Новости

On Wednesday, June 7th 2023, the members of the Governing Board of ALDA gathered in the premises of Etterbeek’s Municipal Hall, in Brussels, to discuss about key topics for the future of the Association and to prepare the ground for the upcoming General Assembly.

The meeting began with the observance of a minute’s silence, in memory of Didier Duboisset, former Governing Board member and then Observer, who passed away last week. Didier was remembered by all the board members, especially by the words of ALDA President Oriano Otocan and Secretary General Antonella Valmorbida, who reaffirmed everyone’s condolences for this sudden death, and the will to keep alive the memory of Didier, who had done so much for the Association.

ALDA welcomes and congratulates with Nataša Vučković, new Vice President of the Association

This Governing Board was also characterised by new arrivals and important appointments.
On the one hand, Irina Sahakyan-Vetter was welcomed as representative of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.
Then, in light of the recent changes in the Governing Board’s composition, the Board decided to elect a new Vice President for the Association, by conferring the position on Наташа Вучкович, Founder, Secretary General and Executive Director of the Centre for Democracy Foundation (Serbia), member of ALDA.
On behalf of the whole Board and Association, we are all extremely proud of this decision, considering Ms Vučković’s commitment and dedication to the cause of local democracy, good governance and European integration.

After such an important moment, the meeting went on with crucial updates on ALDA’s activities and plans for the future, with the presentation of the 2023 Programme of ALDA, outlining the present challenges and the perspectives for the year to come, in terms of strategy, internal management, events and activities planned.

Even more strategic and relevant has been the presentation of the draft strategic plans for 2024-2028, a key document for the next steps of ALDA and its strategy – that give a continuation and further develop the actual strategic views 2020-2024.

The Governing Board went on with updates on the Local Democracy Agency’s network, with particular accent on the flagship initiative for the development of the LDAs in Ukraine, up to the consideration of some essential points in view of the ALDA General Assembly, the following day, 8 June 2023, also in the Etterbeek Municipal Hall.
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See the ALDA Festival and General Assembly full program ЗДЕСЬ

. ALDA Festival and General Assembly 2023 will not only be characterised by relevant topics, stimulating discussions and experienced speakers. This year, ALDA will have the honour of hosting a very special guest: Ms. Dubravka Šuica, Vice-President of the European Commission, who will open the ALDA General Assembly on 8 June 2023 at the Municipal Hall in Etterbeek (Belgium).

Entitled “Local democracy will Save Democracy“, the 2023 event will focus mainly on the power of local democracy as a promoter of equality, freedom, peace, rule of law and human rights. Founding values of the European Union that ALDA and its network deeply believe in and pursue on a daily basis.

Given the importance of this topic, there is no more suitable person than Ms. Šuica to discuss the future of democracy and kick off the ALDA General Assembly.

Commissioner Dubravka Šuica opens the ALDA General Assembly 2023

Commissioner for Democracy and Demography, previously in charge of the Конференции о будущем ЕвропыКонференция о будущем Европы (CoFoE), Ms. Šuica’s work embodies the above-mentioned values and is constantly aimed at promoting and supporting democracy, stimulating the participation of those who represent the very pillars of the European project: us, the citizens.

As stated by Ms. Šuica during the closing statement of the Conference on the Future of Europe “We will hear your views, citizens’ views. The most important participants in this process, the citizens.” Highlighting the fundamental role of the population, that with a bottom-up approach contributes to building a strong local democracy, for a resilient and thriving global one.  

We therefore look forward to the start of this ALDA Festival and General Assembly to be held in Etterbeek from 6 to 9 June 2023, which will be characterised by important discussions, exchanges of ideas and valuable insights. Come and join us! 

Discover the full programme by clicking здесь.

регистр здесь and join us!

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Local Democracy will Save Democracy – ALDA Festival and General Assembly 2023  

It is with great sorrow and profound sadness that we learnt of the passing of our dearest partner and friend, Дидье Дюбуассе, convinced and committed supporter of our cause and mission.

