Hereby the CIB Working Group launches the new website! To ease the use of the website, the lay-out of the new website was designed to be well-ordered and clear. Besides the changes in the design, the new website also aims to serve its visitors better content wise. We have improved several of its functions, such as the compendium and the members area, and have rearranged the menu to increase the accessibility of the information.

The 6th edition of the Africities Summit is scheduled to take place at the King Fahd Palace Hotel Dakar, the capital city of Senegal, from 04 to 08 December 2012. Its theme will be:“BUILDING AFRICA FROM ITS TERRITORIES: WHAT CHALLENGES FOR THE LOCAL GOVERNMENTS ?”

Capacity4development has created a new blog post in their Public Sector Reform & Decentralisation group. This post discusses the summary of the ´Grand Panel´ discussion of the advanced seminar on Decentralisation that was held in Brussels in the first week of July, 2012. The main topics under discussion were: Why should donor agencies care more about decentralisation? How can decentralisation be “instrumental” to development? How can donor agencies like the EU provide smart support to decentralisation?

This paper provides a midterm report on a multi-country research effort to shed light on the institutional sources of variation in public goods’ provision at the sub-national level, with a particular focus on key bottlenecks to improvement in maternal mortality, water and sanitation, facilitation of markets and enterprise, and public order and security.

The World Bank decentralisation thematic group has revised its website, including an updated dataset on fiscal decentralisation indicators.

This paper is intended to provide an assessment of the impact of the silent revolution of the last three decades on moving governments closer to people to establish fair, accountable, incorruptible and responsive governance.

The EAC (East African Community) Deputy Secretary General in charge of Productive and Social Sectors Hon Jesica Eriyo on 4 July 2012, hailed the role of the local governments in information dissemination, mobilisation and rallying support of the ordinary citizens in East Africa on the regional integration and development process.

On October 1 PLATFORMA organized a meeting on the work of local and regional associations in relation to the aid effectiveness agenda. This meeting took place in Barcelona and was hosted by the UCLG World Secretariat. The main element of this meeting was the presentation of the PLATFORMA publication “Local and Regional Government Development Effectiveness”.

The Autonomous University of Barcelona has published a study on aid effectiveness of European development cooperation at the local level in Latin America and Peru.

The deadline for the achievement of the 2000 Millennium Development Goals is coming up in 2015. The United Nations and the international community are getting ready to define a new agenda that will follow the MDGs and started the so-called 2015 agenda. The post-2015 process needs to be an open and inclusive consultation process. Therefore the CIB Secretariat recommends its members to participate in the discussion.

FCM, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, has been helping municipalities around the world for 25 years. They have created a brand new video to tell their story: “Communities Helping Communities” is the first of a  seven-part video series celebrating 25 years of working with local governments overseas.

By participating in the ‘Peace under construction´-programme of CARE International, The Hague Academy will embark on a new four year programme to support peace and stability in Burundi and South Sudan. Since 2012, as part of the Youth Engagement Programme together with SPARK, we have also been developing training sources on leadership and (youth) participation in these two countries.

This report provides a snapshot of resilience building activities at the local level and identifies trends in the perceptions and approaches of local governments toward disaster risk reduction. It examines factors that enable urban disaster risk reduction activities, including how the global campaign Making Cities Resilient – “My City is Getting Ready!” founded by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

Makati City, located in the Philippines has won an award for an innovative city-to-city learning partnership between Quito, the capital of Ecuador, and the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu. Kathmandu and Quito benchmarked Makati City on emergency management systems and community-based disaster management.

The ARIAL programme is organising two regional training sessions on (1) improving the dialogue between local government associations and national/international institutions in development programmes, and on (2) improving the communication and lobby strategies of local government associations towards national decision-makers and their members.

In 2016 the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) will take place. The content and outcomes of this conference will be highly influential in shaping the work of local governments internationally. Consequently, UCLG is closely involved in this process and has been invited to provide initial inputs to the consultation process. UCLG has taken advantage of their special working relation with David Satterthwaite, Senior Fellow Human Settlements Group of IIED, to request some thoughts on key issues to be addressed at Habitat III.

