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The just-ended year marked the 30th anniversary of the EU cooperation programme “Interreg”, after five programming periods, hundreds of projects implemented and changes in the life of over 170 million European Citizens. But what does it stand for? Well, the whole name would be “European Territorial Co-operation” but among Europeans, everyone calls it “Interreg” and is one of the fundamental instruments that the Union has in order to support cross-border cooperation for tackling common challenges, while working together to find common solutions.

Projects developed within “Interreg” are targeted to promote cooperation in different fields: from sustainable energy and environment to research, health and sport. Going a little bit further in details, “Interreg” has three main types of projects: cross border, transnational and interregional. It also represented one of the two goals of the EU Cohesion Policy for the programming period 2014-2020, and it aims to tackle three main goals for EU research and innovation policy, summarised as Open Innovation, Open Science and Open to the World in the next programming period.

Projects developed within “Interreg” are targeted to promote cooperation in different fields: from sustainable energy and environment to research, health and sport

To celebrate this important anniversary, “Interreg” has focused on three main topics neighbours, green and youth. Especially latter’s ideas have been collected in the Manifesto for Young People by Young People to Shape the European Cooperation Policy. This work illustrates perceptions as well as expectations that young people have when talking about European Territorial Cooperation.  

From a general perspective, young people express five main concerns and will:

  1. Equal opportunities to learn;
  2. fair access to decent employment opportunities;
  3. more digitally attractive access to information;
  4. serious actions on climate change implemented by Local Authorities 
  5. involvement in the decision making processes

Building up on these five key messages, Interreg strategies can be adapted, for example:

  1. Offering intercultural learning opportunities;
  2. Helping in spreading job opportunities across borders;
  3. Using more youth-oriented calls
  4. Prioritizing online meeting to physical ones so that to reduce CO2 emissions 
  5. Financing “people-to-people” projects

If you want to know more about it, check this news weekly! We are going to find out more about them step by step.

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Great news from Kutaisi “the city of roses”

We are delighted to hear that Mr. Ioseb Khakhaleishvili, who has been our delegate from LDA Georgia, has been elected as major of Kutaisi.

Last week ALDA, together with Governing Board Member Ms. Shorena Khukhua, met Mr. Khakhaleishvili to congratulate him on this great new position.

Sharing stories of success and reciprocity

ALDA has always had a great and long-lasting cooperation with the city of Kutaisi, and we are more than motivated and glad to keep on working together, while sharing stories of success and reciprocity.

We wish him best of luck and we are looking forward for future projects together.

If you are willing to know more about the promotion of local democracy in Georgia, please visit  LDA Georgia

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From the 22nd to the 26th of February 2021, Metro Adapt joined The Nature of Cities Festival, a virtual festival that engaged 2300 people from 72 countries. 18 plenaries, 180 seed sessions and field trips engaged stakeholders from the whole globe into discussions on the future of our cities.

The Metro Adapt project joined the international event as one of the main co-organizers, proposing a wide variety of activities and sessions, disseminating the project results and generated knowledge and establishing linkages and synergies with stakeholders from all over the world. Participants were able to visit Metro Adapt exhibitor booth, where it was possible to consult the project outputs and information, interacting and learning with the project partners.

This has been our line-up within the Festival:

  • February 23rd at 10.15 CET Metro Adapt organized the first workshop
  • February 24th at 10.15 CET Metro Adapt organized a second session “Nature Based Solutions in urban areas: a virtual field trip in the Milan Metropolitan Area”.
  • February 24th at 15.20 CET, the conversation, during a Plenary session, “Participation, Local Democracy, and Sustainable Cities” between Antonella Valmorbida, ALDA’s Secretary General, and Mary Rowe, President and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute.
  • February 25th at 15.30 CET Metro Adapt organized a third session “Covenant of Mayors: The Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan in Metropolitan Areas”. Workshop released in Italian.
  • February 25th at 18.00 CET, the last Metro Adapt session “Science Communication through theatre and the arts: The example of Pale Blue Dot” a talk with Andrea Brunello, actor and Director.

