The IGP supported an important long-term goal of ICLEI's LA21 Campaign?to strengthen local stakeholder structures, including representatives of traditionally excluded groups, to become an intermediary institution between government, the private sector and civil society, that guides or serves as a watchdog over local development activities and trends. The IGP built on the experience gained through the Model Communities Programme (MCP), and includes many cities and towns applying the methodologies and tools developed through the MCP.

The specific objectives of the LA21 Incentive Grants Project were as follows:

CONTEXT
Over the past three decades, local governments in many nations have assumed increasing central government mandates and functions. They have also taken an increasing role in managing relations between civil society and the state. However, the weak institutional and financial footing of local government in many countries, particularly in the developing world, has left municipalities confronting challenges well beyond their management capacities. These challenges include demographic pressure, inadequate infrastructure, inadequate resources for service delivery and planning, the increasing gulf between rich and poor, conflicting priorities for economic development, ecological sustainability and community quality of life.

Local government shortcomings in the management of these related challenges impact directly on the health and economic conditions of local populations, and thereby also affect the ability of residents to build cohesive communities and to participate fully as members of society. However, these same shortcomings also provide an opportunity to test new concepts of governance and state-civil society relations. By engaging local residents and other ?stakeholders? in partnerships with local government to address the basic challenges of sustainable development?poor housing conditions, unemployment, inadequate income, uncollected solid waste, management of freshwater resources, urban air pollution?new resources can be mobilized to address problems, and a more participatory, transparent and accountable culture of governance can be established.

The preparation and implementation of a quality development plan at the local level relies upon the capacity and leadership of a stakeholder group to critically examine local development patterns and procedures and to hold local institutions accountable to the measures promoted by the plan. When guided by high standards, LA21 planning can directly challenge the local allocation of resources, the distribution of power, and the tangible personal status of individuals, institutions and social groups. The stakeholder group?a collection of local government, businesses, non governmental organizations (NGOs), community based organizations (CBOs), neighbourhoods, religious groups, and professional and local resident representatives?provides legitimacy to the planning effort, and serves as an intermediary between different interests. Through LA21, the process of local sustainable development becomes, in essence, a process of opening a community?s priority-setting, planning, and service design activities to the full participation of civil society.

METHODOLOGY - STRATEGIC APPROACH
The first stage of the IGP involved the identification, strengthening and, if need be, the creation of legitimate stakeholder groups to initiate participatory planning. This process often confronted municipal partners with significant challenges, and required considerable support from ICLEI through training workshops and continual exchange and communication. The process of creating a representative stakeholder group and building partnerships between community sectors which may have conflicting interests is extremely sensitive to political and social relationships operating within the community. Traditional modes of decision making may be challenged. Attempts to broaden planning to include community involvement may encounter resistance by certain political or business interests. As well, if the stakeholder group is dominated by local government representation, active participation by members from the community may be discouraged resulting in planning that does not take into account community priorities. Conversely, lack of involvement on the part of the council or municipality in the LA21 process may weaken a stakeholder group?s legitimacy and potential for influencing policy and planning. Therefore, one of the first steps facilitated by ICLEI to promote debate within local government and to demonstrate commitment to LA21 planning was the signing of the Local Agenda 21 Declaration or ?Local Government Resolution? (LGR) by council. This resolution engaged the signatories in promoting local sustainable development planning with the active participation of the different sectors of the community.

In parallel to this ongoing process of group capacity building within the IGP, the stakeholders initiated participatory planning which had to address the at times conflicting imperatives of economic, community and ecological development. In order to qualify for an IGP grant, local stakeholder groups had to achieve specified standards of practice establish a mission statement, obtain the formal sanction of the local government and hold a community-wide workshops. They also had to design a pilot project which aimed at bringing about tangible environmental improvements and enhanced quality of life in the community.

Once a grant proposal was approved by ICLEI and OSI, the stakeholder group constituted a Project Team which watched over the daily implementation of IGP activities, and interacted directly with ICLEI managers and trainers. Programmatic support was provided by ICLEI. Small grants from OSI were provided for specified activities over a maximum of two years. To the qualifying projects, funds were provided incrementally on the basis of performance and completion of activities as specified in the Project Agreement. This served as an incentive to achieve performance commitments. Programmatic support included participation in planning meetings, and training for and inclusion in technical studies, planning decisions, and project designs. ICLEI provided at least two local workshops for each project according to training needs of each stakeholder group.

