Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) has been engaged in the capacity building activities for local governments in Kerala since its establishment in 1990. The Institute is supported by the Government of Kerala, as its nodal institution for training, research and consultancy for the Local Self-Government Institutions. The Institute engages in different capacity building activities of the local governments, both rural and urban.

KILA was established in the pattern of a national institute with the main objective of training, research and consultancy in decentralised governance and administration. With a view to develop it as an institution of excellence, KILA was registered as an autonomous institution under the Travancore-Cochin Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies Act 1955. KILA is the only Institution in India that functions with the sole mandate of promoting decentralised governance both in urban and rural areas. As a result of this, efforts are on to establish KILA as an international training centre on local governance and declare KILA as the SAARC centre of excellence in local governance.

The Institute disseminates the insights of research and recommendations of its various training programmes and workshops through a number of publications. In order to meet the training needs of the participants from other Indian states and neighbouring countries KILA has translated several documents in English and other Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Kannada.

KILA actively collaborates with many national and international agencies like Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN-HABITAT, and Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) with a motive of deepening local governance. KILA collaborates with the Sri Lanka Institute of Local Governance and All India Institute of Local Self Governments, Mumbai to conduct international course in decentralised governance and poverty alleviation.