MENA Regional Hub: Roundtable on Sustaining Prevention and Strengthening Resilience in MENA

Publication Date:

23/09/2025

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Summary

On 23 – 24 September 2025, the Strong Cities Network MENA Regional Hub convened its fifth regional workshop in Amman (Jordan). Supported by the European Union under the STRIVE Cities initiative, the two-day roundtable featured more than 45 participants, including mayors, deputy mayors, governors, municipal practitioners, national officials, law enforcement and civil society from across the region (Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya and Morocco). Among other things, they explored how to integrate hate, violent extremism and polarisation prevention efforts into wider efforts to strengthen municipal governance, ensuring their sustainability; and how local governments across the region can build digital resilience and enhance youth civic engagement.

In plenary and breakout sessions, participants shared city-led experiences, identified lessons learned and discussed how to scale effective models through peer learning and collaboration. The workshop reaffirmed that preventing hate, violent extremism and polarisation in MENA depends not only on technical expertise but also on political will, institutional continuity and whole-of-society participation and at both the national and local levels.

Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) set the tone for the meeting, with GAM’s Rana Jaghbeer, Executive Director for Social Affairs, and Rasha Alshawarbeh, Manager of Queen Rania Parks, emphasising municipal community engagement, use of public spaces and partnerships as core elements of their prevention efforts. Zouhair Racheha, Head of Strong Cities MENA Regional Hub, reflected on the Network’s expansion in the region and the growing recognition across the region at both the national and local levels of the need to institutionalise city-led prevention as a core pillar of a whole-of-society approach to preventing violent extremism (PVE) and other threats to social cohesion. Ilke Verhelle, Counter Terrorism and Security Counsellor at the EU Delegation to Jordan, reinforced the EU’s commitment to locally led prevention and called for durable national-local cooperation (NLC) and sustainability beyond donor funding cycles.

Key Findings

Participants identified a set of cross-cutting lessons that should guide Strong Cities MENA work and wider efforts to support city-led prevention in the region, going forward:

Prevention efforts must be grounded in the realities of evolving threats
Cities are facing an overlapping set of challenges – from digital disinformation and hate speech to climate stress, economic exclusion and social fragmentation. Prevention strategies must be designed with these complex, interlinked risks in mind, ensuring that municipal action directly addresses the drivers of polarisation and vulnerability in each local context.
Embedding prevention within governance systems ensures sustainability
Prevention cannot remain a project-based or ad hoc exercise. It must be institutionalised within local governance structures – reflected in mandates, budgets and planning processes – so that youth engagement, women’s participation and community partnerships become permanent features of municipal decision-making rather than temporary initiatives.
National-local cooperation (NLC) is essential to move from reactive to preventive governance Cities’ proximity to communities makes them indispensable partners in early detection and response. Formalising cooperation through legal frameworks, joint planning and coordination mechanisms will ensure prevention is shared and sustained across all levels of government, beyond donor funding cycles.
Peer learning and regional cooperation accelerate progress
City-to-city exchanges across the MENA region are helping local governments replicate and adapt effective prevention models to their own contexts. Strong municipal networks and associations are proving more agile and trusted than top-down interventions, fostering innovation through collaboration.
Building public trust and civic participation is a cornerstone of prevention
Municipalities that invest in transparent communication, inclusive policymaking and partnerships with youth and civil society strengthen legitimacy and resilience. Trust between citizens and institutions is both a precondition for and a product of effective prevention.

Threats & Key Challenges

Speakers described a convergence of interconnected threats and challenges across the region that continue to heighten local vulnerability and strain municipal capacity. For example, digital harms and disinformation were highlighted as some of the most pressing threats, with participants warning that AI-generated misinformation and disinformation, online recruitment and hate speech are increasingly driving polarisation both online and offline. The rapid evolution of these digital threats has outpaced regulatory frameworks, leaving municipalities with few tools to respond. Participants therefore underscored the urgent need for locally rooted early-warning mechanisms, digital literacy programmes and coordinated communication strategies that can identify and counter harmful narratives before they escalate.

