Middle East and North Africa: Gulf Regional Initiatives: Gulf Cooperation Council
Established in 1981, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) aims to further common regional economic and social goals, including standardizing regulations, establishing a common currency, and strengthening ties between the citizens of its member states: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Since the early 1990s, the governments of the GCC have experimented with political liberalization and have implemented a series of political reforms designed to improve the efficiency of the public sector; institutionalize popular participation in the policy and decision-making processes; promote regional and local development; and curb corruption while maintaining stability and public safety.
While the GCC has historically centralized its policymaking coordination through executive representatives from the six member states, the municipal councils of the GCC countries have recently emerged as potential vehicles to promote greater accountability and bring more attention to issues of local concern. Both elected and appointed councils throughout the region have sought to elevate the discussion of local governance issues to the regional level. In 2005, the GCC ministerial committee approved an annual Gulf Municipalities Conference to provide local representatives from across the Gulf an opportunity to meet and discuss issues of common interest.
Strengthening Gulf Municipal Councils
NDI’s current initiative is designed to nurture regional ties among GCC municipal leaders by developing their political skills, creating professional networks among them, and fostering a shared understanding of and cooperation on political reform issues. At the request of senior GCC leaders, NDI is providing technical assistance to establish a Gulf Municipal Council Association as a permanent vehicle under which Gulf municipal representatives can organize and collectively influence the GCC political system. By aggregating resources, expertise, and influence, the regional association will have a greater impact than individual councils alone in advocating for government action to address the interests of their constituents and to influence regional policy decisions that have local import. Additionally, this concordance of efforts will strengthen local government collectively, as well as build the capacity of individual councils and council members. The initiative complements NDI’s in-country programs by providing a broader, international perspective on issues and processes that are central to democratization and that overlap state boundaries.
Program activities seek to build critical leadership skills such as communication, conflict resolution, and negotiation in order to promote cohesiveness among the councils and collegial working environments conducive to better municipal service delivery. Events have included a workshop on the foundational elements of establishing and managing a municipal association; consultations on future regional programming with municipal councilors and administrators during the 2007 GCC Municipalities Conference; and a study mission to Washington, D.C. to explore local governance and citizen participation in the United States.
Contact Information
For further information on our programs in Africa, please contact:
Fawzi Guleid, Senior Program Manager
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