The Strong Cities Network Central Management Unit is excited to announce the launch of new Regional Hubs in East & Southern Africa, the MENA region, and the Western Balkans, followed by Hubs in South Asia, and – subject to funding – West Africa & the Sahel.

The Regional Hubs will act as regional focal points for cities across these regions, enabling the development and exchange of good practices, and supporting cities and local governments respond more effectively to extremism, hate and polarisation.

The Regional Hubs will offer trainings and other opportunities to cities and city leadership within a region to strengthen their capacities develop and implement good P/CVE policies and practices, while also providing the cities further resources and technical assistance to do so.

The Regional Hubs will be staffed by small, dynamic teams from the corresponding region. While the size, structure and focus will vary by region, scoped in consultation with Network member cities, the Regional Hubs will catalyse the Network’s mission and prevention efforts as follows:

· Engage cities across the region to build blueprints for prevention, which local authorities can take to national and international stakeholders to realise.

· Build the prevention capacity of cities and other local leaders on meaningful engagement with youth, multi-actor prevention and other topics based on local needs, supporting cities to localise global good practice.

· Convene local authorities and facilitate city-to-city peer learning, promoting and strengthening national-local cooperation on prevention, and providing support for city-led prevention efforts.

· Connect local authorities across the region with the global prevention architecture, elevating the voices of mayors and other local leaders and ensuring cities from the region can inform global decision-making on prevention.

· Facilitate coordination between multilateral/regional, national, and local approaches to prevention, regularly convening multilateral partners, national and local governments, civil society and the private sector to improve collaboration and communication in the region.

For more information on our Regional Hubs, see our Regional Hub Factsheets: