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

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

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

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

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

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

BINA, the NGO Alliance for Municipality Development with which ALDA has been cooperating for the past two years, has conducted the monitoring of the correspondence of municipality institution in Azerbaijan to the requirements of the European Charter on Local Self-Governments.
As a result, BINA presented a Monitoring report entitled “Assessment of conformity of organisational and operational aspects of municipalities in Azerbaijan with principles and requirements of European Charter”.
The following step is the expected visit in Azerbaijan of the monitoring group of the European Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.

It is already 12 years since the municipalities started to operate for the first time in Azerbaijan and around 30 pieces of legislation have been enacted to regulate the operations of municipalities during this period. Along with the laws and other normative acts (presidential decrees, decisions of Cabinet of Ministers, etc.), the European Charter of Local Self-Government has become an integral part of the legislation of the Azerbaijan Republic. This international document entered in force through the adoption of the law of 25th December, 2001 on the “approval of European Charter of Local Self-Government”, which entered into force from the 1st August 2002.
By joining the Charter in December 2001, Azerbaijan undertook various commitments regarding better self-governance in the country. Over the past period, a number of laws and other normative acts have been enacted establishing the legislative basis of forming and developing local self-governance in the country, three municipal elections held, as well as, some measures taken to establish and develop municipalities in practice.
This report is based on the monitoring which tried to determine the extent to which the legislative basis of local self-governance and municipalities already established in the country are in line with the principles and requirements of the Charter.
Upon developing this report, the monitoring group composed of the member organizations of the Alliance reviewed European Charter of Local Self-Government, explanatory “notes” of Council of Europe’s experts to the provisions of the Charter, relevant documents developed by various institutions of Council of Europe dealing with various aspects of local self-governance, recommendations and commentaries of European Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Minister’s Committee and other institutions aimed at resolving specific problems of local self-governance in both Azerbaijan and other countries, held the expertise of laws forming the legal-normative basis of municipalities’ operations in Azerbaijan, and studied existing various challenges associated with municipalities.
The future perspectives of local self-governance reforms depend on the initiatives and attempts of the government, municipal associations, civil society institutes and international organizations.

BINA, the NGO Alliance for Municipal Development, was established in May, 2009 by NGO operating in the field of better local self-governance in Azerbaijan. The Alliance, which is in the process of becoming member of ALDA, primarily seeks to develop and implement sound strategies on better local self-governments (municipalities) and coordinate the efforts of and collaboration between national NGOs in order to strengthen the organisational and institutional capacity of municipalities. The Alliance’s mission is to support decentralisation and democratic processes.
The activities of the Alliance include round tables on a range of local self-governance issues, journalist studies to report on municipal problems via Media broadly, reviewing present situation of local self-governance in Azerbaijan, developing policy papers on various local self-governance problems and making recommendations to the government and carrying out advocacy campaigns of suggestions made. Further information about the Alliance can be found on www.localdemocracy.az.

The Local Democracy Agency Armenia is on the move. The LDA partners have appointed David Sarkis Dolmadjian as Delegate at the end of partner meeting that took place in Brussels.
The new delegate will be in the LDA office in Gyumri next week and he will be assisted by ALDA Director, Antonella Valmorbida.
Paula Rauzan, Delegate of the LDA of Sisak, will stay in Gyumri three weeks assisting him for the launch of the local LDA.
In the pictures: the ribbon cutting at the LDA headquarters
The LDA Armenia will have all the support and assistance of ALDA network, especially from the other LDA and in particular from the other LDA in southern Caucasus, based in Kutaisi, Georgia.
“I am looking forward to new synergies, especially in the Caucasus, for the whole network” stated Mrs Antonella Valmorbida.
It is possible contact LDA Armenia to the email address: ldaarmenia@aldaintranet.org
Partners of LDA Armenia are Rhône-Alpes Region (France), Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (Italy), International Committee For The Development of Peoples CISP (Italy), Union of Communities of Armenia, Urban Foundation for Sustainable Development (Armenia), Journalists’ Club Asparez (Armenia), the Municipalities of Gyumri, the host city, and Ijevan. The role of the international partners will be to provide core financial support, participate in activities where they have the skills and capacities, to encourage their own partners to participate in the work of the LDA and to promote the work of the LDA in their own community and encourage wider participation.
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 Municipality of Gyumri provides an office and rooms for the LDA in the City Hall.
The LDA will facilitate the participation of civil society in the decision-making process at the local level, increase the interest, awareness and capacities of citizens to take part in the decision-making process at the local level and increase the awareness and skills of the local communities and local authorities to address the needs of their citizens. The LDA will support capacity building of civil society and local authorities and it will implement its activities at the local level with trainings, study visits and other participative methods.
Acting as a promoter of democracy and local self-government, the Local Democracy Agency will also promote human rights and sustainable development. The realisation of all objectives will be reached by implementing projects with local authorities and NGOs using the international partners support. The LDA will aim to serve as a bridge between Europe and Armenia and will bring Armenian practice to Europe and European experience to Armenia.
Finally the LDA will also work to ensure cross border cooperation in South Caucasus and will work to promote peace and understanding in the South Caucasus region.

