Eleven officials from Regional Council in Diber region recently visited Navarra in Northern Spain close to the French border during a study tour facilitated by SNV.  The aim of the visit was to provide an opportunity to learn about the evolution of cross-border cooperation in Spain and provide a deeper understanding of its main instruments, mainly through projects of economic and rural development, especially agriculture and agro-processing, tourism, and environmental management and protection.

In addition, participants learned about experiences carried out by women or linked to social cohesion, as an added value.

The Albanian delegation met with a range of Spanish authorities that manage various cross-border cooperation programmes, including technical experts, producers, and private entrepreneurs.

Naim Gazidede, Chairman of the Regional Council in Diber said the visit was one of the richest and most fruitful he had experienced. «  Our region borders with Macedonia and we are very interested to know the experience of other countries in developing cross border cooperation, because we want to have good relationships with our neighbours. We are very satisfied with this visit, because we have seen concrete examples of mutual cooperation between  the villages of Navarre and Basse-Navarre. Particularly, we have appreciated the way they have developed rural tourism and cross border relations ».

SNV has been supporting the Regional Council in Diber to sucessfully implement the Support Programme for Strengthening Local Government in Diber Region, since March 2007. The programme is funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Albania.

SNV provides the Capacity Development component, which focuses on working with the Regional Council to ensure proper management of the programme and the fund (process management), including tender procedures, linkages to strategic plans, results orientation and sustainability.

For more information, please contact Lindita Manga, SNV advisor, at lmanga@snvworld.org