A meeting for Potential Partners for an LDA in Azerbaijan is organised by ALDA in Strasbourg, on March 22. The meeting will take place at the Council of Europe in connection with the plenary session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.
The meeting will gather interested local and regional authorities to discuss the possibility of a Local Democracy Agency in Azerbaijan.
The LDA in Azerbaijan will work to facilitate the participation of civil society and citizens in the decision-making process at the local level and to increase the sharing of information between Azerbaijan and other European countries and stakeholders to enable closer cooperation and an ongoing exchange of best practices for good governance at the local level.
In 2006 an LDA was opened in Kutaisi in Georgia and in October 2011 an LDA was opened in Gyumri, Armenia. So the LDA in Azerbaijan will also become part of a network of LDAs in South Caucasus that can facilitate cooperation and mutual understanding between the countries in South Caucasus.
A delegation from BINA – the NGO Alliance for Municipality Development from Azerbaijan will be in Strasbourg to participate in the meeting and hold meetings with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities. On Friday March 23 the BINA delegation will go to Brussels to hold meetings with the Committee of the Regions, European Commission and members of the European Parliament. They will among others meet with Mr. Ivo Vajgl and and Evgeni Kirilov, two MEPs who work actively on supporting stronger European cooperation with Azerbaijan and resolving the conflicts in South Caucasus.
Please find the agenda for the meeting attached here

For further background information about the LDA in Azerbaijan go here

BINA’s latest report monitoring local democracy in Azerbaijan can be found here.

In order to introduce the Code of Good Practices to Congress’ members and collect also some of their experiences in terms of citizens’ participation, a seminar will take place in Strasbourg during the Spring Congress session (22 March 2012 – 12.30-14-30 – Room 6).
The seminar is organizsed by the Conference of INGOs of the Council of Europe, The Congress of the Local and Regional Authorities and by ALDA.
Objectives of the meeting are to introduce the Code to the members of the Congress, to collect their good practice in citizens’ participation, to identify possible further dissemination and use of the Code at the local level and to set up a group of “leading” local authorities, partners with the Conference of the INGOs, in promoting the Code.

The Agenda of the seminar foresee:

• Introduction to the meeting by Mr Raymond Svensson, member of the Swedish Delegation to the Congress and experienced in the implementation of the Code in Sweden
• Contribution of the President of the Conference of the INGOs,
• Mr Jean Marie Heydt
• Contribution of the Chair of The Democracy, Social Cohesion and Global Challenges Committee, Conference of INGOs, Mrs. Anne Marie Chavanon
• Presentation of the Code and the activity of the Conference of the INGOs of the Council of Europe, Mrs Antonella Valmorbida, coordinator of the dissemination of the Code and Director of the Association of the Local Democracy Agencies.
• Round table on experiences from participants

For further info on the Code please click here

The second training seminar for CSOs on advocacy skills, within the project Civil Society in Action for Dialogue and Partnerships was held in Zavidovici from 15th to 17th of March 2012.
20 representatives of local NGOs, from the partner organisations’ cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina attended the seminar.
The two day training in Zepce (near Zavidovici) was organised by the LDA Zavidovici in close collaboration with the Project team members and the team of trainers from LDA Mostar Igor Kajgana and Slobodan Vulesevic, senior trainers.
Key contents of the interactive workshops were related with developing an idea into a project proposal (five critical elements of a successful project proposal a problem or a need for a project; idea and vision for a change; activities to be done; measuring the change, and resources needed for the implementation of the project), strategic vs. opportunistic approach in developing a project proposal, project cycle management and its objectives (clear and realistic project objectives; high-quality projects, and consistency with and contribution to general policy objectives), project cycle management stages (programming, identification, assessment, financing, implementation, and evaluation) and general project objective (response to a long-term problem that will be addressed only partially) and specific project objectives (to be achieved during or after the implementation of a project).
Presented concepts and elements were discussed in plenary, and a number of practical examples were given in order to substantiate the presentation with “real life situations”.
The group then discussed what to do next and decided to work in groups under the guidance of the trainers on generating potential ideas for small-scale projects.
As a follow-up coaching and mentoring process, the participants group was advised not to hesitate to seek advice from trainers on any topic they may not understand, and encouraged to continue good work throughout entire project implementation.
In the closing of the workshop, the group presented their work, and the trainers have also provided their comments and practical advice for improvements, while the communication and the group dynamics will be maintained through information share and including the participants into the mailing list for project beneficiaries.

