Local Governance Initiative South Asia, in short LoGIn, is a project funded by the South Asia Division of the FDFA’s Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). It aims to foster knowledge exchange and peer learning in the field of local governance and decentralization among SDC’s offices and their partner organizations in the South Asia region and between Switzerland and South Asia.

Background
 
In the countries of South Asia there has been a reinforced trend for more decentralized political and administrative structures for the last 10 – 15 years. Given this, SDC has been actively supporting work in South Asian countries to strengthen local governance and decentralization. Thus considerable knowledge and experience on various facets of decentralization and local governance is nowadays available in the region.
Based on this, SDC formulated the hypothesis that the knowledge can be shared and experiences from other countries adapted and replicated across different countries of the South Asian region. Thus in 2009, the “Local Governance Initiative South Asia” was launched to promote knowledge exchange on decentralization and local governance in the South Asian countries where SDC has an office, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The project equally supports knowledge exchange between Switzerland and the countries mentioned above given Switzerland’s strong and centuries old tradition of local governance.

The Project 

LoGIn South Asia started in 2009 for a period of three years with a budget of three million Swiss Francs. A small project support unit located at the Embassy of Switzerland in New Delhi is in charge of project management and of coordinating the activities within India and across the region.

What does LoGIn do? 

LoGIn promotes the sharing of experiences among different countries of South Asia and between South Asia and Switzerland by
• facilitating peer learning – e.g. through study visits, case studies or workshops
• supporting the preparation of resource material and course content
• disseminating knowledge and resource material on decentralization and local governance – through workshops, online discussions, newsletters etc.
• supporting the development of courses on decentralization and local governance

Whom does LoGIn work with? 

In the first place, LoGIn encourages partnerships and exchange among and across the following groups:
• National and sub-national government functionaries
• Elected representatives from different tiers of government
• Research institutes
• Civil society organizations
• Trainings institutes for local government
• Advocacy platforms
• Federations of elected representatives
• Swiss Cooperation Offices in South Asia 

For more information contact us at  login@sdc.net or download the following flyer