 Hi everybody, welcome to this timely event called COVID-19 and Cooperation in Libya Moving Past the Pandemic. My name is Michael Yaffe and I am the Vice President at the US Institute of Peace focusing on the Middle East and North Africa. The USIP has been dedicated to the proposition that peace is possible, it's practical and it's necessary for the United States and for the world. And in this sense, it reflects a history that where Congress set up the Institute to be a independent, nonpartisan organization that is focusing and dedicated to the world, to bringing about a world with dedicated to ending conflict, to mitigating conflict and preventing conflict, violent conflict. Today, as I said, we are focusing on Libya. USIP has been working continuously in Libya since 2011. And now seeking through research and training and dialogues, we seek to build a peace infrastructure at the local level, at the national level and with key partners. We are, we today, we are joined by various people who will discuss the issue. In Libya, and they represent our partners that we bring to these issues as we do in other places where we work around the world. Today's panel be moderated by Nate Wilson. Nate leads our Libya program. He leads this from our office in Tunis. And Nate will be introducing the panelists very, very shortly. To set the scene for our event, it is important to recall that Libya is now at a critical political juncture with major powers represented by the UN support mission in Libya and is focusing on holding national elections on December 24th, 2021. However, there will be many challenges to upholding a high level of security, transparency and inclusivity before, during and after these elections. At the same time that Libya moves through this transition period, the country, like the rest of the world, has been battling COVID-19 with an under-resourced healthcare system made worse by the conflicts. Despite all the challenges, Libya has seen some bright spots when people at different levels are cooperating across the board. This is true at the local level, which is where we will explore during our discussions today what is being done as well as what's being done at the national level. It is in this context in mind in which I want to welcome our distinguished keynote speaker, Ambassador Wafa Bugagis. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Ambassador Bugagis and welcome so much. Thank you so much, Mike. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Thank you for hosting and convening this informative event that comes at a very critical juncture in Libyan national developments and also in the midst of historic global pandemic. As Libya entered the new year, there has been continued widespread optimism about the future of the country, with positive developments taking place in all of the UN facilitated processes by the three various tracks, namely the political, security, and economical tracks. There is finally a light at the end of the tunnel for the conclusion of the proxy conflict with the impending end of negative foreign interference in Libya's sovereignty. Libyans are reeling from nine years of conflict in which families have been bombed out of their homes, healthcare facilities have been destroyed, infrastructure has crumpled, and the economy had had a hard hit. On top of all of that, 2020 has been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has exasperated the crisis and added a new layer of suffering to the Libyan people. As the nation takes greater strides towards reconciliation and reunification with a drive towards self-determination and the establishment of a civil democratic state, we recognize that there is still so much work to be done to fulfill these goals. And while great progress has been made in Libya's various tracks, one looming impediment is the foreign negative interference in Libyan affairs. And without full Libyan determination, in the lives of Libyan themselves, peace and stability will always be fleeting. The Libyan political dialogue forum, facilitated by the UN, by Aansmel, has done a tremendous job at bringing Libyans together to formulate and enact a plan toward a unified civil democracy that benefits all Libyans. The shared, to that end, the shared cooperation between Libyans from all backgrounds, regions, ages, and genders is a testament to the shift entied in the Libyan conflict, ultimately setting the stage for successful parliamentarian and presidential elections, which are scheduled to take place on December 24, 2021, and that will be Libya's 70th Independence Day. Our shared drive for self-determination, democratic representation, and the unified state is the mortar of our identity as Libyans. And this is what brings us all together. On a more larger scale, cooperation from local and national civil society organizations and practitioners has enabled the considerable success of Libya's municipal elections in the west and south of the country as a direct result of the success and with sincere efforts for national reconciliation, prospects for holding successful national elections are high. Pertaining to another important track, and that's namely Libya's security and military track, there has been notable progress in the five plus five joint military commission work. The ongoing ceasefire implementation shall enable life for Libyans on the conflict lines to return to more normalcy with the expediting of the opening of the coastal road and flights resuming between Tripoli and Benghazi. Here I must mention, and as you probably all know, the challenges remain in removing thousands of mines and explosive remnants of the war along the road. Other effects of the conflict, namely the splintering of Libyan institutions, has