In September 2004, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA), the Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies (CALRE), and the Regional Council of Tuscany, with the scientific support of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna di Pisa, organized the First Conference of European and African Regional Assemblies on the theme: “Decentralization: The New Dimension of Peace, Democracy and Development”.

The successful outcome of this event encouraged African and European participants to recomend the establishment of a permanent observatory of regional and local entities in order to foster decentralization processes and decentralized cooperation. In October 2005, UNDESA and Tuscany Region decide to support the project of the Euro-African Partnership for Decentralized Governance, financed through the contribution of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Goals of the Euro-African Partnership will be directed at:

• supporting decentralization processes in Africa as a means to contribute to the local development, good governance, democracy and peace
• enhancing the relationships among both regional and local institutions from Europe and Africa
• facilitating the debate on the strategies and models of decentralization
  

• Brochure