The ARIAL programme has opened a second call for Expressions of Interests for the Emerging Local Government Associations Fund (ELGAF). Emerging associations are invited to submit their letter to the ARIAL team. The selected associations will receive extra support until August 1, 2013.

On 31st of July 2012, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the members of a High-Level Panel to advise on the global development agenda beyond 2015, the target date for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Among the 20 personalities of this High-Level Panel, Mr. Kadir Topbas, Mayor of Istanbul and President of UCLG, has been nominated.

The Centre of Expertise of the Council of Europe proudly presents its cartoon for raising awareness of the importance of local democracy. The cartoon has been produced as part of the programme to strengthen local government in Ukraine, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency - SIDA

Under the responsibility of the Consejo Nacional de Competencias (National Council of Competences) and the technical support of the National Secretariat for Planning and Development, the government of the Republic of Ecuador has published, the new Plan Nacional de Descentralización 2012-2015.

From 1-7 September 2012, the sixth session of the World Urban Forum will be held in Naples, Italy. The forum is organised jointly by UN-Habitat, the Italian government, the region of Campania and the city of Naples. The theme of this year´s Forum is "The urban future".

The Local Government Handbook: South Africa 2012 provides a complete, yet concise overview of all 278 municipalities and aims to provide a clear understanding of each municipality and its place in South Africa, as well as a directory of the relevant mayors and contact details in each municipality.

The European Commission has commissioned a study on Decentralized Cooperation, which is due to be finalized by October 2012. The study aims to give an overview of the policy trends of European Member States and the European Commission regarding decentralized cooperation, their main strategies, with recommendations on how to improve the added value of the EC programmes and instruments supporting decentralized cooperation in the next EU multi-annual framework period (2014-2020), and how to ensure complementarity with strategies of Member States. The study is carried out by Mr. Agustí Fernandez de Losada, who CIB members may know from his former position as director of the international department of the Provincial Council of Barcelona.

CIB is on Twitter now! 
Follow the CIB Working Group and stay informed on news, meetings, reports and the latest developments.
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On the 11th and 12th of June, the CIB Working Group meeting took place in Bergen, Norway, on the invitation of KS Norway and the city of Bergen. Active participation and valuable input of CIB members made the meeting a successful event. 

Further to the discussions in the CIB meeting that took place in June, the CIB Working Group Secretariat participated in the last meeting of the OECD Working Party on Aid Effectiveness on 28-29 June in Paris. 

The State of Arab Cities Report 2012 is the first report in the UN-Habitat series on the state of cities to focus on the Arab world. It presents a collective picture of urban conditions and trends in each of four Arab regions (Maghreb, Mashreq, Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) and Southern Tier), and provides a discussion of the similarities, differences and linkages between these countries in the context of a larger Arab region.

Source: Cities Alliance

The European Centre for Development and Policy Management (ECDPM) published a Discussion Paper with the title ´Common or Conflicting Interests? Reflections on the Private Sector (for) Development Agenda´.

This course is about strengthening the economic capacity of a regional community in such a way that it makes optimal use of the potential and characteristics of the area.

This recent OECD studyexamines the ability of sub-national governments to “better spend”, by identifying relevant paths for territorial competitiveness and effective delivery of public services, is mostly enshrined in their institutional background.

The  Swiss Development Cooperation has published a policy paper based on evaluations from development partners such as UNDP, the World Bank, GTZ (GIZ), NORAD and OECD.  The study recommends adopting a more strategic orientation...

A broad consensus has emerged among practitioners and researchers that failure to build accountable and legitimate institutions is a critical risk factor associated with vicious circles of repeated violence. Despite this consensus, very few studies have tested the extent to which local government performance and decentralized service provision shape citizens´ beliefs toward political authorities. This paper contributes to fill this gap by examining the antecedents of trustworthy local government authorities in a post-conflict and fragile setting, Sierra Leone.

After several years of centralized State, Mozambique has from the late 1980s initiated profound reforms that led to the democratisation of the State and the decentralisation of government and markets. The decentralisation process thus initiated aimed primarily at boosting the economy and promoting public sector efficiency and effectiveness.