Environmental and climate-related stress was also cited as a growing driver of instability. Participants shared how cities such as Damietta (Egypt) face mounting pressure from coastal erosion, water scarcity and climate-induced migration, placing additional strain on local services and infrastructure. They noted that when such pressures intersect with poverty and limited livelihood opportunities, they can create conditions that violent and extremist actors can exploit.

Economic exclusion and the perception of injustice, particularly in fragile contexts across the region, were also highlighted as drivers of violent extremism and polarisation. Participants observed that when citizens perceive inequality, corruption or neglect in public service delivery, it fuels frustration and mistrust, leaving communities vulnerable to grievance-based narratives that undermine social cohesion.

Discussions explored how governance fragility compounds these risks. In many contexts, ambiguous mandates between local and national authorities, top-down decision-making and frequent policy shifts following political transitions weaken institutional resilience at the local level. The absence of consistent national frameworks for prevention and the dependency on short-term donor funding cycles were seen as further barriers to continuity and long-term impact.

Finally, participants acknowledged the often-severe resource constraints facing municipalities. Limited budgets, staffing shortages and competing service priorities mean that prevention is often treated as a (time-limited) project rather than a core municipal function. Delegates called for prevention to be integrated into mainstream governance and service delivery, supported by sustainable financing and institutional commitment from both the national and local government, rather than being reliant on external funding alone.

Key Themes

1. Institutionalising Participatory Governance & Strengthening National-Local Cooperation

Participants emphasised that prevention efforts are most effective when local and national authorities work in tandem through formalised and consistent channels. They agreed that local governments, with their proximity to communities and capacity for early detection, are critical partners in shaping and implementing national prevention strategies. Yet, as several delegates noted, these partnerships remain uneven across the region, often relying on personal relationships rather than institutional mechanisms. Strengthening structured cooperation – underpinned by legal frameworks and joint planning processes – was therefore identified as a critical step towards sustainable, whole-of-society prevention.

Discussions provided concrete examples from across the region of how this cooperation is beginning to take shape. For example, Basmal Banaa from Iraq’s National Committee for Countering Violent Extremism described how decentralised governorate-level subcommittees have translated the national strategy into actionable local plans. Chaired by deputy governors and mayors, these bodies bring together community police, civil society and religious leaders to tailor prevention to local realities, ensuring flexibility while maintaining alignment with national priorities. This model demonstrates how structured cooperation can enhance both coordination and legitimacy of prevention efforts among community members.

In Jordan, Omar Al Khalayla from the Community Peace Centre highlighted how it has gradually built trust among municipalities, universities and civil society to bridge the gap between national security institutions and local communities. Since its establishment, the Centre has signed over 40 cooperation agreements and reached more than 700,000 people through awareness programmes. By anchoring collaboration in shared goals such as youth empowerment and social cohesion, the Centre demonstrates how national agencies and municipalities can move beyond reactive security approaches toward proactive, preventive engagement.

Participants further stressed that strong national-local coordination must go hand in hand with participatory local governance that anchors prevention in community ownership. From Morocco, Dr. Nadia Chadi, Deputy Mayor, City of Tétouan, and Dr. Hakima Al Hatri, Deputy Mayor, City of Fès, showcased municipal structures that institutionalise citizen participation and intergovernmental cooperation. For example, Tétouan’s network of thematic advisory bodies and Fès’s legally mandated Communal Youth Council illustrate how participatory mechanisms embedded in municipal law can outlast political transitions, ensuring continuity and accountability.

From Jordan, Mohamed Nayef Zawahreh, Director of Community Development, City of Zarqa, described how the Municipality’s Local Prevention Network, initially supported by Strong Cities, evolved into a Community Prevention Network integrated into the local government structure, with youth branches and legal clinics supporting civic participation. These experiences illustrate that prevention endures when it is integrated into everyday municipal functions – planning, budgeting, education and service delivery – rather than treated as a temporary initiative.