For more information: www.ldamostar.org

The Local Democracy Agency Subotica has implemented a project called “PARTYCIPATION!” under the programme framework of European Commission’s called « Youth in Action ». 
A concrete realization of the project was held at the Open University Subotica, in the period from 3rd to 10th of March 2012.

Project PARTYCIPATION! is the training course, aiming to tackle the subject: informal learning in function of working with young people with fewer opportunities. The main target groups of the training were youth workers, people who are active in the NGO youth sector as well as students who want to become active in this field. This project gathered partner organizations and participating NGOs from 9 countries: Turkey, Estonia, Moldova, Macedonia, Sweden, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia as the host. On this occasion Local Democracy Agency Subotica hosted twenty-two participants from abovementioned countries.
Guests – participants of the training course were in our town for 8 days. As part of project activity, participants had the opportunity to meet each other, share experiences and skills, work together and increase their proactive approach. Also, as informal part of the project visit of the Town Hall of Subotica, Lake Palic, Subotica’s Municipal Museum, and others were held.
Constant communication group participants can be viewed on the Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/279627002108972/ .

The statements and opinions about the training were also recorded by the local media. See the following links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv9FbNIZJng&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0qELfZR2cs&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anNd8L8vEWw&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FratARKLTP0&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOuhZ8f4r_w&feature=player_embedded

The Steering Committee for the French partners in the Decentralised cooperation project between Lower Normandy and North Macedonia will be held at the Regional Council of Lower Normandy, in Caen, on March 20, 2012.
Like every year, this steering committee will be an excellent opportunity to discuss the difficulties and obstacles encountered during the first half of the current year of activities.
The participants will also exchange on upcoming events and reflect on planned objectives. The Steering Committee allows defining the progress of all axes and partnerships in the cooperation at mid-year.
Macedonian partners will analyse the fifth year of the Cooperation at the Steering Committee scheduled for April 3, in Veles.
The Programme for decentralised cooperation between the Region Lower Normandy and Republic of North Macedonia is coordinated by the Association of Local Democracy Agencies (ALDA). For more information on planned activities please consult the latest edition of the e-newsletter in French, and Macedonian.

An important step towards creating a pool of local NGOs engaged in implementation of cooperation agreements with local authorities.
With this aim, the third Steering group meeting of the project Civil Society In Action For Dialogue And Partnerships, and the first meeting with the Thematic working groups’ members, were held in the town hall of Zavidovici and hosted by the LDA Zavidovici project team members, from 15th to 17th of March 2012.

The two thematic working groups have in this way become functional and will serve as an important pool of expertise in two areas of interest for our action:
1) Working group for implementing the municipal memorandums composed mainly of local self-governments representatives, practitioners and experts;
2) Working group for support to local civil society organisations, composed mainly of NGO practitioners.
During the vivid debate a number of issues have been raised including also inadequate capacity of local NGO-s for co-operation and partnership building relations with local authorities, lack of transparent mechanisms of public consultation and often formal existence of the signed cooperation memorandums mainly perceived as a tool for providing the support to sport, cultural and veterans’ associations.

NGOs active in youth empowerment, democratic participation, gender issues, anti discrimination, environment protection, minorities…are often left without proper support by the local governments.
Most of the members of the Thematic groups expressed willingness to participate and contribute in the forthcoming local debates and awareness raising campaign scheduled in Zavidovici and Prijedor, and will also contribute with their observations and findings as regards the implementation of local memorandums in different municipalities.
Members of the Working group for support to civil society are: Murisa Maric, DON Prijedor, SnezanaSeslija, Resource Centre ToPeer, Doboj, Samir Halilovic, Democratic Centre Novenade, Bihac, Semir Tica, Ecological society, Breza, AgostinoZanetti, LDA Zavidovici and VehidSehic, Citizens’ Forum Tuzla .
Also the second training seminar for CSOs on advocacy skills was held in Zavidovici hotel Maric, with 20 participants, representatives of local NGOs from the partner organisations’ cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

For more information please contact: stanka.parac@aldaintranet.org ; ldazavidovici@aldaintranet.org ; ldamostar@aldaintranet.org .

