Strengthening capacity of medium and small cities in Poland for implementing effective development policies
Association of Polish Cities ·Poland
About this project
<p style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: 12pt"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif"><span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", sans-serif">The predefined project strengthens an institutional capacity of small and medium sized towns identified in Poland’s Strategy for Responsible Development. 54 cities received advisory assistance to elaborate Local Development and Action Plans addressing environmental, social, economic, demographic and good governance challenges. Based on these plans, 29 cities were selected to receive funding and tailored support to implement them. </span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: 12pt"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif"><span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", sans-serif"><span style="background-color: #FFFFFF"><span style="color: #212529">The project activities include expert assistance; capacity-building for local government staff; monitoring of local development progress; methodology and implementation of self-assessments to measure initial and progressive levels of good governance and institutional capacity; know-how on good governance from an international organisation (OECD) and campaign to promote principles of integrated and participatory local development. </span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: 12pt"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif"><span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", sans-serif"><span style="color: #212529">Inclusion of vulnerable groups, non-discrimination, gender equality, transparency and good governance are integral to the predefined project at all stages, i.e. planning, implementation and dissemination as well as in the activities of the 29 cities. </span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: 12pt"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif"><span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", sans-serif"><span style="color: #212529">Within the predefined project the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities in cooperation with the beneficiaries provide expertise on local development by facilitating bilateral activities within partnerships between 29 PL cities and Donor municipalities from NO and IS. 17 such bilateral agreements were concluded. </span>Moreover, within the framework of the pre-defined project, bilateral activities are carried out involving the remaining 12 beneficiaries for whom it was not possible to find a partner. Thanks to this, projects staff will be able to participate in study visits, internships and events in Poland and Norway.</span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify"><span style="font-size: 12pt"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif"><span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", sans-serif"><span style="background-color: #FFFFFF"><span style="color: #212529">The OECD provided expertise on good governance - drafting a local public governance review and operationalizing recommendations as well as supporting cities to adopt and use a self-assessment tool on good governance.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
Bilateral cooperation results
As a result of close cooperation between the APC and KS, 16 Polish-Norwegian and 1 Polish-Icelandic municipal partnerships have been established since November 2021.List of PL-NO/IS partnerships: 1. Jelenia Góra - Akureyri (Iceland) 2. Hajnówka - Alta 3. Jarocin - Ås 4. Jarosław - Nordre Follo 5. Łomża - Nordland County 6. Nisko - Midt-Telemark 7. Opoczno - Sunnfjord 8. Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski - Sogndal 9. Krosno – Øygarden 10. Tomaszów Mazowiecki - Hamar 11. Cieszyn - Halden 12. Rydułtowy - Øvre Eiker 13. Starachowice - Bergen 14. Zawiercie - Møre og Romsdal 15. Hrubieszów & Złotów - Elverum 16. Piła – Lørenskog The number of meetings and participants is impressive. There were 91 visits in Poland and Norway with almost 600 participants. Additionally there were over 100 online meetings organised. Fields of cooperation included climate and nature protection, institutional development, support to local entrepreneurship development, social development issues, education, senior policy and housing. The cooperation took different forms – from onsite meetings and exchanges, through study visits, internship, job shadowing, to seminars and workshops. Despite efforts on the KS and APC side, there remained however still 12 Polish cities for which, for whom it was not possible to find partners in Norway and Iceland. These cities received a dedicated extended package of exposure to Norwegian local governments. The project was able to offer to these cities activities through which they also could have benefited from the experience of Norwegian municipalities. They had a possibility to take part in 4 study visits to Norway, in international conference on democracy and human rights, in bilateral conference on smart Cities and in 10 days internships in Norwegian municipalities. The bilateral cooperation component has been a great success and has resulted in the continuation of activities under the 2024-25 Bilateral Initiative (01.04.2024-28.02.2025). See Attachment.
Project partners
- Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities Donor project partner· Norway
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Donor project partner· France
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Project partner· France
- National Institute of Spatial Planning and Housing Development Project partner· Poland