University of Jordan, Al-Quds Open University, and Hebron Municipality Hold a Conference on Modern Trends in Municipal Administration and Improving the Quality of its Performance
University of Jordan, Al-Quds Open University, and Hebron Municipality held a Conference on “Modern Trends in Municipal Administration and Improving the Quality of its Performance “Academics, mayors and researchers from Palestine and Arab countries participated in this event, which lasted for two days 27-28/8/2019.
The conference came out with a set of recommendations, the most important of which is the formation of a specialized advisory board in each municipality, composed of experienced, knowledgeable persons and businesspersons; in order to participate in strategic decision-making.
The Participants stressed the need for municipalities to hire experts in project management and strategic planning, and the importance of municipalities to encourage their employees to learn, innovate, and promote a culture of cooperation and exchange of expertise and knowledge. The participants called for supporting distinguished minds and creative ideas that will promote excellence in the work of municipalities and will help municipalities to adapt to the changing circumstances and face the future. They stressed the importance of municipalities to adopt the principles of smart organization to be able to seize opportunities and keep up with environmental changes.
Participants called for a periodic survey of the internal and external environment to identify indicators of future crises in the municipality, and facilitate the process of obtaining the technical capabilities, data and information necessary in order to deal with the crises in a timely manner.
Other conclusions and recommendations of the conference:
- Assigning the competent cadre in each municipality, in cooperation with the Municipal Development and Lending Fund, to adopt a Palestinian national model for the criteria of evaluating the performance of local government bodies.
- The need for municipalities to have modern means to alleviate poverty, increase per capita income, enhance the role of women and solve the problem of unemployment.
- Municipalities support of awareness campaigns to explain sustainable development goals in universities, institutes, schools, and health centers and strengthen their capacities.
- The need for municipalities to contribute to the investment of religious sites and archaeological tourism, and create a favorable environment to attract investors.
- The need for a full job description for each job in the municipality, without any exception, to identify the actual needs of human cadres, and rehabilitation of these cadres as required by the interests of municipalities.
- Establishing museums in cities with a holistic image, focusing on highlighting Palestinian history, human heritage and the Palestinian identity.
- Developing business incubators for ideas convertible to small and medium production projects.
- Developing effective plans and scenarios to respond to potential crises and disasters.
- Amending the Palestinian Elections Law to include provisions related to the election of the President directly by citizens and other important aspects.
- It is necessary to pay attention to the organizational structure in the researched municipal sectors and make it more flexible in order for the management to be able to keep up with environmental developments that directly affect performance.
- Increasing the awareness of working individuals to pay more attention to their technical and creative skills and work to develop them continuously.
- Encouraging intellectual and cultural diversity in the researched municipal sectors to respond to all expected changes.
- Encouraging investment in information technology because of the many advantages this entails in reducing the costs of completing the work and reducing the time taken to provide the service, as well as reducing the effort in providing the service. This would create a sustainable competitive advantage for the organization if it adopts the best modern technologies appropriate to its work.
- Provide specialized training courses that will enable workers to develop their skills and knowledge and acquire new knowledge to enhance their current experiences
- Promoting a culture of quality in the work of the municipal sectors by examining the experiences of leading and successful organizations and trying to benefit from their experience
- Support teamwork by forming teams for specialized tasks.
- Develop regulations to support, motivate and reward creative workers, in addition to linking promotions and bonuses to efficiency and excellence and not to limit them to seniority.
- Raising awareness among workers in the municipalities of the importance of shifting towards e-work and the positive impact of its application through workshops and open meetings between employees and management.
- Restructuring the information technology units in the municipalities and reviewing their organizational structure, suitability and contribution to the process of transition towards e-work.
- Developing smart phones applications, so that it meets all services, and highlight its role in the completion of transactions quickly.
- Providing the necessary technical and information infrastructure to turn to e-municipalities in line with the requirements of integration with e-government.
- Enact laws, regulations and legislation that support the transformation of e-municipalities, and ensure the security and confidentiality of e-government transactions.
- Strengthening management concepts related to transparency and providing a supportive regulatory environment for continuous improvement, to increase the capacity of the municipality to respond quickly and effectively to environmental changes and to the needs of its internal and external community.
- Relying on specialized technicians in all fields and increasing their number in a qualitative manner to achieve the total benefit and provide distinguished services.