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Country: Libya

Creative one of eight implementers awarded peacebuilding IDIQ

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Posted June 13, 2023 .
By Ashley Williams .
2 min read.

Creative Associates International is one of eight implementers awarded a five-year, $800 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract to improve peacebuilding and violence-prevention efforts in fragile, conflict or violence-affected countries.  

“Creative has a long history of implementing peacebuilding projects in some of the most challenging environments,” says President & CEO Leland Kruvant. “We look forward to bringing our conflict and post-conflict expertise to the table to continue supporting USAID’s peace and stabilization work around the world.” 

Conflict, political crises, democratic backsliding and violent extremism are among the many complex challenges that are barriers to peace. By placing communities at the center of peacebuilding efforts, Creative focuses on building local leadership, elevating diverse voices, establishing trust among residents and channeling resources as communities address underlying causes of conflict and pursue positive change. 

“Peacebuilding and violence prevention are critical to achieving stable, resilient communities and regions where people can live safe, full lives,” says Sharon Van Pelt, Vice President of Creative’s Communities in Transition Division. “Centering communities and local leadership in the peacebuilding process is integral to our approach.” 

USAID is eager to use the Programming for Prevention and Peacebuilding mechanism in support of the Global Fragility Act to re-imagine how to develop and carryout peacebuilding initiatives in five key locations — Haiti, Mozambique, Libya, Papua New Guinea and Coastal West Africa — and then take those experiences to other at-risk and conflict areas.  

“An emphasis in these regions, using systems and evidence-based approaches, has the potential to put U.S. resources to work in a more strategic way and to address the root causes of violence and instability,” says Mystelle Ruble, Creative’s Transitions Practice Area Director. “This is an exciting opportunity for implementers and USAID to build the knowledge base on what works well and how we can apply it elsewhere.”   

The Programming for Prevention and Peacebuilding IDIQ was awarded through the Center for Conflict and Violence Prevention at USAID’s Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Stabilization. The IDIQ has a ceiling of $800 million during five years. Each one of the IDIQ holders compete for task orders issued by USAID. 

Learn more about Creative’s extensive peacebuilding work here.

Creative forms new practice area to deliver on governance, election needs

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Posted October 28, 2020 .
2 min read.
Voters wait in line in Somaliland.

Creative Associates International announces its new Democracy, Governance and Electoral Integrity Practice Area, which combines the knowledge, skills and expertise of two existing units to offer holistic and integrated solutions to overlapping challenges facing democratic consolidation, accountable governance and civic activism.

“By combining the individual practice areas into a single, seamless unit,” says Tom Wheelock, Senior Vice President of the Communities in Transition Division, “we can offer even greater benefits to clients, partners and host governments.”

Creative’s new Democracy, Governance and Electoral Integrity Practice Area – comprised of the former Governance and Community Resilience and Electoral Education and Integrity practice areas – will focus on issues of governance, accountability, electoral integrity and security, constitutional processes, legislative strengthening, anti-corruption and civil society development.

Creative President and CEO Leland Kruvant says the new practice area is part of the company’s strategy of continuously evaluating its portfolio of services and how they align with the needs on the ground, as well as their ability to deliver innovative solutions to pressing issues.

Deborah Kimble, who has led Creative’s Governance and Community Resilience Practice Area since 2013, has been named director of the newly constituted practice area.

“Democracy doesn’t begin and end at the ballot box. It is a continuum that embraces the broader issues of good governance and accountability,” she says. “This practice area is how Creative will deliver on those needs and challenges.”

The Democracy, Governance and Electoral Integrity Practice Area will oversee Creative’s current work in Mali, Libya, Somalia and the ECOWAS countries of West Africa, allowing technical experts and staff working across the programs to further collaborate on these interconnected development issues.

“While the formal merger of these two practice areas is happening now, it really is the result of several years of collaboration on several projects that resulted in the marriage of technical skills into a holistic new practice area focused on developments in the democracy and governance space,” Kimble says. “I’m excited to be leading this new, highly collaborative practice area of Creative’s top talent in this field.”