been a significant challenge in deteriorating our services and our economy. And here on the economic track, there has been progress towards reconciling and unifying financial institutions of the east and the west with movement towards unifying the national budget and agreement on the financial physical policy. The unification of financial and economic institutions is paramount to reforming the economy and allocating the needed resources and funds to support urgent needs and services to people such as providing electricity and aiding the aid health sector amid the COVID-19 pandemic. To all that end, and despite these positive developments in Libya's various tracks, it's inescapable to note the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the lives of the people, particularly when the country was in conflict and war. The pandemic has impacted every level of Libyan life, of Libyan, of the society, especially displaced persons and the vulnerable population, taking pressure lives away, limiting movement, affecting services, and taking a toll on the nation's already weakened economy. It's also worth noting that despite the ongoing difficulties due to COVID-19, Libyan health institutions have remained unified across the nation and have taken measures to combat the implications of the virus as much as the overall hardship imposed by the war and conflict has allowed. As of today, the government has allocated more than $135 million U.S. dollars to provide vaccines to the people and secure much needed medical equipments. Partnership with the U.S. government institutions like U.S. aid and international organizations such as World Health Organization and UNDP will be crucial to support Libyan public health institutions with capacity building, for instance. This will eventually give these institutions greater self-reliance and preparedness for facing the pandemic and other health crises. As a country coming out of conflict, more help is needed at this point from the international organizations to the Libyan health authorities and keeping in mind that Libya hosts hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are also in need of humanitarian help and vaccination for all to be safe. Libyan health authorities have led a major reach out campaign to provide vaccines, but with global competition and limitations on availability, it will certainly be a slow process and sometime before all the vulnerable population can have access to vaccines. In turn, civil societies and civil organizations have been working hand in hand, stretching across regional lines in an attempt to provide direct support to those most in need and I'm happy here to see some of those representatives of these organizations and I look forward to hear from them. Corporation between the public and private sector is instrumental to the effects to the efficacy of emergency preparedness and planning and I'm happy to see this coordination taking place on the ground in Libya. To conclude with, cooperation between Libyans has never been more paramount than this moment in the past 10 years. We as Libyans need to further come together and continue to cooperate to solidify our nation's progress towards stability and dignified life full of security, good health and prosperity for all. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ambassador Bugegas. Very much appreciated those comments and just to introduce myself, my name is Nate Wilson. I am the Libya country manager, as Mike mentioned, for the US Institute of Peace. Thank you again for your remarks, Ambassador Bugegas. From the US Institute of Peace, we very much appreciate our partnership with you and your ministry as well as the government in DC as well as out in the field and some of our programming that we do in partnership with your colleagues. Very interesting and timely perspective from an experienced and accomplished government official. I really enjoyed hearing you talk about some of the efforts that sometimes go unnoticed by when reading headlines about Libya, including cooperation in the fields of health, the economic track, which we might touch on in our discussion, as well as the security track. All very, very important and I thank you. So note, now I'd like to explore the local level in the next part of this event. We have a very good panel today, as Mike mentioned. It consists of three individuals who bring diverse perspectives from their work in Libya. Note that you can join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag COVID Cooperation Libya, all one word, and also send questions for the question and answer portion of the event at the end of via the USIP event page. So first off will be Ahmed Al-Bibas, who is the founder of Moomkin Organization for Awareness and Media, and has served as the CEO since 2015. A dedicated civil activist since 2009, he has worked with the General National Congress, the Libyan Ministry of Youth and Sports, and interned with Beyond for Reform and Development in Lebanon, where he gained experience engaging with government actors, youth and civil society organizations, and other NGOs. Drawing from his experiences, Ahmed has worked to establish a variety of programs at Moomkin, including peacebuilding, economic and social research, economic development, and civil society support, among others. Then we'll turn to Abdulrahman Elveriani. He is a scholar, leader, and entrepreneur from Benghazi Libya. He is the founder and president of 10MIA 360, which is a pioneering Libyan development NGO. He is a chiefening alumnus, where he completed and masters the public administration with distinction from the University of Birmingham. Abdulrahman has a BSBA in accounting and finance from the American University of Sharjah. He is