Sida's Program Twinning Cooperation between Municipalities in Sweden and in Countries of the South

Description:
Sida Evaluation 03/39 / Sida's Twinning South program has provided financing for municipality improvement projects in Africa and Asia. It was intended to be a replica of a successful municipality twinning program in Eastern Europe. Sida would add a development agenda while helping to deepen existing twinning relationships.
A subsidiary of the Swedish National Association of Local Authorities has been contracted as program administrator. Between 2000 and 2003 a total of 33 projects in 12 countries with a budgeted amount of SEK 11.4 million were approved.
The evaluation of the program included interviews with the Swedish municipalities and with ten foreign twinning partners in five countries.
Because few existing twinning arrangements and a focus area (poor urban area improvement) beyond the competence of the Swedish twinning partners the Program became an experiment rather than a replica.
The Twinning South Programs projects were found to be considerably less effective as a development tools than the corresponding projects in Eastern Europe. Appreciation of the program on the part of the individuals involved has been high but the development relevance and feasibility was low.
The cost efficiency of the program has also been low since considerable resources were used to establish a twinning-like setting.