Greater Amman Municipality believes that the key to development and peace is social engagement, and it starts with society. We cannot offer programs… unless there is social engagement and social understanding of what is happening in the world that we won’t be achieving much
Rasha Alshawarbeh, Manager of Queen Rania Parks

Delegates called for a number of practical measures to consolidate NLC. These include: adopting legal frameworks for structured consultation; establishing municipal coordination units dedicated to prevention; digitising information sharing between national and local bodies and institutionalising consultative committees to ensure two-way communication and collective problem-solving. Together, these steps were seen as essential to embedding prevention as a shared responsibility across all levels of governance.

City of Tétouan (Morocco): Institutionalising Participatory Governance

Challenge: The City of Tétouan has long grappled with persistent social and economic disparities across its neighbourhoods. These are marked by unequal access to services, limited opportunities for vulnerable groups and weak coordination between local and national programmes. These gaps risked deepening exclusion, polarisation and mistrust between citizens and institutions. Recognising that prevention and social cohesion depend on inclusion and participation, the municipality made a strategic decision to embed citizen engagement and cooperation at the heart of its governance model.

Approach: To strengthen participation, Tétouan launched a series of consultations across diverse neighbourhoods, including marginalised areas far from the city centre. These workshops informed municipal planning and gave communities a voice in shaping priorities. Building on this foundation, the City established five advisory bodies focused on equality, youth, childhood, disability and culture – transforming ad hoc engagement into an institutionalised framework for representation and dialogue.

Tétouan’s approach also featured a strong commitment to national-local cooperation (NLC). The Municipality positioned itself as a connector between local priorities and national policy frameworks, actively seeking ministerial partnerships and integrating them into local service delivery. Municipal facilities were opened and equipped as shared spaces for joint implementation. The Ahmed Agzoul Social Centre in Hay Nasim exemplifies this model: managed by the Municipality, the centre hosts programmes delivered by the Ministries of Culture, Primary Education and Sports alongside local associations. Similarly, six neighbourhood libraries were upgraded with internet access, becoming hubs for community learning, while the renovated Tayeb Baqali Sports Facility was reopened city-wide to provide inclusive spaces for sports and youth engagement. Through these initiatives, Tétouan embedded national partnerships directly into community life.

The City also modernised its governance through digital transformation. By adopting Morocco’s national digital platform Rokhas.ma, Tétouan streamlined procedures for urban planning and business licensing, issuing thousands of economic permits between 2022 and 2024. This shift not only improved transparency and citizen satisfaction but also supported an estimated 4,600 jobs annually.

Tétouan’s cooperative approach extended beyond national frameworks to include international partnerships and local civil society. Collaborations with EuropeAid through GERES and EDIC contributed to the City’s climate adaptation and energy transition agenda, while city-to-city cooperation with Barcelona (Spain), implemented in partnership with CODISPA and the Atil Association, delivered 20 employability workshops for 500 young people, strengthening both vocational skills and civic engagement.

At the grassroots level, civil society organisations expanded the municipality’s reach into vulnerable communities. Ana wa Kafil al-Yatim offered literacy and Qur’an classes for women and children; Eshraka Qalb (إشراقة قلب) provided support to families of children with disabilities; and Hemssa Shabab and Ayadi Shabab created cultural, vocational and sports opportunities in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Impact: The results of this participatory and cooperative model are tangible. Community priorities identified through the consultation process were integrated into Tétouan’s Communal Action Plan, ensuring that municipal policies reflected citizens’ voices. The advisory bodies now serve as standing platforms for dialogue, enabling under-represented groups to influence decision-making on an ongoing basis. In 2024 alone, the Ahmed Ajzoul Social Centre hosted 145 programmes reaching 3,644 residents — two-thirds of them women — while revitalised libraries and sports facilities strengthened civic participation and social connection. Through this comprehensive, whole-of-society approach, Tétouan has transformed participation from a consultative exercise into a structural element of governance. By aligning local action with national frameworks, building international partnerships and empowering civil society, the City has strengthened its social fabric and laid durable foundations for resilience and prevention.