also an alumnus of the US Department of State Leaders for Democracy Fellowship 2017 cohort. Abdulrahman serves on several boards and committees. He is the former president of the Libyan student body in the American University of Sharjah, former vice chairman of the Libyan community in the UAE, and he is currently a member of the Libyan economic track at the UN support mission in Libya. Finally, we'll turn to Craig Brown. He's the program policy officer for livelihoods and resilience for the UN World Food Program in Libya or WFP. He leads WFP Libya's efforts in the areas of job creation and agriculture, while also coordinating conflict sensitivity work and exploring ways in which WFP's work might contribute to peace. Prior to joining the Libya office in 2018, he worked for WFP Iraq for three years, working on internal and external relations during the ISIS crisis, and later managing food assistance for Syrian refugees in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. He has an MA in Arab Studies from the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. Before we turn to Ahmed from Munkin, I'd like to show a video which depicts some work that Munkin undertook with support from USIP. They worked with two municipalities, Nalut and Batan Al-Jabal, in the western Nafusa mountains, which have had conflict with each other in the past. They held the dialogue and created a communication committee as an outcome. This is meant to lay the groundwork for further cooperation between the two municipalities, and this became especially timely when COVID-19 hit last year. We'll play the video now, and then Ahmed will make remarks about CSO activities in the time of COVID, particularly in Libya's west, but also the south. There was a connection between the legions in Nalouta and other areas of Amjavra. I remember that the patient who was admitted to this hospital was in contact with the patient who was transferred to Nalouta hospital. I would like to thank our brothers in Nalouta hospital and in Lajna for cooperating with the municipality and the patient who was transferred to Nalouta hospital. The cooperation was very smooth and comfortable. The municipality of Nalouta and other areas of Amjavra was in contact with the patient and cooperated with the management of the security area. This is why the corona virus spread. To be honest, it was very difficult in the streets of Amjavra. We know that the area is located on the main road of Nalouta. There are many visitors. Especially after Nalouta, which is located in the area between Libya and Tunisia. We know that the road continues to the general road. We know that it is a road that is connected to the general road. It is always connected to the general road. We know that Nalouta hospital is located in the area between Nalouta and Tunisia. We hope that the situation in Libya will be better. The municipality of Nalouta and other areas of Amjavra will be in contact with us. We hope that the situation in Libya will be better. We hope that the municipality of Amjavra will be safe. The municipality of Libya is very cursing. The courts have made a great offer to make everything as easy as possible for beneficiaries and for people in need. like in need. Also like for organizations, other organizations like the aid organizations like LibAid and other organizations that work with like international partners to provide like food and everything that people in need that want during this pandemic. I want to work during like pandemic and I just want to give like what we did like during this pandemic and I like to make it or to make our duty as like to the society organizations, organization working in Libya. So we started with 1405 which is toll-free like number to receive or to give like people more information about the pandemic or about like the virus. We managed around like 7200 cases during like the start of the pandemic than like other like toll-free numbers get this services and they completed. Also it was like we were focusing more on like education and how like our people could like continue their like education. So we created online platform like and we had and we collected all of the like ministry classes and also we we produced like around like 300 hours of like online classes that could be used as private classes or like for lessons. So we have like 407 lessons and would like we did would like around 2077 like beneficiary during the bus year which is the end of the year. Also like I mean I know that we don't have addresses in Libya so we started this project where like we bring like we brought like around 43 volunteers to get training on Israel and how to use it and how to like drove the buildings and maps and we like drove around like 2555 flight building under this moment from like around 1 million building in Libya. And one of the things that we tried to solve which is the queue system or the crowds and in the dissenters so created the system where like we reduced the crowd and the dissenters since October we have like around 21,000 cases that we managed. Also we didn't stop like working on like this building. So we started like our work with online or we moved our media office building to online platform where we trained around like 36 volunteers to work with us from Gatron, Sabha, Benghazi and Kufra and these 36 volunteers they supported us to manage around 20 workshops inside their community. So now we are like we we try to focus more on like the end these builders where we have like future like activists that could work in this and there's like cities and we didn't like stop at like the two municipalities that we are working with like in would use USIB so we start to approach to more municipalities that they have like some conflicts