December 2016 saw the official opening ceremony of the African Local Governments Academy (ALGA), an institute that aims to become a "genuine strategic lever and a UCLG-Africa spearhead for the professionalisation and the performance of human capital within the African territories". Key activities include monitoring of HR management at the local level, trainings and support to networks at the local level.
ALGA is an initiative of United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG-Africa), which believes that the institute " should become anchored in the African continent, with an open view towards its international environment”. To achieve this ambition, UCLG Africa and the Academy hope to be able to rely on both anchoring institutions in the 5 African regions and on continental and international partners with background, experience, expertise and competencies in education, training, capacity building, networking and accreditation, targeting African Local Governments and their Public Administration at regional and local levels.
Partners of ALGA
In line with this objective, Partnership Agreements were signed during the ceremony with the following institutions:
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Region of East Africa: The Ethiopian Civil Service University (ECSU), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
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Region of Anglophone West Africa: Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS), and Urban Management Institute (UMI), Accra, Ghana.
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Region of Francophone West and Central Africa: The Municipality of Ouagadougou, in charge of steering the ‘Centre International de Formation des Acteurs Locaux’ (CIFAL) of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, which will become ALGA Francophone.
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Region of North Africa: International University of Rabat (IUR), Kingdom of Morocco.
Other partners of ALGA include: the African Union of Architects, Abuja, Nigeria; the African Training and Research Center in Administration for Development (CAFRAD), Tangiers, Morocco; the African Association for Public Administration and Management (AAPAM), Nairobi, Kenya; and the International Commission on Accreditation of Public Administration Education and Training Programs (ICAPA).
The opening ceremony of the African Local Governments Academy was attended by representatives of the Diplomatic corps, local governments, public administrations, universities, private sector, civil society and media. Directly after the ceremony, a conference on the “Quality and Excellence in Training and Capacity Building for Local Governments” took place.
International recognition
Since February 2017, UCLG-Africa was admitted as a member of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IISA), while the African Local Governments Academy has been officially admitted as a member of the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration.
For more information about ALGA, please contact Dr. Najat Zarrouk, Director of ALGA, by sending an email to Najat_zarrouk@yahoo.fr or Nzarrouk@uclga.org, or visit www.localafrica.org.