2. Fostering Inclusive Participation and Social Trust

Participants highlighted that prevention relies as much on strong relationships as on trust in the institutions. Across the region, social polarisation, inequality and fragile governance have eroded confidence in authority. They acknowledged that rebuilding trust between citizens and institutions must begin with prioritising policies, programmes and partnerships that prioritise inclusion – meaningful participation, transparent communication and shared ownership of solutions to local challenges.

Discussions drew attention to how civil society and youth networks can play an important role in bridging gaps between institutions and communities. When citizens see their voices reflected in local policymaking processes and outcomes, prevention of violent extremism and polarisation becomes both credible and sustainable. Municipalities that foster open dialogue, enable civil society partnerships and engage youth as partners rather than recipients are better equipped to prevent division and strengthen resilience.

In Sabratha (Libya), the local government has maintained regular town halls and municipal communication channels to preserve public trust and community involvement even amid national instability.

Jordan developed a model for multi-stakeholder cooperation through its Community Peace Centre, which connects municipal services, universities, youth networks and national security institutions. Under the leadership of Rana Jaghbeer, GAM has invested in outreach to vulnerable communities, digital literacy and youth dialogue, demonstrating how transparent communication and shared leadership can sustain local resilience.

Local officials from Iraq and Libya also highlighted the value of partnerships that build social capital, including local dialogues, participatory budgeting and youth councils that link municipal planning to community priorities. Participants agreed that multi-stakeholder collaboration should be reciprocal and transparent, with clear roles for each actor, to maintain legitimacy and ensure sustainability.

Tripoli (Lebanon): Building Trust Through Youth Engagement

Challenge: Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city, has long faced deep economic and social divides that have fuelled alienation, mistrust and periodic unrest. Against this backdrop, local youth and civil society organisations have taken the lead in bridging divides and rebuilding public confidence.

Approach: Working alongside the Municipality, youth-led groups such as We Love Tripoli and March Lebanon have transformed public spaces into platforms for dialogue, arts and community engagement. Theatre projects, neighbourhood rehabilitation activities and online campaigns have helped challenge stereotypes and promote a shared sense of belonging.

The Municipality’s collaboration with these initiatives reflects a shift in approach – recognising that prevention and resilience depend on inclusion, not control. By partnering with youth networks and providing access to municipal venues, Tripoli has helped transform local prevention into a community-driven process rooted in trust and participation.

Impact: The Municipality’s experience underscores that, even in contexts of fragility, youth-led collaboration can serve as a stabilising force. When young people are empowered to lead, prevention becomes both more relevant and more sustainable.

3. Building Digital and Information Resilience

Participants identified digital harms and disinformation as rapidly growing threats to social cohesion and public trust across the MENA region. From AI-generated misinformation to online hate speech and cyberbullying, municipalities face the challenge of protecting citizens in an environment where digital harms evolve faster than policy and regulation. Participants agreed that local governments are uniquely positioned to promote awareness, deliver digital literacy and build partnerships that connect national cybersecurity policies to community-level action.

Discussions underscored the importance of developing locally tailored prevention models that combine education, communication and technology. Cities shared how they are working to make digital safety a core public responsibility, not merely a specialised or technical concern. In Rabat (Morocco), for example, AI-assisted monitoring tools are being used to track online hate speech trends, informing city-led awareness campaigns. Jordanian municipalities described initiatives linking schools and youth centres to promote positive digital engagement, while participants from Lebanon highlighted community media projects that counter misinformation and foster civic dialogue.

Karrar Mahboba, Deputy Governor, City of Najaf (Iraq), described how Najaf is working with local media outlets and national authorities to respond to rumours and disinformation. Coordinated platforms have been developed to monitor online content and issue rapid responses, reducing the destabilising impact of false information.

