Through the work of the Safer and Stronger Communities initiative in Bradford the city is taking advantage of opportunities to develop mutual links and take part in a global exchange between school classes to foster links and develop understanding. The project is part of a global programme that creates partnerships between clusters of schools in the UK and Pakistan. These projects bring together professionals and young people to improve their knowledge and understanding of other cultures and prepare them for life and work as global citizens.

The main aim of the project is to work with schools on collaborative curriculum projects which enable learning across boundaries. The project also enables the professional development of teachers and school leaders through exchanges. International School Award accreditation recognises school work on international partnerships and developing global citizens. The main aim is to become part of a global community that enables teachers and professionals to network with one another in a range of forums.

Bristol City Council assisted with the organisation of the first national conference for Local Authorities and Nicaragua in November 2009 and the Local Authorities Action for Southern Africa (LAACTSA) biennial conference, held in Bristol on the in February 2010. Both events brought together a variety of local authority representatives from across the UK and international partners to share learning on current work in Nicaragua and Southern Africa.

Cardiff Council is working with Vadodara Municipal Corporation in Gujarat, North-West India, on a Good Practice Scheme project funded by the Commonwealth Local Government Forum. The 3-year project will draw extensively on the practical experience gained by the Council during the redevelopment of Cardiff Bay, which senior Council officers are applying to river and waterfront management issues in Vadodara. Reciprocal visits by delegations from both cities have already taken place, and to date discussions have focused on understanding the economic, social and environmental challenges associated with the proposed Vishwamitri River Project in Vadodara.

Coleraine Borough Council has been successful in gaining funding to support their link with Zomba in Malawi. Through the Commonwealth Professional Fellowships Scheme the two Local Authorities have been able to share skills and expertise through hosting Fellows.

Coleraine has hosted a total of 4 Commonwealth scholars via the scheme, The scholarships to date have been with Technical Services and Environmental Health departments, but have also involved the local Planning Service, Roads Service and Health Service, who have each helped host the scholars for periods in their 3 months in Coleraine. The scholars have been able to identify and experience concepts that can be transferred back to Zomba in an environment of severe resource limitations.

Councillors and staff at Coleraine have gained a greater awareness of developing world issues as well as personal development opportunities, largely through contacts with their 4 past Commonwealth scholars, but also through knowledge gained by a number of staff and councillors having visited Zomba City Assembly (ie Zomba council).

In Durham, the leader of the council, Cllr Simon Henig's belief in the value of school links has championed this work and ensured support from other areas of the council. In 2008 this was rewarded when Durham County Council won the HSBC Link2Learn award for excellence and innovation in school linking.

Coordinating initiatives – Enfield’s ‘global learning for all’ The Education and Children's Services department of the London Borough of Enfield has adopted a ‘global learning for all’ policy which aims to maximise the impact of international activities and visits by coordinating all such work across the borough. It encompasses the borough’s Fairtrade status, its school links with Ghana, its development education work (see linking up with neighbouring councils), and its links with communities in Greece and Turkey, countries where many of the borough’s residents have family links. Work has begun to develop a Council-wide policy. Enfield is happy to share its work – contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for further details.

Developed in consultation with a range of local, regional, national and international partners as well as the many communities across Gateshead, Gateshead’s International Strategy 2010-2013, ensures understanding and ownership of the key priorities from the outset.

The international strategy is a key delivery strategy for Gateshead’s Sustainable Community Strategy, Vision 2030, and in particular the Gateshead Goes Global Big Idea, which recognises that Gateshead is increasingly part of a global community, whose future is dependent not only on what happens locally, but also the wider international context. Gateshead Goes Global looks beyond council activities to include the role of all local partners in helping to achieve their ambitions set out in Vision 2030.

The international strategy sets out up front why Gateshead benefits from international work, with a strategic focus on 4 core objectives. ‘Supporting developing economies’ is one of the 4 objectives, and seeks to achieve increased profile and recognition, enhanced Fair-trade status and sharing of specialist expertise with partners in Pakistan and South Africa. The emphasis on outcomes and impacts means that Gateshead is better able to monitor how international work has a local impact.

As part of Glasgow City Council’s Commonwealth & International Development programme, Glasgow has undertaken a range of projects with Malawi since 2004. These projects have contributed to many of the MDGs and include: contributing financially towards the cost of the David Livingstone Maternity Clinic in Lilongwe; building a HIV/AIDS clinic and pharmacy and extending office facilities at Chikwawa District Hospital; building a prosthetics and orthotics clinic at Kamuzu Central Hospital, Lilongwe, in partnership with the charity 500 Miles; installing IT equipment in Teacher Development Centres; creating an IT library and training room at Kamuzu Central Hospital; installing IT equipment in schools and government offices and delivering IT training to teachers, medical staff and local government officials; supporting orphan feeding programmes in Blantyre.

