To continue the efforts of the Association of Palestinian Local Authorities in supporting its members in providing better services to citizens, and to achieve APLA Strategic goals, particularly the second strategic goal “Enhance the Capacity of LGUs to provide better services to citizens”. APLA with the support of the Local Governance Reform Program that is implemented by GIZ, have completed the design of the second phase for the Municipal Technical Exchange Hubs.
The Municipal Technical Exchange Hubs mainly aims to:
The Municipal Technical Exchange Hubs in this phase include a new Hub that targets the village councils’ mayors in order to identify topics of priority for village councils to exchange knowledge, information, and expertise on throughout various workshops in addition to hosting experts on specific topics throughout the hub’s operation in order to benefit village councils, exchange expertise and improve cooperation and networking between them.
APLA launched 5 Municipal Hubs during 2019 last quarter, preparatory workshops were held to each of the following hubs:
The PR Hub members will exchange their expertise on several specialized topics which will address many components, mainly capacity building of staff in the field of public relations, promoting means of communication and networking, the importance and means of strategic communication and strategic plans on media.
The Engineering Hub members agreed that the platform’s work should focus on preparing “projects management manual”, “the general engineering and planning manual”; GIS; the challenges of construction, planning and expansion in “C” areas and including them in city plans; and the eleventh strategic goal of the Sustainable Development Goals 2020-2030.
The hub’s work is focusing on the development, monitoring, and promotion of local authorities’ budgets; seeking sources of revenue; financial analysis and studying costs; and activating investment projects with the private sector.
This technical hub mainly targets village councils in the West Bank as a whole. However, a mechanism has been identified to work with these councils based on regions in the first phase in order to facilitate access to the maximum number of village councils.
The topics that will be addressed in future meetings of the village council’s hub: Methods to improve financial capacities at village councils, relations with the public, economic feasibility assessment and study, challenges and regulations on land and the issue of solid waste.
The Innovation Hub considers innovative ideas and projects in the LGUs and aims at sharing these experiences with other LGUs. Innovation, for the purpose of this hub, means the introduction of new tools, methods, or approaches that increase the efficiency, save resources, or streamline processes in the LGUs.