Building on past success

The new practice area better reflects Creative’s holistic and comprehensive approach to democracy and governance thinking, particularly in conflict and post-conflict environments.

In Somalia, for example, the USAID-funded BUILD project focuses on strengthening electoral processes in the country while also expanding knowledge and skills for fostering long-term good governance.

“Somalia was a good case study in how we can support elections more effectively by approaching them as a part of overall governance,” Kimble says. recalling her 2019 visit to Mogadishu.

Q&A: Sandy Oleksy-Ojikutu on Africa and the “unique ingredient” for sustainability

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Posted June 5, 2020 .
4 min read.
Sandy Oleksy-Ojikutu
Sandy Oleksy-Ojikutu

Creative Associates International recently named Sandy Oleksy-Ojikutu, Ph.D., as a Senior Advisor. She is an authority on Sub-Saharan Africa with three decades of project design and implementation experience at the U.S. Agency for International Development. 

In this Q&A, Oleksy-Ojikutu shares her passion for Africa and the value of dialogue for international development partners. 

What drives your passion for Africa?  

Oleksy-Ojikutu: I went to live in Nigeria, West Africa, as a consequence of a personal choice. I lived within a Nigerian family, my husband’s family, now my family.   

Having left my post at Pace University in New York, I smoothly transitioned into joining the Faculty of Education at Nigeria’s University of Lagos (UNILAG) training teachers and lecturing on aspects of educational psychology. There, I gained tenure and earned a sabbatical year back in New York at Columbia University.  

Toward the end of my time at UNILAG, my work with doctoral students focused on traditional counseling for adolescent and young adults analyzing the use of totems, ceremonies and age-grades to mark both the passage of time and the assumption of social responsibilities. My students taught me about the many challenges of growing up in Nigeria (as well as in Liberia, Libya, and Iran!) and about the role of their cultures in aiding their progress. They taught me to really listen without judgment. To be an honest observer and an advocate, from the position of an outsider. 

These insights served me well as I expanded my work through USAID across the continent — to listen deeply to individuals to understand their values and vision without judgment.  To value differences, to see individuals, communities and nations in one panoramic view. And then have a dialogue with host governments, communities and individuals. 

When you live in any part of Africa and deal with daily life issues as your own personal issues over an extended time (32 years in my case), you quietly internalize insight into African values. I simply want Africa — as a continent, a collection of nations, and as an amalgamation of individuals — to succeed and prosper, and I want to support that process. This desire grew over time and through experiences with individual Africans. It continues to grow. 

Having worked in development for two decades, what do you think should be the focus of international partners in Africa? 

Oleksy-Ojikutu: Basic needs exist across Africa, and similarly across the world. It is a matter of degree. I know folks would like me to identify a hierarchy of needs, but it just is not that simple. Good health services ensure and protect life. Education provides the skills needed for a good quality of life. Food security sustains life. Rule of law and democratic elections maintain peace and security for individuals and their respective nations. Electrical power supports industrial development and promotes safety. Trade hubs facilitate personal and national economic growth, and so on. Since these basic needs are simultaneous and not sequential in most countries, international development partners negotiate with African nations to bring their unique strengths and skills to specific geographic areas to assist in addressing basic needs. Yes, various political considerations are part of the decision making, but the goal is to eliminate dire needs (e.g., extreme poverty) and assist nations in developing solutions that meet and service basic needs. The impacts are cumulative across a broad spectrum of development interventions within a nation. 

From your experience, what lessons have international development partners learned from their development work in Africa?  

Oleksy-Ojikutu: We have learned a great deal about what does not work, including imposing external plans in development contexts, or using development funding as an effort to secure sustainability. We have learned to do better by co-creating with host countries and direct beneficiaries as we design international development activities. We have adjusted our perspective on exactly what international development is. 