Glasgow has sought to ensure that all projects are developed and delivered in partnership with the relevant Government Ministries in Malawi. In September 2010, Glasgow will send a building and IT team to Malawi once again to undertake the following: build a newly extended prosthetics and orthotics clinic at Kamuzu Central Hospital, in partnership with the charity 500 Miles. (The existing Clinic will be converted to a dedicated hospital ward for the Clinic patients); improve IT infrastructure at Daeyang Luke Mission Hospital in Lilongwe; installing IT equipment in schools and government offices in Lilongwe and Dedza; delivering IT training to teachers, medical staff and local government officials.

Officers from Hull City Council and Freetown City Council in Sierra Leone are working together on improving contract & PPP procedures. The project aims to ensure value for money and transparency in commissioning of services, with a particular focus on water, sanitation and waste management.

Funding has recently been made available for projects dealing with water, sanitation and waste, and there are already many international development actors working in this area, who can access this funding. Therefore Hull are taking a slightly different approach to their project with Freetown and are working with Freetown City Council to support them in their role as a coordinator and commissioner.

Although Hull have recently introduced a new waste strategy of their own, the focus of the project is on good practice relating to procurement, asset management and contract monitoring & performance in the Sierra Leone context rather than looking at the 'nuts and bolts' of introducing a similar waste management strategy for Freetown. By focussing on the elements that underpin good practice, the two partner councils expect that the project will have a longer term impact and will be transferable to other areas of council activity.

Hull City Council and Freetown City Council in Sierra Leone are currently working together on improving contract & PPP procedures. In order to aid communication the two partner councils are exploring the use of web technologies. Currently they have to rely on email, which can lead to complications when many different officers from different countries are involved. Officers are looking at using social/web 2.0 technologies (something that is already being used by many councils in the UK) to collaborate on joint documents and discussions.

Lancashire’s commitment to action to mitigate climate change is being translated into very practical expression in its international development activity. Connections have existed between Lancashire and projects in Gulu in Uganda for over 15 years, originally steered by a 100+ stakeholder forum of public, private and voluntary organisations and now by two community based charities in the respective countries.

In 2008, this formed the basis for a Climate Compensation Scheme (CCS) setup as a four-way partnership between the two links plus Lancashire County Council and Gulu Municipal Council. At its core is the premise that Lancastrians can compensate for some of their carbon emissions by helping those most affected. Lancashire does this by supporting practical, small-scale, locally determined and managed projects in Gulu.

The Scheme features as part of Lancashire’s regional climate change strategy. Lancashire council provides expertise on climate change and environmental projects, and provides project and annual monitoring support to Gulu council. The project is managed by Gulu Municipal Council (GMC) and involves local groups and schools, who are responsible for choosing and carrying out projects, and promoting it to the wider community, thus ensuring local ownership. Projects are designed to bring additional social and economic benefits. While the county council helped get the scheme off the ground, the NGO (Lancashire Gulu Link) is now taking a lead role in driving forward the project.

www.lancashire.gov.uk/climatechange http://gulucarbonscheme.blogspot.com/

The partnership between Leeds and the city of Durban (now eThekwini Municipality) began in the late 1990s as a solidarity link following the first free elections in South Africa. The partnership is a lively one with the two cities co-operating on education, sports, culture and business projects for the benefit of both sides.

Leeds City Council and eThekwini are currently working together on a Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) Good Practice Scheme funded by the UK's Department for International Development. Working with a third partner, Steve Tshwete Municipality in Middelburg, South Africa, the project looks at best practice and capacity development in procurement and small business support.

As well as sharing expertise on these areas Leeds has also been learning new ways of thinking from its South African partners in how to engage and interact with corporate procurement. Leeds will now hold a workshop, mirroring work undertaken in South Africa, to open up better dialogue with large local businesses and find out how a local authority can influence and improve use of supply chains for the benefit of the local economy. The working relationship between Leeds’ procurement and business support services has also been strengthened as a direct result of working closely together on this project.

The link between Leicester and Masaya in Nicaragua has grown to be a whole lot more than a twinning link. The official twinning link was established in 1987 and is managed by the Leicester Masaya Link Group, a registered charity.

The Leicester Masaya link Group is unique in being the only town twinning link in England with Development Education Centre status. This enables the Leicester Masaya Link Group to play a key role in the East Midlands Network for Global Perspectives in Schools, which supports all young people in the East Midlands to recognise and value global perspectives and to develop the understanding, skills and values that enable young people to be active global citizens. The Masaya partnership is an important part of Leicester's international development strategy.

The London Borough of Lewisham has received Good Practice Scheme funding to work with Kingston and St Andrew in Jamaica on a project which uses social media to increase public participation and improve efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery. The project is based on the ‘Love Lewisham’ project which demonstrated an 87% reduction in the time taken to report and process issues. Lewisham has been awarded a ‘green flag’ by the audit commission for community empowerment and engagement.

