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STRIVE Cities Impact Overview: Strengthening City-Led Prevention of Hate, Extremism and Polarisation

Publication Date:

26/03/2026

Content Type:

Impact

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ESA Regional HubMENAMENA Regional HubSTRIVE Cities

Introduction

In September 2022, the Strong Cities Network launched STRIVE Cities, an investment by the European Union (EU) in the Network’s global portfolio, with a focus on supporting local governments and their leaders in two regions of particular interest to the EU: East and Southern Africa (ESA) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Over three years (2022-2025), STRIVE Cities transformed the ability of cities of all sizes across both regions to prevent and respond to hate, extremism and polarisation, while also generating greater buy-in and commitment from national governments to invest in city-led prevention efforts. Through dedicated ESA and MENA Regional Hubs that collectively engaged more than 120 cities across 24 countries through 10 regional and more than 14 national and city-to-city in-person activities, as well as regular virtual engagement, STRIVE Cities:

• Raised awareness amongst local, national and international actors of the often-overlooked role local governments and their leaders can and must play in prevention to implement the whole-of-society approach to such efforts internationally recognised as good practice;
• Built the capacity of local governments and supported them to implement a range of good prevention practices related to how they engage young people and communities more broadly; rehabilitation and reintegration of those returning from conflict zones or former violent extremist offenders; community-based early warning against hate and violent extremism, and more;
• Convened national and local governments to strengthen national-local cooperation (NLC) and national-level support for city-led prevention policies, programmes and partnerships;
• Connected cities (and other sub-national entities) in these regions to a vibrant global community of local government leaders and practitioners and international stakeholders dedicated to addressing hate and extremism in all its forms and strengthening social cohesion.

The impacts of investing in local governments over the three-year initiative were many: from implementation of community-based infrastructure to improve early warning against extremism and hate speech; the establishment and institutionalisation of youth engagement practices; crisis management support; to mayoral investment in and advocacy for city-led prevention and enhanced NLC.

This brief provides an overview of such impacts, highlighting the potential for change when local governments and their leaders are supported to meet their vital role in prevention.

Inspiring Local Leadership

One of the Regional Hubs’ core functions is to raise awareness amongst local governments on the roles they can play in addressing hate and extremism, complementing relevant national strategies to implement a truly whole-of-society approach to prevention that must, by definition, include local government. Once sensitised to their role (e.g., through regional convenings and other awareness-raising activities), cities across ESA and MENA showed leadership in championing city-led prevention. For example:

• Border Municipalities Working Group in ESA: During a Strong Cities regional workshop in Johannesburg (South Africa) in June 2023, leaders of border towns from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda came together to form a Border Municipalities Working Group that would be hosted by Strong Cities. This was inspired by recognition that a) they share a complicated threat landscape as a result of the region’s porous borders and their remoteness from their capitals and b) that they could benefit from sustained peer learning on how to better address local threats.
  
  Since then, Strong Cities has supported the Working Group by helping it develop a strategy, grow its membership to 30+ members from nine countries, and provide in-person and virtual opportunities to discuss challenges, brainstorm solutions and learn from one another. This platform has also inspired action amongst its members: for example, Nebbi Municipality (Uganda) now regularly hosts officials from neighbouring Mahagi (Democratic Republic of the Congo) to explore joint peace-building initiatives, while Kyengera Town (Uganda) launched a Talking Compounds initiative inspired by West Pokot (Kenya)’s Peace Border Schools.

• Investing in Strong Cities’ Governance: In Morocco, following the MENA Regional Hub’s inaugural workshop in March 2023, the then Mayor of Rabat expressed strong interest in supporting the mission of Strong Cities Network and was selected as Co-Chair of the Network’s International Steering Committee. She participated in Strong Cities Fourth Global Summit (September 2024) and various virtual and in-person events and played a crucial role in mobilising other Moroccan cities (Agadir, Fes, Marrakech, Oujda, Rabat and Tangier) to join the network, promoting city-to-city learning and advocating for the role of cities in prevention. Her successor, Fatiha El Moudni, has since taken on the Co-Chair role and has shown an equal commitment in championing city-led action against hate and extremism, culminating in her decision to have Rabat host Strong Cities’ Seventh Global Summit in early 2027.

This important meeting represents a valuable opportunity to highlight the role of local governments and civil society in building and empowering social cohesion and integration. It is also an occasion to exchange experiences and good practices, and to strengthen the bonds between our Moroccan cities, from Tangier to Lagouira.