In February 2012 the Africa Research Institute published Whatever Happened to Africa´s Rapid Urbanisation? This publication analyses the last 20 years of African urbanisation.

The new Kenyan constitution, adopted in 2010 and fully functional after the 2013 elections, is playing a pivotal role in the devolution of power to the regional and local governments and ensures the future governance of Kenya.

Oxfam has published a new series of papers, drawing together lessons from its programme work on local governance and community action. It includes case studies from Nepal, Kenya, Vietnam and Tanzania.

The EC announced that a Communication on local and regional authorities (LRA) will be published at the beginning of 2013. The Commission is very much looking forward to receiving LRA’s contribution and therefore seeks a strong partnership with PLATFORMA.

The UCLG Committee on Urban Strategic Planning has received a grant from CityFuture which enables them to follow up activities in Mozambique for mentoring. Furthermore, the Committee is exploring opportunities for possible joint activities with the Sustainable Cities network in Canada.

The annual CIB meeting for 2012 is scheduled 11- 12  June 2012  in Bergen (Norway). We kindly remind you to send the completed registration form before May 10.

More and more African countries are moving out of aid dependency as the private sector boosts economic growth on the continent. The domestic private sector becomes the engine of growth across much of Africa.

The Norwegian Institute of International Affairs has published a paper on local and national ownership in post-conflict Liberia. Difficulties in implementing policies aimed at fostering local and national ownership in peacekeeping activities have been the starting point of the paper, in which extra attention is paid to training programmes for those working in peacekeeping operations.

On 12 March, the EC published its Final Report on Thematic global evaluation of the Commission support to decentralisation processes. An evaluation was made to identify key relevant lessons and to provide recommendations to help ensure opportune and timely support to decentralisation processes. The evaluation looked at 77 countries that benefited from aid delivery in support of decentralization processes between 2000 and 2009.

On July 2-3 2012, the third edition of the Forum of international action of local governments will be held in the Palais des Congrès in Paris.

The City to City Barcelona FAD Award applications has officially opened for the year 2012.

An online submission form, which is to facilitate the submission of potential projects for the DIA Best Practices Award, has been recently made available at www.bestpractices.at/submission. The deadline for submissions is Saturday, March 31, 2012.

The LGA of England and Wales has been commissioned by United Cities & Local Governments Africa (UCLGA) to pilot peer review across the African continent during 2012. The funding for this peer review has been provided by the government of Luxembourg. In 2010, the LGA already carried out a peer review with its South African counterpart (SALGA) under the CLGF Good Practise Scheme.

UN-Habitat and the Government of Sweden signed a new collaboration agreement on the first of February whereby Stockholm will provide USD 14 million over the next four years to support the agency´s work programme.

The European Urban Knowledge Network published a Handbook for multilevel Urban Governance in Europe which focuses both on theoretical and practical aspects of multilevel governance. In addition, the Eurocites network has released a report, which responds to the need to strengthen cooperation and exchange ideas on governance of metropolitan areas between European local governments.

From the 2nd till the 6th of July 2012, the Hague Academy for Local Governance offers a summercourse especially developed for professionals working at donor and development organisations who are dealing with support to good governance, democracy, decentralisation, local governance and public service delivery.

PLATFORMA, the European network of local and regional governments for development cooperation, has received the approval from the European Commission to implement a new project to strengthen institutional capacity of local and regional governments in partner countries. 

VNG International has received approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to implement the Local Government Capacity Programme. Nine developing countries (Benin, Burundi, Ghana, Nicaragua, Palestine Territories, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan and Uganda),  will benefit and can count on support in the capacity building and strengthening of local government. 

VNG International develops benchmarks to improve performance of local government. In the benchmarks of VNG International achievements of municipalities and other organisations are compared to identify the practices of the ones that perform best. By implementing the practices of the best performers, organisations can improve their own performance. 

The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs awarded a one-year project in Tunisia to VNG International. It will help 11 municipalities with reforms, and share the lessons learned with many more. Reestablishing social cohesion and enhancing local governance and development are one of the main challenges of the new Tunisia. With this regard, ...

