World, United Cities and Local Governments, Capacity and Institution Building Working Group 2021

The wider objective of the Capacity and Institution Building (CIB) Working Group is to advance the effectiveness and quality of international policies and programs of local and regional governments and their associations. The CIB achieves its purpose by exchanging knowledge and information, enabling coordination and cooperation among its members and within UCLG.

The specific objectives of 2021 – 2023 are:

1. General information exchange related to policies and programs implemented by CIB members and fostering of coordination among CIB members to avoid overlaps and to create synergies
2. Building a common knowledge base and learning community on programming methodologies to contribute to a more effective programme approach
3. Support the implementation of and reporting on international agendas and policies
4. Support the development of a shared narrative and building evidence, to feed advocacy efforts and increase recognition of the role of local government in development cooperation.
5. Alignment and collaboration of CIB members’ work with UCLG’s strategic priorities

For 2021 the core activities include:

1. Information exchange
The CIB working group will continue its activities aimed at information exchange between members, including the bi-monthly newsletter, CIB circulars, the CIB Whatsapp group, the website and social media outings.
Building on the three coordination calls between different directors of CIB member organizations on the impact of COVID-19 on our sector and organisations in 2020, CIB will further facilitate such exchanges if deemed relevant throughout 2021.

2. Building a knowledge base and learning community
Continuation of organization of several thematic webinars/digital workshops, with speakers from different (CIB member) organizations. These online sessions will cover both policy developments and practical project experiences, related to M&E, gender in programming etc.
Structured dialogue on M&E&L developments and joint activities in this domain.

3. Implementation of and reporting on international policies
CIB will engage in the process related to the ‘Voluntary Subnational Reviews’ (VSRs); reports of 6-10 Local Government Associations

4. Shared narrative and evidence building
The development of the UCLG policy paper on Development Cooperation and Local Governments in 2021. With the outputs from the research assignment, the CIB secretariat and members will work on a renewed policy paper on Development Cooperation and Local Governments in the first half of 2021, to be put on the agenda of UCLG soon after.

The percentage carried out by VNG is 100%. Financial contributions are made by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), UCLG, the city of Barcelona, Catalonia (in-kind) and VNG International (Deals programme).