Asmaa Rhlalou, Former Mayor of Rabat (Morocco) speaking at the Strong Cities national roundtable in Tangier (Morocco)

• Putting Learnings into Practice: After attending two Strong Cities workshops, officials from Cape Town (South Africa) developed and launched the country’s first framework for preventing hate and extremism. The framework not only names Strong Cities as the City’s primary international partner on prevention but also notes the local government’s commitment to supporting peer learning on this topic. The City has delivered on this commitment through its support for numerous Strong Cities initiatives since then, including a May 2023 roundtable to sensitise other South African cities to their role in prevention; hosting a learning visit for the Border Municipalities Working Group in December 2023 and a follow-up, more in-depth exchange for Busia (Kenya) in August 2024 and hosting the Strong Cities Fifth Global Summit (December 2024).
  
  As a result of their participation in the November 2024 Strong Cities Regional Innovations and Solutions Exchange, the Cities of Halabja and Tel Afar (Iraq) committed to enhancing their capacity to monitor and address online threats against social cohesion. Inspired in particular by a presentation by the City of Sabha (Libya) on its approach to doing so, both cities explored ways to adapt similar mechanisms to their local contexts. In Tel Afar, this was built on existing digital tracking systems established with IOM, which were originally designed to monitor the return of displaced people and mitigate potential intercommunal tensions. As city officials shared, the exchange helped them consider how such systems could be expanded to include early identification of online hate and misinformation, supporting broader efforts to protect social cohesion and community resilience.
  
  In Miqdadiyah (Iraq), and following his participation in a MENA regional workshop in January 2024, the Mayor requested support from the Regional Hub to enhance the City’s engagement with young people. After virtual exchanges facilitated by the Hub with other cities, Miqdadiyah started designing a programme to engage with at-risk youth and provide them with skills and knowledge to resist radicalisation to violence and contribute positively to their communities. The programme will include seed funding for the youth-led initiatives on hate and extremism prevention that were designed during the training sessions.
  
  In Zanzibar (Tanzania), inspired by their participation in a youth engagement-focused learning visit to Mombasa (Kenya), officials from Zanzibar Urban Municipality hosted their first-ever dialogue with youth-led organisations on the prevention of hate and extremism. To build on this, and at the request of the Municipality and the Zanzibar Association of Local Government Authorities (ZALGA), the Regional Hub organised a workshop in July 2024 to build the capacity of other Zanzibari local governments on youth engagement, pulling in expertise from Cape Town and Mombasa, officials from which shared the variety of ways they engage young people. This has resulted in a tripartite partnership among Cape Town, Mombasa and Zanzibar Urban Municipality, which will sustain peer-learning on safety and security-related issues.

Supporting Local Implementation

Both Hubs had access to a Technical Support Fund (TSF), a flexible financial provision that enabled them to meet the needs of specific cities on an as-requested basis. Typically, regional awareness-raising workshops helped participating cities identify gaps and the most appropriate next steps in their prevention journey, whether this was creating a prevention framework or implementing a specific practice. Based on this, they could request technical support from the Hubs to implement those steps, with the Hubs using their TSF to co-create and deliver a programme of support with and for such cities.

The examples provided are but a small selection to demonstrate how Hubs deployed their TSFs. More examples can be found in the dedicated ESA and MENA Regional Hub Impact Briefs.

Implementation Case Study 1:
Community-Based Partnerships to Strengthen Early Warning Against Hate and Extremism

In March 2024, Mayor Regina Bakitte of Nansana Municipality requested support from the Regional Hub to implement Neighbourhood Watch as a community-based model for early warning against hate and extremism. Her request was motivated by two key factors: a) concern about the presence and continued crossing of ADF militants into Uganda from neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, and b) her participation in the Strong Cities learning visit to Cape Town in December 2023, where she learned about how Cape Town and Stellenbosch use Neighbourhood Watch as a community-oriented approach to public safety.

Recognising the urgency of her request, the Regional Hub partnered with Stellenbosch Municipality to deliver a workshop on the model in May 2024, through which 200+ community members and local government officials were trained from a selection of pilot wards. These wards were then asked to launch Neighbourhood Watch groups, with explicit instruction to ensure such groups included representatives from historically marginalised groups, such as youth, people with disabilities, women and others. The 30+ groups that were established were trained on a strict code of conduct to guide their activities, and, to monitor implementation, practitioners from Stellenbosch have conducted several site visits and delivered additional training on an as-needed basis. Through regular patrols, awareness-raising activities (e.g., of hate and extremism as well as reporting mechanisms) and creating fora for dialogue, Neighbourhood Watch has had a range of impacts in Nansana.

