United Cities and Local Government (UCLG)

The Local Government Association (LGA) is a member of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). UCLG is an organisation representing and defending the interests of local governments on the world stage, regardless of the size of the communities they serve.

UCLG’s members include individual cities and national associations of local governments, which represent all the cities and local governments in a single country. Its membership includes over 1,000 cities across 95 countries and 112 Local Government Associations (LGAs).

The LGA is also taking part in the UCLG Working group on Capacity and Institution Building (CIB). The group consists of several local government associations as well as individual local governments involved in international cooperation. They meet twice a year to share information on international activities in order to enhance the quality of their work, avoid overlap and increase coordination and effectiveness.

European Platform of Local & Regional Government

The European Platform of Local and Regional Government was launched in November 2008. It is supported by the European Commission and aims to act as a single voice for local authority associations at European level on all development co-operation issues, and to exchange information and learning.

The Local Government Association (LGA) is a member of the Platform. The Platform has 19 partners, including national associations from France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, four major cities, plus the European and international associations.

The Platform is currently working with the European Commission to encourage an improvement in European development programmes to make them more accessible to local authorities. 

European Support for Partnerships for Development

The Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) with support from the European Commission has created a website to bring together useful information on local government twinning and partnerships for development.

The International Twinning & Partnership for Development website provides information on European financial support available, links to relevant European organisations and has an online partner search facility designed to make it easier for local councils to find a partner with similar priorities.