All sessions have been very participative and with full engagement

All sessions have been very participative and with full engagement. The first workshop, “Nature Based Solutions as a mean to boost urban climate change adaptation” created a space of dialogue among the key stakeholders which could be potentially involved in the implementation of sustainable strategies to limit the impact of climate change. The workshop counted on the participation of Goncalo Canto Moniz, project coordinator of the Horizon 2020 URBINAT Project, who shared the project generated knowledge about nature-based solutions benefits and social, economic and environmental challenges.

On the following day, participants had the chance to travel 360° inside the Metro Adapt project using a google earth map, with a focus on the pilot interventions implemented in Masate and Solaro municipalities. On February 24th at 15.20 CET, ALDA’s Secretary General – Antonella Valmorbida – together with Mary Rowe – President of the Canadian Urban Institute, got virtually together in the session “Participation, Local Democracy and Sustainable Cities” during a Festival’s Plenary session to talk about the role of local communities as key actors for cities and urban areas’ sustainability. The following day, Metro Adapt organized a third session “Covenant of Mayors: The Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan in Metropolitan Areas”. The workshop was released in Italian and it was the occasion for a positive exchange of ideas and reflections between representatives of different metropolitan areas about the implementation of Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP).

The last Metro Adapt session “Science Communication through theatre and the arts: The example of Pale Blue Dot” took place on February 25th. The workshop was joined by Andrea Brunello actor and director from Arditodesio Theatre Company who talked about the Pale Blue Dot show, a production by the Jet Propulsion Theatre that aims at spreading the message about climate change through theatre and art. During the session, participants had the chance to interact with the director, asking questions about the show, reactions from the public and further projects of the company related to the connection of scientific data and theatre.

Thanks to everyone who joined us!

Read more on Participation, Local Democracy and Sustainable Cities event

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ALDA interviewed the Secretary General of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

ALDA interviewed Mr. Andreas Kiefer – Secretary General of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe – earlier this week. It goes without saying that this online exchange was of great interest, and inspired us to pursue our mission and daily commitment in supporting citizens’ participation and local democracies.

Those more familiar with our world will notice, by reading this interview, how many common key aspects and guidelines there are between the work of the Congress and the one of ALDA. Not surprisingly, given that ALDA is an emanation of the Council of Europe (CoE) itself, and its mission in supporting citizens’ initiatives and local authorities can be anything but far from CoE’s activities and consequentially also from Congress’ commitments.

At the outset of the conversation, Mr. Kiefer gave us a general overview on the role of the Congress. The latter is based on five main pillars: from being a forum of exchange and discussion among members; to having a consultative and advisory role for the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Furthermore, the  Congress has  a monitoring function for the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in the 47 member states, including citizens’ participation and  observation of local and regional elections. On a more practical side, the Congress acts as an operational secretariat on the ground, implementing concrete projects: a shared aspect with ALDA’s work. Finally, the Congress contributes to the distribution of Council of Europe policies and campaigns, like on gender equality, preventing corruption, and promoting ethical behaviours, among others.

Going deeper into the Congress’ strategic plan for 2021, Mr. Kiefer explained five further areas to be discussed later this year. All of them have a key word in common: society. In fact, the latter has been tackled from different angles so that to respond to its complexity and multiple dimensions. Beginning with resilient societies, the will is to define concrete and effective responses to the current crisis, while also drawing lessons for the future. In addition, the present situation has – to some extent – made inequalities come to the surface, highlighting how essential is the need of creating more cohesive societies. Moreover, the Congress has noticed how, in order to have a higher impact in facing inequality, local authorises have to be included into the policy-making process: from analysis, to drafting and implantation.

The Congress is working in order to safeguard the “quality of representative democracy and citizens participation”, spurring also for a further development of an education to democratic citizenship

Moving towards another facet of society; during the last couple of years especially, underlined Mr Kiefer, we have been experiencing an increased awareness of environmental issues. In this way the Congress – within a multilateral approach of CoE – is also working towards the constitution of sustainable societies, encouraging people to take responsibilities, while working together to make an impact in this realm. In addition, considering the era of technology in which we are, the Congress is addressing its commitment to digital societies, proposing itself as a platform of exchange and support of local authorities within this sector, without forgetting to focus on the meaning that digitalisation has for the citizens as well. Mentioning citizens leads us to the fifth aspect: democratic societies. On that feature, the Congress is working in order to safeguard the “quality of representative democracy and citizens participation”, spurring also for a further development of an education to democratic citizenship.

Listening to Mr. Kiefer’s words one will easily notice how many common and recurring words there are also within the work of ALDA – be they democracy, resilience or citizens’ participation – guiding us daily, and linking us to the European level perspective.

Discussions about Europe go hand in hand with the ones concerning the European Neighbourhood. Thus, in the wake of the recent opening of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities in Ukraine, a country where we both are very active, Mr Kiefer cherished ALDA’s active role on the field and the Local Democracy Agencies’ grassroot actions in supporting local authorities and organisations in the decentralisation process.

Talking about the LDAs, and in line with ALDA’s plan to develop the network, we highly appreciated Mr Kiefer’s words saying that he, and the Congress “hope there will be future ones, [wishing] to extend our existing cooperation in the framework of what the Congress does, trying to get young people on board, trying to get women on board, trying to further involve the population”.

Finally, in the light of the new ALDA strategic views – which focus on achieving a full empowerment of local resilient communities in a long-lasting sustainable and inclusive way in the whole Europe and beyond, by strengthening the capacity of local authorities and the level of citizens participation – we asked the Secretary General about the Congress’ expectations and main plans for the involvement of the civil society in a sustainable development of communities.

First of all, Mr. Kiefer recalled the importance of the European Local Democracy Week as a forum of participatory democracy, while suggesting how “including citizens in taking responsibilities for their own activities but also to demand to put democratic pressure on those who have the responsibilities to decide” is fundamental. Then he illustrated the Congress’ plan to increase a proactive role of young generations in their initiatives, for example through the establishment of “Youth Delegates”, who participate in all  47 national delegations. In addition, special attention is given to children. The Congress is thus preparing a “handbook for children on how they can take their future into their hands and contribute to the discussion on sustainable development”. Last but not least, together with other actors within the Council of Europe, the Congress is working on a digital platform on which NGOs, regions and cities interested in participatory process can find useful information and inspiring good practices. As mentioned by Mr. Kiefer: “we think no theoretical concept can be as convincing as a good project that has been implemented with all the good and bad experiences made. […] This inclusive and concrete hands-on approach”, he further explained, “complements our political work”.

Thankful to Mr Kiefer and the whole Congress’ availability, ALDA is more motivated than ever to take up the challenges and proposals to increase our cooperation in Europe and its neighbourhood, strong of our shared values and also motivated by Mr. Kiefer’s final remarks: “the message was clear: yes, we are complementary; yes, we can work together. […] We are looking forward to continuing a very good cooperation”.

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Urban walking tour focusing on eco-museum/community museums

The House of Ivo Andric, the only Nobel Prize winner for Literature from Yugoslavia, is now available for visitors through a guided tour. As partner in charge for promotional activities, Local Democracy Agency Montenegro established partnership with one of the most prominent touristic agencies in Herceg Novi – Trend Travel, specialised in organising thematic tours in Herceg Novi and surroundings.

Tours start from Andric’s house: there, visitor can appreciate the permanent exhibition about his life, while getting more information on the house itself thanks to the electronic totem. Besides, they can also find out other Points of Interest within the eco-museum/community museums. The latter represent the cultural/historical, natural and immaterial heritage.

The “magic atmosphere” of Herceg Novi still inspire its citizens

The “magic atmosphere” of Herceg Novi that attracted the famous writer and his wife, as well as artists and creative people such as: Zuko Dzumhur; Branko Copic; Mihailo Lalic; Petar Lubarda and Vojo Stanic, still inspires the citizens of Herceg Novi to create beautiful things for the community and for the visitors. Being surrounded by culture, architecture, colourful nature, sea and mountains spurs people in crafting artistic products, paintings and handcrafts while producing great pieces of literature; without forgetting the culinary and sporting side.

