Decentralised cooperation and its potential for local democratic governance: the experience of Trentino decentralised cooperation

Since the early 1990s Local Authorities (LAs) have stepped into the international development cooperation arena and in many European countries Decentralised Cooperation (DC) has become increasingly relevant as a new development cooperation modality that has great potential in terms of promoting sustainable development and local democratic governance. DC in international development is a relatively new phenomenon and its full potential is not yet fully known. Based on the findings of a two year long evaluative research of four DC programmes implemented by Trentino in Northern Italy in partnership with three municipalities in the Balkans and a rural district in Mozambique, this paper contributes to the literature on DC policies and practices in highlighting a scarcely analysed issue: the contribution of DC to local democratic governance and the possible reasons as to why DC, despite its potential, faces challenges that hinder its capacity to effectively contribute to decentralised governance.