The Global Fund for Cities Development (FMDV) has recently published a new document on urban funding in South America and was presented in Porto Alegre in November during the workshop "The future of urban investment in South America" organised by FMDV and UCLG.

With the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4, 29 November-1 December 2011, Busan, Korea) just behind us, commentaries and opinions abound as to its significance for the future of development. There is, however, agreement on one point: this summit has resulted in the most inclusive agreement on global co-operation for development to date. At the same time, ...

The new book Descentralización y Gobierno Municipal en América Central (Análisis del marco jurídico, institucional, financiero y tributario de los gobiernos locales en América Central) has just been released and is the result of a widespread analysis of local governments in the Central American region carried out by the Central American Gobernability Institute (ICG), together with the DAR association from Madrid and Diputación de Barcelona ... 

The president of Bangladesh, Zillur Rahman, inaugurated the first Urban Forum held in the country in December. Bangladesh is one of the fastest urbanising nations in the region and it is expected that its urban population will reach 80 million by the year 2030. Therefore, ...

Twenty years after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, the UN is again bringing together governments, international institutions and major groups, among whom local authorities, to agree on a range of smart measures that can reduce poverty while promoting decent jobs, clean energy and a more sustainable and fair use of resources. Rio+20 is a chance to move away from business-as-usual and to act to end poverty, address environmental destruction and build a bridge to the future.

On December 9, on the first day of the UCLG World Council in Florence, the CIB Working Group meeting was held. Key issues under discussion were: the draft policy paper on Decentralised Cooperation and Local Government; and CIB priorities for 2012.

The CIB Working Group Secretariat wishes you a merry Christmas and a meaningful and inspiring 2012.

For two decades, the experience of decentralisation and federalisation has gained momentum in several countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. How can we make sense of the processes that take place in these countries and how can we improve them? In trying to answer these questions this French analysis, which focuses on four sub-Saharan countries, notably Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya and Senegal, takes on an innovative approach.

Decentralisation has advanced considerably in Africa in the last two decades. Since 1990, many African central governments have initiated or deepened processes to transfer authority, power, responsibilities, and resources to sub-national levels. To examine the results of these processes, USAID has commissioned a comparative study to draw lessons from 10 country experiences with decentralisation: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.

DeLoG (The informal Development Partners Group on Decentralisation and Local Governance) investigations summarised in this paper show that over the past twenty years progress in decentralisation and local governance has been uneven and mixed.

The Netherlands organisation for international cooperation in higher education (NUFFIC) offers the opportunity to apply for a fellowship for this training course, as part of the Netherlands Fellowship Programme (NFP) for short courses. This two-week training course will be held in The Hague, The Netherlands from 10 to 21 September 2012.

UCLG - Hubert Julien-Laferriere, Vice Mayor of Lyon France and Co-president of UCLG’s committee on Decentralised Cooperation and City Diplomacy makes a first evaluation of the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness that just ended in Busan.

The video message of Jude Saint-Natus, Director of Local Authorities in the Ministry of Interior and Territorial Collectivities (MICT), presented at the UCLG side-event during the 4th HLF in Aid Effectiveness in Busan is now online.

Recognition of local governments in the Outcome Document: Thanks to the lobbying efforts of UCLG, supported by the Committee and Working Group, the Outcome Document of Busan, entitled “Busan Partnership for effective development cooperation”, recognizes the role of local governments.

The European Commission issued the communication ‘An agenda for change’ on its renewed development policy. The European local and regional government platform for development cooperation PLATFORMA worked closely with EU Commissioner Piebalgs’ cabinet and DG DEVCO to ensure that decentralised cooperation would be fully acknowledged, and that local and regional authorities would be identified as key partners in development. 

UCLG recently called upon its members to contact their national governments regarding the participation at the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan. Members were requested to ensure that the national governments would advocate for the importance of the inclusion of local governments’ voice in the debates on aid effectiveness.

With only little over a month to go the preparations for the fourth High Level Forum on Aid-Effectiveness in Busan are in full swing. The CIB Working Group would like to update you on some important recent developments regarding the role of local governments at the Forum.

