Highlights

Context/ Rationale

Building on the Host Municipalities Learning Network (HMLN)’s learning requests, this Webinar will present the topic of stakeholder identification and engagement through both technical presentations and existing examples. The Webinar will also be a chance for HMLN members to get together, and a specific session will be devoted to the Collaboration4Development (C4D) online platform.

Forced displacement is among the most pressing challenges in the Eastern Mediterranean region, especially in cities and urban areas: after six years of Syrian conflict, 92% of refugees reside outside camps.  Their socio-economic inclusion with regards to access to labor and income is still insufficient and may limit their contributions to host economies as well as increase their chances of falling into poverty. In the meanwhile, host local governments received a sudden increase in population and have to adapt their Local Economic Development (LED) plans accordingly in order to take advantage of local resources and assets to provide basic services, shelter, and create jobs. In this changing environment, municipal and governmental staff dealing with local economic planning needs to consider a variety of stakeholders to make the LED process as inclusive and participatory as possible. Stakeholders could be found, for instance, in refugees’ and minorities’ organizations, youth groups, private sector institutions, etc.

Following the outcomes of the Training Workshop on Strategic Planning for Local Economic Development in Host Communities, municipal representatives members of the Host Municipalities Learning Network (HMLN) expressed the need to deep-dive in the topic of stakeholder identification and engagement techniques and methods, especially to assess ways to engage stakeholders and what stakeholders to identify for a successful LED plan in forced displacement contexts.

Since June 2016 the Mediterranean Host Municipalities Learning Network aims to support host local governments with evidence-based knowledge and Capacity Building to improve their response capacity for forced displacement. The Network benefitted from several face-to-face workshops and webinars on priority themes, surveys, as well as online discussions in the ad-hoc Collaboration4Development (C4D) online collaborative platform. The Host Municipalities Network is moderated by the Center for Mediterranean Integration, as part of the Mediterranean Refugees and Host Communities Program.

Objectives and webinar structure

Main objectives will be:

• To discuss what kind of stakeholders identify, and how to successfully engage them in the framework of a LED plan;
• To identify and present good experiences and lessons learnt for improvement or possible replication in local governments hosting forcibly displaced;
• To do a brief recap on how to utilize the C4D online platform, the opportunities it offers, and the possibilities of online exchange.

The webinar will consist of a virtual exchange allowing participants to interact by connecting to the webinar directly from their computer. Arabic-English translation will be provided.

Please confirm your interest to participate here (English – Arabic).

Resources

Agenda