Local Evaluation 21 is a user-friendly on-line tool free of charge to European local governments for self-assessing their Local Agenda 21 or other sustainability processes. The tool is available in 20 EU languages, and is therefore widely accessible to local governments across Europe.

How does is work?

A local government representative registers on-line to receive access details. Once logged in, the local government responds to a set of questions and can register other actors involved in the local process to share in the assessment by answering a separate stakeholder questionnaire. The Local Evaluation 21 system then automatically generates an evaluation report that is sent to the local government. This report analyses the shortcomings of a local government's governance for sustainability in relation to 11 evaluation criteria and benchmarks it agains a database of scores from other local governments across Europe.

What are the benefits?

Local governments and their stakeholder groups will be able to assess the quality and progress of their local process for sustainable development, analyse strengths and weaknesses and identify possible areas of improvement. Participating local governments also become part of a European-wide benchmarking system. Local Evaluation 21 is a principal tool for local governments to assess their governance structures and methods while undergoing the Baseline Review or Evaluation phase of their Sustainability Cycle.

www.localevaluation21.org