About ACPLGP

The overall aim of the ACPLGP is ‘to enhance the role of local governments in the formulation, implementation and review of cooperation strategies and programmes supported under the Cotonou Agreement’.

To this end, the ACPLGP will play three key roles:

• Representation and advocacy: aimed at ensuring that ACP local government views and concerns are effectively taken into account in ACP-EC cooperation. This will require the establishment of appropriate mechanisms with the official parties by which local governments can participate in country-led poverty reduction strategy processes and programmes from design to implementation. The advocacy role is not to be confined to the national level. There is equally a need for the voice of local governments to be heard in ACP-EC cooperation at regional level and in the Brussels-based ACP-EU institutions.

• Information and networking:  in order to keep ACP local governments across the ACP abreast of opportunities for participation and financial support in the context of ACP-EC cooperation.

• Capacity building:  by taking initiatives that enable ACP local governments to promote their interests and to act as a credible interlocutor and partner in ACP-EC cooperation.

The process of setting-up an ACP Local Government Platform (ACPLGP) started in December 1999, when African and European representatives of local government associations gathered in Brussels to explore ways and means to become more involved in ACP-EC cooperation. In this context, a 1-day ‘Strategic Dialogue’ was organised with key EC officials, involved in support to decentralisation programmes in the ACP or in charge of promoting decentralised cooperation approaches. This workshop generated two major results:

• A jointly agreed MoU defining guiding principles to strengthen partnership relations between the EC and local governments in ACP-EC cooperation;

• A plan to gradually set up a full-fledged and operational Platform to represent the interests of local governments in ACP-EU cooperation, among other by seeking to extend the process to local government associations in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

Relations between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states are a particularly important aspect of the EU development cooperation policy and, more widely, of its external action.

The Platform governance structure consists of the following organs.

The members of the Platform are local government organisations with membership in ACP countries. They are represented by:

• The United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLGA);

• The Caribbean Association of Local Government Authorities (CALGA);

• Pacific associations of local government, among which the Papua New Guinea Urban Local Level Government Association (PNG ULLGA);

• The Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF); and

• The Association Internationale des Maires Francophones (AIMF).

The ACPLGP has established a strategic partnership with technical support organisations such as:

• the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM)

• the Partenariat pour le Développement Municipal (PDM - Western and Central Africa)

• the Municipal Development Partnership (MDPESA - Eastern and Southern Africa