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Strong Cities Network Launches New Project to Strengthen Municipal Leadership on Rehabilitation and Reintegration in Coastal West Africa

Publication Date:

21/01/2026

Content Type:

News

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Coastal West AfricaMunicipal LeadershipRehabilitation and Reintegration

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Strong Cities Network has launched a new regional project focused on strengthening the role of municipalities in rehabilitation and reintegration (R&R) efforts across coastal West Africa.

Supported by the German Federal Foreign Office, the project Unleashing the Potential of Local Governments in Coastal West Africa in a Whole-of-Society Approach to Rehabilitation and Reintegration will run through December 2026. It seeks to ensure that local governments are recognised, equipped and supported as essential partners in national and regional rehabilitation and reintegration for former violent extremist offenders, individuals returning from conflict zones and those seeking to disengage from terrorist groups. The project promotes inclusive, gender-sensitive and rights-based approaches, engaging women, youth, traditional leaders and civil society to ensure community-informed and socially cohesive reintegration.

Why Local Governments Matter

Across West Africa, countries continue to face the complex challenge of rehabilitating and reintegrating former members of violent extremist groups and their families. While national authorities, civil society organisations and community-based actors have played important roles in these efforts, municipalities have often been overlooked by both national governments and international partners. This is despite their close proximity to affected communities and their responsibility for essential services such as housing, education and psychosocial support, all of which are critical to ensuring effective R&R over the long-term. As the level of government best placed to build community trust, reduce stigma, coordinate services and promote social cohesion, municipalities are central to ensuring reintegration efforts are grounded in local realities and remain sustainable.

This new project aims to change that.

A Regional, Phased Approach

From January 2026 through the end of 2026, Strong Cities will take a phased, regionally grounded approach to strengthening municipal engagement in R&R across coastal West Africa. This work will be informed by relevant best practices and lessons learned across its membership of more than 290 cities.

The first phase focuses on building a strong evidence base and shared understanding of how local governments can contribute more effectively to reintegration efforts. Working with municipalities across West Africa, including in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Senegal and Togo, Strong Cities is mapping local needs, capacities and priorities, and identifying legal and institutional gaps. In parallel, Strong Cities is also documenting promising practices and lessons learned from other countries, including Albania, Canada, Germany, Kosovo, Morocco, Nigeria and North Macedonia. This phase also included high-level engagement with municipal leaders through a dedicated session on the role of cities in R&R at the Strong Cities Global Summit.

Building on this foundation, the project will now move into a more hands-on implementation phase in select countries in the region, which will begin with a project kick-off workshop in Dakar, Senegal. This next stage will focus on translating insights into action by developing a practical Action Agenda for municipal engagement in R&R, producing tailored tools to support case management and coordination, and delivering targeted capacity-building for both municipal and national stakeholders. Through these efforts, the project will strengthen national–local cooperation and launch a regional peer-learning network, enabling municipalities across coastal West Africa to continue exchanging knowledge, sharing solutions and scaling good practice beyond the life of the project.

Strengthening National–Local Cooperation

A core objective of the project is to improve coordination between national authorities and municipalities. Across the region, national strategies rarely define clear municipal roles in R&R, and local governments are often excluded from early-warning systems, case management processes and post-release planning.

Through structured dialogue, in-country workshops and close alignment with existing national frameworks, the project will help clarify roles, strengthen cooperation and ensure that local insights inform national R&R policies.

Building Sustainable Impact

This project builds on Strong Cities’ growing engagement in West Africa, including previous regional workshops in Dakar (2022) and Accra (2023), as well as continent-wide municipal needs mapping supported by the European Union.

By empowering municipalities as central actors in rehabilitation and reintegration, Strong Cities seeks to strengthen resilience, support social cohesion and advance sustainable, community-led approaches to preventing violent extremism in coastal West Africa.

To ensure lasting impact beyond the project cycle, Strong Cities will:

• Institutionalise municipal engagement through a practical Action Agenda and tailored tools
• Embed lessons into national and regional frameworks such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Accra Initiative and the GCTF West Africa Capacity Working Group
• Establish a peer-learning network to sustain knowledge exchange among municipalities
• Align with ongoing initiatives led by partners such as the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Donor

The launch and implementation of this project is supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.

Contact

For more information on this project, please contact Lara Petricevic, Director, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Strong Cities Network, at [email protected].

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