Happy Holidays and all the best to you in the year to come!

On 12-13 December 2019, the NALAS Solid Waste and Water Management Task Force met in Belgrade, Serbia to discuss and identify the priority objectives and recommendations necessary for policy dialogue and advocacy initiatives of the NALAS members related to the Sector of Water Supply and Sanitation. Discussions also included changes that could encourage enabling learning environment at local, national and regional level.

For the first ever, a NALAS Forum of Women Mayors in SEE brought together over 50 women mayors and women presidents of the municipal assemblies representing local governments from 12 countries of South East Europe (SEE) in Sombor, Serbia from 5-7 December 2019 with the aim to empower and build coalition for enhanced gender mainstreaming in policy and gender responsive budgeting.

This is the first edition of the NALAS Statistical Brief which is an ongoing effort of NALAS’ Fiscal Decentralisation Task Force to provide policy–makers and analysts with timely, accurate, relevant, reliable and comparable data on local government finance in South–East Europe.

NALAS is supporting Albanian municipalities in the earthquake response operations through a shadowing programme by bringing experienced experts from South East Europe to provide support in earthquake affected areas in Albania.

Over 50 women mayors and women presidents of the municipal assemblies representing local governments from 12 countries of South East Europe (SEE) will gather in Sombor, Serbia from 5-7 December 2019. The Forum will provide an opportunity for exchange among local authorities and their associations related to the role that local governments play in gender mainstreaming, with particular emphasis on the gender responsive budgeting, as well as the importance and benefits of the regional cooperation in this regard.

In a ceremony that took place in Hotel Emerald, the Association of Kosovo Municipalities marked the launching of the AKM’s Training Centre- a new advanced service program for Kosovo municipalities. This project comes as a result of the Association's continuous engagement on lobbying and advocacy on behalf of municipalities towards the Government, the Assembly of Kosovo and other relevant stakeholders, on several issues aiming at improving services for citizens at the local level.

On 24-25 October 2019, The Forum of EaP Local Leaders was organized by the Association of Local Authorities of Lithuania (ALAL), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania and PLATFORMA in Vilnius, Lithuania.

NALAS is seeking a competent Regional Expert on Water and Sanitation. The main objective of the assignment is facilitation of the process of development of the priority objectives and road map of the NALAS Working Group on Water and Sanitation.

Marmara Urban Forum (MARUF), organized by the NALAS member, Marmara Municipalities Union took place for the first time in the Istanbul Congress Center on 1-3 October 2019, under the motto of “Cities Developing Solutions”.