MENA Regional Hub workshop on: “Strengthening the Role of Cities in the Prevention of Hate, Polarization and Violent Extremism in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)”
From 31 January to the 1st of February 2024, the Strong Cities Network, through its MENA Regional Hub, organized a workshop on “Strengthening the Role of Cities in the Prevention of Hate, Polarization and Violent Extremism in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)” in Valletta, Malta. This event convened several stakeholders to discuss National-Local Cooperation in addressing hate and violent extremism-related challenges at the city level, particularly through local involvement of young people and historically marginalized groups.
The two days meeting were focused on three (03) main objectives:
- Enhancing city-led engagement with, and empowerment of, young people
- The rehabilitation and reintegration of family members of returning foreign terrorist fighters
- Mitigating the negative impacts of migration
The African cities representatives in this workshop came from Egypt (Damietta), Libya (Sabha, Mansheya), Morocco (Fes, Marrakech, Tangier, Agadir and Oujda), and Tunisia (Sousse). UCLG Africa took part in the workshop with the participation of Mr. Lionel Nzamba, Task Manager in the Gender and Youth Department of UCLG Africa.
The opening session saw the participation of the Maltese host authorities. The Minister of National Heritage, The Arts and Local Government, H.E Dr. Owen Bonnici, and the Mayor of Valletta, Mr. Alfred Zammit gave welcome remarks by highlighting the positive impact of local governments in tackling hate, violence and terrorism. This first day dealt with the right of MENA cities to address these important topics to prepare their citizens to face challenges. African city representatives made a valuable contribution in that meeting by sharing their experiences with other MENA members. Even though their actions are underestimated at national and international level, local authorities continue to mitigate negative impacts on their citizens, including vulnerable population like young people, children and women.
This workshop was an opportunity for African local government representatives to share the main challenges they are facing. In a session moderated by Mr. Eric Rosand, Executive Director of Strong Cities Network, the Mayor of Tangier, president of the Moroccan Association of Mayors (AMPCC), Mr. Mounir Laymoury, shared experiences around 3 topics: prisoner reintegration, migration initiatives and human rights. The city of Sousse, Tunisia, represented by Mrs. Sonia Benali, also emphasized on migration challenges as the city has known an influx of African citizens. Like the Moroccan city of Oujda, Sousse initiated various initiatives to integrate and support migrants, through building strong cohesion between them and citizens.
During day two, the deputy mayor of Marrakech, Mr. El Idrissi, underlined the necessity of building a sustainable community to face environmental and natural disasters like the earthquake that struck his city in September 2023. The same necessity was emphasized by the representative of Agadir, who said that local cohesion and community resilience are important to rebuild a city, and shared the main challenge of Agadir, which is access to water. In this second day, participants focused youth, women and civil society organizations (CSO). The Mayor of Sabha, Libya, Balhaj Ali Baljaj Mhimmid, highlighted the importance for municipalities to be more open to youth’s needs and follow CSO recommendations to facilitate local dialogue and fight against extremism. Mrs. Souad Zaidi, Secretary General of the AMPCC, shared the experience of the association on preventing hate, polarization and violent extremism by presenting their actions for human rights promotion and the strong collaboration with local, national and international stakeholders.
Another highlight of this meeting was the working group in which the UCLG Africa representative, Lionel Nzamba from the Gender and Youth Department, shared the experiences of African cities in involving the youth and women of local governance. He also presented the Network of Young Local Elected Officials of Africa (YELO) and the Network of Locally Elected Women of Africa (REFELA) and their meaningful initiatives to include and mobilize key stakeholders to face local challenges. The Libyan representatives took the opportunity to show how capacity-building sessions and workshops on female leadership were useful for their community.
At the end of the event, the Moroccan cities of Agadir and Tangier, as well as the city of Valletta (Malta), were announced as new Strong Cities members. Moreover, the Moroccan Association of Mayors (AMPCC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Strong Cities network to facilitate, among other things, access by Moroccan local governments to good practices from across Strong Cities members and enable Strong Cities to work with the association to build strong, socially cohesive and resilient cities in the Kingdom.