Representatives from the City of Damietta and Al-Azhar Observatory in Egypt highlighted the role of national initiatives in addressing online harms and the importance of adapting these approaches to the local governance level in the Egyptian context. These included digital awareness campaigns, educational programmes and partnerships with religious and educational institutions to raise community awareness, promote tolerance and correct misconceptions.

For us, digitalisation is a double-edged sword, and I believe that it’s a tool to spreading extremism because it exploits the economy and society
Najat Riahi, Head of International Development, City of Rabat (Morocco)

Participants also emphasised that digital resilience depends on trust. When misinformation spreads unchecked, it not only divides communities but also erodes citizens’ confidence in public institutions. Participants called for more proactive municipal communication strategies, providing transparent, factual information that can prevent rumours and reinforce institutional credibility.

City of Damietta (Egypt): Building Digital Resilience and Community Awareness

Challenge: Damietta Governorate has been at the forefront of Egypt’s efforts to strengthen digital resilience at the local level, responding to a growing range of online threats that have social and security implications. With one of the country’s most digitally connected populations, Damietta faced increasing cases of cyber fraud, privacy breaches, blackmail and online harassment targeting young people and families. Misinformation and rumours circulating through social media were also eroding public trust in institutions and exacerbating social tensions. Recognising the critical role of local authorities in prevention, the Governorate made digital safety and literacy a central component of its local resilience agenda.

Approach: To address these challenges, Damietta established a comprehensive awareness and prevention programme built on three pillars: education, cooperation and community engagement. The Governorate forged partnerships with national institutions, including the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) and Damietta University, to ensure that local initiatives were technically sound and aligned with national strategies. Together, they delivered a series of high-impact awareness campaigns, training sessions and community dialogues aimed at strengthening digital literacy among students, parents and municipal employees.

Key among these initiatives was the national “Cybersecurity – National Security” symposium, which brought together government officials, university leaders and community representatives to raise awareness about the social and security dimensions of online threats. Complementing this, the Governorate rolled out public campaigns such as “I Verify… Before You Believe” encouraging critical thinking and fact-checking among social media users. Through schools, community centres and local media, this campaign helped normalise responsible online behaviour and challenged the spread of misinformation.

Damietta also promoted practical tools to empower citizens to protect themselves. The MY NTRA mobile application was introduced to help users report online abuse, monitor data consumption and manage personal digital security, while community awareness sessions provided hands-on training on privacy protection, cyberbullying prevention and safe digital practices. These activities targeted multiple audiences — from secondary school students and university youth to municipal employees and family associations — ensuring that digital literacy was mainstreamed across generations.

Beyond awareness, Damietta recognised that digital resilience requires collective ownership. The Governorate leveraged existing local networks — including community development associations and parent–teacher groups — to extend outreach to vulnerable families and remote communities. Local media outlets, religious leaders and youth volunteers also played an important role in amplifying messages of responsible digital engagement and countering online hate.

Impact: The results of this multi-layered approach have been significant. Thousands of residents have participated in awareness sessions, and digital literacy has been incorporated into the curriculum of several local educational institutions. Partnerships with NTRA and the Ministry of Communications have enabled the introduction of practical digital safety modules for municipal staff, ensuring that prevention is integrated into everyday governance. Public trust has also improved, with citizens increasingly viewing the municipality as a reliable source of accurate information and support when confronted with online threats.

Through this collaborative and preventive model, Damietta has demonstrated how local governments can operationalise national cyber strategies at the community level. By combining education, partnerships and civic participation, the Governorate has turned digital resilience into a shared responsibility – one that strengthens social cohesion, reduces vulnerability to online harms and reinforces citizens’ confidence in their local institutions.

Next Steps

Building on the lessons and exchanges from the Amman workshop, participants identified practical steps to sustain momentum and ensure that local prevention efforts are both effective and enduring. The following recommendations reflect shared priorities across municipalities in the MENA region.

