This Privacy Policy applies to the Chartered Institute of Local Governance and Development (“CILGD”, “the Institute”, “we”), an international professional membership body with a Global Registered Office in Delaware, United States, and a West Africa Office in Accra, Ghana.

We are the data controller responsible for the personal information collected through this website, our member portal, our training systems, our verification tools, and our institutional correspondence.

We collect the following categories of personal data:

• Identity data — name, post-nominal letters, date of birth, nationality, and where applicable, photograph for member registers.
• Contact data — email address, postal address, telephone number, and country of residence.
• Professional and academic data — qualifications, employment history, sector of practice, references, supervisor details, and continuous professional development records.
• Membership data — grade applied for and held, application status, dues history, disciplinary record (where applicable), and post-nominal usage authorisation.
• Financial data — invoice and receipt information for membership dues, examination fees, and training fees. Card and mobile-money numbers themselves are processed by regulated payment providers and are never stored on our servers.
• Technical data — IP address, browser type, device type, and pages visited, used to keep the site secure and improve its usability.

We process personal data only where one of the following applies:

• Contract — to administer your membership, examinations, certification, continuous professional development, or training contract with the Institute.
• Legal obligation — to comply with statutory record-keeping, tax, anti-money laundering, and public-interest disclosure requirements in the jurisdictions in which we operate.
• Legitimate interest — to safeguard the integrity of the profession, prevent misuse of CILGD post-nominal letters and certificates, and protect the public through accurate verification tools.
• Consent — for optional purposes such as listing in a public member register, or receiving institutional updates.

• To assess, admit, and maintain professional membership.
• To administer professional examinations, continuous professional development, certification, and the practicing certificate regime.
• To operate the public verification tools that confirm the validity of certificates and the standing of members.
• To investigate complaints and conduct disciplinary proceedings in accordance with the Institute’s Constitution and Code of Ethics.
• To send essential institutional communications, including notifications about your membership status, dues, and AGM business.
• To improve the website, member portal, training systems, and institutional services.
• To comply with applicable laws, regulatory requirements, and lawful requests from public authorities.

We share personal data only where necessary and only with parties who are bound to protect it. Categories of recipient include:

• Authorised CILGD staff, committees, regional offices, and accredited training centres who require access to administer your membership or training.
• Independent external auditors, legal advisers, and regulators acting on the Institute’s behalf.
• Regulated payment processors that handle dues, examination, and training fees on our behalf.
• Employers, government agencies, and members of the public who use our verification tools to confirm a member’s standing or a certificate’s validity. Only the minimum information necessary for verification is shown.

We do not sell personal data. We do not share personal data with political parties, campaigns, or partisan organisations.

Because CILGD operates internationally, personal data may be transferred between the Global Registered Office in the United States, the West Africa Office in Ghana, and future regional offices and country chapters. When data crosses borders, we rely on appropriate safeguards including contractual data-protection clauses, recognised adequacy frameworks, and the data-protection laws of the jurisdictions in which we operate.

We retain personal data for as long as you remain a member of the Institute and for the period required by applicable law, professional regulation, audit requirements, and legitimate institutional purposes such as alumni recognition and statutory recordkeeping. Disciplinary records are retained in accordance with the Institute’s Constitution and applicable due-process requirements.

Subject to applicable law, you have the right to:

• Request access to the personal data we hold about you.
• Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
• Request erasure of your personal data where there is no overriding institutional or legal obligation to retain it.
• Object to or restrict certain processing, including for direct communications that are not essential to your membership.
• Withdraw consent for processing based on consent.
• Lodge a complaint with the data-protection authority in your jurisdiction.

To exercise any of these rights, write to info@cilgd.com. We may ask you to verify your identity before acting on the request.

We maintain technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, accidental loss, alteration, and disclosure. These include encrypted connections, access controls on institutional systems, segregation of duties for sensitive financial actions, and an internal audit framework. No online service is fully risk-free; if you become aware of suspicious activity involving your CILGD record, please write to us immediately.

Our website uses a small number of cookies and similar technologies to keep you signed in, remember your preferences, and understand how the site is used. Full details are set out in our Cookie Notice.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practice, applicable law, or institutional governance. The date at the top of this page indicates when the policy was last reviewed. Material changes will be communicated to members through the institutional channels.