Institutional Leadership is key to ensuring good democratic governance at the local level. To support the development of relevant skills, competencies, and the exchange of peer experiences among elected officials and senior staff, the Leadership Academy Programme (LAP) will be implemented in Hungary in 2023.

On 4-5 April 2023, the Centre of Expertise for Good Governance, together with the Hungarian National Association of Local Authorities (TÖOSZ) hosted a LAP training-of-trainers at the European Youth Centre in Budapest. This is a key step in adapting the training programme and materials to the Hungarian context. Over the next months, the LAP will be implemented over series of sessions – covering leadership competencies as well as priority issues including public ethics and performance management. As an innovative addition to the programme, a new LAP module on financial issues is being developed and tested in Hungary.

These activities are part of the ‘Local Government Public Finance Development and Municipal Capacity Building In Hungary’, project co-funded by the European Union DG REFORM via the Technical Support Instrument 2022 and implemented by the Centre of Expertise. The project also includes the delivery of a Peer Review and Policy Advice, the implementation of the Local Finance and Public Ethics Benchmarks, and a series of efforts to increase data access and use by local government stakeholders.