Give Municipalities a Central Role in National Prevention Frameworks
Participants stressed that municipalities remain too often sidelined in the design and implementation of national prevention strategies. Local officials called for structured frameworks that allow cities to contribute directly to national policymaking — sharing local insights with ministries, security agencies and coordination bodies. They also underlined the importance of establishing mechanisms for regular, two-way consultation, ensuring that prevention efforts are coherent across central and local levels rather than fragmented or duplicated.

Integrate Digital Resilience into Municipal Policies
Online harms were consistently identified as one of the fastest-growing risks, with disinformation and polarising narratives spreading rapidly through local networks. Participants agreed that municipalities should embed digital literacy and strategic communication into their core mandates – training staff, running citizen awareness campaigns and maintaining transparent online communication channels. Cities also called for stronger cooperation with technology companies and national regulators to ensure that prevention messages and campaigns are visible and responsibly amplified rather than suppressed or misclassified as harmful content.

Build Local Capacity to Lead Prevention Efforts
Delegates emphasised that prevention depends on empowered local actors – people who can mobilise communities, mediate tensions and sustain engagement. Investing in municipal staff training, youth councils, volunteer initiatives and the participation of women and community leaders was seen as essential to developing lasting local leadership. When local actors are equipped and confident, they can adapt to evolving risks and maintain prevention work regardless of external circumstances or funding cycles.

Embed Prevention in Municipal Governance and Budgets
A recurring concern was that many initiatives remain project-based and vulnerable to turnover in leadership or funding. Participants called for prevention to be structurally integrated into municipal systems – through dedicated budget lines, inclusion in formal council processes and partnerships with civil society and the private sector. Embedding prevention into local governance frameworks transforms it from a temporary, time-limited project into a permanent public function and a marker of institutional maturity.

Taken together, these recommendations reaffirm that prevention and resilience depend on municipalities being empowered, resourced and recognised as the frontline of governance. Sustained collaboration with national authorities, civil society and international partners will be essential to carry these commitments forward and translate local innovation into long-term resilience.

Additional Resources

Countering Hate Speech in Times of Crisis: Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments, Strong Cities Network, December 2024
Managing Migration: City-Led Approaches for Being an Inclusive, Welcoming and Socially-Cohesive City, Strong Cities Network, December 2024
City-Led Prevention of Hate, Extremism and Polarisation: Leveraging Local Youth Councils, Strong Cities Network, December 2024
City-Led Youth Engagement in Addressing Hate, Extremism and Polarisation: Ten Recommendations for Cities, Strong Cities Network, December 2024
Creating Safe, Cohesive and Resilient Cities through Urban Planning & Design: Ten Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments, Strong Cities Network, December 2024
National-Local Cooperation: A Pillar of City-Led Prevention of Hate, Extremism and Polarisation – A Practice Update, Strong Cities Network, December 2024
Global Crises, Local Impacts Initiative, Strong Cities Network, 2024
A Guide for Cities: Preventing Hate, Extremism & Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, updated 2024
A Guide for Mayors: Preventing and Responding to Hate, Extremism & Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, updated 2024
A Guide for City-Led Response, Strong Cities Network, May 2024
Constructing UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Cities, Operational Guidelines, May 2024
City Spotlights Library, Strong Cities Network
National-Local Cooperation Toolkit, Global Counterterrorism Forum, Strong Cities, September 2023

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For more information on this event and the Strong Cities MENA Regional Hub, please contact [email protected]

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MENA Regional Hub: Roundtable on Sustaining Prevention and Strengthening Resilience in MENA

Key Findings

Threats & Key Challenges

Key Themes

1. Institutionalising Participatory Governance & Strengthening National-Local Cooperation

City of Tétouan (Morocco): Institutionalising Participatory Governance

2. Fostering Inclusive Participation and Social Trust

Tripoli (Lebanon): Building Trust Through Youth Engagement

3. Building Digital and Information Resilience

City of Damietta (Egypt): Building Digital Resilience and Community Awareness

Next Steps

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