On September 2^nd and 3^rd, at Hotel Continental in the City of Skopje in North Macedonia, the Regional Best Practice Fair was held, organized by the Balkan Network for Local Democracy. The nature of the event was a hybrid meeting, with participants and presenters both in person and through the zoom platform online. 30 participants joined the event, together with the speakers. The latter, thanks to interpreters were able to speak their respective languages, giving to the initiative a great international atmosphere.

Presentations and discussions on data related to several matters, be they: self-government, participation, CSOs, were on the agenda. Moreover, various case studies of individual community practices in the Western Balkan 6 Countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) and among 9 communities regarding topics such as active citizenship, decision-making. Besides, the overall initiative culminated in a digital activity in which participants voted through their phones, while sharing their ideas through the Slido app.

Progress has been made, as clearly demonstrated during the fair

In addition, findings presented by the researchers will be used on a national and regional level as a basis for further development of civil society; as well as advocation for the interests of citizens among the Western Balkans. Hence, getting citizens, especially youth, more involved and informed with local self-government is among the goals of this initiatives. Many examples of mobilization and promotion of values of active citizenship, such as:

• Youth podcast,
• An initiative to get local elections back in the city of Mostar,
• Promotional videos,
• Spreading of environmental consciousness though a booklet

were among the individual municipality cases presented. Overall, this event showed that there are still ways to considerer, regarding the enrichment of local democracy, but progress has been made, as clearly demonstrated during the Fair. Hence, many best practices were highlighted, and many more are still to be done.

***
This event is part of the project “CSOs Networking for Better Local Democracy in the Balkans”, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA),and implemented by the Balkan Civil Society Development Network (BCSDN). It included participants from various groups such as CSOs, youth groups, BNLD members, certain national stakeholders, etc.

From the 24th to the 26th of September 2021, the municipality of Lavarone will welcome European partners of the project DESIRE and the Rude Awakening. These 2 projects have similarities and differences that make them interesting. The first one is focusing on raising youth awareness on what the EU means and around the Schuman Declaration. This is done through a co-creative methodology by using art to speak about the EU.  The second one aims to make the museums more attractive for the younger generation. With this aim, a video game on the topic of WW1 has been created. The trailer has been released. (Find it out here)

It will be the first meeting in person for both projects which have started during the COVID19 pandemia. This meeting is a great opportunity to network, exchange best practices and create links between the partners. Lavarone and its peaceful nature is the right place for that. The ambition of the event is above all to start a strong-enlarged network of active and committed realities, linked together by past, present and future projects.

This meeting is a great opportunity to network, exchange best practices and create links between the partners

It will be a pleasure to share what we have done. So, stay tuned to discover what’s happened during the meeting!

→ About the DESIRE project

DEclaration of Schuman: Initiative for Revitalizing Europe (DESIRE) is a Europe for Citizens funded project. The project aims to raise people and especially youth’s awareness on the historical importance and the meaning of the Declaration of Schuman for the EU. The objective is to actively involve youth in approaching history in a proactive way. Through the co-creation of artistic tools, as videos, theatre, games, audio narratives, partners will accompany groups of youth citizens in re-discovering history and in debating on EU values as intercultural dialogue, peace and solidarity. The consortium is leading by Comune di Lavarone (Italy) and composed by Fondazione Belvedere-Gschwent (Italy), Union of bulgarian black sea local authorities (Bulgaria), Municipio de Valongo (Portugal), Danube 1245 (Serbia), Zdruzenie Institut za razvoj na zaednicata (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), Administration Communale de Grez-Doiceau (Belgium), Fundacio de la Comunitat Valencia de Patrimoni Insdustrial i (Spain), Kulturni centar Osijek (Croatia), ALDA (France).

→ About “The Rude Awakening” project

“The Rude Awakening – a multimedia journey in the footsteps of frontline soldiers’ everyday life”, is a European project that aims to raise the awareness and interest of younger generations (between 13 to 20 years old) on the topic of war and peace. With the support of digital and audiovisual contents based on the stories of WWI soldiers, “The Rude Awakening” wants to lead a new educational and emotional perspective on war and peace, whereby visitors will learn by doing as they fill the shoes of a soldier all along the museum visit, thus better understanding war memories and soldier life thanks to technology. It’s a co-funded project by the European Union MEDIA programme, a sub-programme of Creative Europe, which gathered Fondazione Belvedere-Gschwent as the lead partner, and as project partners: Comune di Lavarone, ALDA, 101 Percento, Mémoire pour la vie, Gornjesavski Muzej Jesenice, Danube Connect, World of NGOs and the Macedonian Center of Photography. 

