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Municipal Cooperation Maghreb-Germany

The Maghreb states of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia are among the countries with the greatest urban growth in the world. The UN is reckoning on growth of around 100 million people in the cities around the southern and eastern Mediterranean by 2050.

A group of about twenty participants stand in a semicircle in front of a waterworks plant. A man points to an electronic screen and explains.
The project focuses on the exchange of expertise between German and Maghreb municipalities. Photo: Martin Magunia

A centralized city structure that is centuries old in some parts has also resulted in local authorities having few devolved powers and capacities to control their development and public services. After the ‘Arab Spring’, citizens demanded quality and efficiency in local authority services, as well as citizen focus, transparency and opportunities to get involved in local authority politics.

Against this backdrop, the Service Agency Communities in One World and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) implement since 2016 the ‘Municipal Cooperation Maghreb-Germany' project on behalf of the Federal Ministry for economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The aim of the project is to promote the exchange of knowledge and experience between German local authorities and municipal companies with local authorities in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia based on the joint implementation of urban projects. The project entered a second phase in March 2020.

‘Municipal Cooperation Maghreb-Germany' is part of the higher-level efforts by the Federal Government to strengthen the cities and local authorities in the MENA region through a range of instruments and thus combat the reasons of migration and flight on a long-term basis.

Participation in municipal partner projects

The exchange of knowledge and experience between the local authorities can take various forms of cooperation, including short-term secondments by specialists, internships or travel for study or delegation purposes.

The project kicked off with a conference in Bamberg, Germany, in September 2016, which offered the municipal partners an initial opportunity for networking and planning the cooperation. More than 100 representatives from local authorities and local authority associations, municipal companies, governments and civil society in Algeria, Germany, Morocco and Tunisia took part.

Since autumn 2016, there have been information trips and project planning workshops in the Maghreb countries and in Germany with the aim of implementing a small urban project in the Maghreb. A total of 12 German local authorities and municipal companies and local authorities in the Maghreb have already got involved on various topics: waste management, energetic efficiency, and urban development for example.

The second phase of the project focuses on forming new partnerships with Algerian cities and cooperate to find solutions to urban development challenges.

The ‘Municipal cooperation Maghreb-Germany' project is implemented by the Service Agency Communities in the One World (SKEW) in cooperation with GIZ on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

As cooperation partners, the SKEW and GIZ are both involved in the financing and implementation of the project. GIZ is supporting the Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian local authorities in financing the small-scale projects, while the SKEW is coordinating and financing the activities of the German local authority stakeholders.

If you wish to get involved or would like further information, we would be happy to help.