This package is available as a two-hours guided walking tour, and will be promoted via social networks and, considering the COVID-19 situation, one can find on-line tourist fairs. In the upcoming future, the service will be offered via touristic sub-agents’ network and online.

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Intercultural dialogue is a powerful tool and it can be perceived as an instrument of prevention and conflict resolution. Besides, one may consider it as a process, through which communities, using history, the past and cultural heritage as key points, become able to get closer to each other.

Having that in mind, we have created this video to outline the importance of intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding for the development of the region.

It can be perceived as an instrument of prevention and conflict resolution

The video is intended to send a message as far as living together peacefully and constructively concerns without forgetting the multicultural world in which we are in. Finally it is also meant to develop a sense of community and belonging.

Watch the Video here

The video is financially supported by the Central European Initiative (CEI) and the Program Normandy for Peace of the Region Normandy.

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Within the framework of the Project “Youth Empowerment for Local Democracy in Tunisia” (Autonomisation de la jeunesse pour construire une Démocratie locale en Tunisie) a set of three trainings have been organised in different cities of Tunisia.

The first one took place from 8th to 12th of February in Tabarka, in the governorate of Jendouba, while the second from 15th to 19th in Hammamet. In both cases two groups of 20 people got together to join the activities, and specifically for the one in Hammamet, participants came from the cities of Ezzahra and Bardo. The idea was to support them in becoming familiar with different tools such as design-thinking, project development, citizen mobilisation, and advocacy techniques. Finally, the third was organised in Mehdia, from February to 22th to 26th.

There are many issues at stake in the participation of young citizens at the local level

ALDA had a supporting role in delivering these trainings and while sharing its technical knowledge and expertise, also in light of the United Nations SDG number 11 on “Sustainable cities and communities”.  Finally, trainings have been organised together with the project leader “Tamkeen For Development”, an association which is working for the establishment of a civil society where young people and women will be able to free themselves financially and participate actively in the economic cycle.

From a general perspective, the overall aim of the project is to stimulate youth capacity-building so that young generations will be able to take part in the decision-making processes at local level. In fact, there are many issues at stake in the participation of young citizens at the local level. These include the involvement of young citizens in the development of their living environment and in the sustainable management of local communities.

Thus, three main results are expected  from this project. Starting from the identification of the needs of communities to the analysis of the participatory budgets of municipalities in the form of a social audit. Finally, participants will be able to be more responsive to the needs of the communities through the social innovation unit created in each municipality and to disseminate the principles of transparency, responsibility and accountability.

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The Balkan Network for Local Democracy – BNLD is launching its new project entitled “CSOs networking for better local democracy in the Balkans”. The 10 months project is designed to address the current status and development perspectives of local democracy in the Western Balkans countries. How to reach this am? By exchanging experience on evidence-based advocacy and monitoring EU integration and reform agenda involving 5 countries from North Macedonia, to Bosnia and Herzegovina; from Serbia to Albania, and from Kosovo* to Montenegro.

The idea is to set local and regional capacity building, awareness raising and networking actions

The project action aims to create regional cooperation among CSOs and to acquire knowledge for advancing active citizenship at a local level. Moreover, the idea is both to set local and regional capacity building, and to raise awareness, while spurring networking actions aiming to address the main challenges of the civil society in our region. The activities will include research and comparative analysis of present state legal framework, as far as citizens’ participation in policy and decision making at local level concerns. Furthermore, there will be also Regional Best Practice Fair as well as social media campaign and e- newsletter.

The main target groups of the project are BNLD members and its network partners in all Western Balkan countries, other regional CSO networks and CSOs promoting democratic governance and inclusive participation at local level.

This project “CSOs networking for better local democracy in the Balkans” is implemented within the Project « Protecting Civic Space – Regional Civil Society Development Hub » financed by SIDA and implemented by BCSDN.

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On the 2nd of March 2021, the kick off meeting of the Project PART-Y: Participation and Youth: Lab for Equal Cities took place online, followed by the first project activity on March 3rd!

The project, which is funded by the ERASMUS + Programme of the European Commission, is led by the Italian association Kallipolis, and it sees the participation of 7 project partners from France, Spain, Slovenia, Italy, Ireland and Sweden.

