Communities throughout the world are exploring opportunities to work together towards building regional prosperity. Prof. Ryan Gibson recently joined local government representatives from the Irish Central Borderland Area Network [1] (ICBAN) to share perspectives and lessons learned from Canadian experiences in cross-border collaboration. Building on research from the Community Collaboration Project, Prof. Gibson shared research on from the Hudson Bay Neighbours (Manitoba/Nunvuat) and the Yukon Regional Roundtable (Yukon/British Columbia). The presentation highlighted the history, the membership, their priorities, and their activities. The experiences in Canada emphasized the value of creating and implementing place-based development strategies, creating multiple ‘avenues’ for collaboration among communities in the cross-border region, and the need for capacity building among communities to build regional priorities and actions.

ICBAN was founded to promote cross-border co-operation and communication at a Local Government level on common regional development concerns. This provided a forum to respond to the unique economic and social needs of the Central Border Region. Prof. Gibson’s presentation was part of a series of knowledge mobilization and capacity building sessions hosted by the International Centre for Local and Regional Development [2].