Didier has always been actively involved in our network, first as a member representing the group of French local authorities Pays Vichy-Auvergne, then as a member of the Governing Board of ALDA, until 2022.

By virtue of the quality of its contribution, he was now Observing Member of the Board and of the activities of ALDA, serving the Association with his high expertise and experience, especially in the field of local and territorial development. He was also a key figure in the relations between ALDA and the network Leader France, with which the Association has been collaborating for several years.

The entire staff of ALDA, the Secretary General, the President and the members of the Governing Board join in the grief for this terrible loss.
We will continue to remember Didier in our activities, knowing that we were fortunate to have worked with him for many years.

Our deepest sympathies to his family, colleagues, friends and to all who knew and appreciated him.

Programme & objectives:

What will we work on at THE:PLACE?

The program doesn’t have restrictions on topics in which participating CSOs would like to enhance their capacity or work on the joint project they would like to develop later as long as they align with the general framework of the Human Rights Based Approach and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). And, of course, CSOs are expetected to be motivated to collaborate with local authorities and actively engage in international exchange with their counterparts through those topics.

In light of the recent earthquake disaster in Türkiye and the growing climate crisis worldwide, we believe it is crucial to incorporate a disaster resilience perspective into our works of any kind. Therefore, the program will look for participating CSOs to integrate this perspective into the projects they develop and implement later within the program.

Как применить?

Read the full call for proposals to have all the information about the call and how to apply!

The call will be open from until 7 July 2023.

All the questions related to the present call for participants and the participation modalities have to be addressed to the following email address: info@theplaceprogramme.org

An info-session of the Call for participants will take place on June 19, 2023 из проекта 10:30 to 11:30 (CEST). Register здесь.

🇬🇧 Read the call for participants

ALDA took part in the two-day Civil Society Organisation Governance Community of practice regional meeting, organised by EU TACSO 3 in Belgrade (Serbia) on 11 and 12 May 2023.

The objective of the meeting was to bring together key stakeholders from the Western Balkans region and Türkiye to share best regional and EU experiences on CSO governance and create a community of practice on governance.

The aim of the meeting was to create a community of practice on governance

At this working meeting, Milena Dimitrovska-Zurovska, ALDA Skopje project developer, shared the Association’s European and regional experiences with CSO governance, challenges and approaches to transformation. Ms. Dimitrovska-Zurovska spoke about the development of the network, the activities and different approaches adopted by ALDA during its work in the region and how these have helped the network to grow outside its original borders in the Western Balkans.

ALDA will continue to work with professionals in the region and build partnerships to ensure the development of the Western Balkans and Türkiye on its path towards the EU.

In February 2022, ALDA launched a call for proposals to fund ALDA members willing to support participatory actions in the field of sustainability.

In order to promote good governance and citizen participation at the local level in Europe and beyond, ALDA leads a wide range of actions supporting local, national and international stakeholders in achieving their goals in the fields of European integration, decentralisation, human rights, social inclusion, sustainable development, civic initiatives and much more. As its core element, ALDA supports citizens and groups of citizens in their initiatives aimed at improving their local context, building bridges with local authorities in order to make the change real. In this framework, ALDA works through a participatory approach and the method of multilateral decentralised cooperation, always focusing on strong partnerships between local authorities and civil society organisations.

ALDA works with and for local resilient communities, to address the future challenges from a democratic, environmental, social and economic point of view. The call was aimed at supporting local and grass-root initiatives in the field of EU rights and values, in order to promote both a sense of belonging to the EU in view of the 2024 EU elections, and a sense of “local ownership” and engagement in the local community. This way the funded projects were able to pave the way for further activities in this sense and ensure the capitalisation of the results.

“Respond Locally to Global Issues” call for proposals: results are out!

The call was addressed to ALDA members based in the EU which presented their own projects focused on increasing public knowledge, awareness and interest about the EU key policies and strategies.

