The year 2024 marks 100 years since ICMA added the “I” to its name. Since then, ICMA members have been committed to making ICMA a more global organization. The milestones the association has achieved are numerous—from ICMA’s work advocating for the council-manager form of government throughout Western Europe in the 1950s and 1960s, to the more than 500 projects in 70 countries that ICMA has led since then as part of its grants and contracts work. The Envision Strategic Plan, created and ratified by the membership in 2017, identified globalization as a key driver for local governments and the board established the Global Vision and Collaboration Committee to begin developing a more comprehensive global strategy.
While in Montreal for the Annual Conference, the City Managers' Association changed it's name to the International City Managers' Association in recognition of the multitude of Canadian membership applications received.
ICMA members formally adopted the City Manager's Code of Ethics, which consisted of 13 articles and influenced a set of standards for all local government organizations.
J. R. French, Verdun, Quebec, Canada, became ICMA's first international president. He also holds distinction as the only ICMA president to serve two consecutive terms.
ICMA Executive Director, Orin Nolting, traveled throughout Western Europe advocating for the council-manager form of government.
Orin Nolting was appointed as ICMA's new Executive Director and upon assuming this role, Nolting made international relations and expansion of the council-manager plan to other countries an association priority.
With the help of ICMA's advocacy work, the council-manager concept is adopted in England, Finland, Germany (two provinces), Ireland, Norway, and Sweden.
ICMA started the Philippine Internship Program to showcase partnerships between Local Governments in the Philippines and the U.S.
ICMA established the European Task Force and developed the Small Cities Management training course.
Jacques Perreault, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, elected as ICMA's second international President.
ICMA signed its first international affiliate agreement with SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers).
In July of 1989, the ICMA Executive Board held its first meeting outside North America in Reading, England. The board subsequently met in Liverpool, England, in July 2001.
In September, the U.S. Agency for International Development awarded ICMA its first multimillion-dollar Municipal Development and Management Project contract to assist local government officials in developing countries. ICMA in turn established the International Municipal Programs Department, which eventually evolved into ICMA International, and then to Global Program Management, which exists today. This municipal development contract made it possible for ICMA to work with local government officials in countries around the world, including Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. ICMA responded to 66 requests for services around the world during the initial year of the contract, and the international program expanded throughout the 1990s.
ICMA received its second contract award from the U.S. Agency for International Development, "Local Government and Housing Privatization in Eastern Europe," which further expanded the association's worldwide activities.
ICMA received its first long-term municipal development program award to strengthen municipalities in Honduras. Under the Honduran Municipal Development Project, ICMA provided technical assistance and training in taxation, general management, public works, and community participation. ICMA strengthened and promoted the Association of Honduran Municipalities and helped to support the creation of the Metropolitan Zone of the Valle de Sula, an association of municipalities in northern Honduras focused on promoting regional development. Both organizations still exist today.
In January of 1991, ICMA held its first major international meeting, the Pacific Rim Symposium, in Hawaii. The symposium brought together more than 100 local government leaders from throughout the Pacific region.
ICMA established, through affiliation, the Hispanic Network, which provided specialized services and support to Hispanic local government professionals and, through them, to the broader Hispanic community.
ICMA conducted its first cross-border technical exchanges on the Mexican-U.S. border, focused on environmental management.
ICMA began its first USAID-funded program in Mexico in Ciudad Juarez focused on economic development. This was followed by a five-year USAID-funded program to promote municipal development which promoted partnerships with US cities and counties to improve service delivery, strengthen municipal associations, and create a performance management program for Mexican municipalities modeled after ICMA’s Center for Performance Measurement.
ICMA won a leader award from the U.S. Agency for International Development to establish its Resource Cities Program. The precursor to the association's CityLinks™ Program, Resource Cities authorized partnerships between the United States and, initially, local governments in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. These partnerships served to engage the membership directly in ICMA's international contract activities.
ICMA implemented a Resource Cities Partnership between the Salvadoran municipal association, the Corporación de Municipios de la República de El Salvador (COMURES), the Florida League of Cities (FLC) and the Florida City/County Management Association (FCCMA). Over a period of two years, these organizations held several exchanges that led to the strengthening of the institutional capacity of COMURES in several key areas including ethics.
