INJAZ – The Professional Center for the Development of Arab Local Authorities concluded a series of four meetings of the Forum of Municipal Leaders for the year 2022, the meetings were aimed to establish dialogue between the heads of Arab local authorities on several issues, most notably, on integrating democratic discourse and public participation in the work implemented and services provided by the local authority, building the capacity of heads of local authorities Injaz also presented new tools useful to the evaluation and assessment of the 550 Economic Plan. The meetings and workshops of the Forum dealt with the strengths and weaknesses of the Arab local authorities, developing strategies to overcome weaknesses and improve on the strengths in order to increase the efficiency of Arab local authorities.
At the end of the fourth meeting, the forum discussed the policy paper drafted by Injaz Center which summarized the recent efforts of the forum through with an analytical lens of the reality of the Arab society on four main pillars: political, social, economic and technological. The paper aims to identify the necessary steps that the forum ought to take in this year 2023, especially considering the political shifts taking place in Israel.
Participating in the forum’s meeting were several heads of Arab local authorities from different regions, the Galilee, the Triangle and the Negev, in addition to the advisors of the National Council of Arab Mayors (NCAM), as well as experts and specialists in Arab local governance. The meetings were moderated by the organizational development consultant, Rula Athamneh, and Injaz’s project manager, Layla Swaid.
