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Fifth Global Summit: Plenary Conversation on National – Local Cooperation

Publication Date:

21/12/2024

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Event Reports

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Cape TownCity-Led PreventionFifth Global SummitNational-Local Cooperationwhole-of-society approach

— 10 minutes reading time

Introduction

On 3 – 5 December 2024, the Strong Cities Network held its Fifth Global Summit in Cape Town (South Africa), bringing together more than 140 participants, including 60 mayors and governors, as well as city officials, practitioners and partners from more than 90 cities and 40 countries around the world. The Summit included mayoral conversations, thematic parallel sessions and tabletop exercises – providing city officials from diverse contexts with opportunities to share and learn from city-led innovations and approaches to prevent and respond to hate, extremism and polarisation, and maintain social cohesion amid global crises.

The Summit agenda included a plenary conversation on National-Local Cooperation (NLC), a pillar of the Strong Cities Network Strategy (2023 – 2025). NLC includes the structures, resources and approaches that cohere national policy frameworks and programmes with local needs and priorities and enable actors across all levels and sectors to work collectively to maximise their impact. This session provided an opportunity for national and local stakeholders to share approaches they have taken to strengthen their collaboration and enhance whole-of-society efforts to prevent and respond to hate, extremism and polarisation.

Featured Speakers

National and local officials from three countries – Albania, Canada and Malawi – shared their perspectives and approaches to NLC.

• Arbjan Mazniku, Minister of State, Ministry of Local Government (Albania)
• Robert Burley, Executive Director, Canada Centre for Community Engagement Prevention of Violence, Public Safety Canada
• Feres Ismail, Superintendent of Community Safety & Well-Being Services for the Peel Regional Police (Ontario, Canada)
• Joseph Dzuwa, Chief Peacebuilding and Conflict Management Officer, Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture (Malawi)
• Esther Amina Sagawa, Mayor of Lilongwe (Malawi)

Key Takeaways

• Include a range of relevant local actors to achieve a true whole-of-society approach. NLC should go beyond central and local government representatives to include all actors who are relevant for addressing hate and extremism and promoting social cohesion.
  
  
• Enhance the capacity of local actors and empower them as genuine partners. Identify barriers that may be preventing local leaders and local governments from playing a meaningful role in supporting national strategies and in pursuing localised implementation efforts. Take a holistic approach and address a range of barriers in NLC, including those related to knowledge, skills, networking and funding.
  
  
• National governments can support vital exchanges between local actors across the country. Local actors may be working in silos, missing valuable opportunities to support and enable one another. Central governments can help break down these silos and promote cooperation and information sharing between different actors across levels and sectors.

A Whole-of-Society Approach

Arbjan Mazniku, Minister of State in Albania’s Ministry of Local Government, drew on his experience as former Deputy Mayor of Tirana and his current post in the national government, to provide an overview of the ways Albania is bridging the gap between the central government, where national-level strategies are crafted, and the local government, who are more frequently the ones “getting their hands dirty, getting the work done and connecting people together”.

He emphasised that the key to effective prevention work is ensuring that all relevant stakeholders are involved, “not just those involved in politics”. He shared how the central government works through two interconnected bodies that bring a range of relevant actors across sectors and levels together. As a result, Albania has been able to empower national and local stakeholders to address hate, extremism and polarisation in a coordinated way in support of the national CVE Strategy.

• Local Councils for Public Safety are local entities set up in multiple cities across the country – including two represented at the Summit – bring together city council members, law enforcement, civil society, educators and religious entities, and meet regularly to discuss safety issues affecting the city.
• The National Council for Community Safety convenes members of local councils to discuss strategies and identify ways forward for their communities and the country on issues related to peace and social cohesion. Arbjan noted that this body was created in 2017, and “in just five or six years, it has worked very well as a mechanism to foster cooperation and communication [and] to figure out possible solutions to problems together”.

In Canada, multi-sectoral collaboration is key. Public Safety Canada, a federal agency, established the Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence(Canada Centre) in 2017 to ensure coordination across all federal departments and agencies responsible for security, as well as with sub-national governments. It works with various relevant actors, including police, academics, civil society, healthcare providers and the private sector to facilitate networked collaboration, which is a pillar of Canada’s National Strategy on Countering Radicalization to Violence.

Joseph Dzuwa, Chief Peacebuilding and Conflict Management Officer in Malawi’s Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture, agreed, emphasising that while the central government shapes policy, it is the local government that drives implementation. When the central government’s strategy is out of alignment with local needs, it cannot succeed.

Empower Local Actors as Genuine Partners

The session speakers spoke to the importance of building local capacities to ensure that all relevant actors can work effectively to address the hate and extremism challenges facing their communities and meaningfully contribute to the development and implementation of national prevention strategies. They described the multifaceted range of capabilities that local actors need to fulfil this role effectively, including training, networking and funding, and the importance of a holistic approach that addresses all potential barriers.

In Albania, the Coordination Centre for Countering Violent Extremism is dedicated to developing the capacities of local stakeholders and frontline practitioners and coordinating their activities. It also operates as a knowledge hub, identifying and sharing good practices and developing effective evidence-based responses in cooperation with local actors.

