ALDA has been supporting the communication between civil society, local associations and authorities in Tunisia for many years. 

ALDA Tunisia under the leadership of Solidarité Laïque gave birth to Municivile project. The project aims to contribute to the construction of an effective local democracy in Tunisia, taking into account the needs of all citizens, including the most vulnerable groups, and to strengthen the participation of Tunisian civil society in the implementation of the decentralisation process in the country.

To better do that, the project was divided into three main action fronts, each administered with the mutual cooperation of a Tunisian and a French institution: 

• Education
• Social and Solidarity Economy
• Local and participative democracy

ALDA and Scouts Tunisiens associations, coordinator of the local and participative democracy pole, established the MUNICIVIL project which designed an extensive plan of actions, focused on advocacy and capacity building to help CSOs to reach citizens, understand their needs and contribute to the construction of an inclusive and participative democracy in Tunisia. Their main actions involve:

• Trainings of Trainers (ToT) (administrative staff, elected officials and civil society actors);
• Training on local democracy and participation
• Local public consultations;
• Exchange visits between France and Tunisia
• Financing Masters studies and promoting Civic engagement of Sub Saharan Master students.

Promoting a long lasting and durable transformation towards the reduction of inequalities, expansion of local participation and to the decentralisation process in Tunisia

From a general perspective, PCPA trainings reached out not only CSOs involved, but also local government and educational institutions; promoting a long lasting and durable transformation towards the reduction of inequalities, expansion of local participation and to the decentralisation process in Tunisia. Significant improvements from it can already be observed:

• CSOs have increased their capacity to understand and voice the citizens’ needs, while  improving their methods on the implementation of an effective participatory democracy and enhancing their engagement in local and national decision-making process;
• Methods from the trainings have been spread to other CSOs, local government and educational institutions
• The communication and dissemination of project results have been more effective
• Tunisian and European local authorities have been progressing towards the decentralisation process by strengthening their cooperation

Yet, this is not everything. Thus, activities are still going on, focusing on:  

• The third training session for administrative staff, elected officials and civil society actors from a range of selected municipalities;
• The partnership with Faculty of political, social and juridical sciences (Faculté des sciences juridiques, politiques et sociales) of Tunis in order to fund 3 master thesis on Local Governance and related themes;
• The launch of local events on 12 different municipalities to promote civil society consultation and municipality commissions trainings;

Bear in mind that these are only a few actions developed within the PCPA’s framework and a series of other actions are expected to be put in place throughout the rest of the  year. 

To know more about Société Laïque, please visit their website: https://www.solidarite-laique.org/ 

Last March 29th, took place, by videoconference, the “European Stakeholders’ Platform of the Strategy for Innovation and Good Governance at the Local Level” – an important session organised by the Council of Europe to review the state of the democracy and good governance in the CoE-member countries. Such an assessment has been carried out according to the European Label of Governance Excellence (ELoGE) and the 12 principles of Good Governance.

ALDA has received the accreditation to implement ELoGE in Croatia and North Macedonia until June 2023

More in particular, the meeting was the occasion for ALDA, and other European Oganisations, to presents the accreditation and renewal requests to implement ELoGE in targeted territories.

We are thus proud and excited to announce that ALDA, has received the accreditation to implement ELoGE in Croatia and North Macedonia until June 2023.

Similarly to our past actions in Moldova and Ukraine, during the next 2 years ALDA will deliver specialised trainings to local and regional authorities, civil society organisations and citizens of around 15 Croatian and Macedonian municipalities. Such courses will provide those stakeholders with an in- depth knowledge of democratic processes and tools, enabling and monitoring the implementation of the 12 principles of good democratic governance at the local level.

We look forward to continue our mission of empowering local communities all over the Enlarged Europe, working side by side with the Council of Europe and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, by means of our strong partnership and shared vision.

On Tuesday, April 13th – ALDA Secretary General Secretary Antonella Valmorbida has been invited, with other experts, to take part in the Committee of Ministers’ hearing session at the Council of Europe. This is the first time that Civil Society Organisations have been invited to join; thus this occasion gained particular relevance in the process of making citizens’ voice heard at European level.

Entitled “Elections during the Covid-19 crisis: the role of civil society organisation”, the informal exchange of views was structured on two rounds of questions. ALDA Secretary General was among the representatives of CSOs invited to the first moment of discussion, together with:

• Mr Ken Godfrey, Executive Director, European Partnership for Democracy;
• Ms Tanja Hollstein, Senior Election Adviser, Westminster Foundation for Democracy;
• Ms Ana Rusu, Senior Election Adviser, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Warsaw.

CSOs can play an essential role […] in ensuring “that electoral processes are efficient, trusted and in line with international standards”

During the “Question A” panel, experts and professionals got the opportunity to share their knowledge and experience as far as the work of CSOs concerns, in light of the current health crisis. More in depth, guest speakers discussed how Civil Society Organisations, in general, have been able to keep contacts with  their public, to continue their work, while adapting their methods. Besides, experts reflected on how the election processes have been managed, also to ensure voter information, education and outreach.

The second half of the session was dedicated to the “Question B” panel, investigating if the Covid-19 pandemic favoured both the use of new digital technologies in electoral processes and awareness raising campaigns. Besides, guests speakers reflected on both the advantages and risks of technological tools (e-registration, e-voting, counting) themselves.

