Believing that good governance is essential for successful development, ACAP has embarked on the field of good governance as a guiding tool in its activities.  To address the current governance challenges facing the Arab minority in Israel whether at civil society, local authority or governmental level, ACAP aims to promote values of integrity, principles of transparency and systems of accountability in various segments of the life of the Arab minority.   

Among the several elements of good governance, ACAP focuses on applying participatory, transparent and accountable, effective and equitable approaches to development. As such, the program's main objective is to ensure that planning procedures and processes contain in them values of democratic planning and procedures that have in mind the overall good will of all citizens of Israel.

ACAP works in two different tracks, central and local.  ACAP not only works as an agent of advocacy to see that various plans and projects implemented by governmental offices are done with democratic visions of  good governance in mind, but it works at a grassroots level to empower Arab municipalities and civilians to base their local governance on a basis of integrity and promotion of human and basic rights.    

To achieve this objective, ACAP`s team works in cooperation with other civil society organizations, and mainly with municipalities, empowering them to instill and follow good governance practices in order to fulfill their mission in helping the communities in which they operate.  In relation to community participation ACAP believes that it should be a link between the public and various governmental offices to ensure that planning rights are being respected and honored.

In addition to holding workshops, accountability sessions, and work groups meetings, the program’s activities involve training different target groups to advocate for good governance policies in their localities. The Arab Center for Alternative Planning provides planning services and consultancy for civilians and municipalities. For many years ACAP has provided a planning service package for municipalities in the Arab community. This service package consists of articles about planning that focus on planning in the Arab sector; these articles are published in local newspapers, the center`s annual newsletters, and online.

These empowerment sessions also consist of a number of one-on-one consultations given to the municipalities by the ACAP staff.