On 19 November 2021 in Patos, Albania 26 young people from the city engaged in a different interactive initiatives. Specifically, the main idea of the workshop was to discuss and reflect together on social inclusion in decision-making processes.

More in details, the VALID Team shared to the participants the main policies that the Municipality of Patos has reflected, based on the recommendations that young people made during the first local event. The goal of this initiative, among others, was to encourage youths to participate in decision-making processes such as the public hearings on the local budget and fiscal package for 2022. The latter were the main points that oriented the interactive discussion with the participants.

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Participants agreed to join in the public hearings that the Municipality of Patos will organize in December 2021

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With the participation of two experts from the region, one specialized in communication and the other on intercultural dialogue the group discussed the importance of citizens’ involvement regardless of their ethnic, social and cultural affiliation in the decision-making processes of their community.

The experts encouraged discussions on how much intercultural democracy influences local action, while the project team explained through a poster exhibition concrete initiatives that the youth of the city have undertaken in various topics, specifically those with a social theme. They were also greeted by the team that took part in the trip to Italy who shared their experience and brought examples from the city of Ravenna.

Participants agreed to join in the public hearings that the Municipality will organize in December 2021 with regard to the drafting and the approval of the city budget and fiscal package for the next year and were encouraged to be part of the Youth Advisory Group of Patos, an advisory group at the Municipality.

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Skopje: the European Association for Local democracy – ALDA organised the “Launching Conference” of the project European Label of Governance Excellence (ELoGE) in North Macedonia on the 18^th of November.

With great enthusiasm representatives from Macedonian Local Authorities (LAs), previously invited to take part of the project, gathered in Skopje and online to learn more about the ELoGE label. Thus, benefitting from this initiative, the above-mentioned LAs will be required to act in accordance with the 12 Principles of Good Democratic Governance. Among them:

• Participation, Representation, Fair Conduct of Elections;
• Responsiveness;
• Efficiency and Effectiveness;
• Openness and Transparency;
• Rule of Law

More in depth, the event opened with the intervention of Eli Chakar from the Ministry of Local Self-Government; followed by Antonella Valmorbida, Secretary General of ALDA that illustrated experience of ALDA on the topic of good governance and Emir Coric, ALDA Governing Board member, who dedicated his speech to ALDAs work in the Balkans.

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Representatives from Macedonian Local Authorities gathered in Skopje and online to learn more about the ELoGE label

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Moreover, Niall Sheerin from Center of Expertise for Local Government Reform presented the important work of the Council of Europe and the different programs for development of local governance.

From a general perspective, the next steps will consist of measuring the assessment through the implementation of the benchmark for the European Label of Governance Excellence (ELoGE). Additionally, this exercise is a good learning toll for the Local Authorities to improve their daily work.

Yet, this is not everything: the symbol of ELoGE, a crystal dodecahedron, will be awarded to the Local Authorities demonstrating compliance with the principles of good governance, measured against a national benchmark.

Further updates will follow on the implementation of this initiatives, as well as on the award!

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ALDA has received the accreditation to implement ELoGE in North Macedonia, and already in October 2021 ALDA Secretary General Antonella Valmorbida and ALDA Office in Skopje and SEE Coordinator, Katica Janeva had a meeting with institutions to discuss about the initiative. Finally, ELoGE in North Macedonia is financially supported by the Council of Europe.

The project “Civil Society STAR initiative: CSOs as Sustainable, Transparent, Accountable and Resilient Development Actors in Georgia” (2021-2025).  is implemented by the Consortium led by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) and composed of the following CSOs: Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia (CSRDG), Civil Society Institute (CSI), Center for Training and Consultancy (CTC), Education Development and Employment Center (EDEC), and Institute for European Politics (IEP).

The Local Democracy Agency Kosovo, together with the Rrjeti i Organizatave të Kulturës (The Network of Culture Organizations) in Peja, have organized a common activity on 12^th November 2021, involving pupils of the School of Arts together with an acoustical performance by the local artist Agon Goqi. Through this activity both organizations have prepared an exhibition inside the old and decaying structures of a former public bank.

35 participants attended the activity! Among them:

• pupils of the School of Arts,
• children coming from different ethnic entities and citizens.

The pupils of the School of Arts have exhibited their operas in the spaces of the old structures of a former public bank.  A video has been created to convey the message of the activity to the general public.

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The Local Democracy Agency Kosovo, together with the Rrjeti i Organizatave të Kulturës involved pupils of the School of Arts for a local initiative in Peja

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The aim of the exhibition was to convey the message that public and social structures can easily be transformed in spaces where culture activities can be implemented and through which culture can be conveyed. In short: a new life can come out of the rubbles.

