The Mountain Partnership Secretariat in association with the SARD-M Project, the FAO Decentralized Cooperation Programme, the European Association of Elected Representatives from Mountain Areas (AEM), the Unione Nazionale Comuni Comunità Enti Montani (UNCEM) and EUROMONTANA organized a workshop focusing on the potential of decentralized cooperation and the role of local authorities for promoting sustainable mountain development at a global level. The event was held at FAO Headquarters in Rome and gathered approximately 55 representatives from European mountain local authorities, mainly from Italy.

Participants agreed on starting work on the implementation of some of the conclusions reached during the meeting, including:

improve the information flow about the activities undertaken by Italian local authorities in the context of decentralized cooperation in mountain areas. The Italian Ministry of Regional Affairs offered to coordinate this effort while the Mountain Partnership Secretariat is willing to provide a web space to make this information available on-line to promote further dialogue;

increase information exchange within the regions, provinces and municipalities between the officers responsible for mountain issues and those responsible for decentralized cooperation, in efforts to channel more aid to mountain areas which are the poorest and most marginalized in the world;

organise other events to initiate a similar process within other European countries, such as France and Spain.

A Summary Report of the workshop is available in the right-hand bar.