Khaled Osaily. خالد العسيلي رئيس بلدية الخيل السابق خالد العسيلي
Within the scope of the Local Democratic Reform and Transparency Building Program (Tawasol), CHF International held in Ramallah a workshop entitled “cross-sector partnerships in the local government sector: experiences and prospects”. Held under the patronage of the Ministry of Local Government, the workshop was attended by Eng. Mazen Ghneim, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Mr. Marc Alengstad, USAID representative -project funder-. The workshop was attended by around 35 participants from the public, private and civil sectors.
The workshop aimed at initiating dialogue between various Palestinian institutions on employing cross-sector partnerships to achieve sustainable development both locally and nationally.
In her opening remarks, Ms. Lana Abu Hijleh, CHF Country Director, underlined the importance of this workshop which aims at developing a general national framework for cross-sector partnerships suitable for the Palestinian context. Such partnerships, she said, play a major role in enhancing complementarity in roles and responsibilities, boosting joint action opportunities and achieving the objectives of the three sectors.
Mr. Alengstad reaffirmed USAID’s support for such initiatives which aim at building the capacities of local government bodies and helping them provide the best services to citizens.
Mayor Osaily presented Hebron Municipality’s experience in the field of service, infrastructure and investment partnership projects. He underlined the importance of community’s participation in setting the basis for these partnerships and in determining their scope. He added that one of the main challenges faced by Municipalities and local government authorities is to ensure they are capable of covering citizens’ needs and providing services to Palestinians efficiently and effectively. This requires adopting new work mechanisms similar to the ones implemented by the private sector, given their efficiency and relatively low cost.