From your perspective, what should they do to better translate lessons learned in their programming? 

Oleksy-Ojikutu: I end where I began. International development partners need to listen deeply to, and work directly with, their African counterparts and beneficiaries. The resulting dialogue would address the reconciliation of the needs/goals of the development partner and the beneficiaries.  

What are the key areas Creative may have to consider doing development work in Africa? 

Oleksy-Ojikutu: Creative’s staff does listen deeply, understanding the value of dialogue with host country counterparts and beneficiaries when designing interventions in response to solicitations. This type of dialogue is not an easy task — moreover, Creative does this well! Their resulting submissions have that ring-of-truth. They address donor needs and requirements while respecting and representing the beneficiaries’ self-defined needs. Perhaps that is the unique ingredient needed for sustainability.

Five ways Creative supports democracy in Africa

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Posted September 12, 2019 .
3 min read.

By Evelyn Rupert

In vulnerable and post-conflict environments, Creative Associates International is implementing programming that supports credible, participatory, inclusive and peaceful elections, as well as providing voters and governments tools to increase civic engagement and prevent electoral violence.

In recognition of International Democracy Day, Sept. 15, the following are five ways Creative programs support democracy in Africa.

1. Supporting the development of constitutions and legislation

Democratic constitutions and legislation build the foundation for a flourishing democracy. Without these cornerstones, democratic processes can unravel.

Creative-implemented projects under the Libyan Engagement and Governance through Applied Learning program, funded by the  U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative, assisted the Libyan government throughout the constitutional process to finalize a draft constitution, an important step toward a stable democracy. More recently, a Senior Executive Legal Academy initiative has trained more than 150 Libyan legislators, staff and senior legal advisors on framing, drafting and analyzing legislation and strengthening cross-institutional collaboration.

In Somalia, the USAID Bringing Unity, Integrity, and Legitimacy to Democracy project (BUILD) supports the women’s caucuses in the Somalian parliament to strengthen capacity and leadership and promote gender-sensitive legislation. Following the passage of the landmark Sexual Offenses Bill in Somaliland in 2018, BUILD has been working closely with women leaders and civil society organizations to advance a similar bill at the national level in neighboring Somalia.

2. Promoting credible and accountable democratic processes and practices

A polling worker registers a woman to vote in Somaliland
A polling worker registers a woman to vote in Somaliland. Photo by Jim Huylebroek.

USAID’s BUILD project encourages citizen participation in political and electoral processes in Somalia by enhancing civil society and media capacity to disseminate information, strengthening election institutions and other government bodies to administer credible elections, and encouraging political parties to contribute to peaceful and inclusive political and electoral processes.

The Libya Electoral Security Planning and Implementation project (LESPI) puts in place proactive electoral security measures to help rebuild public trust in peaceful, accessible and legitimate electoral processes. The project, funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Assistance Coordination in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, also works with security and electoral bodies within the government on mentoring and public outreach.

3. Advancing civil society engagement, civic education and peace messaging

The USAID Reacting to Early Warning and Response Data project (USAID/REWARD) in West Africa has partnered with nearly 50 civil society organizations to advance prevention and mitigation of electoral violence. Grantees in Niger, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Mali have disseminated peace messages, raised awareness of threats to electoral security, promoted the political participation of women and youth, and enhanced media’s capacity for objective reporting.

And in Somalia, BUILD provides ongoing capacity building and training for civil society groups on a range of topics including social media, voter education, journalism and electoral systems and provides small grants for women- and youth-led organizations.

4. Providing early warning and response to violent conflict

USAID/REWARD also seeks to improve the Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) response to early warning signs of conflict. The program has conducted a series of country risk and vulnerability assessments, designed to identify each member state’s structural vulnerabilities to conflict, event-driven risks that can trigger conflict, and community-based resiliencies that can help prevent conflict from breaking out. A major success of this initiative has been integrating gender considerations into early warning systems and raising awareness through training.

