Fighting poverty with democracy

We are convinced that the battle to eliminate poverty worldwide starts here at home – in our village, our town, or our municipality. Which is why, here at ICLD, we work with people who are changing the world by building local democracy.

ICLD is a non-profit organisation. Our operations are financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). We are about 25 employees working in two offices, in Visby and in Stockholm.

ICLD’s mission is to support democratic participation and change at the local level. With its focus on local democracy, local self-governance and decentralisation, ICLD strengthens local governments’ capacity to analyse, prioritize and implement Agenda 2030 in accordance with their own needs, priorities and resources. The unique combination of practice and theory is a major asset of ICLD.

We work in three main areas:

Through the Municipal Partnership Programme, ICLD promotes the exchange of knowledge and experiences between local authorities in Sweden and in partnership countries. ICLD’s international network of municipal partnership participants represents a highly valuable network of local-level agents of democratic change.

Based on extensive experience conducting international training programmes to support local decision-makers and administrative officials in countries in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, the International Training Programmes support agents of change in carrying out projects within local governments, national ministries and CSOs – strengthening democracy at multiple levels of governance.

To further bolster the work to reach its goals, ICLD funds research projects in the fields of local democracy, local self-governance, and decentralisation at both Swedish and foreign universities. Our aim, in providing this support, is to help increase our knowledge of the challenges and opportunities we face when working with democracy at a local level. ICLD prioritises projects that support local operatives in the efforts to promote democratic development.

ICLD Core Values

The foundations of democracy are based on freedom of expression, free­dom of the press, freedom of assembly, universal and equal suffrage, equality before the law and the principle of non-discrimination. ICLD’s core values are based on the foundations of well-functioning local democracy and are expressed under the following headings: equity, participation, transparency and accountability. Read more about our Core Values

ICLD’s mission is to support democratic participation and change at the local level.

With its focus on local democracy, local self-governance and decentralisation, ICLD strengthens local governments’ capacity to analyse, prioritize and implement Agenda 2030 in accordance with their own needs, priorities and resources.

The unique combination of practice and theory is a major asset of ICLD.

What we do