ALDA received many interesting and qualitative applications. After the evaluation carried out by an appointed  Evaluation Committee (EC), 15 organisations from 8 different countries were selected.

These organizations will implement different strategies at local level targeting different vulnerable groups in areas such as: education, health, climate action, gender equality among others.

Click here to discover the 15 beneficiaries of the regranting programme!

On April 18th and 19th, 2023, a new Interreg Central Europe project has kicked off in the Italian city of Trento.

Public-private-partnership for Social and Solidarity Economy (3P4SSE) – this is the project’s title – aims at filling Central Europe regional gaps in addressing weak economic sectors (with low added value) and disadvantaged people, by promoting the territorial clusterisation of Social and Solidarity Economies, creating a multilevel networks scheme at European and regional scales, based on Public-Private Partnership and a strategic EU cooperation.

Lasting 36 months, the project involves 11 partners from central Europe, led by the Autonomous Province of Trento, namely ALDA+, the National Foundation for Civil Society Development (Croatia), the Regional Development Agency ARLEG (Poland), Prizma Foundation (Slovenia), FAB – Vocational Support Association (Austria), Pannon Business Network Association (Hungary), Links Foundation (Италия), Regional Development Agency for Podravje – Maribor (Slovenia), Trentino Federation of Cooperation (Италия), Lower Silesian Centre for Social Policy (Poland) and Split – Dalmatia County (Croatia).

Расширение участия граждан и уровня демократии в различных местных реалиях Западных Балкан является ключевым моментом в основе партнерства между ALDA и CEI, которые в настоящее время сотрудничают и объединяют усилия, чтобы оказать конкретную поддержку в создании сильного местного опыта в области надлежащего управления.

3P4SSE aims at filling Central Europe regional gaps in addressing weak economic sectors and disadvantaged people, by promoting the territorial clusterisation of Social and Solidarity Economies

The Kick-off meeting took place over two days dedicated to deepening the mutual knowledge of project partners, setting-up an action plan for the following months and discovering Solidarity Economy experiences in the Region of Trento.

Indeed, the first day a field visit was organised at the Centre for Solidarity Economy, in Trento (Italy) where project partners could discover this interesting and inspiring reality and have an introduction of the Trentino Solidarity Economy System. The following day was mainly focused on getting organised for the months to come, defining an action plan for future activities and discussing some key technical elements of the project.

In the following weeks and months the first project’s activities will start locally and all social media and information channels, included the project’s website, will be fully available.

Stay tuned!

After more than 3 years of hard work, the partners of EPIC will finally have the opportunity to gather together for the Final events of the project, which will take place on the 6th and 7th June in Brussels. 

On the 6th of June, there will be the International networking path, which wants to be an opportunity to bring together public and private representatives to exchange in an interactive way on migrants’ integration, starting by looking at the project’s results and through different thematics (education, employment, legal and administrative support, housing, health, narrative, civic engagement and policy making). Marketplace space и focus groups on the above mentioned topics will be organised, to build synergies with other participating organisations. In this context, we do believe that your contribution will bring interesting and fruitful insights to the knowledge and experience exchange and stimulate the networking, given your expertise on the topics.

The focus is to discuss and reflect on the challenges around the reception and integration of people with migration background

The following day, the final conference, named “Challenges of the integration of migrants: get inspired from the experiences of Cities and NGOs”, will take place from 10.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m. in Брюссель, organised in the framework of the European project EPIC of which ALDA is coordinator, The event wants to be an opportunity to bring together public and private representatives to discuss and reflect on the challenges around the reception and integration of people with migration background, starting from the sharing of the project results.

The events are part of ALDA Festival and General Assembly 2023, named Local Democracy will Save Democracy! The festival will include participants from the EU countries and the neighbourhood, where colleagues, members and partners of ALDA will come together for fruitful exchanges on key EU priorities, sharing knowledge and best practices on themes such as migration, inclusion, gender equality, environmental protection, sustainable development and human rights

Here you can find the agenda of the events!