The message that old public and social buildings can be reused for cultural activities has been conveyed to the participants that were present in the activity, and to the general public through the social media.

This event was organised within VALID project.

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The EPIC International Networking Path took place in Zagreb (Croatia) the 9th and 10th November in hybrid-mode (in person and online).

The event aimed at promoting an exchange of ideas and favoring the emerging of joint policies and initiatives. The event saw EPIC partners meeting external stakeholders for a further exchange of newly-acquired knowledge and experiences. Local Authorities (LA) and NGOs were invited to participate in the “international networking paths”, giving a chance to LAs to interact with their counterparts and integrate additional knowledge. 

The main topics discussed were:

• Experiences of the City of Sisak and its Community
• Guidelines on how to develop the Pilot Project
• Management and Financial

Between discussions, participants also had group sessions to work and brainstorm together.

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This EPIC event was also an opportunity to connect and re-connect with partners after a long time

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Amongst the key speakers there were ALDA Project Manager  Dolinda Cavallo; together with Janko Gredelj – Country Director at JRS Croatia and Marta Sisciarek– Director of the Immigrants support center Municipality of Gdansk. 

Participants also visited the city of Sisak, where they met with representatives of local institutions, such as:

• Red Cross Sisak;
• Civil Rights Project NGO;
• Primary School: Braća Bobetko;
• Centre of Culture of Dialogue;
• Central State Office for Reconstruction and Housing from Zagreb, as well as
• Migrants from Sisak.

Last but not least, LDA Sisak, which is one of the 15 Local Democracy Agencies working together with ALDA, took part at at the meeting, 

Furthermore, attendees to this meeting visited apartments offered within the housing service program for migrants in Sisak, guided by the Representative of the Central State Office for Reconstruction and Housing.

This EPIC event was also an opportunity to connect and re-connect with partners after a long time, and ALDA colleagues also had the chance to meet again Paula Rauzan from LDA Sisak.

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To know more, visit EPIC website

ALDA’s commitment in Ukraine has always involved several actors, from institutions to citizens. Hence, in partnership with the United Nations Recovery and Peacebuilding Programme, and supported by  Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, ALDA has been involved in the “Good Governance Platform project” implemented by  UNDP.

Already in July 2021, ALDA Secretary General, Antonella Valmorbida, visited Ukraine to deliver a series of training sessions in the city of Svyatogorsk. This time, in November 2021, at the second and final conference within the project, entitled “Good local governance: challenges and solutions” guests speakers and participants reflected on: 

• Strengthening the institutional capacity of local authorities to manage communities;
• Ensuring the involvement of the public in decision-making and
• Implementing good governance policies through participatory democracy were among the main objectives of the event.

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ALDA’s commitment in Ukraine has always involved several actors, from institutions to citizens

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Specifically, this occasion gave the possibility to Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts’ communities to exchange and dialogue on “European experience of responsible local government”, especially as far as publicity, transparency, innovation, partnership concern.

Thus, as also stressed by Ms. Antonella Valmorbida: “Democracy at the local level is the diversity of civil society engagement with local authorities between key democratic moments, which are elections. It’s an effective and efficient tool for addressing the challenges.”

Inspired by this, through this event participants were able to talk about and share their experiences on implemented projects and developments in good governance, be they the creation of  advisory offices for citizens, or a resource centre for initiative groups and youth councils.

Overall, ALDA was and still is very proud and honoured to be supporting active citizenship and democratisation in Ukraine and it is looking forward to continuing the efforts in the future.

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Some useful data:

• 240 people trained
• 6 weeks
• 12 training sessions

Topics
1	E-democracy
2	Good governance: authorities’ transparency and accountability to the territorial community
3	Public monitoring and anti-corruption control
4	Good Governance: public monitoring and anti-corruption control
5	Raising awareness on the professional competencies of representatives of local governments and community leaders of target communities
6	Creativity and innovation in local government
7	Development and implementation of effective mechanisms of interaction among local governments, citizens and media: examination of participatory democracy
8	Responsible local government: transparency, innovation and partnership
9	Introduction of mediation principles in communication among authorities and communities
10	Conflict resolution through mediation
11	Local budgets at the present stage: changes in legislation and new tools
12	Improving the budget management system of territorial communities in the context of decentralization reform

Help us, sign the petition!