The project aims to trigger the participation in civic life of young people (13-20 years) by fostering their inclusion in the policy decision-making process and promoting the concept of « generation equality » introduced by the United Nations agency UN Women for equal opportunities among the youngest. The project intends to focus the attention of girls, boys and educators on the common spaces of the city as fundamental places of gathering and democracy, essential elements in their growth process.

The project intends to focus the attention of girls, boys and educators on the common spaces of the city as fundamental places of gathering and democracy, essential elements in their growth process

After the presentation of the project’s goals and activities and outputs, the participants to the event were able to take part in a virtual tour of two youth centres of Trieste and Koper, which will be at the core of the project’s activities.

Moreover, the 3rd of March the first project activity took place: the first Short Joint Staff Training! The participants had the opportunity to learn more about innovative communication with the expert Federica Manaigo. Last but not least, the partners shared their experiences and reflected on the concept of « placemaking » with the support of the international expert Cynthia Nikitin, directly connected from New York City.

The PART-Y Project is then off to a great start! Keep following it to know more about the next steps and activities!

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ALDA is one of partners of the MIICT project – ICT Enabled Services for Migration, which has recently released the Joint Migration Policy Whitepaper “Towards ICT-Enabled Integration of Migrants”. The paper, recently published, has been written by six EU-funded projects MIICT, REBUILD, NADINE, MICADO, EASYRIGHTS and WELCOME which aim to better integrate migrants and refugees in European societies by developing ICT-enabled solutions and toolkits for the implementation of inclusion policies by public administrations and the civil society.

The Paper is the result of the Joint Migration Policy Roundtables, organised among the six projects, which took place from the 14th to the 16th October 2021. The idea of the Roundtable was to reflect and respond on how to better integrate migrants in European societies using ICT solutions.

ICT tools and digitalisation of public services related to the migration sector could ease migrants’ integration into their host societies

Therefore, this paper identifies several priorities and defines specific recommendations regarding co-creation and participatory design, multi-stakeholders collaboration and ICT tools and digital services for supporting integration.

The European Commission considers the Joint Migration Policy Whitepaper as an important strategic input to improve migrants and refugees’ integration. Indeed, ICT tools and digitalisation of public services related to the migration sector could ease migrants’ integration into their host societies.

What are the next steps? The European Commission will take the recommendations of the Joint Migration Policy Paper into consideration in the policy-making process of the EU digital government policy in the area of migration. Indeed, in the Action Plan on Integration and Inclusion 2021-2027, the European Commission announced it will work on an inclusive EU e-government action plan, promoting human-centric digital public services for citizens, including migrants.

Being involved within MIICT project underlines the commitment that ALDA has in promoting social inclusion while working for  the decrease of discrimination.

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During the previous weeks, our colleague Eva met Gregorio Arena, Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Trento from 1985 to 2015, and President of Labsus – Laboratorio per la Sussidiarietà. Guided by his words we will get to know more about this initiative, and we will understand together how our realities are complementary in their activities. But let’s start from the birth of Labsus itself.

Labsus’ activity officially started in December 2005, but it really began on 11 May 2006 with the presentation of the website www.labsus.it, an online magazine promoted by the Laboratory for Subsidiarity, ‘a cultural association founded on the idea that the principle of subsidiarity could radically change the relationship between citizens and institutions‘, as the Professor began. It seems a long time ago, but as we will see, the association’s activities and commitment have been growing ever since, and have now reached a number of different Italian realities. The launch of the website is a key point in this story and in the history of Labsus itself, since it contains, in a specific section, ‘all the experiences of active citizenship that [we] knew about. The turning point, » continues the Professor, « was eight years later, in 2014, with the presentation of the first Regulation for the Shared Administration of Common Goods« , an important milestone for the association that has made the motto ‘Act locally, think globally’ one of its principles.