For more information on the project and how to join it, please contact the artistic Director, Mr Renzo Carbonera: progetti@fortebelvedere.org

ALDA looks forward to this great event, which serves as a great occasion to discuss together about our common past and history.

On the night of July 25, 2021, the Tunisian citizens spontaneously took to the streets celebrating the president’s exceptional decisions of freezing the parliament for 30 days- and voicing their wide support.

Before the president held an emergency meeting and announced his decisions, riots took place on 25 July despite the strict measures to prevent demonstrations and the fears of the rampant spread of COVID19.

The Tunisians wanted to express their deep dissatisfaction with the status quo. There was a shared feeling that representatives did not live up to the expectations and that they let down their electors.
The deteriorating purchase power, degenerated public facilities, widened inequality gap between the haves and the have nots, and the unprecedented levels of the budget deficit and public debt stirred social unrest.

Local Democracy Agency Tunisia is committed in its turn to reinforce democratic principles and values at local level

Hence, the revolutionary decisions reflect people’s will and demonstrations against both the government and parliament members. The Tunisians are now hopeful that the newly taken measures would lead to vital reforms. They consider it auspicious to reinforce accountability for those who misused their positions and contributed to the economic breakdown.

What about the democratic process?

10 Years ago, Tunisia ousted dictatorship and embarked on a promising yet challenging ongoing process to democratic transition. Today, civil society organizations and media outlets need to play a significant role to raise people’s awareness to actively participate, observe, and evaluate what is happening to ensure transparency, promotion of good governance, rights, and freedoms, especially freedom of expression.

Local Democracy Agency Tunisia is committed in its turn to reinforce democratic principles and values at local level through encouraging dialogue and civic engagement, and also through creating a synergy among all elements of the society.

During this fragile period of transition, it is crucial to create a clear roadmap to maintain democracy and guarantee justice and separation of powers.

***
Article written by Afaf Zaddem from Local Democracy Agency Tunisia.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.

“EU Regions Week”: join the debate and save the date for the online workshop “Boosting territorial recovery through innovative citizens’ participation” taking place on the 12th of October from 14:30 to 16:00. 

Registrations open on the 30th of August 2021!

The 19th edition of the European Week of Regions and Cities (#EURegionsWeek) – the biggest annual Brussels-based event dedicated to cohesion policy – will take place from the 11th to the 14th of October under the slogan “Together for recovery”. The event, organized by the European Commission’s  Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) and the European Committee of the  Regions (CoR), will bring together politicians, decision-makers, experts and practitioners of cohesion policy,  as well as stakeholders from business, banking, civil society organisations, academia, the EU institutions and the media to discuss common challenges for Europe’s regions and cities and examine possible solutions. 

As same as last year, we are thrilled to announce that the ALDA will have an active role in this unique communication and networking platform, joining as an official partner together with the European Partnership for Democracy with the workshop “Boosting territorial recovery through innovative citizens’ participation” which will take place on the 12th of October 2021 from 14:30 to 16:00.

Building on virtuous good practices the workshop will provide concrete examples of participatory processes

Citizens’ engagement in local governance has been proved to be crucial to pursue multidimensional goals, thus achieving sustainable and long-term results within a recovery process. The workshop will be a space of dialogue about the key role played by participatory processes in addressing people’s needs, boosting sustainable development processes at the territorial level. 

Involving citizens, local and regional authorities, civil society organizations and international networks, the session will address the most urgent challenges related to:

• Environment;
• Digitalisation;
• Social inclusion and economy;

reflecting on how participatory approaches can boost the post pandemic relaunch of EU cities. 

Building on the rich experience of ALDA and European Partnership for Democracy, the workshop will stimulate an inspiring multi-stakeholder debate to commonly identify the societal needs that represent the main starting point to boost an effective and sustainable recovery-plan. Building on virtuous good practices in the fields of environment, digitalisation, social inclusion and economy, the workshop will provide concrete examples of participatory processes that – through the active involvement of local communities – have contributed to improve local governance.

In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and taking into account the restrictions related to health and security (social social security) the #EURegionsWeek 2021 will take place in a digital format. 

We invite you to give a look to the EU Regions Week Programme and to register to this and many other events!! The registration process will open on August 30th, 2021 and is completely free of charge, available exclusively through the event website!

***
To know more about DG REGIO please visit the website

Read more about  European Committee of the  Regions here 

More information on EPD at this link

On August 3rd, the President of ALDA Oriano Otočan and Vice President Alessandro Perelli visited the Municipality of Brtonigla-Verteneglio, in Croatia.

