SALAR | How to make local governments more inclusive?
On Monday 15 April SALAR International and Escuela Superior de Administración Pública (ESAP) organised the event « How to make local governments more inclusive? ». The event aimed to facilitate knowledge exchange, peer-learning and experimentation of innovative approaches between local governments in Sweden and Colombia to learn how to achieve more inclusive local governments. National and international experts, municipal experts and former mayors participated.
Achieving more inclusive local governments is a challenge, a challenge that is shared by different countries such as Colombia and Sweden, but also by key actors such as the School of Higher Administration in Colombia.
As the managing director of SALAR Ryan Knox mentioned that the FOINCIDE project was an experience of capacity building within the framework of Swedish cooperation with Colombia. In this project, four areas were identified that are key for local governments to strengthen their capacities to be more inclusive. Those are: citizens’ dialogues, the management of social conflicts, the use of data in decision-making and the mainstreaming of the gender approach in public management.
Launch of a digital workbook and website
A workbook was presented together with the website aprenderparagobernar.com, available to the country’s municipal public servants and all actors interested in creating and strengthening capacities in citizens’ dialogue. The Work-Book briefly outlines how the process of sharing experiences and knowledge between municipalities in Sweden and Colombia unfolded. It shares the specific results of the exchange on each of the four mentioned key topics, particularly the tools and short courses available to the general public on the website.
Main conclusions from the event:
✔ Working with citizen dialogue at the local level is important for achieving inclusion and building peace
✔ It is important to train municipal public servants with didactic and pedagogical tools to achieve inclusive local governments
✔ Training processes should be accompanied by practical work which will contribute to “learning by doing”