« Imagining that in Europe one day there will be hundreds of thousands of citizens taking care of their villages and neighbourhoods is certainly a very ambitious project, but surely a beautiful project! »

How can this be put into practice? How can we approach local authorities and citizens in order to involve them, allowing them to become active participants in promoting change? The key to this is subsidiarity and what comes with it. Since 2001, the principle of subsidiarity has been included in the Constitution and despite some periods of difficulty in applying it – especially from a regulatory point of view -, in 2014 came to the aid « this tool called the Regulation for the shared administration of common goods. Adopted by 235 Italian municipalities, it has produced thousands of collaboration pacts ». The later, together with regulations are the tools used by Labsus to promote active citizenship, and – as Arena pointed out – ‘they are factors of social and administrative innovation’, which, however, sometimes clash with an administrative culture that is still tied to the mechanisms of the past: ‘an administrative culture that lacks accountability‘.

Despite this, Labsus’ initiatives have not stopped.I In fact, ‘there are about 800,000 active citizens in Italy today and each of these people is usually a leader in his or her community. It is a person who talks to at least 10 other people« . The bonds created, the « social cohesion and sense of belonging » are essential for people to take care of the common good. Examples of this are some of the projects carried out by Labsus, such as: Luoghicomuni in Milan and the Schools of Citizenship in Rome.

Those who know ALDA, and who have been following us, by reading these words of Professor Arena cannot but find common points with our work. « The word participation » – answers Labsus President to the question posed by Eva on what convinced them to join our network – « can be declined in many different ways, and I think there is an absolute complementarity between the concept you promote (participation in decision-making processes) and the one we promote, i.e. participation in problem solving ». As the professor noted, the work of our two organisations is complementary and, with contagious energy, he concluded saying that ‘the hope is to reach countries together that we would never reach alone. Imagining that in Europe one day there will be hundreds of thousands of citizens taking care of their villages and neighbourhoods, strengthening the ties that hold their communities together while they do so, is certainly a very ambitious project, but surely a beautiful project! ».

To read the full interview (Italian only) click here

Follow the developments of the collaboration between ALDA and Labsus! There will be some surprises!

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While the Conference on the Future of Europe is approaching, on March 4th took place the first meeting on the Civil Society Convention on the Future of Europe. Among the outcomes, we are proud to underline that the Convention has elected – together with other six representatives – our Secretary General Antonella Valmorbida as a member of the Steering Committee, which will be in charge of leading the thematic groups. The latter will focus on environmental issues, as well as social equality and the political areas identified in the Joint Declaration – just to mentioned a few.

The aim of the said meeting was to define both an agenda and a working programme while discussing on the Governance of the Convention. Overall, the Civil Society Convention on the Future of Europe is intended to function as a link between the CSOs and the Institutions, so that to make sure that citizens’ proposals and concerns will be heard, while looking for effective solutions to overcome challenges of today and tomorrow.

« Only civil society organisations can make EU institutions and national governments accountable for a truly participative and democratic conference »

Furthermore, the Convention, also through the Joint Declaration, which has been endorsed by 72 organisations involved at pan-European level, will participate with two representatives to the Interinstitutional Plenary of the Conference on the Future of Europe. Thus, as Jean Marc Roirant, President of Civil Society Europe, said in an article published on Civil Society Europe website: “only civil society organisations can make EU institutions and national governments accountable for a truly participative and democratic conference, but also for its follow up through policy, legislative and if needed Treaty change” 

Finally, during the March 4th event, two co-chairs have been elected as well: Alexandrina Najmowicz, Secretary General of the European Civic Forum and Milosh Ristovski, Secretary General of JEF Europe, the Young European Federalists. Their role will be that of representing the Convention towards the Executive Board of the Conference on the Future of Europe, while supervising the overall agenda.

Being actively involved in such a fruitful and dynamic pan-European reality can only be a great occasion for ALDA to increase and strength its network, while reaffirm its position as a strategic partner when it comes to democracy and citizens’ participation.

Useful links:

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For several years now, ALDA has been one of the beneficiaries of the operating grant of the “Europe for Citizens” programme of the EACEA – Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency of the European Union. Thus, we are thrilled to announce that, again this year, ALDA has been confirmed beneficiary of such an important funding, proving the effectiveness of ALDA’s actions for the promotion of democracy and citizens participation in Europe.

