A municipality that tries to do everything at once usually ends up doing nothing well. The real challenge for local institutions today is not a lack of ambition — it is figuring out what to tackle first. This course from the Arab British Fellowship Training Academy is built around exactly that skill: leading the service operations citizens depend on by getting priorities right.

Municipal bodies today face the challenge of becoming modern institutions capable of delivering every service quickly while still planning for the future. Meeting that challenge takes an experienced, competent administrative body that relies on modern techniques — mechanization and information systems — to simplify and speed up procedures, and to help the municipality stay in touch with the demographic, economic, and environmental realities around it. Delivering services and development also requires solid statistical knowledge of the local social and economic scope, since every decision has to match what citizens actually need — and studying municipal priorities is what makes long-term planning, from health to water to every core service, possible.

Who Should Attend?

• Mayors and members of municipal councils.
• All municipal employees.
• Directors of planning departments and municipal work development.

What Participants Will Gain

• Practical experience leading municipal work and managing projects that matter to citizens.
• The ability to build appropriate plans for delivering services and to identify priorities based on importance and need.
• Stronger skills in analysis, evaluation, and goal-setting to support the development of municipal work.

Module 1: The Skill of Setting Priorities

• Identifying priorities for municipal action.
• Weighing and choosing between competing municipal priorities.
• Methods of evaluation, analysis, and goal-setting.

Module 2: Turning Priorities Into Plans

• Plans for developing municipal work based on those priorities.

Module 3: The Role of Municipal Councils

• Why municipalities matter in cities.
• The importance of municipal councils in developing service delivery.
• The election mechanism for municipal councils and their core functions.

A condensed executive-style track on this course is available on request — contact the Arab British Fellowship Training Academy for details.