Recognizing the challenges facing local government in Bulgaria, the U.S. Agency for International Development charged ICMA with helping Bulgaria to find sustainable local solutions to problems accompanying the country's march toward democracy and decentralization. In partnership with the Bulgarian Foundation for Local Government Reform (FLGR), ICMA created the Bulgaria Technical Twinning Program (BTTP), which evolved into the Bulgaria CityLinks™ Program. The program proved to be a model of effective partnerships between Bulgarian and U.S. cities that built and strengthened the capacity of Bulgarian local governments to address local economic development needs, strengthen city competitiveness and improve municipal management and service delivery.
A delegation of ICMA members and staff including Executive Director Bill Hansell, Russell Hawkins, and ICMA President Sylvester (Sy) Murray, traveled to South Africa to meet with the country's leaders, including South African President Nelson Mandela.
The ICMA Executive Board created the Committee on International Management Issues (CIMI) in September 1997 giving it a two-year authorization to assist the board in clarifying ICMA’s approach and strategy for expanding the association’s international dimension.
ICMA began implementation of the USAID-funded Regional Partnership for Decentralization and Local Governance in the Americas. The first phase of the partnership (Sept. 2003 to Sept. 2006) focused on improving donor consultation mechanisms, promoting information sharing and networking, and providing guidance on the design of local government training programs for the Latin America and Caribbean region. The second and final phase of the partnership, from Sept. 2003 to Sept. 2006, focused on the promotion of leading-edge practices to strengthen local governance and democracy in the LAC region, including those related to citizen participation, performance measurement, municipal finance, regional cooperation models and regional/local economic development.
In November of 1998, ICMA organized the first multinational conference sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development in Romania.
USAID awarded ICMA the Sustainable and Urban Management Leader contract. This award shifted the association's international focus away from Europe and Eurasia toward longer-term, sustainable projects worldwide.
Kinsley N. Sampson, New Plymouth, New Zealand, elected as ICMA's third international President.
ICMA formally incorporated elements of the Committee on International Management Issues’ vision and perspective in the 2000 Strategic Plan.
ICMA received funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to assist three communities affected by Hurricane Mitch (2000-2001). The Honduras Hurricane Reconstruction Project brought together community stakeholders including NGOs, government, and business and citizen representatives to conduct a needs assessment and set priorities to identify and implement 13 infrastructure projects for a total of $1,000,000 USD in communities severely affected by Hurricane Mitch.
Under the USAID-funded Indonesia Core Management and Budget Skills for Indonesian Local Governments (BIGG) Program, ICMA provided technical assistance and training, conducted budget clinics and regional and national conferences, produced reference manuals, program website, and a 31-part publication series on performance-based budgeting and financial management for all 450 local governments in Indonesia. Of these, 46 partner local governments received intensive, on-site technical assistance and training on performance-based budgeting. In addition, through such methods as training-of-trainers and practitioner-to-practitioner mentoring, these basic concepts were extended to neighboring jurisdictions.
In January of 2002, the ICMA Executive Board meeting was hosted in Guadalajara, Mexico. While there, board members were able to visit with municipalities receiving support from the USAID-funded, ICMA-implemented Mexico Partnerships for Municipal Development.
ICMA held the first International Best Practices Symposium in Sydney, Australia, in May of 2002.
In March of 2003, ICMA launched CityLinks™, the successor to the Resource Cities Program, with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development. For over a decade, ICMA's CityLinks™ exchanges built practical technical support relationships between management practitioners in the United States and officials in developing and transitional countries to address general municipal management affairs, service delivery, public works and infrastructure development, maintenance and management, solid waste management, emergency preparedness, and disaster relief, among others. Hundreds of ICMA members have dedicated thousands of hours to these partnerships, strengthening democracy around the world.