Attention towards those organisations which are working on citizens’ participation in the democratic life of the EU

Indeed, the Europe for Citizens Programme is targeted to contribute to citizens’ understanding of the EU, as well as its history and diversity and to encourage the democratic participation of citizens at EU level. Specifically, ALDA mission is perfectly in line with the second strand of this programme, which is: Democratic engagement and civic participation.

More in depth, this second element of the programme drives the attention towards those organisations which are working on citizens’ participation in the democratic life of the EU, both from local democracy and to a more European level. It comes with itself that ALDA’s mission and daily commitment are exactly to support local citizens, CSOs and more broadly international stakeholder in succeeding their goals as far – for example – European integration, decentralisation, social inclusion, sustainable development, civic initiatives concern.

Being awarded with this grant is a great success, giving ALDA positive energy to continue in its work. In addition, it testifies once again the strategic role of ALDA within the European framework as a change promoter actor.

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ALDA is very honoured to officially announce that Ms. Alina Tatarenko, Head of the Centre of Expertise for Good Governance, in Directorate General of Democracy of the Council of Europe (CoE), has been officially confirmed by the Council’s Secretary General as a member of ALDA Governing Board for the upcoming 4 years.

Being ALDA an emanation of the Council of Europe and in light of the committed and proactive approach she’s always proved during the past years, ALDA is truly pleased to continue working with Ms. Tatarenko for the promotion of democratic principles and citizen participation in Europe and beyond.

« I look forward to contributing to its work, to helping promote local democracy throughout Europe and beyond”

“Being a part of ALDA’s Governing Board is a great honour, and I look forward to contributing to its work, to helping promote local democracy throughout Europe and beyond” said Ms. Tatarenko following her re-appointment.

On the work within the Governing Board, and considering the current crisis, she believes that “the pandemic of course is a big challenge, but also an opportunity for the local authorities to build their resilience, to improve their services and governance, to engage civil society and to transition faster to using modern technology and teleworking. The Council of Europe’s Centre of Expertise for Good Governance has developed relevant toolkits to help addressing these issues, and we hope to work together with ALDA to encourage implementation of these modern tools. Specifically, this year,– continues Ms Alina Tatarenko – we will cooperate on the implementation of the ELoGE – European Label of Governance Excellence – which allows local authorities to evaluate their compliance with the 12 Principles of Good Democratic Governance, and to improve their performance accordingly. I believe that through projects like this, our organisations together can provide a valuable assistance to the local authorities who need it”.

ALDA is looking for to these four years, sure that its relation with CoE could only become stronger and even more strategical.

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In February 27, 2021 was Premier of the theatre play “Game”. It was performed by Youth Theatre Mostar (MTM) in cooperation with Local Democracy Agency Mostar within IMPACT project. “Game” is the result of our long-term commitment and effort to depict and demonstrate life stories of migrants from Mostar (Camp Salakovac, Bosnia and Herzegovina). In previous period we’ve successfully organized workshops with local migrants and their families. Our objective was to include them into our local community and promote tolerance and cohesion. Working with migrants was rather emotional and touchy. Actors from MTM have collected migrant’s stories and presented them in the most powerful way, as a unique play emanating universal message of peace, social inclusion, solidarity and sense-of-belonging.

Working with migrants was rather emotional and touchy

Theater play was directed by Mr. Sead Djulic and it was performed by Sara Kljajic, Edina Delalic, Irma Lipovac, Ali Kamer Aksoy, Haris Habibija i Haris Pasic.

  • If you are interested to see and experience its original premiere, you can watch it – Here
  • Also, you can find Photo Album of the Premiere – Here

The project IMPACT is implemented by VIFIN – Videnscenter for Integration in cooperation with ALDA, La Piccionaia – Centre for theatre production, LDA Montenegro, LDA Mostar, Coalition of youth organisations SEGA, Association for Developing Voluntary Work Novo Mesto (DRPDNM) and Urban Development Center supported by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.

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We are glad to introduce you Julia!

