On a cloudy Monday morning in early September, a colourful group, consisting of four foreign delegations, roams the streets of Leeuwarden.

They come from Colombia, Myanmar, Benin and Ghana and are participating in the DEALS programme. VNG International and the municipality of Leeuwarden offer them a tour though the Frisian capital. Interested and sometimes amazed the delegation members – young and old, male and female – explore the area. Some of them have never left their country before. Their first reactions prompt practical questions about the things they observe. ‘Do the elderly in Holland ride bikes as well?’ ‘What’s this container for?’ ‘Do you use another kind of asphalt for your bicycle paths than for your roads?’

Read here the whole story on what the delegations discovered and how VNG International promotes a municipal integrated governance approach worldwide.