Within the cooperation project between the Municipalities of Thiene (I) and Ijevan (AM), a study visit of a delegation of the Armenian City will be held in Thiene (10-13 April 2012).
Waste management, culture, territorial management, will be the areas of exchange of good practices among administrators and officials of the two municipalities.
(In the photo: First meeting between Thiene and Ijevan in Ijevan, October 2011).
The Armenian delegation will arrive today in Italy for an intensive session of work within the project launched by the Municipality of Thiene with the Municipality of Ijevan, in collaboration with ALDA, with the financial support of the Veneto Region in the context of decentralised cooperation for development programme.
During the visit there will be many opportunities to deeper the mutual knowledge between administrators and officials of the two municipalities, to share the decision making processes of the two Cities and their way to promote and support the good governance and the citizens’ participation.

On April 4-5 the partners of LDA Armenia held meeting at the Region of Rhone Alpes in Lyon. They met to discuss how to organise the future work of the LDA and its strategic and action plan. Furthermore the partners discussed the finalisation of the charter for the LDA, which is necessary to register the LDA in Armenia.
Seven out of the LDA’s eight partners listed below participated in the meeting.
It was stressed that the agency won’t operate as an ordinary NGO but will have a different focus especially through the international element it brings to its work, on the European level through ALDA and the international partners, and at the South Caucasus regional level through the close cooperation with LDA Georgia and other ALDA partner and member organisations.
Mrs. Véronique Moreira, The Vice-President of the Region Rhône-Alpes, Responsible for cooperation solidarity, also participated in the discussion of the work of the LDA as well as several cities and other organisations from Rhone Alpes who are working actively in Armenia.
Counterpart International supported the participation of Armenian partners to the meeting.
The LDA in Armenia was opened in October 2011. Partners of the LDA come from three countries: Region Rhône-Alpes (France), Region Friuli Venezia Giulia, (Italy), the Union of Communities of Armenia, the Urban Foundation for Sustainable Development (Armenia), the Journalists’ Club Asparez (Armenia), the Municipality of Gyumri (the host city in Armenia), Shirak Centre (Armenia) and International Center for Human Development (Armenia).
Gyumri is the second largest city in Armenia, situated in the North of the country and has been selected as host since it will provide a good basis to allow the LDA to work on a national level.

The international training session of the project TIC-TAC was a success since it allowed a fruitful exchange between the partners of the project, who were mostly represented.
The training session was held in the Liaison office of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region in Brussels from 29th to 30th March.
The day before, the participants of the training session of TIC-TAC attended the international launching conference of another project led by ALDA: WTD-Working Together for Development.
This training was the first opportunity for partners of the project TIC-TAC to meet each other and to share their experience. The first part of the training was organised with a dynamic approach providing to participants both theoretical elements on the Europe for Citizens Programme and concrete examples from people who have already implemented a project within this programme.
Then participants were divided in working groups and tried to identify quality elements on active citizenship projects, which were synthesised and presented to them on the second day of the training.
Diego Pinto, General Secretary of the European Movement International came to present its organisation and to speak about a specific way of grant proposed by the Europe for Citizens Programme (operating grant).
These two days allowed to participants to increase their knowledge on the Europe for Citizens Programme, to discuss the preparation of the second step of the project TIC-TAC, which is the organisation by each partner of 12 local info-days aiming at promoting the Europe for citizens Programme. It was also an opportunity for participants to meet new organisations and new potential partners for further projects.

