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Peace by Piece: Solving the Libyan Puzzle through Municipalities

Libya Brief no. 8

Municipal councils and other local community actors are crucial for solving Libya’s current crisis. While the implementation of decentralization efforts is stalled at present due to the ongoing conflict, the escalation of political and military tensions at the national level has given an even greater importance to local bodies and initiatives. In times of war and political uncertainty, and despite various ideological divisions within members of municipal councils, local government authorities can be key actors in reconciliation and service provision for the population.

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There are many issues pending clarification with regards to local realities in Libya.  These include determining the most influential local government authorities and local figures in Libya, and how they may interact with provincial, national and/or regional power brokers. Moreover, it is also necessary to find answers to the questions: why do national-level alliances keep failing to negotiate effective power-sharing agreements and whether Libya could possibly become “a future of city states?”

In order to answer these and other questions, the KAS Regional Program Political Dialogue South Mediterranean, in cooperation with the Madrid-based think tank Stractegia, organized a Libyan-Libyan dialogue event in Tunis. The closed-door roundtable “Back to the Basics? Municipal Councils and Local Peacebuilding in Libya” brought together Libyan politicians and government officials in addition to members of civil society, security institutions and the private sector. Representatives of selected international institutions also joined as participants and observers.

The following brief builds on the insights, proposals and conclusions that have been formulated by the participants of this workshop. While not exhaustive, the takeaways mentioned in the following brief are meant to reflect the perspectives of locally engaged Libyans on the current role of local government authorities and how those authorities may help to overcome the present impasse.

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