with their neighbors and we expand this project to another like four where now when we are in negotiation to start illuminating the community and the communication committees for their municipalities. And in this year we like for the first time we get like to try our new media which is be spending during like two businesses. So how could we like train people how to do like their businesses plus how to build these and social co-agents to their businesses. We train like 77 online, physical training like 50 and we'll find a team project that like aims or like their projects that fits with our project goal. And the most important part which is I don't know if you know the suicide in Libya as a new so we tried our day's department to work more on professionalizing these issues to give them like the proper like knowledge on how like to manage and lead their organization to serve like more people. So we train like around 376 like online trainees and like 75 organizations have been trained to be like trainer and they're like society or in their life organization. As a conclusion for my speech civil society in Libya is a new lack of experience especially the management which is like the main issue in Libya and also resources which is we don't have a lot of like fundamental sciences in Libya. One of the main challenges during the last year is the work with the government but it's better than before so we are like having more like trust from the government and this is like and this is what we hope that we continue with like this is society so we could see like more partnerships with the civil society and the government and their work. We lack of coordination according to the reskilling and we could like so see some like overdue or something like that so like we really need like to make more collaboration and coordination with all the organizations that work in this building in Libya. This building is not just a project and this ongoing process that shouldn't like stop even like through like pandemic so this is what we did and I think it works and it worked very well and this is like the main or the best time that we could like do peace building where like everyone needs the other and they need more collaboration and coordination between each other. So one can like one of the main things that we it's really helped us in the peace building it's our other projects so all of the program like helps each other inside the organization so now like one of them like good examples with WFP we are that they're partly monitoring for WFP and when people see like our new logo like they think that we are like providing like other services for them so they know us they know that we are like providing other services when we come like for peace building projects or like sessions they they welcome us and lastly which is like we need like more collaboration from INGOs and we are asking them like for more real like partnerships with the local NGOs because they are like the future or this this this tenement part of the civil society in Libya and that's it. Thank you very much. Thank you very much Ahmed really appreciate those thoughts and you know a few things stood out to me you're well placed to to look at the very local level and see what needs to be done I think that that's great. Working with youth of course is something that's crucial as youth literally are the future. The peace building work is well appreciated and you know the the partnership with USIP is as well so thank you for that. Next we'll turn to the president and founder of TANMIA 360 Abdo Rahman Gheriani calling in from Benghazi to share some of his thoughts from the perspective of his organization based in Libby's east. Thank you Abdo Rahman. Thank you so much Nate and I'd like to thank everybody on the panel who made this possible and I hopefully soon we'll do it in Washington DC I know that it's the cherry blossom season very soon so I definitely would like to visit DC again so just to highlight how great the things that Ahmed spoke about I'd like to highlight the context because once we realize the difficulties that we're trying to maneuver in the Libyan civil society then we will really appreciate the impact that we're having so not only do we have the political complexities the security and the economic difficulties that we're already facing prior to the pandemic with the pandemic things got even harder and much more challenging so we have healthcare sector issues we have economic issues and now we have education issues and I'd like to highlight these three so according to a WHO report in 2019 it described the Libyan healthcare system as ineffective it has an effective detection and response to communicable diseases it lacks medicines equipments and supplies it has disrupted emergency referral system so this was in 2019 can you imagine how things got really complicated even further in 2020 given that the political situation has gotten probably worse in 2020 and the economic situation got even worse so on adding to this mix the the security situation where multiple attacks happened on COVID-19 healthcare facilities people were blaming the healthcare staff for fatal cases although the healthcare staff probably did not have the the right equipment and the right environment to save the patient so these things in mind will will help us understand what was happening so economic situation also was very complicated oil production dropped from 1.2 million barrels per day to I think 180 000 barrels per day that was in the first quarter of 2020 so all of these in mind add to it the closer of schools due to the lockdown which puts 1.8 million students according to UNESCO and the second quarter of 2020 out of schools so in this context what did