Long-term priorities for Yuwaya Ngarra-li include supporting the capacity, governance, advocacy and leadership of Walgett Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs), and the redirection of government funding towards strengths-based, holistic, community-led initiatives in Walgett. The building and centring of Aboriginal community capabilities and control in Yuwaya Ngarra-li's work is a key enabler of all other projects.
Advocating for long-term change
Yuwaya Ngarra-li is committed to supporting Walgett ACCOs' ,ÌýÌý²¹²Ô»åÌý for long-term change in Walgett.
Our work has included:
- Data and support to enable meaningful participation by Walgett ACCOs in Closing the Gap processes
- Media training for Aboriginal leaders in Walgett
- Research to understand where government contracts and grants relating to Walgett are being allocated as a baseline and advocacy tool to enable increases in community control in coming years
- Producing resources that promote and teach the legacy, values and approaches of Walgett ACCOs
- Producing policy for Walgett ACCOs to advise NSW Parliamentary Inquiries, for example into food and water security and rural and remote health services.
Towards community-controlled budgeting and commissioning for better local outcomes
We have published two research and policy papers to assist public servants in meeting their Closing the Gap commitments in working with ACCOs:
- Creating Better Futures with Contracts covers how to improve access to information and participation in government procurements and grants
- Making Government Finances Make Sense for Communities covers how governments can improve information and participation around government budgeting and spending.
These papers provide insight into the experience of an ACCO trying to access information about government spending in their local community, shares case studies of positive practice in Australia and internationally and provides guidance on increasing government transparency and accountability, in line with Closing the Gap Priority Reform 4 commitments to operationalise Indigenous Data Sovereignty principles.Â