Fighting poverty with democracy

We are convinced that the battle to eliminate poverty worldwide starts here at home – in our village, our town, or our municipality. Which is why, here at ICLD, we work with people who are changing the world by building local democracy.

Women’s Political Leadership programme

If you are a local political leader in any of the OECD-DAC listed ODA-countries, a woman and most importantly, an agent of change – this programme is for you. The next call for applications for Cohort 12 will open in early May 2025!

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What we do

Municipal Partnership Programme

ICLD promotes the exchange of knowledge and experiences between local authorities in Sweden and in partner countries.

Networks

Our networks are a form of cooperation where selected local governments receive increased support from ICLD to conduct their international projects.

ITP

Our training programmes are tailor-made for the partnerships in our networks. We also have a stand alone programme that is aimed at women political leaders from around the world

Research

ICLD documents, analyses and disseminates knowledge in the fields of local democracy development and decentralisation.

ICLD in Numbers

In 2024, 136 municipalities/regions were active in ICLD’s programme operations worldwide.

111 projects in 22 countries across 4 continents were ongoing in 2024.

Democratic Resilience

ICLD has a network gathering municipal partnerships from Sweden and Ukraine:

Champions of local democracy

Become inspired by these champions.

ICLD education material

Explore ICLD’s learning tools such as videos, cases, toolboxes and handbooks.

Local Democracy Talks

Inspired by the Swedish foreign policy initiative, “Drive for Democracy”, ICLD organises live streamed high-level political panels called “Local Democracy Talks”.

ICLD Alumni Talks

The main objective of the ICLD Alumni Talks is to facilitate continuous structured learning, knowledge-sharing and exchange of practical experience among teams and individuals in ICLD’s programmes across the world.