January 2015

Neven Mimica, the Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development signed a Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA) to form strategic partnerships with five associations of local governments: CEMR & PLATFORMA, UCLG, UCLG-Africa, CLGF & AIMF.

The FPA signed with PLATFORMA includes the creation of a “delivery mechanism” – later named CONNECT – a mechanism to provide a quick and adequate response to worldwide requests for capacity development and learning in which European local and regional governments expertise is involved.

June 2016

PLATFORMA and VNG International presented CONNECT for the first time at the European Development Days 2016 (#EDD16)

November 2016

The pilot phase was launched on five topics and in four countries: food security (Uganda), human resource management (Cambodia), ecotourism (Colombia), and environmental health and sanitation (Ghana).

February 2017

CONNECT looked for municipal expertise to meet the demand. CONNECT secretariat (or “the Broker”)  played an important role in searching European expertise. Once the expertise was validated, CONNECT facilitated the match between the European local and regional governments and their counterparts in the four countries.

The municipality of Agona West (Ghana) was CONNECTed to Almere (the Netherlands), Pursat municipality (Cambodia) was matched with Sandgerði (Iceland) and Angelópolis (Colombia) linked to Tarragona (Spain).

May 2017

First CONNECTion: exchange of knowledge and experiences in the field of sanitation in Ghana

All local stakeholders active in the field of environmental health and sanitation were invited to participate in a five-day knowledge exchange between Agona West and the municipality of Almere, the Netherlands. This resulted in a total of 40 participants, including environmental health officers, employees of various NGOs, as well as representatives from the local waste collection compagny (Zoomlion Ghana).

May 2017

First CONNECT update.

June 2017

Second CONNECTion: Sandgerði (Iceland) and Pursat (Cambodia) exchange on Human Resources Management

The Mayor and HR advisor from the Icelandic municipality of Sandgerði traveled to Pursat, a municipality that counts 397.107 inhabitants. Pursat had indicated that it needed strengthened capacity of the Pursat Municipal Council in HRM and especially in the municipal office. In the course of 8 working days, the two municipalities exchanged knowledge on personal motivation and personal leadership in particular, since the ‘hard’ aspects of HRM (recruitment, hiring, firing etc.) are the responsibility of the Provinces in Cambodia.

June 2017

Third CONNECTion: Angelópolis (Colombia) and Tarragona (Spain) working together in the field of ecotourism

Angelópolis is located very close to the rich and beautiful natural reserve of “El Romeral”, only 35 km away from Medellin. The city council is committed to put in place a sustainable and responsible eco-touristic strategy that will bring value to such natural resource and help revitalizing the local economy. To this end, the city council warmly hosted the one-week visit of two Spanish experts from the city of Tarragona for an enriching exchange of knowledge including group discussions, peer-to-peer learning and field visits.

July 2017

CONNECT is officially presented at the 5th ‘Assises de la coopération décentralisée’

July 2017

Second CONNECT update.

December 2017

A call is launched to organise an exchange with Burkina Faso on Waste management.

December 2017

Third CONNECT update.

February 2018

A call is launched to organise an exchange with Uganda on Local Economic Development (agriculture / water management).

May 2018

Exchange in Burkina Faso on Waste management.

May 2018

Exchange in Uganda on Local Economic Development (agriculture / water management).