In the frame of its program “Supporting Decentralisation and Local Development”, UNDP Tunisia has been implementing the project “Youth and women inclusion in governance and local development in the region of Medenine”, financed by the Catalan Agency for Development and Cooperation. MedCities is a partner of the projet, in charge of the evaluation and the capitalisation of results, including transfer of experiences and lessons learnt. As the project comes to an end, UNDP hosted the final capitalisation event, which took place in Djerba on October 23^rd.

The seminar focused on the project main results, the successful creation and consolidation of the Medenine Local Youth Council, nominated in 2020, and the preparation activities for the creation of the Medenine Governorate Youth Council (regional level). MedCities was in charge of preparing the methodology and implementing this capitalisation activity.  The objectives of the capitalization event were to foster knowledge exchange from different cities’ experiences, identify lessons learnt and good practices concerning youth inclusion in local affairs through policies and projects, and to elaborate recommendations for potential replication across Tunisian towns.

Aside from Medenine, several MedCities member municipalities took part in this participative workshop: Bizerte, Kairouan, Gabès and Tataouine, with the cities of M’Saken and Sousse also exposed their experiences in promoting youth participation and consultation. In total, 30 participants, representatives of local and national administration as well as other technical partners attended this capitalization event in Djerba.

The capitalization workshop welcomed interventions from the Ministry of Local Affairs or the Regional Commissariat for Youth and Sports. The first session focussed on the implication of youth in local development governance in which Ms. Chaima Bouhlel presented the report “Local Youth Policies in Tunisia: tools, experiences and recommendations”, prepared for MedCities as a result of providing a training program  on youth local policies in May. The second and third session focussed on the mechanisms to foster youth implication in local affairs. Participants reflected on the main challenges and lessons learnt concerning youth mobilization in such initiatives, for instance from the experience of youth projects in the municipalities of Medenine, M’Saken or Sousse. Moreover, the president of the M’Saken Youth Council presented from its own council’ experience some reflections on local youth implication during the creation and planning of their local council. Several roundtables and working groups were set up to discuss best practices and ways forwards.

The workshop ended with a presentation of summaries from each working group and a general presentation of recommendation emerging from these constructive discussions. The recommendations and main conclusions of this work will be part of the project evaluation and capitalisation report that will be produced by MedCities in the coming months.