Pilot cases

At various meetings of the CIB Working Group, members such as FCM ICMD, VVSG, CUF, VNG International and others, expressed their willingness to coordinate efforts in the fields of Association Capacity Building (ACB) and Municipal International Cooperation (MIC). As this is very much in line with the overall objectives of the CIB Working Group, the decision was taken in 2007 at the CIB Conference in Brussels, to opt for three countries where several CIB members implement ACB and/or MIC activities.


At the subsequent annual CIB meetings in 2008 and 2009, the fourth and fifth countries were added to this list. The CIB Working Group members also designated spearheading the coordination efforts in these countries to one specific organisation:

Mali Cités Unies France (CUF)

Nicaragua Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)

Ghana VNG International

Burkina Faso Union of Cities and Municipalities of Wallonia (UVCW)

Zimbabwe Local Government Association (LGA)

 The partners would work within programme coordination guidelines adopted by the CIB Working Group at the annual meeting in July 2008. These guidelines (see hyperlink below) outline a continuum of options ranging from straightforward documentation and sharing of information on each other´s programmes to eliminating overlaps, identifying concrete opportunities for collaboration and organizing with the southern LGA partner a formal table for dialogue with donors and implementing organisations. 

This could lead to using the outcome of projects of one organisation as the starting point for the project of another organisation, pooling expertise and financial resources for the technical assistance offered to the partner organisation(s), pooling local human resource,s co-organising of workshops, development of joing information material, joint approaches to donor organisations, etc.