we do as civil society Tanya had the honor of working with more than 10 Libyan entities on organizing an online conference probably Libya's very first online conference where we try to highlight the their own of Libyan entrepreneurs and startups in the time of COVID-19 and we were hoping to not only highlight it during the time of COVID-19 but we want to come up with evidence-based policies to our new economic reality with the dropping prices of oil and so on and now a year later we're working on publishing a report not only to highlight the conference but to give an insight of what happened during the previous 12 months the previous four quarters for this very important although it's very small the the SMEs in Libya it's small but it's significant and it could play an important role in the economic development of the nation. On health care we organized a campaign where we supported caregivers in the COVID-19 healthcare facilities we've arranged a number of training programs for civil society organizations although with small numbers to keep the social distancing and so on and we try to enable these civil society organizations to work with the different government entities on the local level sometimes on the national level to provide the necessary support and on the education we believe that Libya's youth are sorry yeah the youth in Libya are Libya's biggest 12th so currently we're discussing with a UN agency a potential huge collaboration project to provide access to education and these difficult times and we're hoping that this collaboration would succeed and we'll be able to contribute to this very important segment of the community our children and youth so I will end here and hopefully we can discuss later thank you thanks for those remarks Abdo Rahman and again I see that youth you know common thread to both of your remarks and you know hopefully both that UN partnership will pan out but even if it doesn't we look forward to hearing those policy recommendations from your organization which is well placed for development in Libya in the future. Last but not least we'll turn to Craig Brown from WFP who will give a kind of international perspective from his position with that organization Craig. Thanks very much Nate and it's a pleasure to be here pleasure to be joining everyone and thanks to everyone for tuning in as well so WFP's active all over Libya we aim to assist about 100,000 people every single month Libyans displaced people migrants myself I work on the livelihoods projects and there we're really focused on on vocational training and particularly job creation as you saw some statistics earlier the vast majority of people in Libya are employed in the public sector and so the private sector is quite underdeveloped so that's again coming to that theme under the the economic discussions. So last year we assisted through our food assistance for training program three and a half thousand people across the country focusing as others have mentioned on on young people and especially young women because they're disproportionately excluded from the labor market across the country. So we've really been working hard to focus on them assessing at a very local level what the needs are of businesses in that area and and what the interests are of people in terms of trying to find jobs and and how we can come into support so that's been our main our main program because we saw a big in terms of food security in Libya there's a big challenge for people to have enough money to access enough food considering the liquidity crisis and challenges with accessing salaries and lack of available jobs so that's kind of where we've come in with that that program. Now Covid put everything on hold for a while as it did with with everybody else I think and actually for six months last year we couldn't implement these trainings but we had to adapt as we did with our emergency program the one that supports a hundred thousand people so in in that case we have food distributions in in urban and rural areas and trucks traveling all over the country. It's measures such as you know social distancing ensuring gel and masks and things like this are available to staff so their safety is guaranteed but also to our beneficiaries who are attending. So that's something we were doing there as well as trying to communicate a bit about the need for following these public health public health precautions and then in terms of the training we had to also adapt and it's good to see hear from Ahmed and Abdulrahman how they've also adapted so we we've brought it in online training as well. The big challenge for us is we're really targeting unemployed people or low income families from vulnerable communities so there's a really big challenge and this is not just in Libya it's everywhere I think in ensuring that we're not reinforcing inequalities within education by providing these online classes so so in our case that that's maybe if people can can join online classes through their phone we try and help with internet credits or something like this so we really we don't want that to be a reason why someone misses out on their education in this in this case. So with that break it was a big time for us to to stop and rethink things and try and figure out how we can work better so you hear these these UN initiatives such as Build Back Better and the new way of working that have come in in the in the last two years under the Secretary-General and for us that's been making sure our projects are conflict sensitive so we really understand the local context that might be specific dynamics in sepai in the south or or in zuwara up on the off on the coast each town city area has its own dynamics so we've really worked hard in