Local governments in Europe: ALDA and UNPD study visit for Turkish civil servants in UK

From the 20th to the 27th of February 2011 ALDA and UNDP are organiSing the Study Visit “Local Governments in Europe: responsibilities, competencies and management” in the framework of the project “Support to Further Implementation of Local Administration Reform in Turkey (LAR Phase II)” financed by the European Commission.
The Study Tour (in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Bristol and London), addressed to a delegation coming from Turkey composed of elected representatives, staff from local authorities and professional managers, will provide the Turkish participants with a view over the local administrative field of European Union countries seeking an interactive approach on the relation between EU local authorities and Turkish ones.

The activity represents only one of ALDA’s contributions to LAR Phase II project. As a matter of fact, the Association is also involved in other components of the project through its support and experts, namely in the development of international municipal partnerships between Turkish and European Municipalities and in training activities.

Mrs. Antonella Valmorbida, Director of ALDA, is senior international trainer in the framework of the programme as for the support to build a community of practices and the approach of peer-to-peer learning and assistance.
The aim of the project is to train the Turkish civil servants and engage them into a critic and positive dialogue with several European local authorities and associations of local authorities thus strengthening their capacity to implement the administrative reform and the new legislation adopted in 2003-2005. The specific objective of the project is to develop and strengthen the administrative capacity and co-operation of Turkish local authorities in the task of ensuring effective and full implementation of new policy and legislation on local administration.

The activity designed is that of a study tour to England enabling the participants to gain a first experience of European best practises in local self-government through meetings with their European counterparts and seminars on specific topics. In particular, the study tour is planned to support activities on improvement of land development and planning services in local government and simplification of approval processes of construction and occupancy licences.

The selected Turkish local authorities will increase their capacity and vision in terms of knowledge and good practices through field visits to municipalities (among which we could mention Birmingham and Wolverhampton), to relevant institutions in the field of land planning or construction and occupancy licenses processes (as RTPI- the Royal Town Planning Institute) and on site observations. In addition to this, trainers from different EU member countries (as Sweden, France and Italy) will deliver presentations on their national administrative systems, especially on the topics of building control, strategic planning and process management.
Mrs. Valmorbida, ALDA Director, will hold one of the training sessions.