Participants of the third MENA Leadership Academy

Dr. Wilhelm Hofmeister, Director of the KAS office for Spain and Portugal during his introduction on "Local self-government and local governance in modern democracies"

The participants presented the projects they have been developing over the course of the MENA Leadership Academy

As part of the program, the participants visited Casa Arabe in Córdoba

Another field visit brought the participants to the local parlament of Andalusia where they discussed with one of the parliamentarians on the role of local government

The program also featured a discussion with David Luque, the Deputy Mayor for Culture and Heritage of the City of Córdoba

The third session of the MENA Leadership Academy on "Local Politics and Local Governance" took place from 2 to 8 April in Spain. During the training days in Sevilla, the nineteen young active leaders from the MENA region learned how to design and implement public policies at the local level. The program was complemented through several field visits and speakers’ interventions in Sevilla and Cordoba. These allowed the participants to discover different ways of how civil society organizations can collaborate with local administration.

During the training the group of young leaders representing different civil society organizations also presented their projects in the fields of municipalities, youth councils, culture and social entrepreneurship. Through the previous trainings in the framework of the MENA Leadership Academy, the participants had been encouraged and guided in their efforts of designing and implementing activities at the regional level in order to create a positive impact on the development of their societies.