Above: the Lebanese focal points with Prevent officers in Leicester On 24 and 25 June, the Strong Cities Network (SCN) organised a study trip for its municipal focal points from Lebanon with the support of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Our focal points from the cities of Saida, Tripoli and Majdal Anjar travelled to…
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Above: Mayors at the launch of Strong Cities Network with Sasha Havlicek at the United Nations in New York 2015 While nation states have dominated the international stage for centuries, cities are now becoming increasingly important entities. For the first time in history, more people are living in cities today than in rural areas with…
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Above: the launch of the Tripoli Youth Office in Lebanon The past two months have been a busy period for the Young Cities team, delivering activities in collaboration with SCN members in Kenya, Lebanon and Senegal. Young Cities is SCN’s flagship youth engagement, capacity-building, advocacy and policy programme that supports the development of local youth-led…
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Marijeta Mojašević is a Youth Advisor for the Municipality of Berane, a town in the north of Montenegro. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992, the region was rocked by armed conflict throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Montenegro gained independence in 2006, and while the country has remained peaceful, the aftermath of the Balkan…
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In ‘The Human Library’, people are books. Designed as a way to challenge stereotypes and prejudices, each ‘book’ is an opportunity for people to share their personal stories with the readers to foster discussions on sensitive topics. These books are given categories which often provoke strong reactions, such as ‘Molested’, ‘HIV’, ‘Homeless’, or ‘Refugee,’ which…
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Authors: Rubina Abu Zeinab, National Coordinator for Preventing Violent Extremism; Merete Juhl, H.E. Ambassador of Denmark to Lebanon; Khadije Nasser, Senior Regional Manager, SCN. Last week Lebanon conducted its third iteration of the national consultative workshop on Preventing Violent Extremism with special focus on urban/rural development and engaging local communities. Representatives of governmental entities, municipalities,…
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Lebanon has the led the way in the MENA region, having been one of the first countries to establish a national PVE unit, which developed a national strategy aimed at the prevention of violent extremism (PVE) across the country. The strategy’s nine pillars include crucial strategic topics such as good governance, dialogue and economic development….
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Our new South Asia Regional Hub Page has just launched, which highlights the SCN’s work in the South Asia region. This includes the Regional Practitioner’s Workshop in Kolkata, India, as well as our city consultations in Pakistan and Bangladesh, city exchanges and Local Innovation Grants. If you are interested in our work in other regions, we have…
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Under the patronage of HE Mufti Salim Sussan of Saida, the municipal-led Local Prevention Network (LPN) of Saida, Lebanon, launched its theological workbook, in the presence of local partners, religious leaders, state officials and community members. The workbook is a corpus of suggested religious texts to be used by imams and school teachers in religious…
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This month, the SCN team were in Dhaka, Bangladesh to conduct in-depth interviews and consultations with city mayors, local officials and partner organisations. The consultations included meetings with Mayor Khokon of Dhaka South and Mayor Ivy of Narayanganj City Corporation, as well as relevant city officials responsible for social welfare, planning and peacebuilding. Discussions centred…
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