5. Supporting peaceful elections

Creative’s programming lays the groundwork for peaceful elections by advising governments and electoral groups on potential points of conflict and supporting election observers.

In Libya, LESPI has adapted innovative tools to monitor social media for electoral security incidents, which can provide real-time data on potential threats of electoral violence.

And in West Africa, USAID/REWARD assesses the landscape of threats to electoral security at the national and local levels and partners with civil society organizations to promote more peaceful and credible electoral processes during pivotal elections. These activities have reached more than 10,000 beneficiaries and empowered more than 5,000 women and 5,000 youth to conduct peacebuilding activities around their communities’ and countries’ electoral processes.

For a unified Libya, start with local governance

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Posted March 13, 2019 .
By Maggie Proctor .
5 min read.

To achieve a unified, effective, and legitimate Libyan government, one of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s goals, development implementers should consider adopting a localized governance approach.

The Brookings Institution’s recent policy paper, “Empowered Decentralization: A City-Based Strategy for Rebuilding Libya,” makes the case for such an approach. Describing Libya’s political and economic landscape as “too atomized to be run by a strong central government,” this paper proposes that the United States de-prioritize national processes, such as elections, in favor of direct engagement with municipalities around politics, the economy and security.

The authors argue that this “city-first” paradigm would better respond to current realities on the ground and be a more effective method for helping Libyans build a more unified, peaceful and prosperous country.

Creative’s research into citizen perceptions of local governance systems supports Brookings’ analysis, and emphasizes the value of a city-based strategy. This research showed a wide range of variance between different cities in Libya, with each municipality having unique sets of challenges as well as opportunities.

Diverse challenges in Libyan cities

In December 2018, Creative conducted the Fragility Resilience Assessment Method® (FRAMe) in five cities in Libya: Sabha, Sebratha, Tobruq, Zliten, and Zwara.

FRAMe is a mapping tool that assesses the sources and dynamics of fragility at the community level along eight functional dimensions of governance (such as leadership and security environment) and seven factors (including inclusion, trust and legitimacy) that contribute to resilience.  By gathering FRAMe data from different age cohorts and gender, Creative found that these five cities shared several commonalities—but that they have more differences than similarities.

Figure 1: A comparison of the five cities’ FRAMe® scores by dimension, with 1 as most fragile and 4 as most resilient.

Figure 1 illustrates shared perceptions regarding Administrative Management – that is, the regular functioning of municipal government – as well Service Delivery and Economic Foundations. However, perceptions diverged in leadership, financial management, rule of law, security and citizen participation.

Residents perceive Sebratha leadership to be inclusive, providing a base from which to address community challenges, but in Sabha leadership is perceived to be closed, making it difficult to bring about community cohesion.

Community-specific security concerns

While the international narrative about Libya focuses on weak security institutions, widespread militia violence, and unchecked criminal and extremist organizations, FRAMe shows that the local-level experience with security varies widely from city to city.

For example, there was a wide range of responses regarding the prevalence of crimes and violence (under “Performance” in Figure 2). On the one side of the spectrum is Sabha, where illicit trafficking is a major source of income and state authority is particularly weak, and on the other is Zwara, where local authorities have been rigorously policing the community.

Figure 2: Municipalities differed significantly in the Security Environment dimension

The Zwara scores suggest that the local authorities have been a more effective security provider than the police or militias working in the other four communities. Respondents in Zwara reported that the community is actively engaged in security management, security forces are fairly inclusive and mostly managed locally, and residents feel generally safe.

Zwara is weakest in the System Legitimacy factor – here, the state’s monopoly over security – but it is telling that even without strong government control citizens hold largely positive views of their security environment.

Inequities between identity groups

For Libya to progress on its path to self-reliance, understanding how youth—as eventual leaders of major institutions—perceive governance, and their ability to engage in building their respective communities, is critical.  Data was collected from different age cohorts – 18-24 and 25-35, as well as adult men and women—to gain this understanding. In several of the community, FRAMe showed that different demographics held widely disparate views of their community.

