APLA held a Public Relations Hub workshop on building partnerships and twinning between LGUs and their international counterparts.
During the opening of the workshop, the APLA Executive Director Eng. Abdallah Anati explained the importance of experiences exchange hubs as they identify the exchange priorities that LGUs employees need in their fields of competence. He pointed out the importance of decentralized cooperation led by LGUs being the most effective and most sustainable, stressing the need for this cooperation to be based on clear and equal foundations, milestones, goals, roles and responsibilities between the parties to the cooperation.
The Municipality of Hebron, represented by the International Relations Officer, Saeed Al-Khatib, in partnership with the German municipality of Mannheim, represented by David Lins, the International Relations Officer, reviewed their experience in localizing SDGs through decentralized cooperation between the two municipalities. It was not limited to implementing infrastructure, construction or even environmental projects, but this partnership also included social projects that benefit and involve the local community from both cities.
The Director of the French Palestinian Decentralized Cooperation Fund, Yasser Abed gave a presentation on the establishment of partnerships between LGUs and their international counterparts. He started with the importance of developing clear strategies for partnerships, through the characteristics of partnerships, the stages of preparation, contracts, preparation of work programs, implementation and control, and ending with communication techniques, financing issues and legal aspects.
In the same context, the director of international relations at the municipality of Nablus, Abdel Aker, presented a review of the municipality’s experience in forming partnerships and twinning relations, pointing to the most prominent successes and challenges facing the municipality in this regard. For her part, the public relations officer in the municipality of Beit Jala, Ghada Nasrallah, reviewed the municipal experience under the title "International partnerships and cultural exchange at the heart of the agenda of the municipality of Beit Jala.
It is worth noting that this workshop comes within the Hubs project for exchanging experiences between LGUs, which is implemented in partnership between APLA and the Local Governance Reform Program at the GIZ. Note that it includes five hubs: the Public Relations Hub, the Engineering and Planning Hub, the Financial Management Hub, the Village Councils Hub, and the Innovation Hub.