understanding those dynamics as much as possible making sure we're not at least doing no harm but making sure we're not reinforcing any any negative dynamics in those areas or getting caught up in in conflict dynamics let's say but it also means looking at how we can contribute to peace and of course WFP was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year and that gave a lot of impetus I think for us in terms of trying to do more and that's really where the the partnership with USIP has come in with you Natan and your team in Libya in terms of trying to understand how we can work together we we obviously have a partnership in Libya and ultimately for us the big reason for this is the for the vast majority of food insecure people in Libya the the root cause of that food insecurity is the conflict so we're now looking at how can we contribute to addressing that root cause it might only be in a small way but that matters and it matters for for that one or two you know there's one or two communities maybe where we can we can really do that um so you know and maybe we can we can talk a bit about this in a bit Nate but so we have a partnership in in Ubarri in the south with with USIP and the local partner of both of us for Zan Libya organization who who like Tanmiah like Momkin are doing amazing work and I'm really glad uh you know we're getting the word out there a bit about these organizations the narrative doesn't always have to be super negative like it like it often is on Libya there's so many people doing doing great stuff and so with for Zan Libya with USIP we're working in Ubarri there were peace building dialogues there which um you know all intents and purposes have been quite effective in terms of keeping things quite calm in Ubarri and one of the recommendations from from those dialogues was to have some sort of communal area a communal market a family space where people could enjoy they just weren't these you know pieces of infrastructure in the area so that's where WFP's come in we have vast engineering experience from our headquarters so they've been they've been working with us on this as well we're rehabilitating a market there which includes a green space that families can enjoy it's a safe one it's you know well lit and everything we have a management committee that pulls in people from different communities it involves women it involves farmers which is important for us because we're looking also beyond that into agriculture so that's sort of the big example I think of us trying to work more with peace building actors like USIP to address to address that root cause and it's something WFP's looking at all over the world and yeah with with that I think it brings me back to the local partners none of this is possible without them and they they are the future they're they're what makes these projects sustainable if we want to work well and work right we have really strong partners all over the country and you know the hope is further down the line that we can we can step away we won't be needed and these local organizations will be able to carry on the great work so I think I'll wrap up there's obviously tons and tons I can say but it's it's great to join you all so thanks back to you night thanks very much Craig and we we are honored to work with WFP in Libya and you know you I think you pointed out a lot of different things that we'll get to in a second but you know it ties back to the the strength of the Libyan people that Ambassador Boop Vegas pointed out in her opening remarks and I think that that's something that we we want to highlight in this event but also something that you highlighted in your remarks so thank you speaking of one of those organizations I think that we'd like to go rapid fire a question for each of you and then we'll have a general discussion so Ahmed I'm going to turn to you what advice do you have for CSOs that want to help foster cooperation in the coming period do you see potential points of cooperation that could be capitalized on for instance with vaccinations or elections as to big issues that are coming that are you know on the on the agenda of everyone working in Libya or are there issues that we're missing this is also something that's been brought up regarding vaccinations and so on and so forth by some of our our questioners I think like it's very difficult now to work with vaccination because it's like the government like work and like interfering in these kind of things it's like I think it's going to be very difficult for like CSOs but the things that we really need to focus on right now is the quality of the next election I'm not talking about the election but it's the quality of it like who's the people that are going to come and also the participation of the people so since 2014 we didn't see a lot of people that lose their trust in the election so I think in the coming like 10 months all the focus should be on how we could motivate people to go to the election the election day and just give their vote there and I hope that's like will work so this is like what I see as like a priority right now for the civil society or like for any international organization that want to work and the most important part of that is to keep the knowledge which is the sustainability of the civil the local civil society in Libya so like I couldn't imagine like the civil society without international NGOs right now and what we really need is like for the international to handle or to hand out like the knowledge and the experience to the local and CSOs so they could continue their work after that and this is what happened with Munkin and they hope that I see they see the same thing with other organizations in Libya and all of Libya so