News

09/10/2020

Civil society initiatives during and after the corona pandemic

Review of the virtual expert exchange for the MENA region on August 25, 2020

More than 15 municipal representatives from Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, Tunis, Libya, Morocco and Algeria participated in the fourth virtual event of the knowledge-exchange series on Municipal Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The aim of the event is to showcase good practices that reveals what civil society organizations are doing on the ground, and the added value they bring to municipal response to the pandemic.

 The virtual event provided the space for an interactive exchange of experiences and all participants have engaged in a lively discussion bringing their local expertise to their peers.

Program

In this virtual event, three good practices were shared from Beni-Khalled (Tunisia), Greater Amman (Jordan), Zletin (Libya). The moderated plenary session provided an opportunity for discussion between the presenters and the participants. The participants were then encouraged to continue with the exchange on the virtual platform where other resources were shared in addition to the session outputs. Overall, the following set of questions were addressed by the presenters:

  1. What have been the core challenges for civil society organizations in their role of supporting municipalities during the pandemic?
  2. What measures have civil society organizations put in place?
  3. How do the civil society organizations deal with vulnerable groups which were most affected by the pandemic?
  4. Are civil society organizations cooperating with municipalities to set different development-or service-related priorities in the aftermath of the pandemic?
  5. What are the lessons learned from the perspective of civil society organizations?

Presentations of good practices in Arabic (for members only)

Civil society initiatives supporting municipal response to the pandemic in Beni- Khalled, Tunisia and the community development sector.
Ms. Leila Ben Gacem, Beni-Khalled municipality

The role of civil society and the community development sector in the Greater Amman Municipality
Ms. Ghaida’a Al Hadidi; Greater Amman Municipality

Civil society and private sector initiatives to alleviate the impacts of the pandemic and the lock-down in Zletin, Libya
Dr. Taha Wali; Zletin Municipality in Libya

Results

The input given and discussion thereafter confirmed the immediate role of civil society in monitoring the pandemic’s impact on municipal service delivery as well as facilitating engagement with affected communities, a critical part of ensuring contextually relevant responses.

 In order to follow through with the initiatives in the municipalities, Connective Cities provided a practice-oriented exchange between network members on Connective Cities platform where members could share their challenges and interventions in the provision of their civil society responses.

More: COVID-19-Update


Author:
Connective Cities


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