As part of the SolArid programme, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Algeria in partnership with the Global Mechanism of UNCCD, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, had co-organised an international workshop for the socio-economic development of tangible and intangible rural heritage in arid and semi-arid regions of Algeria. The workshop took place from 28 to 29 March 2012 in BouSaâda (Algeria).
Vice president of ALDA, Mr. Alessandro Perelli, attended to the workshop.
Beginning his speech, Mr. Perelli has launched an appeal for the release of Rossella Urru, Italian cooperator kidnapped and imprisoned for five months in southern Algeria, and of others cooperators in the same condition.
“The experience of Northern Italy –Mr. Perelli said in his speech – indicates that in order to make a quality leap in the development of agriculture, Algeria needs to engage the modernisation in its traditions. It is a challenge that Algerian people and its leaders have to face because development and modernisation of the agricultural sector does not mean only positive feedback for the economy, but also a practical and viable solution to the serious social problem of emigration”.
As part of its National Strategy for Sustainability and Rural Development, Algeria wants to improve social cohesion and development of rural areas to guarantee equal resources access and that decentralisation will result with special attention given to the most vulnerable rural populations. These objectives can be achieved only with an improvement in investment planning and if the geographical diversity is taken into account.
The strategy focuses on four programmes: rehabilitation of villages and “Ksours”, recovery and development of economic activities in rural development and natural resource protection, enhancement of tangible and intangible rural heritage. Each programme promotes partnerships between actors of development, multi-sectorial integration, support for the implementation of innovative economic activities, promotion and sustainable management of resources and heritage, socio-economic synergy and coordination in actions. These programmes all focus on development and revitalisation (economic, social, environmental and cultural) of the territories.
Through this strategy, Algeria pursues several objectives: reverse rural exodus, fight against desertification and erosion, widespread social, economic, cultural and environmental development in steppe, oasis and mountainous areas.
The workshop had the aim to contribute to the enhancement of tangible and intangible rural heritage, through the analysis of international instruments and programmes and the identification of a pilot partnership programme for the development of socio-economic activities on rural heritage promotion, together with local actors.

ALDA launches the activities and information campaign on the European Citizens Initiative, which represents a new and innovative tool for citizens’ participation in Europe. 
“This is a challenging proposal, which needs to be fully understood by citizens. It does not represent a final step towards direct democracy but it is to be conceived as an important instrument for mobilization of interest in Europe”. says Antonella Valmorbida, Director of ALDA.

The European Citizens’ Initiative, entered in force the 1st of April, will allow 1 million citizens from at least seven EU countries to invite the European Commission to bring forward proposals for legal acts in areas where the Commission has the power to do so. The organisers of a citizens’ initiative, a citizens’ committee composed of at least 7 EU citizens who are resident in at least 7 different Member States, will have 1 year to collect the necessary statements of support. The number of statements of support has to be certified by the competent authorities in the Member States. The Commission will then have 3 months to examine the initiative and decide how to act on it. It is a right that is enshrined in the EU treaties. The rules and procedures governing the citizens’ initiative are set out in an EU regulation adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union in February 2011. 
A guide published by the European Union explains what the citizens’ initiative is about, how to sign up to initiatives and how to organise an initiative.
A “Warming Up“ Conference was implemented last January on The European Citizens’ Initiative by the European Commission. 
“I think that, at the moment, the effects of the ECI will be more on the side of awareness raising that the actual effects of the initiatives themselves. But, this is an opportunity not to lose. We hope that soon all the European members states will adopt the necessary national regulations for a full implementation”, says also Antonella Valmorbida, Director of ALDA. 
ALDA will support numerous activities organised for the launch of the European Citizens Initiative with the support the office in Brindisi (Italy) – fixes on the April the 18th, in Vicenza and Strasbourg and by la Maison de l’Europe in Caen (France). The members of ALDA will received during the upcoming month a full update on the possibilities and practical hints as for the ECI.
ALDA has been working on the field of active citizenship and citizen participation for a long time involving different stakeholders such as local authorities, Civil Society Organisations, citizens in local and national level. The idea of this information day is to increase the awareness of citizens on the key and crucial role they can and must play in the construction of the European Citizenship and to foster their participation in the European and local decision making process for a good governance.