ALDA is launching a new project TIC-TAC (Training, Information, Cooperation – Towards Active Citizenship) which will last until January, 17th 2013.
TIC-TAC project aims at promoting all the measures of the Europe for Citizens programme 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 main activities will be an international training course in Brussels focused on all the actions of the Europe for Citizens programme, the organisation of 12 local Info Days and an international Citizenship Fair aiming at promoting exchange of good practices among partners & at creating and strengthening relations through the setting-up of a network based on a dynamic and interactive method.
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 25 January 2012, the French partners in the Decentralised cooperation between Lower Normandy and North Macedonia met in Caen to discuss the progress of planned activities in year 2012. The participants discussed the standard six components of the cooperation, as well as the topics of human rights and town twinning.
The meeting of the Macedonian partners will take place on February 16 in Skopje.
According to planned activities, next spring will offer many events. Various conferences, study visits and trainings will be held, both in Lower Normandy and in North Macedonia. For more information on the planned actions in the framework of the Decentralised cooperation between the Lower Normandy Region and Republic of North Macedonia please consult the Action Plan 2011- 2012 in French and Macedonian.
For further information please consult the webpage of the Cooperation http://crbn-mk.courriers.info.

The Association of Local Democracy Agencies, with the support of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, intends to enlarge its activities to promote local democracy and citizen participation at the local level in the South Caucasus by opening a Local Democracy Agency (LDA) in Azerbaijan in 2012.
In 2006 LDA Georgia opened as the first LDA in South Caucasus in Kutaisi. The LDA network in South Caucasus was enlarged when LDA Armenia opened in Gyumri in 2011. ALDA is now starting its work to complete the LDA network in South Caucasus by taking the initial steps towards opening an LDA in Azerbaijan.
Therefore ALDA is looking for European Local and Regional Authorities and NGOs which are interested in becoming partners of the LDA and support the efforts of opening the LDA in Azerbaijan.
The LDA would be a place to gather interested international partners from European NGOs, local and regional authorities and Local authorities associations to work with Azerbaijani local authorities and NGOs to increase the citizen participation and cooperation at the local level.
Currently ALDA is searching for potential partners and organisations interested in supporting the opening of an LDA in Azerbaijan and becoming partners of the LDA. An information meeting for interested potential partners is scheduled to take place on March 22 in Strasbourg in connection with the plenary session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.
ALDA hopes many European Local and Regional Authorities and NGOs will be interested in participating in this meeting and support the initiative.
This document provides a more detailed description of the background and ideas for LDA Azerbaijan.

Mr. Marco Boaria, ALDA Resource and Development Unit Coordinator, is the author of a new “Practical Guide” published by SALTO EuroMed, on « Training and Networking« .
The Practical Guides are tools for youth workers, youth leaders and trainers involved in the EuroMediterranean cooperation, and aims to support the cooperation in developing projects.
In particular, this Practical Guide provides concrete information and tools about Action 3.1 “Youth in the World” of the Youth in Action Programme and its links with Euro-Med Youth Programme IV. This Guide is focused on Training and Networking Activities. Its goal is to provide tips to improve project development and to provide support mainly for first-time applicants.
It is not focused specifically on “technicalities” (that you can find in the Programme Guides), but more especially on the strategic and intercultural approach needed for successful cooperation in the Euro-Med area.
Salto EuroMed is one of the eight Resource Centres of the network SALTO-YOUTH.net, working on European priority areas within the youth field, with which ALDA is cooperating. It provides youth work and training resources and organises training and contact-making activities to support organisations and National Agencies within the frame of the European Commission’s Youth in Action programme and beyond.
This publication, published also in French and Arabic, is available also on line on the Salto EuroMed website.

