This report contains the findings and recommendations that emerged from the comprehensive evaluations of democracy at the local level in four cities in East and Southern Africa. The report also includes the Local Democracy Assessment Methodology developed by IDEA. In partnership with the African Union of Local Authorities (AULA), IDEA supported the evaluations in order to pilot a local democracy assessment instrument, which is the product of a two-year collaborative project on ways to strengthen governance in the region. The approach is one of self-evaluation; the objective being to determine the strengths and weaknesses of democracy in a given setting.