November 2010
The Annual Coordination Meeting of the LDAs Delegates was held on the 8th - 9th of November, 2010 at the ALDA (Association of Local Democracy Agencies) Office in Vicenza (Italy). The Meeting was aimed at LDAs Delegates and ALDA's staff to share and discuss several issues regarding the overall development process in the past year. There are twelve active LDAs located in the Balkans and in the Southern Caucasus which are the members of ALDA network. The first Local Democracy Agency was established in Subotica by Council of Europe in 1993 as a support programme to strengthen local democracy, foster respect for human rights and further sustainable development in the Western Balkans. Over the years, the main objective of the LDAs has become to assist the region in a smooth and stable transition towards democracy and European integration, with an emphasis on promoting tolerant and trust-based relationships within local communities. Since 1999 ALDA has been coordinating the LDAs and providing them with the administrative and political support. At the moment ALDA is working on opening a new LDA in Armenia and is planning to expand this positive experience to other areas.
On the first day of the meeting (8th November) participants determined the common grounds for new positioning and visioning for ALDA and LDAs during an open debate session. There was also made an overview of methodology, approaches, budgeting of joint ALDA and LDAs project. The Delegates of LDA Prijedor, LDA Sisak, LDA Subotica, LDA Niksic, LDA for Central and Southern Serbia, LDA Mostar, LDA Verteneglio and LDA Shkodra also presented the ongoing projects and outlined the main challenges for these LDAs.
The second day (9th November) was started with the overview of ALDA and LDAs main achievements and challenges during the period 2010-2011. The delegates presented the key activities and strategies of their LDAs. There was also discussed an ALDA-LDAs communication issue on how to promote the LDAs within the ALDA network and outside it, seeking innovative, prompt and efficient solutions for improved visibility of each LDA. The Delegates took part in training workshop on Partnership building which covered successful strategies for strengthening the partnership of the LDAs and for enlarging the network (new partners search). The last session of this day was carried on Microcredit Scheme subject mainly reporting on follow-up activities (meetings in Oslo, Niš and Tirana) and considering the feasibility of implementation of a new project.
The Delegates Coordination Meeting was ended with the emphasis on the 2010 Progress reports on EU integration of Western Balkan countries as the main reference for determining the LDAs strategy and potential areas of action planning.