The German Association of Cities has published a brochure on municipal international cooperation. It presents 15 examples of cooperation between members of the German Association of Cities, and their partners in 18 countries. The examples chosen illustrate the various opportunities available and possible forms of engagement. Without the support of cities, the world´s problems cannot be solved.

The Commonwealth Secretariat has published two interesting documents on decentralisation and local governance. 

A comprehensive survey about the future of the CIB Working Group has been sent to all CIB members. Several topics ranging from the annual meetings and the CIB’s overarching goals, to information sharing and advocacy are mentioned.

The 2nd version of the Busan Outcome document is now available. This version does recognize Local Governments as development partners, but does not take into account the necessity of promoting decentralization and the concept of Decentralized Cooperation as taking part of the aid modalities mentioned in the Aid Effectiveness agenda.

Between November 29th and December 1st, 2011, the next High Level Forum of Aid-Effectiveness will take in Busan, Korea. In order to strengthen the voice of local governments and advocate decentralized allocation of aid we need to let our voices be heard.

Barcelona City Council has recently published a paper in which it reflects on its almost 20 years of experience with international bilateral or direct cooperation. It offers an insight into the values, principles and methodology used in its projects. 

The European Commission has just published its communication proposing a shared position of the EU in view of the 4th forum on aid effectiveness to take place in Busan (Korea) from 29th November to 1st December 2011. The communication calls for the expansion of the principles of aid effectiveness to other actors, in particular to local authorities. 

A call for proposals will be launched on 1st November for local/regional authorities and their associations in the framework of objective 1b “actions in partner countries” and objective 2 “Development Education and Raising Awareness in the EU and acceding countries” of the NSA-LA programme. 

Various training course on important local government themes suchas decentralization, citizen participation, climate change and local finance will be organized in the coming months. Click here for the outline of the courses. 

Recently the Development Partners Working Group on Decentralisation and Local Governance (DPWG-DLG) organized a training course on "Harmonisation, Decentralisation and Local Governance". The materials of this training were developed by the Hague Academy, ECDPM and Wageningen UR Centre for Development Cooperation and have been made available on the train4dev website.

The annual CIB meeting for 2011 is scheduled for the 21^st of June in Rabat (Morocco). The meeting will take place in the framework of the UCLG Executive Bureau meetings (22-24 June). We kindly remind you to send the completed registration form before May 27.

On June 13-15, 2011 the UCLG Committee in Strategic Urban Planning and the Municipality of Durban organise a ‘Strategic Planning Learning Exchange fostering learning of the global south’ meeting in Durban to share information and experiences on the relation of governance and urban development and promote the knowledge and capacity of cities in South.

There is hope for the LOGO South Programme of VNG International. The Minister of Development Cooperation will reserve €1.96 mln. for the LOGO South programme in 2011

On 17-19 October, VVSG organises an international conference on municipal international partnership in Ghent, Belgium.

A timetable for the publication of NSA LA calls for proposals for 2011 and 2012 was made public by the European Commission.

On 7 to 8 July 2011, the Second Forum for LRA International Cooperation, organised by CUF will be held in Paris.

On 4 to 6 October 2010, the first Global Forum on Local Development has been organized in Kampala in Uganda. The objective of the Forum was to present, share, learn and adopt very interesting developments in the way Local Governments around the world are meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

In 2010, EU aid reached 53.8 billion euros, which amounts to 0.43% of its gross national income (GNI). Commissioner Piebalgs would like “all stakeholders” to take part in the effort needed to reach the 0.7% of GNI objective by 2015

The annual CIB meeting for 2011 is scheduled for the 21^st of June in Rabat (Morocco).

The Platforma conference in March was a succes. On March 28 Platforma launched its new publication: ´ Decentralised Development Cooperation - European Perspectives´.

On 11 January, the EU published its revised “Operational Framework on Aid Effectiveness” aimed at accelerating progress and demonstrating concrete results in time for the fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness being held in Busan (South Korea) in November 2011.

