Added value working with advisory experts

SKL and SKL International, together with ICLD, hosted the annual meeting of the Capacity and Institution Building (CIB) under the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). The organization is a technical platform for the exchange of experiences for people in municipalities and other organizations that work with issues related to capacity-building at the local level.

SKL, SKL International and ICLD presented the three organizations and described the prerequisites for working with capacity building of municipalities, regions and county councils as part of Swedish development cooperation.

“Robertsfors municipality presented examples of their international engagements, highlighting the importance of having gender perspectives in the projects,” says Björn Möller, Quality strategist, at Knowledge Centre ICLD.

ICLD held a workshop on the topic of added value of working with advisory expert groups. Since the annual meeting coincided with the first meeting of the year with the ICLD Advisory Group, the Advisory Group took part in the workshop. One of the conclusions from the workshop were the importance of being aware of “why do we need an advisory group”.

Conclusion; an Advisory Group may have a legitimizing role for organizations, but that should not be the main reason for being established.

ICLD had also invited Zorica Grubor from Robertsfors municipality, Thomas Melin from Sida and Elin Andersdotter Fabre, the Global Utmaning Thoughts, to a panel discussion, including the Advisory Group member Jesse Ribot.

The panel talked about municipalities part in Swedish development cooperation.

Sida emphasized the strong and important role played by municipalities in Sweden, and that this internationally comparative advantage is something that should be reflected in development cooperation.

It was also considered important to allow development projects at local level to deal with the challenges that municipalities de facto have to deal with. The sustainability goals in Agenda 2030 need not be seen as something that has to be adapted to local level, rather let the local-level issues be adapted to the global level.