APLA, in cooperation with the Local Governance Reform Program at GIZ, held a series of meetings to discuss the Complaint Response Manual for LGUs, which was subsequently proposed for several meetings organized with LGUs employees in order to study the complaints system in force in LGUs, complaints response mechanisms, in addition to the difficulties faced by LGUs in this regard.

After welcoming the participants, APLA Activities Coordinator, Shorouq Rabie, explained during the opening of the aforementioned workshops, that the aim of these meetings was to present the proposal of the Response Manual to LGUs and to have their observations and suggestions about it. This could help in amending it in a way that facilitates and organizes the work of local government units, taking into account the specificity of the work of each LGU.

The Manual author, Consultant Abeer Al-Mashni, reviewed its contents, starting with mechanisms for responding to complaints, documenting relevant data, recommendations and general directions to follow to achieve an effective response. The participants discussed their comments on the aforementioned guide, and the experiences of some LGUs in managing complaints systems. They agreed to submit all the comments received regarding the guide in a detailed written form for approval in the final stage of preparing the guide before approving its final version.

It is worth noting that three meetings were held, which included a discussion of the response guide prepared for municipalities that use the computerized system in the presence of 36 employees, and the municipalities that use the manual system with 22 participants, as well as the response manual prepared for village councils in the presence of 13 participants.