Program goals: to render assistance to local governments and their associations in establishing good governance and responsible and competent local leadership, enhancing participation of local communities in decision-making at the local level; to establish an all-Russia network of training centers applying an active educational technique in the course of training and advance training of local government personnel.

    For achieving the set goals the Program develops and delivers trainings, produces and disseminates training manuals and learning support materials, publishes scientific and analytical literature on the topical issues of local government in Russia, develops and introduces a distance learning technique on the topics of local government.

    The Program is supported by the Local government reform initiative of the Open Society Institute and the Eurasia Foundation.