Climate change is not only a problem for the health of the planet and its inhabitants, but it is also beginning to affect individual freedoms and social justice. Many people find themselves in a vulnerable situation due to the consequences of climate change and are forced to leave their region because they can no longer provide for themselves. 

Faced with this situation, the project “End Climate Change, Start Climate of Change” was born, with the support of the DEAR program (Development education and awareness raising) of the European Commission. This ambitious project aims to find sustainable solutions and policy changes to preserve the planet for future generations, as well as to share the responsibility for the protection of the Earth fairly. We believe that change is truly about politics.

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Sign the online petition “End Climate Change, Start Climate of Change”

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To achieve its goal, the #ClimateofChange project and campaign proposes the following actions:

• To keep global warming below 1.5°C to avoid catastrophic levels, the European Union must accelerate its climate neutrality ambitions for 2040, that is, a decade ahead of the current 2050 target. The EU must decarbonize its economy by accelerating the transition to clean and renewable energy technologies to replace fossil fuels.
• Second, the shift to a socially and ecologically just welfare economy, which places the interests of society and nature above those of business and adopts indicators that go beyond GDP: the welfare economy must abandon the current destructive fixation on constant economic and productivity growth. Instead, it must be regenerative, sustainable, democratic, equitable and caring.
• Foster local resilience and global justice by providing financial and technical support to countries affected by climate change and by developing an international protection system for climate change-induced migration. Equitable and human rights-based migration and adaptation policies would strengthen the resilience of the most vulnerable people. They will also improve well-being in communities of origin, transit and destination.
• Finally, youth are important but underrepresented actors with a stake in the present and even more so in the future. Policy makers should enable youth participation and integrate their views and vision into policy making through the creation of youth councils in the EU and in the Member States. These youth councils should acquire the status of social partners in the EU and its Member States and would be in contact with the UN Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change.

In order to make your voice heard, we invite everyone interested to sign the online petition “End Climate Change, Start Climate of Change”, whose main objective is to raise awareness of the links between climate change and migration, and the need for a welfare economy

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This petition will be handed over to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at an event organized by the Climate of Change consortium on the occasion of the COP 27  which will take place in November 2022 in Egypt.

With your signatures, we hope to trigger the debate and put these demands on the European policy agenda.

N.B.: Your data will be shared with the European Commission to document the number of signatures supporting the petition and will not be used for any other purpose. Your data will be kept by the consortium for at least 5 years. All information will be processed in accordance with the European and national requirements of the GDPR.

[Photo credits: @Quiqueg]

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CSOs Networking for Better Local Democracy in the Balkans is a project with a self-explanatory name. The main focus of the project is to address the challenges of civil society organizations within the region of the Western Balkans. It concluded its affairs around October of 2021 and is implemented by the Balkan Network for Local Democracy and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, or SIDA.

There are many challenges in the region related to the CSOs sector, and this project seeks to highlight and support it and its development. The project has the goal of being a major resource for civil society in the region, through methods such as research, providing and spreading information, and encouraging further capacity building in the sector, on local and regional levels. To be able to accomplish that sort of goal, a knowledge sharing platform is necessary, which this project seeks to provide.

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Raise awareness, provide resources, facilitate exchange, create cooperation, and strengthen CSOs

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An important principle within the function of this project is general awareness raising and promotion. To accomplish this end, under the banner of the project we have seen :

• 9 animated videos,
• 9 video interviews,
• 2 newsletters,
• 1 large social media campaign,
• the creation of a resource hub for information,
• 3 extensive comparative studies and
• 9 individual local-level case studies, and it was all highlighted with a regional Best Practice Fair.

The 3 comparative studies all examined local factors such as self-government, CSO cooperation with government and involvement in local-level processes, decentralization, and public participation in policymaking. The resource hub, meanwhile, is a designated area of the website that compiles together resources, documents, infographics, studies, research, etc. all about local democracy within the Western Balkans region.

The time spent on this project was highlighted with the Best Practice Fair, a two-day hybrid event that brought together multiple CSO representatives, BNLD members, public authorities, and members of other groups, where the individual delegations present their best practices for encouraging participation of citizens in local government. This event provided a good opportunity for the participating parties to exchange ideas and programmes. The comparative studies and the individual case studies were presented here, along with their findings and accomplishments respectively.

In conclusion, this project has taken steps necessary to raise awareness, provide resources, facilitate exchange, create cooperation, and generally strengthen CSOs within the realm of the Western Balkans.

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The project “CSOs Networking for Better Local Democracy in the Balkans” was supported by the Project “Protecting Civic Space – Regional Civil Society Development Hub” financed by Sida and implemented by BCSDN”.

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