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News & Events Event Reports

Sixth Global Summit: Building and Restoring Trust in Institutions

Publication Date:
22/01/2026
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Community PartnershipsSixth Global SummitSocial CohesionTorontoTrust in Local Institutions

— 7 minutes reading time

This report provides a summary of discussions during this session and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Strong Cities Network Management Unit, Strong Cities members, event sponsors or participants.

Introduction

On 9 – 11 December 2025, the Strong Cities Network held its Sixth Global Summit in Toronto (Canada), bringing together more than 300 representatives of local governments, national governments, civil society organisations, academia, the private sector and international organisations. This included nearly 60 mayors and governors, as well as 110 other local government officials from 100 cities and 42 countries. Under the theme Stronger Together: Forging Safer, Connected, Thriving Cities in a Changing World, the Summit provided a platform for city leaders to share practical and innovative solutions to prevent and respond to hate, extremism and polarisation, and build safer, more resilient and more inclusive communities

The Summit agenda included a parallel session on Building and Restoring Trust in Institutions, highlighting good practices and policies for cities to restore trust with residents, the erosion of which is a key driver of social polarisation and division, and a barrier to prevention efforts. The session explored the importance of city leaders promoting transparency and accountability, advancing communication with residents and partners, and building proactive partnerships with trusted community-facing organisations and service providers. These practices help build and maintain trust in institutions, political processes and civic engagement, all of which are essential for effective local leadership, particularly in times of global and national crises, which are increasingly impacting local communities.

Scene Setters

Key Takeaways

  1. Mayors and city leaders are on the front lines of local, national and global divisions, which are weakening trust in local government and other institutions. These challenges threaten social cohesion and have implications for civic engagement and local governance. 
  2. Due to their proximity to residents, mayors and other city leaders are uniquely qualified to confront these challenges. By leveraging their unique convening and communication capabilities, they can develop and promote practices that support transparency, collaboration and accountability.
  3. These practices are essential to building and restoring trust and supporting whole-of-city approaches to prevention that address the drivers and manifestations of polarisation, hate and extremism.

Key Themes 

1. Partnerships with Trusted Local Community-Facing Organisations and Service Providers

Speakers shared the importance of building these partnerships because these organisations often have deep roots, credibility and relationships within communities that governments may lack. These partners frequently reach residents who may be mistrustful of government, face language or cultural barriers or are otherwise underserved. Partnering with these trusted intermediaries helps local government better understand community needs, communicate more effectively and design more responsive policies and services.

Ljubiša Petrović, Mayor of Bijeljina (Bosnia and Herzegovina), shared that when residents see their local government collaborating with trusted community-based organisations on municipal projects and programmes, it organically generates trust for local government processes and decision-making.

Beyond partnerships with civil society alone, participants also pointed to the role of broader cross-sector collaboration in strengthening trust and resilience. Lahcen Benmohamed, Director General, City of Agadir (Morocco), highlighted the importance of private and public partnerships in city projects through examples of successful collaborative investments following the city’s 1960 earthquake and response to the 2020 global pandemic. These collaborations, which included contributions from across the religious and cultural spectrum, helped rebuild trust in local institutions and civic processes and fostered innovation following crises.

Sean Arbuthnot, Prevent Manager, Birmingham City Council (United Kingdom), underscored the importance of proactive prevention partnerships with a diversity of actors, including police, health and social service providers and community-based organisations. He spoke about how these collaborations, including with local community credible messengers, allowed Birmingham to effectively manage protests around the Israel-Gaza conflict, resulting in a smaller proportion of arrests compared to other parts of the country.

Discussions highlighted how, in addition to putting a city in a better position to respond to crises, this proactive approach improves service outcomes and community wellbeing and contributes to a healthier civic ecosystem.

2. Consistent Communication with Residents and Community-based Partners

All speakers underscored the importance of consistent communication to demystify government decisions, set realistic expectations and reduce misinformation that can erode public confidence. Sustained communication fosters stronger relationships and ensures greater civic participation and a more resilient community.

Speakers shared practices to gather community insight and institute feedback loops to strengthen collaboration with partners and residents, better aligning municipal efforts towards shared community goals.

For example, Mayor Ljubiša Petrović underlined the importance of the reciprocal exchange of information through his open-door policy at City Hall as well as regular public meetings to gather feedback on key challenges facing residents and insights on how the local government can help address them. As a result of the mayor’s open-door policy, a resident suggested the creation of a football scholarship for local young women, an award that had previously only been available to men. The City established the scholarship and ensured sustainability through integration into future municipal budgets.

Sean Arbuthnot shared that recent budget cuts forced the local government to significantly reduce contributions to prevention partners. However, because municipal leaders were transparent about the situation and proactive in their communication with them, the local government was able to maintain trust with community partners and worked together to explore alternative funding avenues.

3. Transparency in Decision-Making

Discussions highlighted how, when residents can clearly see and understand how local government decisions are made, they are more likely to view outcomes as fair, even if they disagree with the result. This transparency also strengthens democratic participation and reinforces public confidence in local institutions.

Mayor Ljubiša Petrović described how his city is the first in the country to publish real time, publicly accessible municipal financial reports to help ensure transparency and accountability in decision-making.

Prevent Manager Sean Arbuthnot advised that being transparent, publicly sharing programme and policy results, and acknowledging and owning missteps builds mutual respect and trust between local government leaders and citizens.

Director General Lahcen Benmohamed spoke about his government’s process for eliciting feedback on programmes and policies from which citizens can most benefit. In addition to meeting directly with residents, a city-sponsored website available in multiple languages captures feedback from residents, helping the local government prioritise where it should focus its attention and resources. Lahcen added that this process, along with publicly sharing the municipality’s financial reports, has been revolutionary in terms of rebuilding trust in local government.

Next Steps

Strong Cities will continue to create opportunities for city-to-city learning and knowledge sharing focused on strengthening trust in institutions to promote social cohesion and address growing polarisation. Building on the themes and lessons discussed during this parallel session, upcoming activities will prioritise supporting local leaders in advancing practical, city-led approaches to rebuilding trust in institutions and political processes and highlighting, particularly to historically marginalised communities, the benefits of civic engagement.

Additional Resources

See our new policy brief on this topic: 

Recent Strong Cities policy briefs and resources:

Further Resources

Donors & Partners

The Sixth Global Summit was co-hosted with the City of Toronto and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and delivered with generous support from the Government of Canada, The Fourth Freedom Forum, The Toronto Foundation and Charities Aid Foundation.

Contact Information 

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

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