ALDA is a key stakeholder in the field of local democracy, active citizenship, and cooperation between local authorities and civil society in Europe, its neighbourhood, and all around the World, mainly acting through participative methods and decentralised cooperation.
As a core element, ALDA supports citizens and groups of citizens in their initiatives aimed at improving their local context, building bridges with local authorities in order to make this change real.
ALDA was established in 1999 at the initiative of the Council of Europe to coordinate and support the network of Local Democracy Agencies (LDAs), which are self- sustainable, locally registered NGOs acting as promoters of good governance and local self-government, with which ALDA collaborates in many activities.
ALDA is a membership-based organisation gathering today more than 250 members, including local authorities, associations of local authorities, and civil society organisations, coming from more than 45 countries in the enlarged Europe.
ALDA is funded through membership fees, as well as project funding from the European Commission, the Council of Europe and other public and private donors.

To promote good governance and citizen participation at the local level in the whole Europe and beyond, ALDA leads a wide range of actions supporting local, national and international stakeholders in achieving their goals in the fields of European integration, decentralisation, human rights, social inclusion, sustainable development, civic initiatives and much more.
It works with a multistakeholder approach looking at a broad spectrum of the potential resources in the local communities. ALDA represents a wide network of citizens and local authorities fully committed and engaged to support local democracy and the empowerment of local communities through citizens participation, in Europe and beyond. Since 2020, ALDA has been bringing its experience in local democracy beyond the European borders and the neighbourhood, reaching out to other regions of the world in need of assistance and support in our field of expertise (ALDA going global)
In 20 years of activities, with its members and partners, supported by European institutions and various other donors, ALDA has had an impact on over 25 million citizens of the Enlarged Europe, and further.