On 28th March 2012 ALDA launched the WTD Alliance through the International Conference Local authorities and civil society: a partnership for development.
ALDA, together with the 21 partners and associates of WTD (Working Together for Development), commits to share at the European and National levels the best practices of cooperation between LAs and CSOs in development cooperation.
The President of the Committee of the Regions, Ms Mercedes Bresso, who opened the Conference, highlighted the strong efforts of the Committee in this direction and the strong support to ALDA in its work.
See here the videos

“The WTD Alliance would have two main objectives: implementing actions at the local level involving LAs and CSOs and bringing to policy makers those best development cooperation practices. As for the first objective, WTD has a strong local dimension by re-granting part of the resources of the project to small initiatives carried out by local authorities, of municipalities with up to 30,000 inhabitants, and local NGOs. As for the second point, we have appreciated the progress of the Structured Dialogue on Development through our membership in the CONCORD platform and we welcome the idea of the European Commission of setting up a Policy Forum on Development” stated Mr. Per Vinther, ALDA President in his intervention.
The representatives of the main European and International institutions, European Commission, Council of Europe and UNDP, shared the concerns of ALDA and of the WTD Alliance members as for the promotion of a peer and fruitful cooperation among CSOs and LAs in development.
The Conference had also the contribution of practitioners, both representatives of LAs and CSOs, involved in development cooperation processes, which highlighted the importance of cooperating at the local level when implementing and planning development actions.
Ms Antonella Valmorbida, Director of ALDA, presented the main features of actions of the WTD Alliance included in the position paper on WTD Political Dimension subscribed by its members.
The WTD Alliance aims at fostering the joint role of LAs and CSOs as promoters of democracy, social justice and human rights, promoting and favouring cooperation among all types of LAs and CSOs in order to bring their best practices of cooperation to European, national and regional institutions, trying to influence their development policies consequently.
The Alliance aims at playing a relevant political role at the EU level, as well as at the national and regional level when it comes to the promotion of good cooperation between LAs and CSOs in development cooperation. As such the WTD Alliance aims at integrating its voice and sharing its experience in the proposed Policy Forum on Development.
For more information please contact Mr Alfonso Aliberti, Project Manager of ALDA, at alfonso.aliberti@aldaintranet.org

Vice president of ALDA, Mr. Dobrica Milovanovic, had the opportunity to present ALDA, its Network and its work in Europe at the Summit of Europe’s Regions and Cities that took place in Copenhagen on 22 and 23 March 2012, promoted by the Committee of the Regions.
Mr. Milovanovic had short interventions during one of the workshops of the event and had a short exchange of words with the President of the European Commission, Josè Manuel Barroso, and the Danish Prime Minister Mrs. Helle Thorning-Schmidt, whom he thanked for supporting Serbia to get EU candidate status.
Mr Milovanovic met also the Mayors of Copenhagen, Mr. Frank Jensen, and Lisbon Antonio Costa.
This high level event entitled “The European urban fabric in the 21st century” was fully dedicated to the sustainable urban development. Mayors of European cities, presidents of regions, architects, the experts on
urban planning and others shared their views on the many challenges they are facing – how to prevent climate changes, create jobs, promote economic growth and to ensure sustainable energy supply.
During various workshops they also presented some of their best practices and innovative approaches. “Copenhagen declaration” adopted at the end of the Summit, which promotes the transition to “green economy”, was supported by the highest EU officials, (president of EC Mr Jose Manuel Barroso, president of EP Mr Martin Schulz, Prime Minister of Denmark, Ms Helle Thorning-Schmidt).
Mr Barroso stated that the transition to a green economy will require appropriate funding and EU policies and the development of innovative financial systems involving local partners, banks, private companies and civil society.

ALDA will take part in the Regional conference for North Africa organised by the EC-UN Joint Initiative on Migration and Development on 27 and 28 March 2012 in Tunis.
ALDA will present its experience in its project Capitalise Migrant Capacities with the main objective to maximise the development impact of migration by addressing the problem of brain waste and de-skilling of prospective migrants and returnees in order to transform it in brain gain.
The project has been conceived also in order to strengthen the links and the dialogue among Algerian migrants in Italy and France and migrant associations and local authorities in Algeria in the field of migration issues. The project has achieved these goals by providing coherent pre-departure orientation, by encouraging highly skilled Algerian emigrants in France and Italy to contribute to the socio-economic development of Algeria and by facilitating the professional reintegration of returnees and prospective migrants.