like I hope for any organization that want to come and work in Libya to vote this in their mind like like so this is like number one hope for me thank you great thank you very much and I think that that's right with regards to the the elections I mean not just holding them but having them usher in that kind of you know democratic representation that the ambassador pointed to and indeed that the United States is is interested in in helping with Abdulrahman I'm going to turn to you now you talked about some what some of the official policies were and some of the actions that your organization took could you sketch out just what the road ahead looks like in the east what are some of the major challenges with regards to the the the pandemic itself or elections or something that we're not not foreseeing right now and what do you foresee as some of the responses of communities sure thank you so much so unfortunately because of the because of the situation and the complexity and the mounting challenges people are not seeing COVID-19 as the worst thing that could happen to them and hence many people in the community are not really taking it as seriously as it should be taken so this is something very fundamental but hopefully with the vaccines coming coming to Libya soon and I hope that the COVID-19 would not be our greatest challenge so that we could focus on the the challenges that are more entrenched so talking about the elections the upcoming elections or the the the whole governance framework whether it's on the local level or or the national level we lack public engagement so we have this issue and as a result we have decreasing voter turnout as Ahmad rightly mentioned and we saw that in the elections of the municipality of Tripoli so how can we fix this it's a very complex question but what we're doing as an as an organization and and again Ahmad put his hand on the on the issue well we're trying to build the capacities of other civil society organizations so over the past months we we trained I would say tens of of local NGOs and one of them and that's one that I like so much they they work they're working on on debating it's a debating club and they're trying to reach the universities and and we need these these things and what we're trying to do is that not to tell them what to do but to teach them how to do it how to be successful how to be sustainable currently we're working on a on a program funded by USAID and it's implemented with the American Bar Association it's on misinformation on hate speech and we we put a component of general knowledge and and I'm really proud to say that the very first this program which is Idrak 360 it was funded by USAID and that was back in 2019 we're doing it again because this program looks for people with with looks for youth with leadership potential those who are influential on social media spaces and platforms and we're trying to give them the awareness of low economics public administration international relations and conflict analysis so these are the things that could have an impact it would take time but at least we have to do the right investments this is a long-term investment in our youth and and hopefully with the with the pandemic ends hopefully soon at least we will have youth who are aware enough to engage with the decision makers who will push for more transparency more public engagement and governance and or good governance and maybe those youth would one day be elected officials or decision makers who could hopefully lead us to prosperity and and more and more and more prosperity thank you thanks very much and you know we are proud to have seen notice a good thing when we saw it and you know your organization has proven to be in it for the long term and I think that that's that's crucial you know especially when there are some of the emergencies that have been discussed so far so Craig I'd like to turn to you now I'm wondering if you could drill down on the Ubari market a little bit I think that you know it's worth mentioning that not only did we want to keep things calm in Ubari but you know also give people an opportunity to see it a new future and I think that that's where you know our small contribution is is hoping to make you know have a positive outcome in the city but the question for you is can you give some practical advice on how organizations that come from different backgrounds us for example from peace building background you from humanitarian aid background can talk to each other and how can they how could how they can cooperate with each other and build on each other's strengths because I know that coordination is a is a buzzword but I'm looking for practical recommendations if you have them you give me an easy question I think it starts with being aware that these organizations shouldn't try and go it alone and try and think they can solve a variety of issues you know it's good it's a good thing to work in partnership with others it's a good thing to think broadly you know we have this this so-called nexus working group in in Libya where it tries to bring thinking from development humanitarian peace building together to see how we can complement each other's work so many of these issues we come across a really cross cutting right it might be there might be governance issues there's a lack of local services provided lack of jobs available and some basic needs not being met that require humanitarian assistance so there are very different issues going on which you you get to know if you really zoom in and uh you know do the analysis on these specific areas um so really once you see this it's important to then look for ways you could maybe work with other organizations on them rather than just thinking oh