The gap between youth and adults was most pronounced in Zliten (see Figure 3). In this case, youth ages 18 to 24 reported that municipal officials and security actors were untrustworthy and that they were excluded from engaging in civic life, discriminated against in the security and justice sectors, and shut out of the job market.

Figure 3: Groups in Zliten have very different experiences of the governance system, even between different age cohorts of youth.

This group’s exclusion from Zliten’s governance system is contrasted by the experience of older youth, aged 25-34, who presented a very different picture, one where the government, courts, security forces and job market were generally inclusive and responsive to their needs.

In Sabha, meanwhile, FRAMe indicated that the governance system is significantly biased in favor of adult men. Women and youth have much lower scores than men in every dimension of governance, but the disparity is particularly pronounced in Justice & Rule of Law (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Sabha’s Justice & Rule of Law scores show a disparity between men and the rest of the community

Men reported the justice system was fairly effective, legitimate and respected, as well as highly inclusive.

Women and youth, however, gave the lowest possible scores for every aspects of this dimension—from judicial accountability to the functionality of the prison system. Sabha’s gap in perceptions points to issues with access to justice and with discrimination, as well as a lack of awareness on the part of adult men in the city.

Creating constructive opportunities for the two youth cohorts will be important to building strong communities, today and in the future.

Using data to develop localized approaches

Creative’s FRAMe data illustrates the need for localized approaches. A single, national approach to security strengthening would be less effective than, for example, activities that build on the existing security structures in Zwara, while working with local authorities in Tobruq to establish new community security mechanisms.

The FRAMe data can also be used to tailor interventions to each municipality’s specific context. In Zliten, one priority would be to improve youth engagement in governance through targeted activities, such as establishing a Youth Council that would work with the municipal council on designing programs to support youth entrepreneurship. The Zliten Council could also reexamine its communications approaches, using social media to increase access to information and transparency around public finances.

Similarly, in Sabha the data suggests the need for governance actors to increase access for women and youth, address barriers to participation, and examine how to ensure services better meet all citizens’ expectations. With regard to Sabha’s justice sector, activities could begin with an analysis of the legal, structural, and cultural inequalities that are impeding women and youth’s access to justice and developing a program of reform based on those findings.

USAID has ambitious goals for Libya as a whole – a unified government, broad political inclusion, resilience to violent conflict, improved licit economic opportunities, and effective security and justice institutions. To meet these goals, USAID should develop evidence-based approaches that address the specific and unique conditions of Libyan communities on their own terms.

Maggie Proctor is a Project Manager in the Governance and Community Resilience Practice Area at Creative Associates International.

Libya – LEGAL-Dustur

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Program.
2 min read.

Funded by the US-Middle East Partnership Initiative, the four-year Libyan Engagement and Governance through Applied Learning (LEGAL) project assisted the Government of Libya to coordinate the process of drafting the constitution. The project was implemented by Creative Associates International.

Through the project, Creative worked closely with the Libya’s Constitutional Drafting Assembly to mediate conflicts within the assembly and facilitate discussions to reach a consensus on a final draft of the constitution.  In close partnership with the project, Libya’s Constitutional Drafting Assembly reached a landmark moment in July 2017 when it approved a final draft of the constitution, paving the way for a popular referendum.

As a follow-up to the constitutional work accomplished by the LEGAL project, the LEGAL-Dustur project built a greater understanding of the proposed constitution among key stakeholders. It is also facilitated the movement toward a constitutional referendum.

The project assisted the Constitutional Drafting Assembly in its outreach with the Libyan government, and with the country’s Amazigh and Tebu minority populations. It also provided continuing technical support to the Constitutional Drafting Assembly on questions surrounding the draft itself, and with any legal and political challenges it may face leading up to a referendum.

The project facilitated the first-ever official meetings between the Constitutional Drafting Assembly and Libya’s House of Representatives, which has been widely credited in helping move the constitutional process forward. LEGAL-Dustur will continue to facilitate the Constitutional Drafting Assembly and Libyan government engagement, while broadening inclusivity through outreach efforts with Libya’s minority populations.

In new democratic Libya, local governments build leadership & citizen trust

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Posted October 26, 2016 .
6 min read.

The municipal offices in Libya’s northeastern city of al-Bayda are bustling. Nearly 100 citizens walk through the doors each day to talk to municipal government representatives. Online, 18,000 citizens follow the city’s Facebook updates.

This steady stream of communication between residents and the local government is new in this conflict-torn city, and it is paying off in the form of increased citizen confidence in their local institutions. Almost 73 percent of al-Bayda residents who have directly interacted with the Municipal Council reported a positive experience, according to a public opinion survey conducted by the Navanti Group in April 2016.

“The Municipal Council is more legitimate and more effective” than the previous Local Council, reported one teacher in al-Bayda.

Across al-Bayda and five other Libyan municipalities—Gharyan, Sabratha, Sabha, Tobruq, and Zuwara—improvements like these in citizen engagement by mayors, councils and civil servants, along with better service delivery and administrative capacity are resulting in stronger local governance.

This boost in governance capacity during the last two years has been achieved with support from the Libyan Local Council Administration and Legitimacy project. The project was funded by the U.S. Middle East Partnership Initiative and implemented by Creative Associates International with local partners the Libyan Transparency Association and the Libyan Policy Institute.

The changes are especially clear to members of civil society organizations, like Ayoub Karnaf of the Sabratha Youth Union, who rely on local government to help carryout activities and support policies that that serve their constituencies.

Karnaf says that before the project there was a basic level of interaction between the Local Council and civil society but no serious collaboration on projects.

But in the last year, he has noticed a “clear change.”

“The relationship between the Municipal Council and civil society organizations is very strong, with constant coordination. As evidence, most activities and programs implemented in the municipality were done through cooperation between the Municipal Council and civil society organizations,” he says.

Transforming the culture of leadership

Democracy is still new in post-revolution Libya, where in 2012 citizens voted in the country’s first election since 1965. Municipal governments and citizens alike are learning how to navigate their new roles.

“For the newly elected municipal officials, understanding how to build relationships based on trust between citizens and council while adapting to different roles and responsibilities that promulgate democratic principles was critical to the program success” says Deborah Kimble, Director of Governance and Community Resilience at Creative.

Local governing bodies in particular are working to improve their responsiveness to citizen needs, which is both a local priority and a key aim of the Government of National Accord.

“We know that municipalities are the tool for building citizen confidence in central government and for providing services. The municipality is our nation,” says Baddad Gonoso Masoud, Libya’s Minister of Local Government, noting that the national government seeks to support municipalities and build stronger coordination mechanisms between the central and local levels.

Through leadership seminars, municipal officials learned new approaches to governance through persuasion, consultation and engagement, rather than through coercion.

Workshops for local officials helped them to master topics like project management, human resources, budgeting and Libyan municipal laws and regulations. In workshops on Law 59 on Local Administration, elected representatives learned about their duties in office, as well as legislated procedures and functions of municipal administrations.

A running theme throughout the trainings was transparency and accountability in governance systems as a means of building trust among constituents and strengthening democratic governance, explains Kimble.

Ramping up communication

A key duty of elected officials is to represent their constituents and develop solutions to meet their needs. For newly instated local officials in a country lacking a history of a vibrant civil society, creating channels for communications between government and citizens was a new endeavor, say project implementers.

Through media and strategic communications training and citizen engagement workshops, the Libyan Local Council Administration and Legitimacy project worked to improve local government capacity to hear and respond to citizens’ concerns. By instituting regular town halls, for example, many of the municipalities created a venue for citizens to engage directly with officials and air complaints.

Mayor of Sabratha, Husayn Khalifa Dayab, describes the new channels of communication, including town halls and a special radio series, as “the most successful activities to engage citizens.”

