This short paper an overview and partial synthesis of the papers presented in the sessions of the SOAC 2003 conference dealing with the theme of Governance, Finance and Accountability. It is intended to contribute to the process of identifying the critical policy and research issues that are a major intended outcome of the conference, along with the papers themselves.

Governance in the context of these papers reflects the fact that management of, policy about and the institutional arrangements in our cities is about more than just “government”, but about a complex set of interactions between government, communities, private sector and knowledge-based communities.

“Accountability” is not a term used in the papers much, but the issue of participation and transparency in the governance of cities recurs and so accountability can be viewed as an attribute of governance interdependent with participation. “Finance” is not an issue directly tackled in the paper, but the perennial issue of resources is.