• Greater social participation and integration of women, with unemployed women, who are traditionally confined to their homes, form a disproportionate share of Neighbourhood Watch group members. 
• Economic benefits, with local business owners reporting they feel safer to stay open longer due to the visible patrolling of Neighbourhood Watch (and the resulting deterrence of petty crime).
• More dialogue about and proactive reporting of community concerns: Neighbourhood Watch groups are mandated not just to patrol streets but also to host forums for community members to share concerns. Through monthly committee meetings with the Mayor’s Office and dedicated WhatsApp channels, the groups can then identify, with the Municipality, how best to address such concerns. This has, in turn, led to a more informed deployment of local government resources that responds to the actual needs of communities as they arise.
• Improved trust in local government as a result of the Municipality being better able to address concerns as they arise, and due to the trust-building function of Neighbourhood Watch, which serves as an interlocutor between the community and local government.
• An overall greater sense of camaraderie and togetherness, with Mayor Bakitte sharing a story of one Neighbourhood Watch group stepping in to find employment and offer interim housing to a man in their jurisdiction who lost his job and then his house. 

Further, in December 2024, inspired by the proven potential for impact when local governments are given a platform to partner to prevent hate and extremism, Nansana and Stellenbosch signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), committing to continue collaborating for the next five years. Mayor Bakitte has also committed to working with a national mayoral alliance in Uganda, Alliance of Mayors Initiative for Community Action at the Local Level (AMICAALL), to support other Ugandan cities in implementing the model.

The impacts of Neighbourhood Watch in Nansana have been many: it gives community members the opportunity to collaborate with us on community safety and gives us, as a municipality, new perspectives on what communities need to feel safe and secure against hate, extremism and crime. We are excited to see women and youth playing such an active role and look forward to our continued collaboration with the Regional Hub and Stellenbosch.

Regina Bakitte, Mayor of Nansana Municipality (Uganda)

Implementation Case Study 2:
Creation of a Crisis Management Framework in Amman (Jordan)

Following its participation in two of the MENA Regional Hub’s regional workshops (March 2023 and January 2024), Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) sought support from the Hub to strengthen its approach to crisis management and city-led response as it deals with heightened tensions from the ongoing Israel-Gaza crisis, the lingering impacts of COVID-19 and the social and economic effects of climate change. Responding to this support, the Hub partnered with GAM to strengthen its institutional readiness for complex crises. The Hub supported GAM across three phases:

• Training and alignment: A three-day workshop introduced city leaders and officials to global good practices in crisis preparedness, coordination and communication. City practitioners from Greater Manchester (UK) and Strasbourg (France) shared their experiences in responding to crisis and terrorist incidents. The former spoke about its approach to and experiences from its response to the terrorist attack at Manchester Arena in 2017. The latter discussed its innovative approaches to crisis preparedness and response, with a particular focus on the steps Strasbourg took following the 2018 terrorist attack there to enhance its prevention efforts, offering valuable insights into effective urban crisis response, multi-actor collaboration and long-term resilience building.
• Tailored guidance: Through consultations, the Hub and GAM co-developed a locally grounded Crisis Management and Response Guide, addressing priority risks such as flooding and cyber threats, and filling institutional gaps such as unclear roles and limited documentation.
• Simulation and validation: A final simulation workshop tested the Guide, validated tools such as emergency budgeting templates and communication matrices, and highlighted areas for ongoing coordination with national agencies.

This initiative provided GAM with a tailored framework to anticipate, respond to and recover from crises more effectively, while creating a foundation for ongoing training, peer learning and potential replication across Jordan and the wider region. Adapted from Strong Cities’ Guide for City-Led Response, the Amman Guide translates global good practice on leadership, coordination and public communications into contextualised, practical, department-ready tools and workflows. It clarifies roles between strategic crisis management and tactical emergency response, sets out phased communication protocols to counter misinformation and protect cohesion, and embeds preparedness and learning cycles through simulation and training templates. As a result, GAM now has a formal framework that reduces decision-making ambiguity, standardises evidence capture and improves the speed and quality of internal and external communications—ensuring that procedures can be tested, refined and institutionalised regularly.