The Governing Board of ALDA, which was held in Brussels on the 3rd of February, launched the programme 2012.
Despite the difficulties for local authorities and civil society (ALDA main partners), the organisation continues its positive trend in terms of activities and memberships. The priority will be the full support to local governance and cooperation between Local Authorities and Civil Society. The Local Democracy Agencies (today up to 13 offices) will be strengthened with projects and partners. A special focus will be given to the new LDAs (Armenia and future in Azerbaijan, in Southern Caucasus as well as the LDA in Kosovo).

The General Assembly that will be held in Udine (Italy) the 7th and 8th of June will also elect a new Governing Board, that will be fundamental to accompany the organisation through these delicate times, when local governance and citizens’ participation remain one of the strongest option to promote democracy and peace in Europe and it neighbouring countries. An ALDA 2020 Strategy is currently discussed among the members and closest partners of ALDA as well as a more precise three years Position Paper that will be approved in Udine, too. A revision of Statute will also be proposed in order to update this document with the present situation of the organisation.
The programme confirms also the strong partnership with the programme Europe for Citizenship of the DG Communication , from which ALDA receives an Operating Grant and also projects. ALDA is active member of the Structured Dialogue as well as part of the initial Alliance to prepare the 2013, Year of Citizens . ALDA will continue to work on twinning activities and it will support European Citizenship with its 150 members in Europe. ALDA will also strongly focus on the programmes in South Eastern Europe and all the possible support to further integration to the EU, based on local governance and support of local authorities. A new office in Skopije supports the programme on Local Governance of the programme of Decentralised Cooperation Basse Normandie/Macedonia and the decentralised Cooperation France/Balkans .
In Eastern Europe and Caucasus, ALDA is working with LDAs and thanks to programmes to support local Democracy, like in Belarus. It is strongly involved in the Civil Society Forum for Eastern Partnership as Coordinator of the Subgroup on Local Government and Public Administration reform and therefore, also closely working, with the Committee of the Regions on this.
As for the Southern dimension and the MED region, a further commitment as been made. Some projects will be launched in Tunisia and Algeria and potentially, it will be possible to use our experience in transitional countries to support local governance and citizens’ participation in this area .
With the launch of the programme WTD (Working Together for Development) (first steering committee 28th of March in Brussels), ALDA is also brining its experience in the field of development with the support of Local Authorities and civil Society.
Last but not the least, ALDA is interested to work with all the potential partners in Europe to achieve its mandate. It joined several networks on which it is planned to have an active participation, like Concord, Civicus and the European Movement.

The results of the project « Volunteering for cross border development » have been presented in Banja Luka (BiH) by the LDA, Local Democracy Agency, of Sisak (HR) and YCC, Youth Communication Centre of Banja Luka, both partners of the project which is funded by European Union.
The project aims to help in improving accessibility of community-based services in border area through establishment of five voluntary services – two in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bihać and Derventa) and three in Croatia (Sisak, Kutina and Petrinja).

It also contributes to establishment of the cross-border networking between local authorities, civil society and social partners through creation of six local volunteering policies (in all 5 above mentioned towns and in Banja Luka). These policies will define measures from which the local communities will benefit in their economic and social development.
In addition, the project will help to enhance quality of life and social cohesion in border area by creating a cross-border voluntary network with volunteers from the six towns. Two volunteering camps, one in Bosnia and Herzegovina and one in Croatia will be organised within the project. The camps gathering 60 volunteers will discuss actual social issues in bordering towns and initiate actions for change. .
The project is implemented by YCC Banja Luka and LDA Sisak alongside 4 partners – Association Women from Una Bihać, BiosPLUS Derventa, Disabled Persons Association Kutina and IKS association from Petrinja.
The Project is funded with the Instrument for the Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) – Cross Border Cooperation Programme Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, and its duration will be 24 months (until February 2013).

In its first year the project was implemented with several activities, including:

• First project conference held in Banja Luka, 10 March 2011,
• Second project conference held in Sisak, 24 March 2011,
• Project public presentations in Derventa, Bihać and Sisak, 21-23 April 2011,
• Training « Volunteers’ management in local communities », Banja Luka, 4-7 May 2011,
• Opening of Volunteers’ Center in Sisak, 9 June 2011
• Local volunteer services in Derventa, Sisak and Bihać opened – June 2011