Partners of the project TIC-TAC will meet each other during a two-days training session which will be held in Brussels on 29th and 30th March 2012.
The main aim of the training session is to strengthen the capacities and knowledges of the personnel working as Project Managers in our partner organisations in the perspective of an improved quality of our work.
The most expected result to be achieved is the definition of a common method for high-quality project drafting and implementation in the Europe for Citizens Programme based on good practices of partners and of quality elements they will define together.
The training session will be hosted in the Liaison Office of Friuli Venezia Giulia Region in Brussels.
TIC-TAC (Training, Information, Cooperation – Towards Active Citizenship) aims at promoting all the measures of the Europe for Citizens programme and at strengthening the participation of the potential programme’s stakeholders through the creation of a platform for the establishment of long lasting partnership reaching a significant number of different stakeholders (Association of LA, CSOs, LAs, citizens).
The partnership is composed of 22 organisations such as Associations of LA, of LA, NGOs, other local actors, both private and public. Media will also be involved.

On Friday 23rd March 2012, ALDA President, Mr. Per Vinther, had a meeting with the Secretary General of the Union of Municipalities of Montenegro, Mr. Rajko Golubovic.
Attended the meeting also Mr. Kerim Međedović, executive director of the Local Democracy Agency in Montenegro.
Secretary General, Rajko Golubovic, informed the ALDA guests on the most important activities undertaken by the Union of Municipalities in performing their roles.
He expressed the desire to establish a cooperation with ALDA in order to provide expert assistance in preparing the analysis of the functioning of local government whose development is planned for second quarter current year.
The details of this cooperation will be discussed during next meetings between the two associations.

ALDA with the Municipality of Reggio Emilia (I) will participate with the project “Citizens of Reggio Emilia, for example” at the exhibition promoted by the Committee of the Regions on the occasion of the Summit of Europe’s Regions and Cities that will take place in Copenhagen on 22 and 23 March 2012.
Alda will be represented at the Summit by Mr. Dobrica Milovanovic, Vice president, and Mr. Alfonso Aliberti. The Mayor of Reggio Emilia, Mr. Graziano Delrio will be speaker at the workshop on: “Greener urban strategies: Rio+20 and the role of cities and regions”.
In the picture: Alda Vice president Dobrica Milovanovic, with the President of European Commission Josè Barroso.
The exhibition, entitled: “Beautiful, green, smart and inclusive: Colourful cities”, will give to about 30 Regions and Cities the opportunity to showcase their best practices in four thematic areas of urban development: architecture and town planning; innovation and smart specialisation strategies; respect to energy efficiency, transport and sustainable development; inclusion, social innovation and employment.
The exhibition will also be put up at the Committee of the Regions’ premises in Brussels in May 2012 and will be open for the public to visit during the Open Doors Day.
The City of Reggio Emilia, in cooperation with the Forum of the Third Sector, has developed this pilot project entitled “Citizens of Reggio Emilia, for example”, with the aim of strengthening municipal social capital and promoting a more inclusive city.
Launched in 2008 with a census on citizens best practices, it became a unique tool through which citizens started to realise how social capital ties were very well developed even in their own neighbourhoods. This experience stimulated hundreds of associations to become directly involved: in the last two years 700 projects have been proposed to promote solidarity, cultural activities, city mobility and territorial valorisation. In order to continue the promotion of a “community welfare”, Reggio Emilia launched in 2011 a municipal volunteering service that gathers all the volunteering opportunities offered at the local level, reaching more than 400 volunteers.
Today, the project represents the backbone of the “Europeans for example” project, aiming to bring together and promote good practices using a bottom-up approach based on the fact that social capital is a characteristic of the community. The project “Citizens of Reggio Emilia, for example” also has a European aspiration, developed together with ALDA, to bring this successful experience to a European audience.

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 .