What we do

With more than 25 years of experience, SALAR International supports partner countries in making informed choices towards local governance and decentralisation reforms. Our vision is a world where all people have the power to shape their own lives in inclusive local democracies and sustainable communities.

To achieve this vision, we work to strengthen democracy and good governance at the local level. This is done through four inter-connected and broad Domains of Change; Democracy and accountability, Resilience and sustainability, Rights, participation and equality , Global response to local challenges.

A defining feature of our approach is that we draw from the Swedish experience of functional local self-governance, both in terms of values and practices, adjusted as relevant to local contexts. Our identity is thus defined by a unique amalgamation of experiences, characteristics, qualities, and beliefs. We engage in long-term partnerships and facilitate co-learning and the application of locally driven methods and tools. We also bring into conversation practitioners from a range of different contexts. As such, we have a unique opportunity to contribute to sustainable development at the local level, by sharing and connecting experiences of how to address shared global challenges through local action.

Our values and identity permeate our ways of working. We practice our values by:

• Developing deep expertise on core issue areas in committed teams harnessing contextual knowledge and relationships.
• Delivering sustainable results by building and co-creating long-term solutions locally.
• Being flexible, adaptive, agile, and methodical in our work. We are practitioners who dare to try and to learn by doing.
• Investing in genuine partnerships, which are co-owned and prioritising partners’ change agendas. We are a listening and responsive partner.

Our portfolio of practices, experience and technical expertise is diverse and broad – as is the mandate of local and regional governments in Sweden and globally. Through SALAR and our international networks, we have access to hands-on expertise for how to concretely deal with concerns of local self-governance. We recognise the complexity of change processes, and combine technical assistance with a commitment to relationships, presence, and proximity, which are key ingredients for sustainable change.