There, they met with the delegate of the Local Democracy Agency based in the city, Umberto Ademollo and had a reception with the Mayor of Brtonigla-Verteneglio, Neš Sinožić.

Established in 1996, the LDA Brtonigla-Verteneglio is one among the very first LDA, which has always distinguished itself for being very active in the field of youth volunteering, among others.

Moreover, this visit also represented the occasion to further consolidate the already strong and long-lasting cooperation with the Municipality of Brtonigla-Verteneglio, whose Mayor expressed the wish to get more and more involved in ALDA projects that promote local development. Indeed, specifies Sinožić, the administration is deeply committed to strengthen the quality of services linked to local tourism and thus participating in projects and actions favouring the internationalisation and the promotion of the Municipality and stimulating the creation of partnerships and the exchange of best practices with municipalities having similar characteristics and goals.

On July 27 2021, the final conference of the AGREED project – Activating Governance Reform for Enhancing Development, was organised.

The event was attended by Tsvetomir SVILENOV, Project Manager from the European Union Delegation, Larisa VOLOH Deputy, Mayor of Palanca village, Alexandru COICA, Coordinator of Eastern Partnership and Central Asia Countries (ALDA), Victor COTRUȚĂ, Coordinator of Eastern Partnership Countries (ALDA), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) representatives beneficiaries of grant projects, mayors, district councillors, secretaries.

The conference agenda focused not only on the results achieved by the AGREED project, but also on addressing the issues of improving local governance, sustainable development of localities, involvement of citizens at local level. Besides, during the three discussion panel, speakers focused on:

• Issues of territorial administrative reform and decentralisation;
• Models of training of natives in local development;
• Current challenges of sustainable development at the local level and
• Cooperation between civil society and Local Public Administration (LPA).

  This initiative succeeded in increasing the capacity of local LPAs and CSOs to consistently participate in the processes of ensuring good local governance and local development through joint actions

Mayors, local councillors but also by a deputy elected to the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, experts in the field and representatives of CSOs joined the event as well.

More into depth, participants mentioned that the project has achieved its planned results and most of its objectives with a few slight exceptions. Hence, this initiative succeeded in increasing the capacity of local LPAs and CSOs to consistently participate in the processes of ensuring good local governance and local development through joint actions, while involving citizens in local decision-making process, and mobilising communities and to implement projects.

The main activities and results of the project included:

• Capacity building workshops for public authorities and representatives of the local associative sector. As a result, 1091 trained people, of which 742 participated in physical format and 349 online;
• Supporting local development initiatives through the implementation of the LPA-CSO-citizens-business environment partnership. As a result, 19 local projects were supported, with a total budget of over 150 thousand Euros, which ensured the implementation of 26 community initiatives, including Transnistrian region and ATU Gagauzia;
• Elaboration of the voluntary amalgamation methodology;
• Development, publication and distribution of the brochures “Participatory Democracy” and “Community Development: Cooperation between Local Authorities and Civil Society”;
• Creation of a training platform for capacity building of public authorities with interactive modules (E-Learning platform) and
• Elaboration and dissemination of a video / audio spot, audio version – over 3000 broadcasts, video version – over 300 broadcasts.

Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 restrictions, the event was organised in hybrid format, about 75 participants attended the event. Yet, the event was a great succeeded, enjoying both the online and presence of the participants. As also said by participants: “We thank all those involved in this event and hope that the governance reform will come as soon as possible to improve the local development and strengthen the potential of LPA in the Republic of Moldova”.

ALDA is very much glad to the great achievements of this project, and the positive outcomes it has reached.

***
The project is implemented by the European Association for Local Democracy – ALDA, LDA Moldova, the University Legal Clinic and funded by the European Union

For more information, please visit www.agreed.md

The event registration can be found on the project’s Facebook page

From 21 to 23 July the 1st “STAR Project” international meeting took place – in an hybrid form – in Arcugnano, having the onsite participation of 8 European delegations partner of the project coming from Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, The Netherlands. The remaining 6 European delegations from Albania, Germany, Serbia, Czech Republic, Kosovo and Poland attended the international event online.

On the first day, project’s parties and local authorities met to present both STAR initiative, and the consortium to Arcugnano citizens. The latter, which joined the presentation in a great number, were interested about the work carried out by the Municipality and welcomed the European delegations with enthusiasm.

More into details, the event took place in the main council hall, where the city Mayor Paolo Pellizzari welcomed the participants with an opening speech. Afterwards, Nadia Di Iulio, Project Manager of ALDA, presented the project to the public. Then, each STAR partner briefly presented its association as well as street art initiatives implemented at local level, aimed at the regeneration of a territory; while stimulating civic engagement. In addition, partners took this chance as a fruitful moment of sharing experiences, and getting to know each other better.

