"Local government is universally important: it is governance for the people, by the people, and with the people – we need to develop ways to strengthen it” stated Davit Melua, Executive Director of the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia, during the second meeting of the Community of practice on local governance in the Eastern Partnership countries. From 13-14 October, 13 representatives of national associations of local authorities, and experts and practitioners gathered together to exchange experience in these key areas.

Providing support and communication on the current developments in local democracy and citizen participation, the Community of practice fine-tunes the programme to local needs, leading to greater impact on the beneficiaries.

The involvement of participants from across the region and beyond provides a real opportunity for interaction and networking at multidimensional level. The exchange of practices and knowledge is not only instrumental towards improved local governance in the Eastern Partnership countries, but also to the development of partnerships that can evolve and grow.

The Community of practice on local governance in the Eastern partnership countries is organised by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities within the thematic programme “Strengthening institutional frameworks for local governance”, implemented jointly with the Council of Europe Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform, Directorate General of Democracy. This programme is funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe, and implemented by the Council of Europe, through the Programmatic
Co-operation Framework for 2015-2017 for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus.