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South Asia Regional Hub

South Asia Regional Hub

In a region often focused on centralised and securitised approaches to extremism, the Strong Cities South Asia Regional Hub is engaging with local municipalities and stakeholders on an exciting prevention and resilience agenda; empowering cities to explore their potential and facilitating opportunities to engage with regional counterparts on how hate and extremism can manifest and be addressed at the local level.

Identifying City Needs & Priorities in South Asia

Through desk research, in-depth interviews, virtual and in person roundtables, the South Asia Regional Hub mapped the local threat landscape and identified the needs and priorities of cities and subnational authorities for mayors and local governments across the region to fulfil their potential in prevention and resilience-building.

Impact

Hear from Cities in South Asia

The South Asia Regional Hub Inaugural Event was wonderful! Being part of this workshop was a memorable experience and shared a lot of knowledge.

Khajja Ibrahim—Women’s Development Committee, Addu City, Maldives

About the South Asia Regional Hub

The South Asia Regional Hub was launched in January 2023 at an event in Dubai that brought together local, national, civil society and multilateral stakeholders to identify priorities across the Hub’s five pillars. The team is now driving forward its ambitious work plan, informed by the priority themes identified by stakeholders across the region during the inaugural event, with a particular focus on leveraging existing city-level frameworks, resources and structures.

The Regional Hub is also engaging cities in the Southeast Asia region.

Supported by funding from the US Department of State, the Regional Hub is working with local governments to identify their relevant needs and priorities, and provide them with the support, resources and access needed to become leaders in prevention, ensuring their perspectives inform relevant national, regional and global policy and programme conversations.

South Asia REgional Hub

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Gulmina Bilal

Head

Gulmina Bilal

Head

Gulmina Bilal Ahmad is Head of the South Asia Regional Hub, leading efforts to engage cities, local governments, women, youth and civil society, promoting cooperation across and between regions, developing policies and programmes, and implementing programming and training to address hate, extremism and polarisation. She has a rich 19 years of experience in the development sector, including on counter-terrorism, prevention programming and technical capacity-building initiatives. She has worked as an international facilitator with organisations based in Bulgaria, Germany, India, Romania, Pakistan and the United States. Since 2009, she has served as the Executive Director of Individualland, a civil society organisation involved in a number of community engagements, youth outreach and capacity-building programmes in Pakistan.

Anika Ahmed

Programme Lead

Anika Ahmed

Programme Lead

Anika is Programme Lead for the South Asia Regional Hub, coordinating interactions with provincial and local government authorities, including mayors and city-level social welfare and civil society stakeholders in South Asia and Southeast Asia. Her key responsibilities include reaching out to local municipalities, city leaders and practitioners, and coordinating both in-person and virtual events, to facilitate the exchange of good practices. She has 18 years of experience in facilitating training on conflict-sensitive journalism, safety mechanisms for journalists, gender-inclusive journalism, peace-building, countering violent extremism and civic education. She holds a doctorate degree and is fluent in English, Pashto and Urdu.

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DISCOVER THE NETWORK

Strong Cities in South Asia

A global network of cities in different national and local contexts ensures that wherever a city is located, there will be other cities facing similar challenges and with similar capacities and needs
Maldives

Addu City

South Asia Regional Hub
Bangladesh

Dhaka North City Corporation

South Asia Regional Hub
Bangladesh

Dhaka South City Corporation

South Asia Regional Hub
Maldives

Malé

South Asia Regional Hub
Pakistan

Mardan

South Asia Regional Hub
India

Mumbai

South Asia Regional Hub
Bangladesh

Narayanganj City Corporation

South Asia Regional Hub
Pakistan

Nowshera

South Asia Regional Hub
Pakistan

Peshawar

South Asia Regional Hub
Pakistan

Quetta

South Asia Regional Hub
Sri Lanka

Trincomalee Town & Gravets

South Asia Regional Hub
News & EVENTS

South Asia Regional Hub in Action

News & Events