“This communication with them was direct, which had a great impact on citizens. Direct communication with citizens is what made our activities successful,” he says.

With new communication skills, plus training in service delivery and municipal responsibilities, local officials were primed to step in to address the grievances they heard from constituents.

After citizens in Sabratha reported poor roads and lack of recreation services, for example, the Municipal Council teamed up with civil society organizations to fill these gaps. They established a new family park and inaugurated a road-paving program to expand access to rural communities.

In response to citizen concerns about recent outbreaks of violence in Sabha, the city’s mayor met with local elders to discuss their security concerns and make plans for a joint committee to help stabilize the community.

In addition to town halls and in-person meetings, the Libyan Local Council Administration and Legitimacy project helped municipal governments take their communications efforts online and on the airwaves.

Each city established a Facebook page where they regularly update citizens on city news. Some cities, like Sabratha, have initiated weekly call-in radio shows and e-government portals where citizens can submit queries.

The city of Gharyan now has more than 25,000 Facebook followers and Sabratha, with more than 18,000 Facebook followers, averages 75 calls from residents each week on its radio show.  Al Bayda’s council even launched a smartphone app called “Al Baydaoui,” which allows citizens to keep informed on local news, provide input on city services and stay connected with the municipality.

Building bridges, building community

As each municipality improves its own operations and learns the best ways to communicate with and serve their constituents, they are also building connections with each other to share these best practices.

On a quarterly basis and with support from the project, the six mayors gathered to discuss successes and challenges in municipal administration. The cities have also taken their own steps to build bridges among other municipalities as well.

In February, for example, al-Bayda hosted officials of eight other municipalities for a discussion on shared security challenges and solutions. In March, Zuwara held a regional roundtable meeting of seven municipalities to discuss a regional coordination mechanism for security and basic citizen services.

While bridges get built among government offices, citizens and local government representatives are also connecting in meaningful ways.

Through their own funding and with support from project-issued peacebuilding and community action grants, each of the six municipalities has joined efforts with civil society organizations for joint community improvement projects.

“Recently we’ve noticed a clear change in the culture between the Municipal Council and civil society organizations,” says Muhamad Al Fathali, a leader of the Star of Sabratha for Development and Progress organization. “The work they do together is complementary, and they collaborate and meet frequently. This has led to a significant improvement of the relationship.”

In Sabratha, for example, the city teamed up with agricultural and environmental groups to plant 500 trees on national Arbor Day. In cooperation with local schools, the cities of Gharyan, Zuwara and al-Bayda all held community celebrations for Mothers and Children’s Day in March.

Among them, the municipalities have organized volunteer days, traffic safety campaigns, football tournaments, art exhibits, cultural festivals and more—all amounting to a surge in community morale, increased interaction among municipal officials and citizens and a subsequent boost in citizen awareness of and trust in local government.

Where just five years ago an elected government did not exist, there is now a budding and thriving culture of democracy emerging in these six municipalities. It is a transformation local officials are committed to sustaining.

“The impact of the [Local Council Administration and Legitimacy] program will continue to effect municipalities for years because it has contributed to the core of governance in Libya,” says Zuwara Mayor Hafed G. S. Bensasi.

Drafting new constitution, Libyan civil society speaks

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Posted January 26, 2015 .
4 min read.

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Drafting new constitution, Libyan civil society speaks

By Jillian Slutzker

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Democracies are founded on the will of the people. But in al-Bayda, Libya—where members of the Constitutional Drafting Assembly have been working since April 2014 to create the framework for a democratic Libya—the voice of the people had been largely absent.

This changed in Dec. 2014, when 10 representatives from 4 civil society groups took to the podium in the assembly’s chambers, speaking to assembly President Ali Tarhouni and 16 members from the body’s 8 committees.

Revealing their findings from focus groups held across the country, the speakers voiced the views of thousands of Libyans on key constitutional issues, including national reconciliation, local governance, extractive industries, the role of the army and police, transparency, youth and women’s rights.