As part of the USAID-funded Iraq Local Governance Program (LGP), ICMA worked to build the capacity of local authorities and institutions to participate effectively in the post-war reconstruction process. In collaboration with the program’s prime contractor, ICMA supported the creation and deployment of the Local Governance Teams (LGTs) tasked with introducing and promoting democratic local practices. Leveraging its expertise in public administration, city management and public service delivery support, ICMA led restructuring and capacity building in Baghdad and provided technical assistance and training support to governorate, city, district, neighborhood, and tribal councils, as well as mentoring to local officials and newly-appointed community leaders. Under LGP II, ICMA led activities in the Anbar and Kirkuk regions. As the lead on the Governance Team, ICMA worked directly with the governments at every level, and served as the head trainer for North Central Iraq. On LGP III, ICMA led the organizational development component and focused on institution building, provincial budgeting, planning and responsive and accountable governance.
In September of 2003, the ICMA Hispanic Network incorporated as an independent, nonprofit organization with a new name: the International Hispanic Network (IHN). ICMA signed an initial three-year affiliation agreement with IHN (most recently renewed in 2012) at the ICMA Annual Conference in Charlotte/Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
This CityLinks™ Partnership to build the capacity of the capital city, Kabul, to provide essential services to its citizens, was the first time ICMA worked in a country in conflict. As a result of the Kabul partnership, USAID awarded ICMA the Afghanistan Municipal Strengthening Program (AMSP) in 2007, expanding ICMA’s reach to 11 municipalities.
In 2004, after more than seven years of working in Mexico under funding by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the International City Management Association of Mexico (ICMA Mexico Latinoamérica) launched an initiative to become a self-sustaining operation that provides direct services to Mexican cities and promotes professionalism and transparency in local government.
In 2004 the first International Committee Meeting was held. The International Committee was charged with continuing the work of the 2003-2004 Task Force on International Collaboration.
ICMA began work on the USAID/India Financial Institutions Reform and Expansion (FIRE III) Project. The FIRE Program was a project that aimed to increase the capacity of India's cities to raise and allocate financial resources and to improve availability of urban water and sanitation services. The program provided technical assistance to 16 states and 70 cities, and introduced financial and public-private partnership models, municipal credit rating system, modern municipal financial management systems, and national reforms for urban infrastructure development. ICMA South Asia was a subcontractor that provided monitoring and evaluation services for the program, and developed a Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Plan with cross-sectoral indicators and municipal data. ICMA South Asia also trained city managers’ associations in monitoring and evaluation, and performance measurement, to build their capacity to do performance measurement for member cities.
USAID awarded ICMA the CityLinks™ Post Tsunami Recovery Program to help cities in India restore damaged infrastructure, take steps to prevent and mitigate future disasters, and improve service delivery. Recovery activities included the construction of playgrounds in Cuddalore and Nagapattinam that were based on children's drawings and built by community members.
ICMA supported local governments in nine Indonesian provinces by improving government capacity to deliver services and manage resources. The project also worked to improve communications between governments and citizens through a strengthened local media, facilitate citizen-focused service delivery, promote economic growth, and support participatory governance through local councils and civil society.
Through the USAID-funded Guatemalan Decentralization and Local Governance program, ICMA provided support to strengthen local government financial management in 13 municipalities across Guatemala. The program aimed to enhance transparency and accountability to improve citizens’ trust in government, by implementing the national-level integrated financial management system, the national procurement system, and the certification program for municipal financial managers. The program also conducted studies and assessments on the impact of previous USAID-funded systems, improved tax collections and service fees, and established a model for improving municipal internal and external communications. Furthermore, the program provided support to local government associations, such as the Association of Women in Municipal Government, the Association of Guatemalan Indigenous Authorities, and the National Municipal Association.
As a subcontractor to The Asia Foundation, ICMA provided support for Sri Lanka’s transition to a peaceful and democratic society through the improvement of local democratic governance and public service delivery. ICMA provided technical assistance to 35 local governments in Sri Lanka to make key political institutions more responsive to citizen input, improve municipal budgeting and financing systems and skills, improve the delivery of public services to citizens, provide post-Tsunami emergency recovery assistance and infrastructure rehabilitation, and increase the rule of law to protect and empower vulnerable groups. In addition, ICMA oversaw the administration of all grants and incentive awards, monitored all work conducted by local subcontractor, and hired and supervised all financial management and service delivery consultants.
