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ICMA staff member Rob Carty, right, on workshop panel |
ICMA staff member Rob Carty gave a presentation on “Professional Management, Sustainable Communities” at a regional workshop on Democracy, Human Rights and Local Governance in Rabat, Morocco, in early October. The workshop, under the sponsorship of the Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA) Initiative, focused on human rights and local governance.
ICMA was recommended for the presentation by the U.S. Department of State in response to a request by the workshop’s coordinators for an organization with the capacity to provide guidance on matters of U.S. local governance. The coordinators were No Peace Without Justice of Italy and the Moroccan Organization for Human Rights.
More than 80 delegates representing BMENA, the G8 industrialized nations, and civil society heard the presentation, which covered U.S. local governance, professional management, and the history, structure, and mission of ICMA. In most BMENA countries, the activities and services performed at the local level in the United States are managed and operated at the national (and in some cases royal) level, and the council-manager structure was unfamiliar to many of those present.
This workshop was one of several designed to help civil society groups in the BMENA countries prepare for the 2009 Forum for the Future in Marrakesh, Morocco, in November. The Forum for the Future is an annual gathering of government and civil society representatives, and the BMENA Initiative was designed to strengthen cooperation between the G8 and European nations and the governments, businesses, and civil society groups in the region with the goal of improving freedom, democracy, and prosperity. The first meeting was held in Rabat in 2004.
For more information about ICMA International, visit our Web site or contact international@icma.org.
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