In the fall of 2010 VNG International and its implementing partners officially launched the ARIAL programme "Supporting and strengthening Local Authority Associations at ACP national and regional levels" in Brussels. The specific objective of the project is to enable Local Government Associations (LGAs) to take part in the creation and implementation of development policies, in particular with the EU.

Please complete the UCLG survey in order to redefine the priorities of the organization.

The magazine "Observa", of the observatory on decentralized cooperation European union-Latin America, reports on the annual meeting of the CIB Working Group on June 28th and 29th 2010 in Spain.

VNG International has just published its new publication “Gender equality and local government, Changing the face of local leadership”.

The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities published a report concerning the possible scope of cooperation between Local Government Associations in six African countries.

On 27, 28 and 29 March the Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities (VVSG) organised a regional conference in Santo Tomás Chontales, Nicaragua on international cooperation of local governments.

On 4 and 5 October the Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities (VVSG) organized its first regional conference in Mangaung, South-Africa. The objective of this conference was to strengthen its network of local governments that are involved in city-to-city cooperation in Southern Africa.

How can governments become more knowledgeable of and responsive to the needs of the people? How do you create possibilities for greater political participation for ordinary citizens? How can local governments contribute to reaching the MDGs?   

The Observatory on Decentralized Cooperation EU-LA, coordinated by the Barcelona Provincial Council (Diputació de Barcelona) is organizing its 5th Annual Conference in Brussels on 28 and 29 October 2010, entitled “Decentralized Cooperation in Crisis Times”.

The annual CIB meeting, which took place on 25 and 26 June in Barcelona on the invitation of the City Council and Provincial Council of Barcelona, gathered over 40 participants from many European countries, Canada, Pakistan, Cambodia and Bolivia.

The Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities (VVSG) organizes a regional conference on municipal international cooperation (MIC) and City-to-City Cooperation (C2C) on the 4th and 5th of October 2010 in Mangaung (Bloemfontein), South Africa. The overall objective of this regional conference on city-to-city cooperation is to share lessons learned from the various municipal international partnerships.

The call for proposals based on the Agenda 21 for culture is still open. It is aimed at countries in Africa, Ibero-America and the Mediterranean, for cities and local governments which are direct or indirect members of United Cities and Local Governments - UCLG.

The next CIB Working Group meeting, hosted by the City Council and the Province of Barcelona, will be held in Barcelona on 28 and 29 June 2010. Deadline for registration and reservation of the hotel is 11 June.

The Position Paper on Aid Effectiveness and Local Government was adopted unanimously by the World Council on the 13th of November.  

Please use the links below to access the final version of the UCLG Position Paper in three languages:

The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (AFLRA) organized a North-South Local Government Cooperation Conference from 24 to 27 november in Mwanza, Tanzania.

Various presentations and workshops were organized, in which best practices were presented on decentralisation, local economic development, gender equality, climate change...

On 11 November a CIB Working Group meeting took place in Guangzhou (China), on the occasion of the UCLG World Council meetings.  

Main conclusions of the meeting...

The publication “The Impact of the Global Crisis on Local Governments” was presented at the UCLG World Council on 13 November 2009 in Guangzhou (China). The document is a first attempt to create a global vision of the impact of the crisis on local authorities around the world.

The European Platform of Local and Regional Authorities for Development is organizing its next Platform seminar on 5 October 2009 in Lyon, France. The main theme of the seminar is “The role of local and regional authorities in development cooperation – Assessing our effectiveness”.

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINBUZA) launched last February an online debate on decentralization as a key element in poverty reduction, forming part of email debates organized by MINBUZA on specific themes in development cooperation. The topics of the online debates are connected with a series of essays published by the MINBUZA under the title “A rich menu for the poor – Food for thought for effective aid policies”. CIB members were invited to participate in this online debate. The synthesis of the debate is online available.

In order to make use of the hotel reservation, we kindly remind you to send the completed registration form before 22 May to:
ioana.serghiuta@lga.gov.uk.

14 Local Government Associations from Asia Pacific participated in the event, including all partner LGAs that currently benefit from the ACB programmes of FCM and VNG International in the region.  The workshop focused on the themes of ...