Samenvatting

This final paper focuses on municipal international cooperation (MIC) with developing nations. MIC can be defined as international decentralised cooperation or the term "town twinning" (Boven, 2007, "what is town twinning" section). It is an agreement between two or more municipalities from different countries. Dutch municipalities transfer knowledge of capacity building, skills and local development to less developed nations (Third World). At the moment there are 73 Dutch municipalities who have twinning relations in developing countries. Several organisations are involved regarding town twinning: first of all the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who provides funding via its committee; the NCDO and the LOGO South programme. The LOGO South programme is the main financial source for town twinning and is managed by VNG International (stands for International Cooperation Agency of the Association of Dutch municipalities). VNG International gives advice to municipalities who start twinning relations. In other words, the organisation is a crucial link between the Dutch municipality and the central government. The municipality is responsible for the implementation of its twinning or international policy. For this, one can use a foundation, which is in charge of the realisation of the twinning projects and the contact with their partner town or city. There are many motives to start a twinning relation of which the idealistic motive is the most common. Also, twinning projects can be funded by the Dutch co - financing organisations such as, Novib or Cordaid. In addition, a new trend in the process of town twinning is the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which are encouraged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A municipality can declare itself as "millennium municipality" by using its twinning relation. This thesis answers the following central question: "what can be done to make town twinning in The Netherlands more efficient"?
In the final chapter the following recommendations are given in order to answer this question:
 Exchange visits between officials should be more based on technical assistance.
 Twinning foundations, NGOs and private initiatives should find a mutual agreement and cooperate more often.
 Dutch municipalities could compare their policy on development cooperation more often with each other.
 International cooperation should have its own department (not part of welfare or social matters) and at least two officials.
 The municipality should provide proper training for the volunteers or members of the twinning foundation
 Finally, stakeholders, civic organisations, NGOs and other initiatives (in the developing nation) should maintain relations with the Dutch twinning foundations more frequently.
The information of this final paper is based on desk research (mainly evaluation reports) and interviews.