If you wish to attend, please register at the following этой ссылке.

Within the framework of the project “Milan Sport United”, PlayMore! – leader of the initiative –  together with ALDA, are glad to announce the open call for participation in the “SPORT FOR ALL” event which will take place from 8 to 10 June 2023 in Milan, Italy.

The purpose of the project is to use sport as a medium to encourage integration и social inclusion.

⛹🏽The project consortium is looking for:

• An NGO committed to issues of inclusion through sport, practising training and tournaments in a multicultural environment.
• EU Member 

⛹🏽The project consortium is inviting:

 An amateur multi-sports team that can travel to Italy consisting of:

• at least 50 % asylum seekers, refugees and holders of international protection;
• volunteers и local athletes;
• 1-2 instructors/educators  as accompanying persons.

(ideal composition: 1 instructor, 1 educator, 4 local athletes, 4 refugees; mixed genders)

Invited players can choose which sport activity to join among; running, futsal, soccer, basketball and beach volley. It is possible to choose multiple options.

The event “Sport for All” is thought for you!

Through different sport activities refugees, together with citizens and local stakeholders will set up more inclusive communities. 

⛹🏽When and Where?

The event will take place from Thursday 8 June until Saturday 10 June 2023 at the PlayMore! Sport centre, in Via della Moscova, 26 – Milan, Italy.  

⛹🏽How to participate:

If you are interested fill the form accessible здесь by 26 May 2023!

Participation in the event is FREE.

On 15 May 2023, ALDA и Центральноевропейская инициатива (CEI) met in Trieste (🇮🇹) to identify further possibilities for cooperation on the basis of the MoU – Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2022 in order to formalise the framework of the partnership that combines the work в Западные Балканы. The signature of the MoU represented an official and crucial moment of institutional bond between ALDA and CEI as it has been the outcome of a longstanding fil rouge that combines the ongoing commitment of the two organisations in the area. 

Член правления ALDA и представитель автономного региона Фриули-Венеция-Джулия , г-н Алессандро Перелли, генеральный секретарь ALDA г-жа Антонелла Вальморбида вместе с директором по программам и корпоративной стратегии г-ном Марко Боариа встретились с генеральным секретарем CEI г-ном Роберто Антонионе и старшим сотрудником CEI г-ном Уго Поли, чтобы обсудить следующие шаги по осуществлению и укреплению сотрудничества.

Расширение участия граждан и уровня демократии в различных местных реалиях Западных Балкан является ключевым моментом в основе партнерства между ALDA и CEI, которые в настоящее время сотрудничают и объединяют усилия, чтобы оказать конкретную поддержку в создании сильного местного опыта в области надлежащего управления.

Расширение участия граждан и уровня демократии в различных местных реалиях Западных Балкан является ключевым моментом в основе партнерства между ALDA и CEI

План предусматривает ключевое мероприятие в Скопье (Северная Македония) совместно с ALDA Skopje в 2023 году и презентацию пилотной инициативы в Украине: цель состоит в том, чтобы продолжать расширять спектр действий LDA и укреплять их работу. ALDA представляет ключевого партнера CEI в его работе на Западных Балканах: представители CEI в Молдове также примут участие в Фестивале ALDA и Генеральной Ассамблее 2023, что даст возможность еще больше укрепить это сотрудничество

Эти события будут отмечены праздничной атмосферой, поскольку в 2023 году исполняется 30 лет со дня создания первого Агентства местной демократии «Суботица» на Балканах: мы с нетерпением ждем возможности отметить повседневную деятельность МДА и их делегатов, достижения ALDA и LDA на протяжении многих лет в сотрудничестве с нашими ближайшими партнерами.

The choice of в Триесте., regional capital of the “Friuli Venezia Giulia” Autonomous Region (🇮🇹) as the host of the meeting is symbolic as it remarks the formalisation of this long-lasting collaboration between the Region, ALDA and CEI.

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