City Diplomacy: the role of local governments in conflict prevention, peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction

This paper has been produced by Arne Musch of VNG International and Alexandra Sizoo of the municipality of The Hague in the Netherlands. It has been presented at the Conference on Humanitarian Studies in Groningen, February 2009. It is part of a series of documents of the working group on local governance of the Network for Peace, Security and Development. This network is developed within the framework of the Schokland MDG Agreements.

This paper first sets out to define city diplomacy, or rather to highlight the various interpretations of the term in current use, and then to explain what the relevance of city diplomacy to local realities may be. As the title of this chapter suggests, we see it as all activities by local (i.e. sub-national) governments undertaken to contribute to conflict prevention, peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction. In particular, we focus on how local governments in peaceful areas or countries can help their counterparts in more-troubled regions.

VNG International / Working paper, February 2009 

VNG International supports decentralisation processes and facilitates decentralised cooperation. We provide capacity building services to strengthen local governments, their associations, training institutes and decentralisation task forces both in developing countries and countries in transition. VNG International is the international cooperation agency of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities.