During this year’s UN General Assembly, a huge focus was placed on the Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2016 with the convening of the SDG Summit to review the roadmap to 2030. In our main article, Head of Strong Cities Network, Rebecca Skellett, asks whether SDGs and PVE are working towards the same goal?
In 2017, the SCN launched an innovative and radical experiment in the Middle East – to bring local community actors together to drive efforts to help prevent violent extremism. This novel approach proved enormously successful, with six Local Prevention Networks (LPNs) launched across Lebanon and Jordan.
Today, we are proud to announce that this model is being expanded to the Western Balkans in the North Macedonian city of Kumanovo.
This is a last call for proposals. The SCN is seeking to fund a minimum of five local civil society or grassroots organisations between $8,000 and $10,000 USD to carry out projects which support the implementation of the County Action Plans in SCN member or engaged counties (Isiolo, Kwale, Lamu, Mombasa and Nakuru).
Preventing violent extremism calls for communities, organisations, and practitioners to work across their boundaries in a joint endeavour. But this can be far from easy.
In this guest contribution, William Stephens, a PhD candidate at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, asks what does it take for collaboration to be more than warm words?
According to The Global Liveability Index 2019, Karachi is among the ten least liveable cities in the world and ranks at an overall 136th position on the list. The index takes into account factors such as living standards, crime, transport, access to education and health.
Gulmina Bilal, Director of Individualland, a prominent CSO in Pakistan, asks whether is it possible to improve Karachi’s ranking in the global indices? And more importantly, how can we make the city safer for its residents?
Deputy Head of Strong Cities Network, Daniel Hooton (centre), speaking at the second global summit of the International Observatory of Mayors on Living Together. Credit: Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf/Marc-André Hergenröder ‘Inclusion’ and ‘resilience’ occupy an uneasy position in the rhetoric of today’s mayors and city leaders. There is a tacit consensus that both are integral principles for…
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Above: youth from Dakar, Senegal, participate in an Innovation Lab as part of Young Cities’ programme of work ‘Young people are the future’. While this is a truism, the reality of a growing youth population for cities makes the prospect a daunting one. In some cases, youth population growth is outstripping the country’s ability to…
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Above: the media campaign ‘Stray Bullets’ designed by Tripoli youth through SCN’s Young Cities programme is discussed on Lebanese national television Around the world, celebratory gunfire is a serious threat to life, with some bullets potentially reaching terminal velocity of 300 feet (91m) per second as they fall. Efforts by law enforcement to ban gunfire…
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Many of our members have felt in the last couple of years a growth in community division and polarisation. Communication campaigns are a great tool to promote social cohesion in a cost-effective and wide reaching manner. Such campaigns can be led by city hall together with civil society groups to foster a sense of place…
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Building trust between youth and local government can be a daunting task. The more local governments can create opportunities to support, partner and work with youth on the local issues that matter most to them, the better.
Facilitate systematic sharing of knowledge, expertise and lessons learned on building social cohesion and community resilience to prevent violent extremism across cities on an international basis, through both regional workshops and international conferences.
Raise awareness of existing policy, programming, and practice through a dynamic and searchable ‘Online Information Hub’, providing an extensive library of existing local approaches and responses to prevent violent extremism.
Directly support cities to develop strategic frameworks and capabilities to build resilience that safeguard the rights of their local communities, including through capacity building seminars and interactive training modules on themes of mutual interest.
Directly seed the development of new and innovative projects through ‘Local Innovation Grants’, providing support for cities on innovative project development and support for the transfer of promising projects that could be adapted across different locations.
Directly support cities to develop strategic frameworks and capabilities to build resilience that safeguard the rights of their local communities, including through capacity building seminars and interactive training modules on themes of mutual interest.
Provide a global platform to enable cities to jointly voice their needs and those of their communities, to inform national and international decision-making on preventing the spread and growth of violent extremism.
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