All photos: Adrian Gnägi

On the second day of the NEXPO Conference, Mr. Anatoli Sirbu, Mayor of Antonesti, Moldova, was interviewed by Celestine Kroesschell on the importance of strategic planning. Translation: Aurelia Ciornei.

Video reporters: Natalie Nikiema, Nara Weigel

Kelmend Zajazi on NALAS and its role in supporting local associations of municipalities:

Kelmend Zajazi on his expectations towards the NEXPO Conference:

Video reporter: Nara Weigel

I am taking with me many documents prepared by NALAS members and I will be sharing them with the municipal associations in India.

Oksana Garnets, SDC Ukraine:

I have learned the importance of linking Ukrainian associations with the NALAS network. The association of small towns might benefit a lot from cooperation with NALAS.

Nathalie Nikiema, SDC Burkina Faso:

I have learned that we can apply in Burkina a similar approach as NALAS in the organization of such an event. It was important for me to come to share and talk about issues like e-governance, where I learned was that it is important to build capacities of authorities at local levels before we ask the national level to support them. Additionally, before we transform our local governments into e-governments, there is a need for working first on issues like education, internet access and also access to electricity.

Aurelia Ciornei, SDC Moldova

One of the things I learned from the NEXPO conferences was on the issue of energy efficiency and local governance. Municipalities are committing themselves to become energy efficient. There is the covenant of Mayors on this topic, where one mayor from a municipality in Moldova is participating. I have seen that there are different ways in which a municipality can be active in energy efficiency issues using local resources. Also, what was important for me as a new-comer is that I have learned what it really means to network beyond the theory. The dlgn F2F allowed me to build relationships with people from different countries and to exchange our experience and knowledge on the topics discussed by the learning projects.

Sohel Ali and Tirtha Sikder, SDC Bangladesh

We really enjoyed participating in the NALAS conference. We will be promoting the idea of having a network of municipalities in South Asia. We were able to gather many documents and publications which will help us in the implementation of our projects. Also, the conference on Benchmarking has been very interesting. This presentation helped us to move forward and gave us the ammunition to show evidence on the performance of our municipalities. Additionally, the conference on e-governance allowed us to be better informed about what it takes to have a digital municipality.

Introduction of the guideline: During the F2F event a draft version of the DLG study tour guideline was presented to the participants. The guideline is a concrete product offer responding to a demand raised by the DLGN members. It provides guidance, tips and tricks to those who are in charge of organizing a study tour and it facilitates quick access to available practical experience and information. It is targeting mainly SDC and PDIV program officers and orienting on study tours to Switzerland but not only. The aim is to make study tours most useful and effective for the participants and to support careful and smooth preparation.

The guideline is prepared as a light document which provides following information:

• Part 1, providing information on core organizational steps
• Part 2, presenting key issues for content design, which are closely linked to DLG processes and reflecting on Swiss experience at hand
• Electronic linkages where further information can be found, e.g. shared experience, tips and tricks, checklists, list with competence centers and experts, SDC instructions, examples of TOR and contracts, thematic background information and handouts.

Draft Study Tour Guidelines [Please note that the links to further reading material do not yet work in this draft version. A fully functional version with all additional documents will be published when the document is finalized.]

Short brainstorming session in the plenary: DLG members quickly discussed experiences on how to manage follow up of a study tour. Main recommendations reconfirm the principle vision that study tours shall contribute to positive change as part of a comprehensive process rather than being just one-off event:

• The follow up will depend on the main purpose of a study tour which should be clearly articulated beforehand. E.g. sensitization of politicians will require different follow up than concrete learning on municipal governance for local government representatives.
• For effective follow up the content must be relevant for participants and the right participants (change agents) have to be selected. This requires thorough analysis of in country DLG situation/challenges and a needs assessment of possible delegation members.
• Follow up is easier if the study tour is closely linked to and relevant for specific SDC engagement and programs in a country. The closer the match, the easier the follow up within usual program progress monitoring.
• One way of pre-considering follow up measures is to preserve time for brainstorming sessions at the end of each study tour day and to pre-plan debriefing sessions in Switzerland and after return in the home country: identify key learning and key messages to convey with respective communication strategies; or jointly define follow up action plan or jointly brainstorm on elements for future program design. A method for understanding about the outcomes of a study tour could be a story telling workshop with study tour participants held one year after the study tour, focusing on “stories of change”.
• Expectations with regard to study tour follow up should be realistic and not too ambitious; immediate translation might not be obvious; this is just one aspect within a wide range of capacity development activities.

