The Inclusive Local Governance Programme (INLOG) was implemented in the MENA region by SALAR International and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The programme focused on enhancing regional and local governance practice by providing support to overcome the challenges that municipalities and regions must face, such as, local and regional development, service delivery, citizens participation, digitalization and climate adaptation.
The programme consisted of the training models Leadership for inclusive governance and Decentralisation and local governance, which was further complemented by two in depth-tracks where the participants selected one of them. The first one focused on fiscal decentralisation and the other one on sustainable urban development, where the SymbioCity methodology was integrated in the latter. The sustainable urban development track was structured into six focused online sessions, each exploring critical dimensions of urban development, recovery, and resilience. The SymbioCity methodology was used as a tool in different tasks, for example to assess social, economic, and environmental recovery needs.
Time period: 2023-2025
The Algerian country group developed a prototype digital application designed to crowdsource citizen feedback on municipal services, addressing the gaps in citizen engagement. The application enables direct interaction between residents and local authorities, supporting more responsive, transparent, and inclusive service delivery.
The iniative reflects an integrated approach to local governance, where citizen input, service delivery, and decision-making are increasingly interconnected. In this regard, it resonates with holistic urban development perspectives in line with the SymbioCity approach.
Within the Jordanian country group, an evidence-based guide for resilient, participatory and proactive urban planning at the local level was developed. By integrating SymbioCity methods and tools, the guide provides a comprehensive framework to support municipal decision-making and the formulation of shared, participatory, and gender-sensitive urban visions. Furthermore, the guide was strengthened through INLOG expertise on the integration of GIS-based data. The guide resulted in six steps that clarifies the main foundational steps of urban planning at the local level:
Together, these six steps work to produce integrated, actionable local urban plans. One version in English and one version in Arabic was produced, that was handed out during the programme.