Implementation Case Study 3: Strengthening Youth Engagement

Among the key priorities for cities across ESA and MENA is to establish more consistent and effective engagement with young people to mitigate their vulnerability to hate and extremism. For example:

Strengthening NLC

In ESA and MENA – like in other contexts globally – frameworks for prevention and response are typically shaped primarily through a national security lens, which may not resonate with local contexts, needs and realities despite the acute impacts of hate and extremism at the local level. In some cases, local governments are given a role but not made aware of (nor consulted about) the role they are expected to play, while in others, they are overlooked entirely. To address this, the ESA and MENA Regional Hubs worked with several national and local governments to strengthen NLC, as outlined below:

In ESA:

• Malawi: In October 2023, the Malawi national government launched its National Counter Terrorism and Prevention of Violent Extremism Strategy. Through March 2024 and March 2025, Strong Cities’ national-local dialogues, and with remote guidance provided by the Regional Hub in the interim, the Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture achieved the following:
• Setting the foundation for city-level Peace and Unity Committees: based on recommendations from the first national-local dialogue the Hub hosted in Malawi, the Ministry of Local Government and Peace and Unity Commission worked with Malawi’s four primary cities (Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba) to train local officials on launching and managing Peace and Unity Committees, a multi-actor forum that currently only exists at the district/regional level. Since then, each city has started establishing such committees, starting with identifying relevant actors to join.
• Institutionalising local action in national policy and frameworks: The Ministry has also taken steps to revisit existing policy frameworks, such as the National Peace Policy (2017), to ensure it better captures the needs and concerns of local actors and how local councils can support its implementation. The Government’s new National Action Plan on Youth Participation in Peacebuilding will also be operationalised in collaboration between local governments and the Ministry of Youth.
• More regular communication between national institutions and local governments, and between local governments themselves, on disaster risk management. Officials from Lilongwe reported to the Hub that they are now in more regular communication with the national government and with other cities in Malawi on climate resilience and other forms of disaster risk mitigation and management, commending the Hub’s national-local dialogues for opening the doors for better cooperation and information-sharing between national ministries and local councils, as well as between local councils themselves. 

• Uganda: In Uganda, the ESA Regional Hub’s work on strengthening NLC resulted in the establishment of a city-led taskforce that comprises local government officials, civil society, youth leaders and Resident District Commissioners (which are national government actors with a mandate for safety and security at the district level). In March 2025, the taskforce – itself a mechanism for NLC – started working with the National Counter Terrorism Centre to review the country’s National Strategy for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism to a) ensure it includes a role for local government and b) catalyse its implementation at the local level.
  

In MENA:

• Iraq: the Regional Hub partnered with Iraq’s National Committee for Countering Violent Extremism (NCCVE) and the EU Advisory Mission (EUAM) in Baghdad to convene a two-day roundtable on operationalising a whole-of-society approach to prevention as part of an effort to facilitate the localisation of Iraqi’s National Strategy for Countering Violent Extremism, which provides a mandate for local governments in hate and extremism prevention. The event gathered more than 35 key national and local stakeholders with the aim of strengthening NLC and raising awareness of governorates and cities on the National Strategy’s content and their role in supporting its implementation. Since the roundtable, NCCVE has been engaging with Iraqi local governments to design data-driven and context-relevant preventing violent extremism (PVE) initiatives using the tools developed by the NCCVE. This includes short educational and awareness-raising videos on PVE issues and capacity-building toolkits. Some of this work is featured in the NCCVE’s monthly newspaper, which, among other things, showcases local governments’ efforts in prevention. NCCVE is also expanding the network of local PVE subcommittees, which they are actively engaging with and have committed to providing support and guidance to local governments during the process of design and implementation of PVE programmes at the local level.
• Morocco: in November 2023, Strong Cities hosted a national roundtable in Tangier, bringing together mayors and local government representatives from nine cities across Morocco, civil society organisations, as well as representatives from different national government ministries. During this event, participants exchanged views on the critical role local governments play in the prevention of hate, extremism and polarisation, even if preventing these threats has historically been considered the mandate solely of national security actors. Given this role, they emphasised the importance of strengthening NLC in PVE-related matters.

As a result of this roundtable, the Ministry of Interior committed to including local governments in its PVE efforts. Moreover, Strong Cities signed a memorandum of understanding with the Moroccan Association of Presidents of Communal Councils (AMPCC), which committed to facilitating PVE-related dialogues between the national and local governments in Morocco.

• Tunisia: the MENA Regional Hub has developed a strategic partnership with Tunisia’s National Counter-Terrorism Commission (CNLCT), which has resulted in a collaborative framework to enhance NLC in PVE. In September 2024, Strong Cities and CNLCT convened more than 60 local and national government officials and community-based organisations in Tunisia to discuss how best to localise the implementation of the recently updated National Strategy for Countering Violent Extremism and Terrorism. This gathering marked the first time national and local government officials had been convened on this topic and laid the foundation for enhanced NLC in strategy implementation.

