The fourth year of REBUILD implementation started in April 2024 and four important project events took place in Libya, mainly in Benghazi: TOT – Training of Trainers for Cycle 5; First Communication Workshop; Institutional mission of the Province of Trento Councillor in Tripoli and Benghazi; Sixth Technical Board meeting.
They were an opportunity to consolidate the REBUILD community and the relationships among people contributing to the project implementation and results.
TOT – Training of Trainers for Cycle 5
The 7-day in-presence training of trainers dealt with the promotion of economic development and the role of municipalities in fostering it at the local level.
With an adult-learning approach, the participants could exchange on the specific topics of local and sustainable economic development, as well as principles of territorial attractiveness. The training mixed theoretical presentations with practical exercises facilitating the exchange of knowledge among participants. Representatives and trainers from partner Universities and Municipalities as well as members of the Municipal Development and Decentralization Support Centre took part in the training.
Two field visits were organized in order to have the participants focusing deeper on some of the topics of the cycle. A first visit dealt with cultural heritage as a leverage for promoting local economic development. The participants visited Omar Al Mokhtar Mausoleum and benefited from a relevant presentation on the history of the Libyan national hero and the role of memory preservation. A second field visit to the Centre for entrepreneurship and business incubator provided additional insights to the training component of the relationship between public and private sector in promoting local economic opportunities for citizens.
Communication workshop
The 3-day communication workshop aimed at enhancing Media Officers competences. Moreover, and most of all, 8 of the 10 media officers met in-presence and finally had the opportunity to work together for the first time after three years of project implementation and 22 media officers’ online meetings.
The training focused on the construction of a story about the role of municipalities as actors of change at the local level in Libya. Storytelling is an art and a technique to convey messages effectively. The output of the workshop are the guidelines for the short film which will be produced by REBUILD before March 2025. Starting from the experience on the project objectives, the short documentary will focus on the role of local authorities in fostering the well-being of their territories and communities. Two Libyan filmmakers participated in the entire workshop to gather footage and interviews, coordinate on the work to be set up to produce the documentaries, get acquainted about the project in detail and understand how to tell municipalities’ success stories and focus on the feasibility of the shooting according to the various constraints.
Relying on storytelling is useful for municipalities beyond the production of a short film: it is a good way to care about communication to the citizens and implies that municipalities know the needs of all types of citizens, also the most vulnerables ones. Therefore the investment on training media staff is a crucial step to increase the trust between citizens and local administrations.
Institutional visit of the Province of Trento Councillor in Tripoli and Benghazi
The Counsillor of the autonomous Province of Trento and the REBUILD Liaison Manager visited Tripoli and Benghazi (24-26 April 2024). The mission aimed to consolidate and relaunch the partnership with Libyan municipalities on common strategic issues and pave the way for the implementation of a second edition of REBUILD, after its natural end on March 31st, 2025.
Discussions with the Mayor of Tripoli and the Mayor of Benghazi brought to the identification of some key issues to be explored and developed: urban planning with specific reference to public transportation systems and urban beautification; local financial system towards territorial cohesion; the Trento experience; development of circular economy on the basis of innovative technology for the recycling of electronic wastes.
Meetings with the MoLG, the European Union Delegation to Libya, the Italian Embassy and the Consulate General of Italy in Benghazi highlighted the necessity to continue the process started with REBUILD.
The closure ceremony of the ToT in Benghazi at the presence of the Mayor and the Deputy Consul General of Italy has represented a moment of reaffirming the strong will of the Trento Province to continue the partnership first of all with the Libyan people, not with the intention of teaching or wanting anything in return but in the spirit of mutual learning and cross-fertilization.
During the entire visit the Councillor has seen the huge potential of Libya where all the challenges also represent great opportunities. He could become the best ambassador of this reality abroad, where the narrative on the Country is often negative and misleading.
Sixth Technical Board meeting
The Technical Board (TB) is the body in charge of REBUILD internal technical monitoring and evaluation.
During the 6th meeting of the TB, held at the beginning of the fourth year of the project progress, partners had the opportunity to monitor project implementation also taking into account the external evaluation interim report.
Participants’ expectations on the TB meeting:
- Short and medium-short term future after the end of REBUILD project: explore the possibility to increase the number of partner municipalities, define thematic priorities
- Review the monitoring and evaluation of training activities
- How to collect and report project achievements, especially at municipal level
- Consolidate the sense of belonging to a “REBUILD community“
- How to ensure sustainability of results achieved so far in each municipality
- How to increase partners responsibility and accountability
- Crisis management: how to deal with a crisis?
Project developments were introduced by the REBUILD coordinator in Libya. Partners discussed the outputs and outcomes of REBUILD actions, reflecting on which concrete effects REBUILD’s activities have had / are having on local administrations.
Each Project Manager presented the tangible and intangible results achieved or perceived at the municipality level: this exercise provided valuable information to all participants.
Relevant project documents were presented (and approved, where necessary): Plan of Action for Year 4, the Monitoring and Evaluation update, the interim external evaluation report, updated financial information. When looking at the last year of the project implementation, particular attention was paid to the pilot projects, which represent the main focus for this last step.
Partners continued the work started in June 2023 setting a common vision for phase 2 of REBUILD.
Side meetings on administrative procedures were organized in order to facilitate the collection of the necessary administrative project documents.
The mayor of Benghazi hosted participants in the headquarters of the municipality of Benghazi, where the Local Development Plan of the municipality was presented to Technical Board members. A field visit to the city of Benghazi was organized to offer participants an opportunity to know the local environment better.
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