Next steps:

• COOF Mongolia, IC Kosovo and SKAT volunteered to provide a feedback to the draft study tour guidelines. With these comments and the results of the F2F brainstorming session the guidelines will be finalized.
• Simultaneously annexes, lists with respective resource persons (SDC HQ, COOFs, partners) and with respective competence centers/experts are being compiled.
• The final version of the guideline is expected for May.

Corinne Huser

Video Reporters: Rudi von Planta, Nara Weigel

Statement by Hynek Bures on what he has learnt from coaching video reporting.

Video reporter: Hynek Bures

Video reporters: Ursula Läubli, Tobias Sommer

On the fourth day of the DLGN f2f, we attended the NEXPO Conference organized by NALAS. After the bus trip to the Zetra Arena (stadium from the Olympic Winter Games of Sarajevo ’84) we did a tour of the exposition and then attended the opening conference where, among others, Kurt Kunz (Head of Eastern Cooperation, SDC), addressed the international audience. During the afternoon, various workshops on topics like good governance, energy efficiency and municipal benchmarking were offered.

Here are a few audiovisual impressions from the day!

Photos: Adrian Gnägi

Video reporter: Hynek Bures

1. Preparatory work:

The approach to this learning topic was to analyze existing SDC experience and identify good practice that could be shared with the participants of the F2F meeting in Sarajewo. In addition, IDS was mandated to expand and mirror the SDC experience with analyzing cases of other development partners. SDC case studies from 4 countries (different SDC divisions) have been prepared: Two studies focusing on interventions mainly at the level of policies/legal frameworks (Bosnia, Bolivia), and two others, focusing on interventions mainly at grassroots level (Bangladesh, Niger). IDS analyzed 11 cases studies of other donors worldwide.

2. What happened during the workshops:

During the workshop sessions SDC case studies were shortly presented and used as an entry point for joint discussions on similar experience. The case studies were presented along 3 guiding questions: i) what concept of social inclusion was applied and how the project started to engage with key stakeholders, what was the incentive for those stakeholders to act more inclusive; ii) key strategies/interventions applied by the project; iii) how progress is being monitored.

In workshop one the Bosnia case (ILDP) was presented which main aim is to support the government in designing, adopting and introducing a local development planning method based on the underlying principle of social inclusion.

In workshop two the Bangladesh case (Sharique) was presented which aims to support local governments and community based organizations to engage in participatory planning and budgeting processes, with special emphasis on the inclusion of marginalized groups. During the workshop discussions participants commented the cases presented, shared their own particular experience and jointly discussed success factors, sustainability aspects and major challenges.

For main conclusions see feedback to the plenary sessions on workshop 1 and 2:
Social Inclusion Reporting 1&2

During workshop three IDS mirrored the SDC experiences, conclusions with those of other donors and during the subsequent discussions success factors, conditions for sustainability and major challenges were further synthesized.

For main conclusions see feedback to the plenary sessions on workshop 3:
Social Inclusion Reporting 3

3. Key messages and insights from participants

4. Next steps:

A join agreement was reached that social inclusion is an underlying principle of SDC work that needs to be systematically integrated in all SDC strategies and program cycles.

• This starts with a thorough context analysis, power and actor mapping. A combined analytical tool will be developed in close coordination with the learning projects PED/power analysis and LGA.
• The success factors and challenges analyzed will be compiled into a guideline or checklist that will help to consider “do’s and don’ts” for future project design and to review projects.
• Tested tools and methodologies will be collected and posted on the shareweb, for example the social inclusive local development planning methodology or examples of social inclusive sensitive program monitoring. This will be continuously updated.
• One of the major challenges identified is local government financing social inclusive measures. Together with the learning project on sustainable municipal finance, different options for social inclusive local government budgeting and financing shall be analyzed.
• During the workshop discussions it became clear, that relevant experience and competence on integrating social inclusion exists in different countries. Respective expertise shall be captured and compiled in a list of possible resource persons.

Corinne Huser

Video reporters: Marcelina Biro, Liliane Tarnutzer, Nara Weigel