An important resource provided by the IGP was the step-by-step training and workshop modules to accompany The Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide. These modules correspond to the elements of the sustainable development planning framework presented in the guide. ICLEI used them to train trainers at the local- and country-levels, thereby building capacity for further development of LA21 activities in a region or country.

IGP LOCAL PROJECTS
ICLEI and partner municipalities successfully initiated LA21 planning activities in the 18 selected IGP cities. The selection of recipients of the IGP grants was based upon ICLEI?s existing LA21 activities in key countries. Twenty-five cities had submitted proposals to ICLEI for participation in the IGP. Some of these cities demonstrated quite advanced planning efforts and were chosen to implement local action plans. Other cities were only beginning to establish planning and some of these were selected in order to ensure participatory planning approaches. Cities were therefore pre-selected on the basis of favourable assessments by ICLEI staff concerning the following elements:

The following cities were selected to participate in the IGP:

STAKEHOLDER GROUPS
The context in which stakeholder groups grow is unique to each locality. Through experience, ICLEI has learned that effective training support must be tailored according to the particular circumstances of each city. Through the implementation of the IGP, it was clearly demonstrated that political, social and cultural structures influence the creation and the reinforcement of local stakeholder groups. The drastically different situations in the following examples illustrate this.

The process of stakeholder group building, the commitment of city council and the empowerment of civil society may be enhanced by national or regional policies. In Uganda, for example, decision-making power is greatly decentralized and most community service management is delegated to the local level. This means that citizens are officially encouraged to mobilize their own resources to address inadequate conditions in their communities. ICLEI?s training support aimed to enhance local capacity in the City of Jinja to ensure the sustainability of the stakeholder group as well as that of the project activities. Development of its capacity will lead to greater autonomy and to greater effectiveness and efficiency in undertaking future planning activities.

Brazil provides another interesting example, though most often associated with the Amazon rainforest, over 75% of Brazil?s population lives in cities. The country has one of the most unequal income distributions in the world and the recent financial crisis has increased the insecurity of vulnerable populations, particularly those in large cities. Yet Brazil has established progressive legislation with regard to participation by civil society in policy setting. One outstanding case is the Participative Budget initiative which involves local populations in decision making about local government resource allocation. ICLEI worked with local stakeholder groups in Porto Alegre to address issues of poverty and the pollution of fish producing areas, and continues to explore ways in which LA21 projects can relate to the Participative Budget in the Brazilian context.

A quite different approach is being tested in Bursa, Turkey. Here the stakeholder group mechanism was developed in urban subdistricts in parallel with the re-establishment of traditional community governance structures, now called SEDAM?s or ?neighborhood offices,? that had been weakened during the centralization of governance in Turkish society. These traditional structures were largely dominated by male community leaders. These leadership roles have been re-established as elected ?neighborhood heads.? The IGP placed emphasis in its relationship with Bursa on the dual support of the neighborhood offices and women?s participation in the three local projects being implemented through their IGP grant.

Natural disaster has also, unfortunately, been experienced by an IGP partner during the catastrophic passage and aftermath of Hurricane Mitch in Nicaragua in October-November 1998. The city of Leon was involved in challenging negotiations within the community to establish a legitimate stakeholder group. With the support of ICLEI staff and, after much debate and controversy, a consensus was reached on the design of a project proposal?just days before disaster struck. Much to the appreciative amazement of ICLEI, the Leon stakeholder group demonstrated its resilience and motivation by continuing to mobilize its members to move forward on the project.

IGP AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL LA21 CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES
The overall LA21 Campaign has gained considerable momentum. This momentum allowed the IGP to link with two specific projects: the African Sustainable Cities Network, funded by the European Commission (EC) and the Charters Project, funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The IGP has proven itself to be a catalyst to the development of LA21 planning and regional networking in Africa and Latin America. Through close links with other LA21 projects, IGP cities have also benefited from the exchange of technical assistance and information on issues of environmental planning with cities in North America and Europe. Direct training in environmental and sustainable development planning have been provided to municipal staff and local stakeholder groups. Local governments are being motivated to change their decision making and management approach to municipal service delivery through the integration of stakeholder groups representing diverse sectors of the community (CBOs, NGOs, private sector, interest groups, institutions) into the planning process in order to work toward sustainable cities. The different components of the project have also reached the ordinary citizens who are becoming aware of the need to assume responsibility for the improvement of the quality of life in their cities. And finally, the results of concrete pilot projects are improving the quality of life in communities in many cities.