Associations from the Visegrad Group and from the Eastern Neighborhood attended the final conference: “New challenges for local governments – role of umbrella organizations in the development cooperation” in Bratislava at the beginning of April. Activities of our PFD program were presented there too.
The conference participants were discussing about challenges, such as environment, inter-municipal cooperation, capacity-building of associations, local public finance, urban and spatial planning, good local governance and citizen participation in policy formulation and implementation. Eight government associations from Visegrad group countries (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary) and three Eastern Neighborhood countries (Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) were presented there their activities. Slovak association ZMOS was main organizer of the gathering. Representatives of associations from Moldova (CALM), Georgia (NALAG) and Ukraine (AUC) were discussing about decentralised cooperation as a unique way to achieve mutual learning and mutually beneficial results.
During the conference, a memorandum was signed among the Visegrad four associations and the Eastern Neighborhood associations. It aims at coordinating activities and positions of signatories – engaging in joint projects, allowing for a mutual transfer of information, know-how and experience. Ms Alena Srankova (programme manager of our ‘Public Finance for Development’ programme) from UNDP for Europe and CIS was talking about PFD activities at the conference. You can read her presentation here. Mr Viorel Furdui from Moldovan association CALM was talking about LPAs in Moldova. You can read his presentation here. You can download press material about PFD at conference (in Slovak language) here.
