Details

In March 2010, the project “Partnership for Democratic Local Governance in Southeast-Asia” has officially started its activities. The project is co-funded by the European Commission and the German Ministry for Development Cooperation and covering five countries in Southeast-Asia: Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The project has been designed and is run by Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (Germany), Local Government Development Foundation (LOGODEF, Philippines), United Cities and Local Governments for Asia and Pacific (UCLG-ASPAC) and Association of Indonesian Regency Governments (APKASI, Indonesia), Thailand Environment Institute (TEI, Thailand), Association of Cities in Vietnam (ACVN, Vietnam) and the National League of Communes/Sangkats of the Kingdom of Cambodia (NLC/S, Cambodia).

During its 30 months lifetime, the project will work on establishing a sustainable network of Local Government Associations (LGAs), Local Authorities (LAs), NGOs as well as Academic Institutions to exchange best practices in democratic local governance in the five participating countries. The network will concentrate its activities on four thematic fields: (1) peoples participation in planning and decision making, (2) institutional governance, (3) urban environment as well as (4) fiscal management/investment promotion strategies. 16 best practice cases shall be identified in the 5 countries and transferred to selected pilot local governments/municipalities. The transfer and exchange of best practices/success stories will follow a transnational approach – best practices shall strongly follow the criteria of being adaptable and transferable to different political and cultural backgrounds. In this regard, it shall be possible to transfer e.g. an identified success story from Thailand to Vietnam or vice versa. Local Government Associations in the five participating countries will play a key role in this transfer process. They will be the main stakeholders of the network and will closely accompany and consult the selected pilot municipalities in the implementation of the transfer models. Overall the project wishes to contribute to the improvement of living conditions of poor and disadvantaged people through increased participation in local planning and decision making processes. This will be closely accompanied by supporting activities, such as political dialogue, transnational exchange meetings, networking activities with resource persons from all five countries as well as visibility activities, such as the project website.

For further information on the project, kindly contact the project manager: Susanne Stephan (email: susanne.stephan@delgosea.eu).