Technical Assistance and Outreach
The ICLRD provides technical assistance and
outreach to local government agencies and communities to help them deliver
specific programmes often identified through ICLRD’s training or research
activities. This includes working with groupings of local authorities to
strengthen their collaborations, thus reflecting their ambitions to progress
strategic initiatives for all those living and working in the areas, developing
action plans based on local or regional priorities which support sustainable
and integrated development, drafting position papers on current or emerging
government policy, acting as client advisor on commissioned work programmes,
and facilitating and animating collaborative processes across functional areas.
If you wish to know more about any of
these activities, get in touch.
Examples include:
- Assisting the Newry and Mourne District Council and the Louth Local Authorities to prepare and adopt a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for cooperation in: emergency planning, renewable energy and green technology, tourism and recreation, sustainable economic growth and job creation (documentation available here).
- Supporting the cross-border development associations of Truagh, Aughnacloy, Aghaloo, The Bawn, Loughans, Clara and Carrickroe in the Monaghan/Tyrone Border area to jointly develop a community business and social economy plan.
- Supporting Armagh City and District Council and Monaghan County Council in the drafting and adoption of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which reflects the ambition of the councils to progress a number of strategic initiatives for the mutual benefit of all those living, working and visiting the region. Key areas of focus included: Tourism, Economic Development and Prosperity and Shared Services; selected because of their long-term strategic importance to the sustainable development of the region.
- Facilitating the local councils in the NW Region, and the then North West Partnership forum, to facilitate cross-border engagement at a strategic level, and develop an Action Plan. This was developed with financial support from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade ‘Reconciliation Fund’.
- Providing external engagement support to the Irish Central Border Area Network Ltd. (ICBAN) in the form of a Study, specifically focusing on revitalising border towns and villages throughout the 8 Councils area of the Central Border Region. Th study took the form of an interim briefing paper and a final position paper.
- Facilitating the North West Strategic Growth Partnership (NWSGP), a unique partnership established in 2016 through the North South Ministerial Council that brings together senior Government officials from all Government departments in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to meet with Donegal County Council and Derry City and Strabane District Council to deliver on the strategic priorities aimed at bringing real and positive change for the North West City Region (NWCR). The work of the NWSGP is underpinned by the ‘The North West Strategic Growth Plan: A Model for Regional Development and Growth of the North West of the Island of Ireland’, developed by the ICLRD in collaboration with both Councils and a number of the Government Departments, North and South.
- Appointed as Client Advisor to the North West City Region commissioned study ‘Atlas for a City-Region: Imagining the Post-Brexit Landscapes of the Irish Northwest’. This work was undertaken by Harvard University Graduate School of Design during 2018-2019. See https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/project/atlas-for-a-city-region/ for further details.
