In providing the opportunity to disseminate information more widely, the portal's e-library has two main objectives.
The first is to make it easier for local and regional authorities to set their initiatives in a wider context and to get them more involved in framing and/or implementing general development cooperation strategies. It thus aims both to promote better understanding and coordination between LRAs and to help make their policies more consistent with each other, in order to enhance the effectiveness of aid and strengthen the impact of cooperation activities.
Its second objective is to publicise more widely the measures that the various providers of funding – including the European Commission, international institutions and the various EU Member States – offer in support of decentralised cooperation.
To this end, the e-library allows users registered on the portal to share (upload/download) documents relating to decentralised cooperation and development cooperation in general. The available documents include, for example, development strategy documents, sectoral development plans, partner countries' regional and/or local development plans and analyses and studies on development and development cooperation.
In order to facilitate access to documents, the e-library includes a multi-criteria search and sort tool (by reference type, partner countries, year, sectors) to help users find the references that are most relevant to their needs.