Scaling through Partnerships

Both Regional Hubs also invested in building partnerships with the city- and mayoral-focused initiatives, seeking to complement and build on existing city-focused capacity-building efforts, while also recognising such partnerships as effective vehicles through which to scale and sustain impact. For example:

• In ESA, the Regional Hub was hosted by the East African County and Local Governments Association, an umbrella body representing local government associations from across the region. This facilitated direct (and immediate) access to these associations, representatives of which attended regional and relevant national activities that the Hub delivered as part of STRIVE Cities. This ultimately created a trickle-down structure where such associations were exposed to Strong Cities’ global learnings, with the Hub then supporting them to contextualise and translate such learnings for local governments in their networks.
• In MENA, Strong Cities entered into a formal partnership with the AMPCC in Morocco as a result of AMPCC members attending regional awareness-raising activities and recognising the importance of the Strong Cities mission. This opened the door for greater and more in-depth engagement between the Hub and Moroccan cities, as well as joint capacity-building activities, such as the support provided to Fes to develop a youth council, with the AMPCC committing to sharing learnings from that process with its members.

More broadly, engagement with local government associations will help sustain Strong Cities’ impact, as it has given pre-existing, credible institutions the confidence, knowledge and tools to advocate for and support city-led action against hate and extremism. In ESA, for example, AMICAALL, the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and ZALGA have committed to integrating the topic of prevention into their existing advocacy work, while in MENA, AMPCC has become a proud champion of city-led prevention.

The value of SALGA, as a local government association, in engaging with Strong Cities both within ESA and at Global Summits has been significant. With a core mandate to support municipalities, these engagements have provided valuable opportunities to establish partnerships with municipalities both within the region and globally, strengthening our ability to provide relevant and appropriate support to South African municipalities.

Nondumiso Twalo, Senior Manager, Community Development and Social Cohesion, SALGA

Hear from our Beneficiaries

We have the pleasure of building a strategic partnership with Strong Cities, enabling Iraqi cities to take part in their events and network. We are happy to support them in their technical support for Iraqi cities, coming from different regions of the country to prevent hate, extremism and polarisation.

Ali Abdullah, Chair of the National Committee to Combat Violent Extremism (Iraq)

Since Strong Cities’ intervention [in April 2024], we have established forums, climate change programmes with young people… If the youth see themselves closer to the city’s programme and agenda, we prevent youth who once felt disempowered from becoming adults who are disempowered

Florence Namayanja, Mayor of Masaka City (Uganda)

Through the learning opportunities provided by Strong Cities, I have gained valuable insights to contribute to making our cities strong in Malawi: cities that are able to combat extremism and promote unity. We are now devising strategies and initiatives to work with our cities to fight hatred, polarisation and extremism.

Joseph Dzuwa, Chief Peacebuilding and Conflict Management Officer, Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture, Malawi

Strong Cities has truly empowered me. The knowledge I’ve gained, the networks I have built… I can now confidently sit at any table and be a strong voice for my community’s well-being.

Joseph Ssemugera Bitokote, Councillor, Kyengera Town (Uganda)

Additional Resources

The following resources were developed as part of or drawing from cities engaged through STRIVE Cities. Additional resources can be found on our digital Resource Hub.

Regional and Global Impact Briefs

• ESA Executive Summary and Impacts Brief
• MENA Executive Summary and Impacts Brief
• Impact: Catalysing City-Led Prevention

Guides

• A Guide for Mayors
• A Guide for Cities
• Guide for City-Led Response
• A Guide for Greater Amman Municipality: Crisis Management and Response

Policy Briefs

• National-Local Cooperation
• City-Led Youth Engagement in Addressing Hate, Extremism and Polarisation: Ten Recommendations for Cities
• City-Led Prevention of Hate, Extremism and Polarisation: Leveraging Local Youth Councils
• Creating Safe, Cohesive and Resilient Cities through Urban Planning & Design: Ten Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments
• Countering Hate Speech in Times of Crisis: Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments
• Managing Migration: City-Led Approaches for Being an Inclusive, Welcoming and Socially-Cohesive City

City Spotlights

ESA:

• Durban (South Africa)
• Mukaza (Burundi)
• Nansana (Uganda)
• Stellenbosch (South Africa)

MENA:

• Agadir (Morocco)
• Amman (Jordan)
• Karak (Jordan)
• Nineveh (Iraq)
• Rabat (Morocco)
• Sabratha (Libya)
• Sousse (Tunisia)
• Tunis (Tunisia)

Partners

EACLGA is an umbrella body of local and county government associations, championing greater national-local relations and devolution across EAC member states. Over the course of STRIVE Cities, EACLGA served as the host of Strong Cities ESA Regional Hub.

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