The website, which is fully available both in French and in Arabic, introduces the role of the local Youth Council, its objectives, displays the councils’ activities, publications, as well as the contact details of 24 youth organizations on the territory.

From January to May 2021, MedCities, with the financial support of the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation, has provided technical assistance to the Tunisian City of M’Saken in the consolidation of its Youth Council.

The assistance consisted of multiple activities such as support in the electoral process, trainings on communication and municipal governance, technical support for a participatory diagnosis of the city’s youth, and the development of new communication tools and was finalised end of May.

You can watch the videos from the sessions here (available only in Arabic).

During the last months, the Youth Council has worked on the participatory diagnosis of the local youth, with the methodological support of an external expert. The objectives of the diagnosis are to understand and gather data on the reality of M’Sakens’ youth, to identify needs and possible actions in order to guide local actors and to open a space for debate among local citizens. Three online workshops were organized with the Youth Council and an online questionnaire was launched to the city youth, with 377 respondents, a vast majority of which were aged 18-35. The primary concerns of M’Saken youth is quality of public space and youth equipments, environmental challenges as well as a shortage in leisure and cultural offer.

On May 30^th, a final participatory workshop was organized in order to validate the youth diagnosis findings as well as the Youth Action Plan and to prioritise potential projects. There were 38 young people present at the meeting (17 women and 21 men), from the Youth Council and other local youth associations and members of M’Saken municipality. There was a rich debate to make contributions both on the diagnosis and the action plan. This closing event also served to officially launch the new website of the Youth Council, in presence of Mayor Mr. Mohamed Alaya.

Indeed, one of the objectives of this action was to promote the Youth Council’ internal and external communication tools. To enhance its visibility and institutional communication, the Youth Council decided to work on the preparation of its own website. Several members of the communication team have been working on the website design, content and functionalities, together with external web-developers.

The website, which is fully available both in French and in Arabic, introduces the role of the local Youth Council, its objectives, displays the councils’ activities, publications, as well as the contact details of 24 youth organizations on the territory. Importantly, there is also a space for citizen participation and suggestions. This communication tool is directly administered by the Smart City commission of the youth council to ensure there is always to date content available. The new website was also presented to the Municipal Council on June 16^th, by the Mayor Mr. Mohammed Alaya.

See more about the constitution of M’Saken Youth local council: English, French.