10 – Reduced inequalities
Designing for Inclusion
A Municipal Accessibility Toolbox Editors: Felicia Wede and Irena Lakobrija Delić This toolbox is based on the Guidelines for Accessibility and Universal Design for Cities and Municipalities, developed by Vračar Municipality in partnership with Borås City, Sweden. It translates these guidelines into practical support for municipalities to plan and deliver accessible services, emphasising the need…
Designing participation for better health outcomes
What Local Governments Can Learn from Participatory Budgeting in Kenya Participatory budgeting is widely promoted as a way to strengthen local democracy, but evidence on its effects on concrete development outcomes – especially health – remains limited. This policy brief summarises findings from a randomised controlled trial in rural Kenya that tested three forms of…
Developing Youth Councils
This toolbox has been compiled to help local government officials and politicians who want to start, improve, and maintain their own youth councils. It provides both inspiration and a step-by-step guide for setting up and managing these councils. It also explores the questions and challenges youth councils often face and shares some of the lessons…
Borås and Vračar – Advancing Inclusion and Accessibility
The Serbian municipality of Vračar has taken significant steps to strengthen inclusion for people with disabilities. Since launching a municipal partnership with the City of Borås in 2021, aimed at increasing influence and participation for people with disabilities, the cooperation has led to both stronger organisational structures and concrete improvements in practice. A key outcome…
Meet Child Rights Ambassadors
Training staff to become Child Rights Ambassadors is a practical and effective way to strengthen the protection of children’s rights. Through the ICLD partnership between Jinja City and Region Stockholm/Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital, a concrete tool has been developed: the Child Rights Ambassador Toolbox. It is a step-by-step guide for training people to become ambassadors…
Rebuilding Ukraine for all functional variations
As Ukrainian municipalities prepare for post-war reconstruction, accessibility and inclusion are becoming core concerns. The BUILDSUP project strengthens local capacity to plan and design cities that work for everyone, by introducing principles of universal design and sharing experiences between Sweden and Ukraine. The war in Ukraine has uncountable consequences, including the increase of people living…
Jönköping – Stellenbosh, South Africa
Project: Youth participation in municipal decision-making The project tackles a shared challenge in both Jönköping and Stellenbosch: young people are largely excluded from municipal decision-making. Although Sweden incorporated the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into law in 2020, translating this principle into real influence for young people remains difficult. Existing structures, such…
Women, indigenous knowledge and climate resilience in focus amongst our Fieldwork Grant recipients
We are happy to share our most recent group of Fieldwork Grant participants here at ICLD! This year, 9 brilliant students presented their research on highly topical subjects for both our organization, the general state of the world and local democracy. Each of them had a unique perspective on pressing issues globally, and the execution…
Secure and Develop Childrens Rights
A step-by-step guide to conducting a Child Rights Ambassador Training Programme This toolbox presents a training programme for Child Rights Ambassadors, developed as part of one of four projects carried out within an ICLD-funded partnership between Region Stockholm, Sweden, and Jinja City, Uganda (2022–2025). The work was implemented by staff from Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital…
From Seeds to Assemblies. Agroecology as a Tool for Political Participation
Indigenous women’s political participation remains limited due to intersecting inequalities. Nevertheless, sustainable initiatives such as agroecology have proved to empower communities and promote social engagement. This research investigates the political dimension of agroecology by examining how it can affect Indigenous women’s political participation. Social Capital Theory and Empowerment Theory are used to identify the mechanisms…