Finally, as reported in the Concluding Remarks, the role of CSOs in acting in an “unbiased and impartial way” was underlined, especially  as far as the promotion of “trust in the electoral processes” concerns. Furthermore, it has been noted how, Civil Society Organisations can play an essential role, together with authorities, in ensuring “that electoral processes are efficient, trusted and in line with international standards”

ALDA is motivated to keep its commitment both at local and international level in promoting democracy and citizens’ participation; welcoming and boosting for this initiative of mutual-share among CSOs and institutions.

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Useful links:

Read Antonella Valmorbida’s full speech

To further read on the Concluding Remarks click on this link

To know more on the speakers please visit the CoE Agenda

Members’ participation and active involvement are two cornerstones of ALDA’s work and the basis of our strength and added value. 

This is not only a programmatic and theoretic approach, but also concrete actions taken by the Association, whose democratic life is relaunched and refreshed every 4 years, concurrently with the appointment of the Governing Board of ALDA, that has now approved as one of their first actions the activation and animation of the new ALDA Working Groups (WG). 

As you can read in our Strategic Plan the importance of sharing and exchanging knowledge and expertise with professionals is crystal clear, as well as the importance of boosting the democratic and participatory life of our association.

Thus, the intention is to create seven Working Groups which will be focused on the main areas of interests for ALDA and its members, as  reported below:

1. Democracy and Local Development;
2. Environment;
3. Digitalisation;
4. Cooperation between CSOs and the Private Sector;
5. Eastern Partnership/Russia and Central Asia cooperation;
6. South-Eastern Europe Cooperation and
7. Middle-East, Africa and Turkey Cooperation

To participate  fill in this form

More in detail, each group will be animated and supported by a staff member, and co-chaired  by either a Governing Board or an Advisory Board Member appointed to that specific area and a willing member taking part in it. The objective is to set a fruitful exchange (mostly “digital”), while collaborating with ALDA Staff and among the members to turn the seven areas into events, meetings, and of course exchange opinions, cooperation, projects and expertise on that.

How to join? If you are already an ALDA Member and you are willing to participate do not hesitate to fill in this form, made specifically for you! Beside, this opportunity will be included in the Application form for new members. 

Apply by May 15th 2021. Please note: in case you are still interested in joining a WG, you can still contact us after the dealdline by email: membership@alda-europe.eu

From 1 to 17 the UN has defined sustainable development goals, which should guide our actions and become our compass. Yet, how can we turn those goals into actions, making them tangible and understood by all of us? Of course it is a great challenge, but with a little bit of effort everything is possible. Hence, when developing its projects, ALDA has those SDGs in mind and designs its activities in order to not only raise awareness on them, but also to stimulate a change and promote concrete actions for their success. Let’s have a closer look!

For example, SDG 4 stands for “quality education”, which goes from inclusive learning to guarantee good education as well as supporting lifelong learning. ALDA’s Piece project, just to mention one initiative, is intended to understand and react to the needs of different communities in Europe through trainings and education. In other words, empowering people, by giving them tools and knowledge to become a valuable resource for local societies. Hence, by designing this project, and by including different partners, the final outcome will be the promotion of positive and long-lasting change, while making SDG 4 as a tangible concept.

ALDA has SDGs in mind and designs its activities in order to promote concrete actions for their success

But let’s continue with other goals. The SDG 16 tackles “peace, justice and strong institutions”, concepts which are pretty often used and discussed,especially the fist and the second, but how we can really address them is a different matter. Following the example above-mentioned, starting from the Schumann Declaration, the DESIRE project is willing to raise awareness on this milestone in European Union history. In detail, the project will stimulate participants to reflect on EU values – be they peace, justice and solidarity – by using different artistic and visual tools. 

As the case of the two previous projects, also EPIC project is directed to understand and address the challenges posed by the integration of migrants in medium-sized realities. And how is this connected to SDGs? Here we come: not only SDG 10 but also 11 and 17 are taken into account. SDGs are in fact strictly related to one-another spurring an holistic approach, a circular action that involves all of these goals. In fact, EPIC project aims at “reducing inequalities” (SDG 10), by supporting and developing “sustainable cities and communities” (SDG 11), within which migrants will settle and actively join. Furthermore, by including different actors – from municipalities, to universities and CSOs, EPIC has turned goal 17 on “partnership for goals” as a concrete and successful reality.

Finally, our projects also focus on the environment and planet. Here we would like to introduce to you FOREST project. It goes without saying that the aim of this initiative is within the forestry sector.  Thus, it is willing to increase and unify the fragmented knowledge as far as forestry management concerns, both at national and international levels. In this case, the project has been tailored having SDGs 13 and 15 in mind. The former is intended to fight climate change, while the latter focuses on “life on land”, that means acting in order to protect ecosystems and biodiversity. By improving the level of professionalism and competitiveness of forest workers at cross-border level for example, the idea of the project is to safeguard these green realities which are the habitat for different species and are essential for actors as far as climate concerns.

These are a bunch of examples of ALDA projects, but if you check our page you will find plenty of projects, each of them related to specific SDGs.

We are also delighted to share with you the latest issue of the SDG Watch Europe Newsletter, on which you can find several articles from which to draw inspiration, including news on our projects!