back

Director of Association of Local Democracy Agency visits Newport

av visit

L to R: Olive Young; Sonia fisher (NKTA Chair); Antonella Valmorbida (Director ALDA); Catherine Philpott;Vera Brown; Colin Mason; Sylvia Mason (Photo: David Mayer).

Meeting of NKTA Members with Antonella Valmorbida (ALDA) 8 JULY 2010

Antonella Valmorbida was very pleased to meet members of the Newport Kutaisi Twinning Association.  She considered it to be important in order to improve knowledge of the Georgia LDA, how NKTA fits into it and what was the ‘added value’.

She said that when ALDA was discussing the location of the Georgia LDA, Kutaisi was chosen because of the partnership already existing between the two communities.

Context of ALDA and LDAs

Georgia is just one element of a larger strategy in Eastern Europe.  ALDA’s mandate is to establish and support democratic processes, both in Europe and neighbouring countries.  It has recently enlarged its strategy in this area.

ALDA is a partner of the Council of Europe as its practical arm for local democracy.  This includes working with departments of the European Commission, helping to orientate policies towards regions.  ALDA is recognised as an expert on neighbouring countries.  Last year for instance it drafted a paper on enlargement strategy.   An LDA will be opening soon in Armenia and later in Azerbaijan.  For ALDA enlargement in the Caucasus is very important as is the regional approach.  It is crucial to help establish stability in this area since it borders Turkey, Russia and Iran, with assets of minerals and oil.  America now has a large presence in Armenia which receives international money for investment in local government.

LDAs and ALDA

  • To warrant the title of LDA, it must:

    • comply with ALDA conditions (e.g. have a partner);

    • respond to expectations of ALDA and local people;

  • Be accountable to ALDA for any finance given by ALDA and ensure that projects correspond with ALDA conditions;

  • When an LDA is newly established,  it will have a large level of support from ALDA at the start but later has more autonomy (as with LDA Georgia);

  • ALDA intervenes when it finds that a delegate in charge of an LDA is not performing well.

LDA Kutaisi

  • Added Value for Newport: participation can be regarded as Newport’s contribution in the region  to human rights etc;

  • Funding:

    •  partner agreement with Newport City Council goes to September 2010;  Antonella Valmorbida’s meeting with Cllr. Ed Townsend had indicated that no decision has been may yet about withdrawing from LDA;

    • Montfalcone has given LDA Georgia a project until the end of the year and Antonella has also secured funding until the end of the year.

  • Evaluation:

    • While Antonella confirmed that there were difficulties with the LDA Georgia : to obtain money for projects  and to deal with the constant political instability at the national and local level.  Today, there is a better appreciation of the LDA work.

    • When more money has been available, paid consultants i.e. Georgian nationals are involved.

    • Communications by the delegate could be improved.

Concluding Discussion: Outcomes

  • It was agreed that more communication of project outcomes was needed from Josef Khakhaleishvili (Soso) the LDA delegate and sufficient notification of invitations to projects or events.

  • When projects are planned or implemented, it should be seen whether NKTA could be involved and it should be given a good notice in order to make this participation real and concrete.

  • AV will ask Soso what are the relations between LDA Georgia and the Kutaisi Newport International Association (KNIA).  KNIA is a member of the LDA but not ALDA.

 

At the conclusion of the meeting, Antonella was thanked for her presentation and her clarification of the various points.