Invitation

Belgrade, 7 December 2007

Dear Madam/Sir,

We are pleased to invite you to the two-day conference CITIES FACING AND PROMOTING INTEGRATED LOCAL DEVELOPMENT to be held at the Sava center in Belgrade on 17 and 18 December.

The conference will start the Cycle of thematic conferences CITIES IN DIALOGUE, programmed for December 2007 to March 2008, that UN-HABITAT the United Nations Human Settlements Programme Office for Serbia is organizing in collaboration with the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, and with the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, and the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development of the Republic of Serbia. The Cycle of CITIES IN DIALOGUE thematic conferences is financed by the Government of Italy.

The main objective of the Conference CITIES FACING AND PROMOTING INTEGRATED LOCAL DEVELOPMENT is to stimulate a DIALOGUE amongst Serbian municipalities, and offer and facilitate a learning process through sharing of experiences and lessons learned on the subject of territorial development.

The specific objectives of the conference are two fold: one, to facilitate this learning through exchange of experiences, both from Serbia and elsewhere in the region and beyond; and two, to flag key policy and institutional issues emanating from experience, both national and international, and promoting dialogue for change between key actors at local and national level. The underlying goal is to stimulate debate, and action needed for replication and scaling up of good practices and enhancing impact. The case studies will present experiences from Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Hungary, Poland, and Italy.

The conference combines key note presentations with plenary discussions and highly interactive thematic group deliberations. Main themes for the two parallel sessions are: A. Formulating integrated development strategies: process and dynamics and B. Implementing territorial development strategies: instruments, institutions and partnerships, as detailed in the attached Agenda.

Hoping that you will be able to attend, actively participate and contribute to the dialogue, we remain

Sincerely yours