Abstract
In this report we analyse if participating in a MIC programme has been worth it for Gran municipality. There has been little focus on the output for Gran in their partnership with two municipalities in Uganda. Overall there is a lack of focus on the Northern partner in this kind of partnerships. Through interviews with the participants in Gran, we have found that there has been a lot of learning and personal gains for the individuals in form of cultural awareness, friendship and motivation in their work. However, it has been difficult to bring the learning from the individuals to the council as a whole. There has been some community involvement through schools in Gran and when delegations have visited from Uganda. We discuss the concept of mutuality in terms of input and output. In relation to the partnership process there seems to be a high level of mutuality but when it comes to output, the focus has been on the South. There is a lack of time and resources to be spent in the North as well as a lack of strategic goals on behalf of Gran. Although the partnership has been politically embedded in Gran there is a lack of political priority. However, if there is to be mutual learning and benefits on behalf of the North partner, the local authorities need to conceptualise such partnerships as potential sources for learning. In other words there exists a need to create a ‘learning culture’ within the organisation. We outline five lessons learned from the Gran case: (1) The need to see capacity building as a process based on continuity and trust; (2) the need to establish a willingness to learn; (3) channels for disseminating information and knowledge to the organisation and beyond, (4) to ensure political priority, and (5) the potential for setting some more strategic and political goals for the Northern partner, related to attracting, keeping and developing human resources, good publicity and spreading international involvement to local institutions and businesses. This may offer stronger opportunities for mutuality of benefits in municipal partnerships.