Highlights

Background

COVID-19 has had severe economic impacts on local economies and communities, particularly the most vulnerable. The pandemic has disrupted supply chains and led to reverse migration, stagnant rural non-farm economies, and devastating consequences for community/women groups, youth, and informal workers.  Extreme poverty is likely to persist at higher levels in 2021 and potentially beyond.  While initial efforts have rightly focused on mitigating immediate impacts, we now need to focus on comprehensive support to rebuild and transform local economies during and after COVID for longer-term economic recovery and resilience. The local economic development in a post-COVID context would require fresh thinking and bold ideas to support women, youth, and informal sector workers and enterprises on a more sustainable basis. Through this webinar series, we are engaging with thought leaders, policymakers and practitioners to explore pathways for transforming local economies and communities for inclusive and resilient recovery. This is the sixth webinar of the LED series.  Click here to learn more about the LED Series and previous webinars.

The Center for Mediterranean Integration (CMI) is a multi-partner knowledge exchange platform where development agencies, governments, local authorities, and civil society from around the Mediterranean convene to exchange ideas, discuss public policies, and identify regional solutions to address pressing regional challenges. Within its programs, the CMI managed since 2016 a Mediterranean Host Municipalities Learning Network (HMLN), which supports about 170 municipalities hosting forcibly displaced in the Middle East and Turkey in a platform for peer-to-peer learning, training and collaboration to support them facing their challenges and find innovative solutions.

About this Webinar

In the Middle East and Turkey, local authorities were already struggling with hosting high numbers of refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) before the outbreak of COVID-19 and are now facing a crisis on top of a crisis. With rising unemployment and business closure, they now see a stronger demand for jobs for refugees and locals alike, alongside the need to support local businesses and undertake innovative actions to recover they local economic development.

This webinar will show main challenges and new priorities for municipalities hosting refugees, and actions undertaken in collaboration with the private sector to mitigate the crisis. The discussion will include presentation of the latest findings collected by the CMI from surveys, assessments and consultations among local representatives during the pandemic, as well as testimonies of municipalities from Jordan, Palestine and Turkey. The event will particularly showcase how local authorities can face the new challenges of COVID-19 and speed up economic recovery by attracting investments and stimulating the local business environment to support both displaced populations and host communities.

Participating speakers:

Opening remarks:

• Blanca Moreno-Dodson, Manager, Center for Mediterranean Integration

Moderator:

• Sara Boughedir, Urban Consultant, Center for Mediterranean Integration

Speakers:

• Giulia Marchesini, Senior Partnership Specialist, Center for Mediterranean Integration
• Fuat Ozharat, Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality, Turkey
• Nadine Burbar, Head of Local Economic Development and Deputy Chief Resilience Officer, Ramallah Municipality, Palestine
• Reham Jammal, Director of Planning Department & Director of International Projects and Programs Unit, Greater Irbid Municipality, Jordan

Closing remarks:

• Varalakshmi Vemuru, Practice Manager, World Bank

Participation to the event

To learn more about the webinar and how to join please follow this link:

https://collaboration.worldbank.org/content/sites/collaboration-for-development/en/groups/cdd-and-local-economic-development/about2.html

Resources 

Webinar Program and Agenda

Recording