In Canada, Public Safety Canada offers cities and local actors a range of grants through the Community Resilience Fund to develop and deliver innovative research and frontline intervention programmes to prevent and counter violent extremism. To date, the Fund has successfully enabled 79 locally-led projects. Robert Burley explained that the programme’s success is largely rooted in two key components: sustainability (grants can last up to ten years) and knowing when to get out of the way and let local actors lead.

Ismail Feres, Superintendent of Community Safety & Well-Being Services for the Peel Regional Police (Ontario, Canada), echoed how important this funding has been for enabling local interventions. He said he helped lead an intervention in his community supported by the Community Resilience Fund. Peel police used the funding to convene 25 community leaders in 2023, representing different ethnic, religious and cultural groups, to explore the ways hate and extremism were affecting different communities, identify ways to build bridges between groups and support a more socially-cohesive region. Ismail shared how these meetings, and the activities that followed, helped establish relationships among and between all these different communities and the police. These relationships have helped Peel come together and, among other things, navigate the societal divisions experienced and exacerbated by the ongoing Middle East conflict.

“October 7 happened, and I can share with you that, by then, this [community] group had unified and the relationships had become so sincere that they started to lean on each other. Both [Jewish and Muslim] communities supported each other directly after, and for the year since, as we have navigated these difficult times.”

In Malawi, the central government has enhanced the capacity of local governments to support their residents by providing dedicated funds for cities. For example, the National Economic Empowerment Fund, introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, enable cities to access resources to support youth-led entrepreneurial endeavours. Lilongwe Mayor, Esther Amina Sagawa, explained that as a young county – around 80% of Malawi’s total population are youth – the opportunity to directly support young people and build productive trusting relationships at the local level is invaluable.

Malawi’s capacity building goes beyond local government. Joseph Dzuwa explained that the country’s central government also offers training for communities on topics related to peace and security through the local governance structures, including District Peace Committees and Community Policy Forums. The training is delivered collaboratively by national and local government representatives, as well as community leaders.

National Governments Can Support Vital Exchanges Between Local Actors

Robert Burley explained that the Canada Centre was established in part to address the shortcomings of a siloed approach to addressing violent extremism: “Eight years ago, our national government recognised that there was a gap. We weren’t providing leadership across the country. Researchers and police departments and cities were addressing this relatively new issue of violent extremism and polarisation themselves and were having problems making connections.” The Canada Centre bridges that gap by connecting local actors across the country both with one another and with various provincial and federal services and representatives.

Ismail Feres noted that this has been one of the most valuable benefits for them: “Through Public Safety Canada, we’re able to connect and learn and share with so many services from across the country … We’ve noticed that having that connection… has enabled us to make sure that whatever we do is set up for success from the start, the best that it can, because we can learn, we can consult, we can engage with other services across the country, and in some instances, some of those partnerships actually become part of the solution.”

In Malawi, decentralisation has empowered local governments to manage many of the critical functions of their communities, including health, education and building and maintaining social cohesion. Critically, the governance structures have also allowed for meaningful resident participation and facilitated a bottom-up approach that aligns municipal governments with the central government, as well as with actors at the ward, neighbourhood and community levels. Mayor Sagawa outlined some of these structures, including a range of thematic town committees that involve residents in policy-making and town halls, which provide a regular forum for everyone to bring their ideas and help address community challenges. 

Next Steps

National-Local Cooperation will remain a pillar of the work of Strong Cities going forward. The Network’s Regional Hubs in East and Southern Africa (ESA), the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), North America, South Asia and the Western Balkans, will continue working closely with local and national governments to help enhance their awareness of the comparative advantages of each when it comes to prevention, identify and overcome barriers to enhanced cooperation. Strong Cities will also share identified good practices and inspiring case studies across the Strong Cities membership and beyond.

Further Resources

See our new policy brief on this topic: 

• National-Local Cooperation: A Pillar of City-Led Prevention of Hate, Extremism and Polarisation – A Practice Update Strong Cities Network, November 2024

Other recent Strong Cities policy briefs and resources:

• 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: 10 Recommendations for Cities, Strong Cities Network, December 2024
• Countering Hate Speech in Times of Crisis: Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments, 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
• A Guide for Mayors: Preventing and Responding to Hate, Extremism & Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, updated 2024
• A Guide for Cities: Preventing Hate, Extremism & Polarisation Strong Cities Network, updated 2024
• A Guide for City-Led Response, Strong Cities Network, May 2024
• City Spotlights Library, Strong Cities Network
• Implementation of the GCTF Good Practices for National-Local Cooperation: Mapping Strengths and Challenges in East and Southern Africa, Strong Cities Network and RUSI (2022)
• The GCTF’s Good Practices on Strengthening National-Local Cooperation in P/CVE: Mapping the Implementation, Progress, Gaps, Needs and Priorities in Uganda, Strong Cities Network (2022)

Additional Reading:

• A Roadmap for Operationalizing a “Whole of Society” Approach to Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism that Leads to Terrorism, Global Counterterrorism Forum (2022)
• Memorandum on Good Practices on Strengthening National-Local Cooperation in Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Conducive to Terrorism, Global Counterterrorism Forum (2020)

Donors & Partners

The Fifth Global Summit was made possible with generous support from the European Union, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Public Safety Canada, the US Department of State and the City of Cape Town. 

The views expressed in this session report do not necessarily reflect those of all Strong Cities Network members, the Management Unit or Summit sponsors and partners. 

Contact Information 

For more information about the Fifth Global Summit or the Strong Cities Network, please contact [email protected].

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