Newcastle has been a Fairtrade City since 2003 and since then it has increased its support both regionally and nationally, including strong representation on the North East Regional Fairtrade forum and the Hadrian’s Wall Fairtrade Campaign. www.fairtradehadrianswall.co.uk

As well as providing Fairtrade tea and coffee at all meetings, the Newcastle City Council’s Corporate Procurement Strategy has included a section on Fairtrade. In it they commit themselves to increase awareness of Fairtrade and find ways for procuring Fairtrade products.

Newcastle has made a unique commitment by funding a dedicated Fairtrade Officer for a number of years. This has enabled Fairtrade to gain continual support through the engagement of new audiences. Particular work has taken place with SMEs working with the Newcastle Business Forum and the North East Chamber of Commerce. Newcastle steered the production of the recent North East Fairtrade Purchasing Guide which recommends national and local suppliers of wholesale Fairtrade products.

Initiated as one-off ICT donation by Norwich City Council, the Norwich-Dedza Partnership became a broad based economic / education development link with the Dedza District Assembly in Malawi, financed entirely through in-kind resources and local fundraising. The link made specific inroads into tackling the MDGs – providing tourism and agricultural assistance to improve local income generation. As part of this, Norwich City College set up a promotional tourism website for Dedza, and produced tourism guides and training for local businesses. Within the tourism plan, they exploited the existence of forest reserves to protect environmental resources and reduce biodiversity loss. On the education side, the link provided resources to assist local schools improve capacity and enrolment rates, established a bursary fund for secondary school fees and supported a technical college.

In order to ensure that the right messages are getting out, Rotherham Council have worked with the media every step of the way throughout their Fairtrade campaign. They have worked both internally through their communications team and the Rotherham Partnership newspaper (which goes to households throughout the Borough) and externally with local radio stations and newspapers.

In addition through fair trade events (such as dinners and fashion shows), the council have been able to raise money for local and international charities, which has helped to maintain links with these charities as well as ensure that the fair trade message is spreading.

Staffordshire is one of eight original Consortia established by the Local Government Association in 2005, to assist with the medium and long-term rehabilitation of the tsunami affected areas of Sri Lanka. The Consortium brings together a range of local actors from the county including the local authorities, Staffordshire University and NHS agencies in the county.

The Consortium is working in Kalmunai, Ampara District, in the east of Sri Lanka. It has developed work programmes jointly with stakeholders from Kalmunai in several areas such as waste management, health and university links. One of the major benefits experienced by the Staffordshire consortium is the improved dynamic between the local partners which means that partnerships in the home environment become more effective. . They are now working to create a Consortium in Kalmunai along the lines of the Staffordshire Consortium, which is hoped to further improve the sustainability and efficacy of the project.

Sunderland's partnership with the Mbombela Local Municipality is not solely about sharing experience on economic development and tackling unemployment to build capacity and expertise within the South African local authority, but also builds on a common bond of football. As a candidate host city, Sunderland hopes to learn from Mbombela's experience during the 2010 World Cup should England be successful in its bid for 2018 or 2022.

Sunderland's International Strategy sets the context for all international activity within the city, including international development work. The strategy, which was endorsed by both the City Council's Cabinet and the Sunderland Partnership Board, is overseen by a partnership-wide Steering Group chaired by the Vice-Chancellor of the University. The Sunderland Partnership brings together key organisations from all sectors within the city to take forward the shared vision for Sunderland and the International Strategy focuses attention in a strategic and co-ordinated way on the contribution the international dimension can make to this vision.

The personal and professional development of staff has been a key benefit to the councils of Warwickshire and Warwick District. The near thirty year link with Bo in Sierra Leone has recently been reinvigorated by a series of externally funded projects around waste management, environmental health and community development. In tackling the issues, staff were forced to go back to basics in their professional expertise and gained new perspectives and ideas for their work back in the UK.

Staff saw that the challenges in Bo and Warwick were similar in some ways but differing circumstances required adaptability and lateral thinking - very useful skills at a time of constrained public finances at home. The resourcefulness and commitment shown by Sierra Leonean colleagues operating in far more seriously under-resourced authorities has been inspirational and a strong motivator for WCC staff on their return to the UK.

As part of a long-standing community link, Warwick District, Warwickshire County and Leamington Town Councils are all working with with Bo City Council and Makeni City Council in Sierra Leone. A three-year development plan provides a framework for the relationship and much of the current focus is on technical cooperation to strengthen financial management, environmental health and waste management in Bo and Makeni. Most recently, UNDP have provided a fleet of waste management vehicles and equipment and Warwick 'One World Link' (OWL) have provided the training workshops and support visits.

The City of York and North Yorkshire County Council on the back of links with the Gambia have confirmed York as a pre-games training camp venue for two West African teams. The announcement received good local press and after simply asking local businesses to get in touch if they wanted to be involved, the link has since received support from several local businesses, highlighting the value of the link to both the council and the local economy. An example of their ask in the local press is here which was followed up in meetings and at events.