The upcoming virtual project workshop “Local Economic Development and Job Creation” is a follow-up to the dialogue event held virtually in October 2020. The dialogue event brought together municipal representatives and urban practitioners to showcase and discuss good practices and develop new project ideas through peer learning. This project workshop aims to further develop these project ideas by revising strategic approaches with the support of relevant regional and international experts.

The virtual project workshop will take place on 19th – 20th January 2021 followed by two virtual sessions on funding proposal writing and financing of municipal projects on the 21th & 25th January respectively.

The following project ideas formulated within the ambit of the dialogue event, will be discussed and developed in the workshop:

1. Strategic planning for Local Economic Development (LED)

• Revitalizing the historic city center in As-Samou’, Palestine
• Sfax Business Center in Tunisia

2. Promoting sustainable livelihood opportunities and social enterprise

• Promotion of home-based businesses in the food-processing sector in Qalqilya
• Center for training and development of women and people with disabilities in Hay Al-Andalus, Libya

3. Public investments in green infrastructure and circular economies

• Improving the environmental and economic sustainability of olive oil Industry in Palestine (EN-SOIP project)
• Bethlehem Waste Sorting and Treatment plant

We encourage participation of two experts from the LED or relevant municipal departments with a possibility of being accompanied by a partner from the civil society, private sector or academia. With this call, we are looking for German and regional experts who can support and advance the proposed project ideas with their expertise. Interested German urban practitioners will be working closely with the municipal representatives from the participating municipalities in MENA.

Further information: Call of participants (pdf, 290kb)

For applications and queries from interested experts from the MENA region, please contact: Dr. Muna Shalan, GIZ Regional Network Coordinator Connective Cities – MENA region (muna.shalan(at)giz.de).
Interested German experts should contact Ms. Alice Balbo, Connective Cities Project Manager at the German Association of Cities (alice.balbo(at)staedtetag.de).