Julia is a young girl from Germany who has just started a volunteering experience at the Cooperativa Primavera 85, where she will be working for the next 6 months, in the framework of  VOICE III, a project funded by the European Solidarity Corps programme.

For the purpose of welcoming Julia and providing her with the required information and tools to perform at her best, a training has been organised on February 23rd.

It will be a great chance to work together, share ideas striving towards the project’s goals

The training was coordinated and led by ALDA’s expert coach Anna Ditta and attended by Julia as well as by the project coordinator, the Cooperative’s working tutors and some guests of the Cooperative who warmly welcomed Julia and surrounded her with lots of positive energy!

After such a great day, we are now all ready to kick off together this new adventure, sure that it will be a great chance to work together, share ideas striving towards the project’s goals.

For those who are interested, there is another available volunteer position within this project!

For more info, do not hesitate to contact us at alda@aldaintranet.org

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In occasion of the International Women’s Day, the EPD network organised two events on March 4th. The first one is a discussion between practitioners and policy-makers on the ‘participation and leadership’ pillar of the third Gender Action Plan. Generally speaking, the EU’s Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in External Action 2021–2025 (GAP III) is constituted by five pillars of actions. The latter include – for example-  setting gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment as a cross-cutting priority of EU external action; as well as supporting close work and collaboration among EU Member States as Team Europe at multilateral, regional and country level, while fostering partnership with stakeholders, CSO, women’s organisations.

The European level roundtable focusing on “promoting equal participation and leadership through EU action »

It comes naturally that, within this framework, the International Women Day co-organised by ALDA gains particular relevance. Thus, the first event on March 4th (10:00-11:30 CET) will be the European level roundtable focusing on “promoting equal participation and leadership through EU action”. Key speakers will take the floor:

  • Antonella Valmorbida, President of EPD and Secretary General of ALDA
  • Heidi Hautala, Vice President and Member of the European Parliament
  • Brigitte Luggin, Gender Policy Officer, DG INTPA
  • Olga Martin Gonzalez, Gender Policy Officer, DG NEAR
  • Charlotte Isaksson, Senior Gender Advisor, EEAS

Moreover, Giulia Sostero, ALDA Project Manager and Coordinator of the MENA area; together with  Afaf Zaddem – Delegate od the Local Democracy Agency Tunisia – will discuss upon women empowerment  in the political, economical and social sphere in the Mediterranean area, with an insight on the Tunisian reality.

Participating at the EU level roundtable confirm again the role of ALDA as a strategic player within the European scenario as a promoter of civil society participation, and an awareness builder association on essential topics discussed at international level.

Info on the second and public event

DOCUMENTS

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Decentralised cooperation is one of the key methodologies at the core of ALDA’s actions supporting the development of local communities in Europe and in the Neighbouring countries.

In this sense, ALDA is proud to be among the organisers of the hybrid seminar on « Decentralised cooperation », together with Solidarité Laique and its partners members of the multi-actor concerted programme (PCPA) « Soyons Actifs/Actives ».

The conference will take place in the morning of Friday, March 5th, from 10:00am to 12:30pm in the city of Sousse, Tunisia, with the possibility to virtually join it too.

The seminar will put forward the exchanges around experiences of decentralized cooperation between French and Tunisian public actors and associations.

Organised within the framework of the FAIR fund, supported by the Euromed France Network through the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Aude department, the seminar will put forward the exchanges around experiences of decentralised cooperation between French and Tunisian public actors and associations.

The discussions will be chaired by representatives of French and Tunisian municipalities and departments, civil society associations, institutions and ministries in order to create a fertile ground to share experiences on decentralised cooperation and understand the level of involvement and the role the civil society should cover to reinforce the decentralisation process and assure its good outcome. Among the participants we mention the Municipalities of Sousse, Kairouan, Mahdia, Marsa, Marseille, Strasbourg, Bordeaux and representatives of the Val de Marne and Aude departments.

What to expect from such a rich forum?

First of all, the exchange of experiences and the valorisation of the existing best practices; the reinforcement of the links between civil society actors and French and Tunisian local authorities; and the identification of mechanisms regulating decentralised cooperation processes.