 Partners took this chance as a fruitful moment of sharing experiences, and getting to know each other better

During the second day, a technical meeting was held, where the parties discussed the participatory process carried out at the local level within the STAR project, the objectives achieved and the next future steps. 

After the meeting, a public press conference took place in the Council hall of the Municipality, on the importance and impact of street art in regenerating depressed areas and promoting social inclusion and targeted artistic and cultural associations. Based on the day 1 format, Mr Paolo Pellizzari opened the meeting; followed by Project Manager Nadia Di Iulio.

Among keynote speakers, who joined this second day of events:

• Mr Antonio Ceccagno from Jeos Association talked about how street art contributes to urban regeneration of a territory, while involving different stakeholders;
• Luis Gomez de Teran – artist – discussed the challenges of street art as an instrument of social cohesion. 

Finally, guided by the Mayor, together with Antonio Ceccagno and Nadia Di Iulio participants joined a guided tour of the murals. The tour of the artworks and the explanation was useful to understand the concrete importance of the project for the Municipality and its engagement.  Then, the STARproject partners moved to Città di Vicenza, where they were warmly welcomed by Caterina Soprana, Vicenza Municipality Councillor of civil and human rights and peace culture. Mrs Soprana congratulated the STAR partnership on this initiative and wished for future collaborations with the city of Vicenza.

On the third and last day of the meeting the associations and parties involved met to discuss the administrative aspects and last greetings. 

Despite the difficulties and although some partners had to participate online, due to covid-19 safety measures, the meeting was a positive experience for all parties involved and they worked together discussing various important for good practices and active citizenship  to build more inclusive and creative European communities

***
Useful information on: Municipality of Arcugnano

To inaugurate this new series of in-presence events, we are glad to announce that this year ALDA is taking part into the General Assembly of the “International Association of French-speaking Mayors – AIMF”.

The Assembly takes place in Kigali, Rwanda, from July 18th to 22nd and follows an intense and stimulating agenda, animated by special guests and experts from all over the World.
While the Assembly itself is foreseen on Wednesday, the first day of conference is dedicated to the issue of gender equality in relation to family management: a sensitive topic, also related to health care management for young people in the Country and in general to the services offered by the Municipalities.

On Tuesday July 20th, the focus is more linked to ALDA’s core action, with a series of panel discussions on the relation between mayors and citizens and how this dynamic reflects on the urban management of French-speaking cities. In this vein, ALDA Secretary General, Ms Antonella Valmorbida, is taking the floor during the first panel, titled “Local government policies in phase with civil society: models of partnership between the municipality and civil society“.

A fruitful occasion of learning and sharing, for the advancement of good local governance all around the World

After listening to the Rwandans experience through the voices of local experts, Ms Valmorbida is giving an overview of participatory democracy and the dynamics of citizens participation in Europe and its Neighborhood, drawing from the experience and the best practices of the myriad of projects ALDA has been leading on these topics for the past 20 years.

In light of the recent, yet extremely promising, collaboration with AIMF, it is important for ALDA and its network to be involved in such an event, and getting to know better the mechanisms that regulate the functioning of communities in different places
This is crucial for the advancement of the work of ALDA and the elaboration of even more complete models for the support of local democracy all around the World, according to changing contexts and needs.

Starting in 2008, and based on a bottom-up approach, the idea behind the Covenant of Majors is to gather together thousands of local realities committed to turn European legislation on climate and energy into concrete actions, such as EU 40% greenhouse gas-reduction target by 2030

With more than 10.000 signatories, and spread among 53 countries, the “Covenant of Mayors” is the world’s largest initiatives focusing on climate and energy actions.

The call ‘City in the Spotlight Awards’ is a great opportunity to showcase the progress made and become a reference example for the whole Covenant Community and beyond!

More in depth, the call is open until August 16th 2021, allowing cities and majors to share their experiences, progress and strategies as far as climate and energy legislation concerns.

Apply and let your city be a reference example for the whole Covenant Community

Specifically, requirements – such as only signatories that have committed to the 2030 mitigation and adaptation targets are eligible – applied. Nonetheless, this is a great occasion to participate, or to join the initiative and get ready for the next call. Concerning the winners, here is the ratio behind:

• 1 small-sized signatory (<10,000 inhabitants)
• 1 medium-sized signatory (10,000- 250,000 inhabitants)
• 1 large-sized signatory (>250,000 inhabitants)

If you are interested in applying, please visit the website