On 27, 28 and 29 March, the Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities (VVSG) organised a regional conference in Santo Tomás Chontales, Nicaragua on international cooperation of local governments. The VVSG supervises the Flemish municipalities in their international cooperation programmes. VVSG assists 40 twinning projects between Flanders and other countries, of which 10 between Flanders and Latin America.
The objective of the conference was to exchange experiences and share information with local governments that are involved in city twinning between Flanders and Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Local Government Associations of these countries had also been invited, as well as some municipalities and Local Government Associations of Northern countries active in the region.
After the conference (from 30 March till 2 April), the VVSG has organised several study tours in order to evaluate, exchange experience and improve the twinning projects.
bert.janssens@vvsg.be, T +32 2 211 56 13