VVSG Inspires Local Support for International Solidarity

Local elections in Belgium are planned for October 2024 and because of limited budget in Belgian municipalities, the Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities (VVSG) has developed an inspirational guide on how to integrate international solidary in the policy planning process. The guide gives an overview of the current international and national context and 7 reasons why local support for international solidarity is important (including the ‘what's in it for me'.) The guide gives concrete examples of available data and policy proposals to make towards their new council. This is topped with concrete examples from municipalities and exercises to support their own trajectory. 

In the guide, VVSG stresses the importance of fostering international solidarity by integrating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the policy planning process since local governance is closely related to international topics such as migration, climate, asylum, and production and consumption. In fact, SDGs can hardly be realised without taking local governance into account. So, VVSG calls for partnerships between local municipalities to achieve the SDGs, rather than a north-south collaboration or donor-recipient relation to minimalise andcombat discriminatory and neo-colonialties.  

The report gives seven reasons why local support is important for international solidarity:  

The report advices municipalities with more limited budgets to make choices based on their interests. Whereas topics like sustainability and the environment are more important for some municipalities, migration and asylum can be more important for the other municipality, which creates a more effective focus. Through election programmes, citizens can share their voice in what is important to them and this can be realised through local policy-making.  

Lastly, VVSG gives an overview of the available data, policy proposals, concrete examples from municipalities, various methods, and exercises to support their own trajectory. Moreover, VVSG made a 5-page document specifically for politicians. This includes argumentation and proposals to integrate local global policy in political manifestos and conversations.