In June of 2005, the ICMA South Asia program office was transformed into the Urban Management Center (UMC), a legacy local nongovernmental organization based in Ahmedabad, India, focused on mission-driven work and support for India/South Asia operations. UMC went on to partner with ICMA until today to support international technical assistance projects.
Michael Willis, Blue Mountains, Australia, elected as ICMA's fourth international President.
The Sustainable Urban Management (SUM) II - India Urban Initiatives Program was a collaborative effort between various organizations to enhance India's capacity for sustainable urban growth. The program provided technical assistance to Indian cities on various issues, such as economic development, land tenure, solid waste management, wetlands conservation, and institutional cooperation. ICMA also supported peer-to-peer learning through its trademarked CityLinks™ methodology by facilitating a partnership between Mumbai and Cleveland, Ohio, to share best practices on urban revitalization and economic growth. Outcomes of the program include the development of a citywide cleanliness campaign in Mumbai, the creation of a communications strategy for the Mumbai Task Force, the formation of a land registration system in Delhi, and the establishment of a Mega Cities Forum for knowledge sharing among the seven largest cities in India. Challenges and lessons learned from the program include the need to address the informal sector, the role of land and spatial issues in urban planning, and the importance of community participation and buy-in for conservation efforts. Program achievements include the Economic Growth Report for Mumbai, the organizational development assistance to SPARC-NIRMAN, and the concept paper on local planning.
Under this ICMA-led and USAID-funded Cooperative Agreement, ICMA strengthened municipal governments in 11 provincial capitals, enabling municipal leaders and their staff to take on the challenges of stabilization, public service delivery and municipal economic development. Key elements of the program included in-depth capacity assessments and training of municipal staff (with an emphasis on learning by doing), municipal system development, and developing Strategic Municipal Action Plans. Through targeted technical assistance and training, the leadership, administrators, and staff of these municipalities increased their capacity in sanitation, road maintenance, financial management, procurement, and other critical public service areas. AMSP also developed and executed, with ministerial approval, the Strategic Municipal Urban Planning process, generating digitized municipal maps and participatory on-the-ground analyses to help municipalities identify, plan and budget for priority economic infrastructure investments.
Following the Government of Lebanon’s completion of a detailed SWOT analysis and assessment of the comparative advantages of 10 major cities in Lebanon, the Lebanon Local Economic Development (LLED) Program was launched for 5 of the 10 cities assessed. ICMA worked with the targeted cities (Tripoli, Jounieh, Zahle, Saida and Sour) to develop tailored and viable local economic development strategies, including well defined projects with a high potential to create new jobs and attract investment. The strategies focused on competitiveness enhancement opportunities, innovative options for effective public private partnerships, attracting direct investment and expanding the existing businesses in the target economic sectors. Project results include ICMA's development of a methodology to assess the economic competitiveness of each city and lead economic sectors; developing a City Competitiveness Strategies to customize economic development projects; and the creation of an Urban Observatory created through the collection of data in partner cities.
In 2008, the ICMA Strategic Plan incorporated a number of references to ICMA’s international dimension, as follows: 1. The core belief in “Networking and exchanging knowledge and skills across international boundaries.” 2. The cross-cutting theme that “ICMA must capitalize on and expand its international dimension as a catalyst for fostering networks and exchanging information and best practices among local governments worldwide. This Strategic Plan requires ICMA to consider the international dimension in everything it does.
The Iraq Community Action Program-Phase III (CAP III) empowered local councils and citizens to jointly participate in a more effective, responsive and transparent community development process that would meet the needs of the community and mobilize Iraqi resources to fulfill local government responsibilities. ICMA’s main role in this program was to provide leadership in enabling CAP III communities to better meet their community needs. To build and achieve this, ICMA provided local councils with a series of targeted trainings in order to improve their capability to access Government of Iraq resources on behalf of constituent communities. These trainings focused on Financial Management, Citizen Outreach and Participation, Strategic Management, and Project Management.
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