Funding under the North-South Local Government Cooperation Programme is granted for the activities related to the different functions of local governments, i.e. provision of basic public services (social, health, education, technical infrastructure, environmental, cultural and economic development and library services). In Finland, funding is also granted for international awareness and tolerance education carried out under the programme.
The following organisations in Finland can apply funding from and be included in the North-South programme: municipalities, cities and other actors representing the local government level, such as joint municipal boards, regions and regional councils. In the South, all actors representing the local government can be accepted in the programme. These are, for example, municipalities, cities, village councils and/or districts.
Objectives of the cooperation
The co-operation in the North-South Local Government Cooperation Programme should promote one or several of the following objectives: poverty eradication; environmental protection; equality, democracy and human rights; good governance; and conflict prevention.
The activities funded may include, for example, technical assistance, research and surveys, training and producing training materials, information exchange between local government officeholders and elected representatives (colleague-to-colleague cooperation), information dissemination and small-scale investments.
In order to compare local government cooperation to cooperation carried out by other actors such as NGOs and/or consulting companies, see link on the right side of this page.
Application process
The cooperating Northern and Southern local governments can apply for the programme by sending their applications to the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities.
For the planning phase of the cooperation (a maximum of one year), a maximum of 20 000 euro per cooperation project can be applied. For the implementation phase an average of 100 000 euro per year per cooperation project.
For the application forms and instructions, see Project Administration.
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