The chief executive of the Honiara City Council, Peter Hauia, is spending two weeks with New Zealand's Kapiti District Council, as part of a Commonwealth programme to restore the capability of the body.
Council services in the Solomon Islands capital collapsed during the years of ethnic tension and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum was asked to help.
The CEO at Kapiti, Mark Dacombe, undertook a needs assessment, which outlined the institutional problems Honiara faces and its lack of skills and plant.
One immediate outcome is Mr Hauia's visit to New Zealand, and the Honiara CEO says Kapiti has been able to show him how to achieve essential changes.
"One is, I believe, is the strengthening of governance. And Mark has already been assisting me for a month in setting up the procedures for governance."
