Leadership is an essential feature of good democratic governance and reflects the organisational leadership capacity to deliver both high-standard of performance and sustainable development. The Leadership Academy Programme (LAP) contributes to foster the skills, behaviours, knowledge, and abilities of Cypriot public officials, thus supporting the ongoing reform.

The region of Paphos hosted the closing training of the first cycle of an extensive programme that was launched in October 2023 and has involved over 100 local Cypriot leaders, both from municipalities and communities, throughout five regions.

The LAP is a tool developed by the Centre of Expertise for Good Governance (CEGG) that has been successfully implemented in numerous member States to strengthen good democratic governance. While the Programme’s core and methodology are consistent throughout the CoE jurisdiction, its delivery is tailored to meet the specific circumstances of each member state. The collaboration between CoE experts, a group of Cypriot trainers as well as the close cooperation with the Ministry of Interior, the Union of Cyprus Municipalities and the Union of Cyprus Communities ensured that the sessions were relevant to the participating Cypriot local leaders.

Building on this round of trainings, this rich and interactive programme will follow-up with the second and third stages in 2024, focusing on the aspects highlighted by the Training Needs Analysis (TNA) of Local Government in Cyprus that has been recently conducted.

The findings of the TNA and draft National Training Strategy (NTS) will be presented on 15 December 2023 to relevant stakeholders as part of the project “Enhancing the Local Government Reform in Cyprus” implemented by the CEGG and funded through a Voluntary Contribution by the Government of Cyprus, under the “Cyprus Recovery and Resilience Plan 2021-2026” financed by the European Union.