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