“The role of civil society is vital to ensure Libyan citizens are engaged in the ongoing transitional efforts in Libya….Civil society organizations not only inform the public about transitional issues but, importantly, they gather public opinion in a certain geographical area or on a certain issue and are able to feed public opinion back to policy makers and lawmakers ensuring greater public participation in key transitional matters,” says Mansoor Mirza, Chief of Party for the Libyan Engagement and Governance through Applied Learning program.

The program works to boost organizations’ ability to build consensus and influence the constitutional drafting process. It is funded by the U.S. State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative and implemented by Creative Associates International.

“Civil society has a unique opportunity to play a meaningful role in Libya’s transition. But this may be hard won, given the current tensions in country,” says Kourtney Pompi, a civil society trainer for the program.

Libya has been plagued by political tensions and militia fighting since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Gaps in citizen knowledge about the new political process and a lack of technical experience have also prevented civil society from playing an active role in dialogue and advocacy around the new constitution.

The ABCs of advocacy

Photo by: Women and Youth Empowerment Forum
Photo by: Women and Youth Empowerment Forum

During an intensive four-day workshop in Djerba, Tunisia, the program’s grantees gained skills in in building consensus, spearheading advocacy, formulating policy and reaching out to media.

“Prior to the trainings, the [civil society organizations] lacked focus and specificity in their messaging,” says Michael Wasco, a constitutional attorney and a trainer for the program. “The trainings and discussions helped the groups distill their positions and data into succinct and clear recommendations.”

Participants in the training represented the Libyan Public Policy Forum (LPPF), Women and Youth Empowerment Forum (WYEF), National Caucus Fazzan (NCF) and H2O, a youth organization.

During the past several months, the groups have held public forums around the country, collecting citizens’ opinions and concerns on key constitutional issues and turning those into policy points to deliver to the Constitutional Drafting Assembly.

Wasco says that through role play scenarios, mock presentations and consensus-building and communication exercises, participants sharpened their oral presentation skills and messaging.

Pompi adds that the trainings also helped groups crystallize their policy positions and understand “the value of being direct about what they wanted from the [Constitutional Drafting Assembly] members.”

In a heated and divisive political environment, Pompi says, the civil society trainees are now better prepared to discuss priority issues with officials and other groups with dissenting perspectives or priorities.

“Remaining politically impartial in a highly polarized and uncertain political environment is vital in establishing and maintaining trust with the [Constitutional Drafting Assembly],” says Mirza.

Through their trainings, the civil society organizations learned how to present their findings so that they were not seen as “pushing a particular political agenda but were providing objective information gathered from nationwide citizen public forums that is important for constitution drafters in ensuring the constitution reflects public opinion,” Mirza says.

Connections for democratic engagement

Photo by: Women and Youth Empowerment Forum
Photo by: Women and Youth Empowerment Forum

At the groups’ presentation in al-Bayda, President Tarhouni said he hoped that there would be a greater level of coordination between civil society and the assembly in the upcoming public consultation phase of the constitutional drafting process.

In bilateral conversations following the meeting, individual civil society representatives and assembly members established personal connections for ongoing communication. This engagement with individual assembly members on an individual constituency basis is key, says Mirza.

To date, the four organizations trained through the Libyan Engagement in Governance through Applied Learning program are the only civil society groups that have met with assembly members directly in al-Bayda to discuss the constitution.

This government-civil society relationship will be critical to a successful constitution-drafting process. Although program grantees, and other civil society groups, can hone their organizing and advocacy skills through training, their efforts will be ineffective if they are met with closed doors and deaf ears, say program trainers.

“Civil society has an opportunity to contribute to consensus building within the country, as they have the trust of their communities, if government is willing to engage them meaningfully in the transition process,” says Pompi.

These meetings are an important step toward this successful democratic transition.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/12″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-primary”][/vc_column][/vc_row]