Through the ARIAL programme, Local Government Associations in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific have been trained on how to improve their communication, lobby and policy strategies as well as how to take a role in the dialogue on development policies with national institutions and development partners.

Local Government Associations, with the assistance of their Regional Umbrella Associations are in the process of collecting Good Practices for publication, distribution and display at the ARIAL regional final seminars to take place in June / July 2013. 

VNG International, the international cooperation agency of the Dutch Association of Municipalities (VNG), is responsible for implementing the EU-funded ARIAL programme (2010-2013). 

On January 17th and 18th ARIAL organized a meeting of all the partners of the programme consortium in the Hague. This meeting was held to prepare the final activities of the ARIAL program as well as to reflect and share experiences among the different ACP regions.

On 6 December 2012, the ARIAL programme organised a special session during the Africities Conference in Dakar. The title of the session was: “How can local government representatives become stronger development partners for donors and national institutions?”.

From 4 to 8 December the 6th edition of Africities will take place in Dakar. Africities is organized once every three years by the African division of the United Cities and Local Governments: UCLG-A.