The Greek association KMOP (Kendro Merimnas Oikoyeniaskai Pediou) will organise on 15th and 16th March an event in Korydallos and Piraeus in the framework of the project VIT- Very important twinning, Volunteering in town.
The event in Greece will be the second organised in the project VIT (after the one organised in Valencia on March 2nd and 3rd by Recreatura) and is part of a total of 18 workshops, which will be held until June 2013.
This project aims at creating a platform involving different types of stakeholders for debate, action and reflection on how citizens may enhance governance in Europe. At the same time, the project aims at revitalising existing town-twinning relations of the partner towns and initiate new twinning.
The first day of the workshop will be dedicated to the presentation by local NGO’s of their volunteering actions and to a discussion on the role of volunteerism and its impact in society. The second will consist on a visit to KMOP’s Day Care Center “Ariadni” in Piraeus.

From 19 to 21 of March a Danish delegation will be visiting Nis, Serbia, hosting city of the LDA Central Southern Serbia. The Danish City oh Aarhus, with its International Office, department of Employment, is the lead partner of the LDA CSS. The purpose of the visit is to observe the implementation of the Danish-Serbian projects in Nis.
The delegation will be composed of the Danish Ambassador in Serbia, Mette Kjuel Nielsen, the Alderman Department of Social Affairs and Employment of the Municipality of Aarhus, Hans Halvorsen, the Director of the Department, Erik Kaastrup-Hansen, Flemming Meyer, representative of City of Aarhus, and the President of ALDA Per Vinther.
The delegation will visit Job Center Nis which is a project funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Furthermore the delegation has scheduled meetings with the mayor of Nis, National Employment Service, the Socio-Economic Council and Employment Council of Nis. Delegation will also include a visit to Aarhus International Office in Nis and Local Democratic Agency LDA Nis which have been cooperating closely since late 2010. The aim of the visit is additionally to improve and strengthen the cooperation between LDA, Aarhus and Nis. During this visit an exhibition presenting Aarhus and Danish history and culture will be opened for the public in Nis. This exhibition is being organised by Aarhus International Office in Nis and Local Democratic Agency LDA Nis in cooperation with Business Law School and Preschool institution from Nis.

Javier Abenia and Jose Luis Lasheras, last president and vice president of ASAEL, the Aragonese Association of Local Authorities, that was dissolved in late 2009 swept away by a scandal, have been sentenced to pay 30.180 euro to ALDA, to cover the debts made when they were members of the Governing Board of the Association.
The Court of First Instance considered them responsible for the non-payment of the sum due to ALDA for the realisation of European projects in which were both partners.
In the photo: Mrs. Antonella Valmorbida during a press conference in Zaragoza
« ALDA had a contract with ASAEL who did not honoured it. We are pleased that the court has agreed with us and that we should be able to recover our funds”. Stated President and Director of Alda, Per Vinther and Antonella Valmorbida. “The judgement sets out clearly the responsibilities and behavior to be expected of locally elected officials. ALDA has always promoted accountability and transparency in local governance, but it is the population of Aragon who should benefit the most from this judgment on the merits of this unacceptable behavior by its locally elected officials ».
Asael was leader of some European projects in which were partners, with ALDA, other European public institutions and associations.
After developing their ordinary activity, the Aragoneses association did not disburse the agreed amount to its partners, in particular ALDA, that reported the case to the Court.
The judge has estimated the reasons presented by the Attorney Charlez Landivar and by the Lawyer Victor Sanz Pomar, representing Alda, against Javier Abenia and Jose Luis Lasheras, and has condemned them to the payment of the debts, amounting to 30.180 euro, legal interest and costs.

The members of the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, express their deep concern over the recent diplomatic conflict between the authorities of Belarus and the European Union.
The representatives of the Belarusian civil society, members of the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum are convinced that the solution to the essentially important issues of reforming and modernisation of Belarus and turning it back to the network of the European communities, may lay the basis for negotiations and overcoming the existing conflict between the authorities of Belarus and the European Union.

Read the full statement in EN, RU, BY.

The increased involvement of Local Authorities (LAs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in EU development policy generates the need for the establishment of a new alliance among them in order to capitalise and improve their experiences and methods of actions.
On 28th of March 2012, in the Committee of the Regions premises in Brussels, will be launch WTD – Working Together for Development with the International Conference ”Local authorities and civil society: a partnership for development”.

During the last two decades, LAs gained a significant expertise in terms of conflict prevention, decentralisation and confidence building in development, revealing themselves as real catalysts for change. In strong cooperation with CSOs, LAs confirmed decentralised cooperation methodology as one of the most relevant tools to promote a shared and bottom-up approach to development, inside and outside Europe.
ALDA, which has been one of the first European actors promoting this practice through the network of Local Democracy Agencies, is launching a new alliance between LAs and CSOs interested in having a voice heard in Europe as for policy making about development cooperation.
We will be pleased to involve your institution or organisation in this new challenging European endeavour, thus the president of ALDA is honoured to invite you all in Brussels.
The Conference will gather the main European stakeholders in the field of development and aims at debating on the opportunities LAs have to work together with CSOs to foster a bottom up approach to development and to plan a join strategy to make their efforts more efficient.
WTD, Working Together for Development, is a multi-annual development alliance granted within the framework of the European Commission NSA & LA Programme in the Objective III.
It has been conceived by ALDA in cooperation with 21 international partners and associates coming from 16 different countries from enlarged the wider Europe.
It involves both Associations of Local Authorities and NGO networks, and aims at improving their capacities to act as development agents inside and outside Europe, in partnership with EU and national institutions. WTD adopts a multi-stakeholder approach and focuses on creating strong partnerships between Local Authorities and NGOs. It has a special particular focus on Eastern and South Eastern Europe.

For more information contact Mr Alfonso Aliberti, Project Manager of ALDA, at alfonso.aliberti@aldaintranet.org or visit the website: www.wtd-alda.eu

Will take place in Strasbourg (1-2 March 2012) the first study visit of the project “Network for Community Development with Marginalised Social Groups”, part of the Lifelong Learning Programme – Grundtvig, coordinated by ALDA and its partners, in the light of the strong impact community organisations have in the development of their own societies.
The project aims to facilitate the mutual learning of innovative tools of community development that tackle the problems of marginalised social groups in different regions of Europe.
The first study visit foresee the organisation of to the event “Round Table – Active Citizenship: Tools for Community Development” in the European Youth Centre of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg on 1st March 2012 (9h30 – 13h00). The event will be attended by the international partners and local NGOs involved in community development programmes.
The round table will be followed by a visit to the Municipality of Strasbourg and a meeting with Mr Luc Scheeck from the Department for Local Democracy and Neighbourhood Offices who will present the activities of the City of Strasbourg in this regards.
On Friday, 2 March, the participants of the study visit will meet Mr Robert Rustem from the European Roma Forum of the Council of Europe, Mr Dmitri Marchenkov, Secretary of the Current Affairs Committee, Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, Ms Jutta Gützkow and Ms Jane Crozier-Vincent from Directorate of Democratic Governance, Culture and Diversity of the Council of Europe. During the meeting the activities of the Council of Europe regarding Roma and Travellers, as well as the cooperation of the Organisation with NGOs, will be presented.
The main goal of the event will be sharing knowledge and experiences that attending associations gained throughout their daily activities in their specific field of intervention. This will thus contribute to promote best practices that can be applied in other sectors and in different local contexts.

In the period from 23 to 25th of February a Delegation composed by partners of LDA Zavidovici from Alba (Italy) visited Zavidovici with intention to do the evaluation of the common projects that are implemented in Zavidovici.
The main attention was on the project „A safe place for victims of domestic violence: accompaniment to autonomy and development of local resources“, financed by Municplaity of Alba and Piemonte Region.
The project aims to develop initiatives to support victims of domestic violence and against the culture that produces and legitimises violence itself, through the action of the local network active for over three and a half years and of the « Sigurno Mjesto », a newly established association.
The main objectives are:

• Implement measures to prevent domestic violence and raise awareness about the gender relations with the young people of the territory;
• Provide services to accompany the victims of violence;
• Develop initiatives to support the economic independence of victims of violence;
• The strengthening and development of the local network against domestic violence involving inside the Association « Sigurno Mjesto » (« A safe place », born from the projects supported by the Piemonte Region).
  Besides this there have been discussed future activities where is involved territory of Alba as: exchange between kindergartens, summer camps for children “Strani Vari”, youth exchanges and others.
  Delegation has been composed by: Nicola Conti (Consorzio Socio Assistenziale-Alba Langhe e Roero), Gianna Pasquero (Ser.T. Asl CN 2 – Alba Bra), Maria Perino (Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro” – Dipartimento di Ricerca Sociale), Cecilia Madau (Ufficio Pace Alba), Simona Sordo (LDA Zavidovici), Alice Riccardi (Associazione Strani Vari Alba), and Agostino Zanotti (president of LDA Zavidovici). Municipality of Alba is partner of LDA Zavidovici since its establishment in 1996.