that's not relevant to what I'm doing or that's not relevant well actually everything affects each other you know I think of food security issues are affected with you know affect health nutrition economics you know these are all kind of intermixing and when things go badly they go badly across these different these different areas it really becomes a vicious cycle so it's important to kind of look up and see how how you can work with others and that's that's where this project with with you at USIP's been really well received I think by the local communities um you know we we've made it clear you know we want to work with with all the the major communities or components there the taboo to our regular early um and the the local authorities we've been keen to to to work closely with as well um it's not just the local CSOs right it's the local authorities we really need to work with and try and support their capacity as well so um I think that would be my suggestion is look for look for partnerships look look look for opportunities uh really seek them out and you can find these these uh opportunities to to contribute to uh not just you know in our case not just food security but maybe we can contribute to to something bigger than that in in Ubarri and that would be a good thing not just Ubarri but everywhere great thank you very much um so I am going to ask a general question we just have a few minutes left um but we we talk about the local level uh and I want to know from your perspectives what are the main points or goals that a um the temporary executive authority that may be coming in uh Libya should should focus on um you know uh what can they do before the election to boost the election outcomes uh and so on and so forth on the other side uh the the same question can be asked what should the Libyan citizen do uh to support uh this potential uh temporary executive authority what should they prioritize Abdulrahman you want to start yes sir thank you so much it's a brilliant question and and and it's not only the interim authority where we need to think about uh again the the the trust issue we need to increase public engagement so this uh the interim authority it needs to engage the public and when we say the public the public are mostly represented by civil society organizations that's why we need to build the capacities of civil society organizations so that they can have better planning and strategizing so that they can advise the government in a better way and my if I can summarize my my remarks it would be to build the trust to bridge the gap between the executive and the community that the this is very important and I believe we lack it now thank you Abdulrahman and uh Ahmed I think one of the most important thing is like um the first way which is like building our building the trust between the community and the government and to do that you need to show the people like some achievements so Libyan they give hope to any like in your government but like they want to receive something they want to see like some projects they want to see like some like the easy thing is like they just they want in like they don't want any cues anymore and like in front of the benzene station or in like bread like or burgers or like in the banks so this is the most important thing start to be like for the people if they solve these fun things they may like start gaining the trust of the people so the people they would they could follow their leaders so we couldn't like ask to be able to follow leaders that they don't care of them so we need like a leaders that feel the people needs and they try to give them something and I think the most important thing that the government should do is like to support the local or the local governments the municipalities to give them like the authorities they'd like to give them like all the regulations that they want to operate so by this kind of actions we could see like more like small achievements but like more sustainable local government and people they start like focusing more on the like municipality than the government so like this is I think the way of or the thing that the government should do like in the few periods I hope so I think we just have a moment left but do you guys think that there should be a special strategy for guaranteeing the responsibilities between government actors civil society organizations and maybe even international organizations yes or no with short commentary yes and and again it depends on the political well so if you have an executive body that claims to be interested in the public opinion and in the partnership with civil society and that is claims to be interested in giving more roles to women leaders in in our community but in action you don't see that as Ahmad said if you don't see action then there's no there's no trust between the government and the people so yes I believe there needs to be some sort of collaboration but action needs to follow the words have a strategy but then implemented Craig and then Ahmed we'll finish with you yeah I totally agree with what the others said the the confidence in the trust I think can come with working more closely at the top level with municipalities and if people see those services are being delivered and their needs are being met on a local level like there's tangible improvements that will go such a long way to improve it I think I think yes and we really want like more like actions from the government like welcoming us welcoming like the initiatives that come every day to the government like from civil society to improve something and or like to give something to them like just trust us like we are really want to help like our people like the government like want to and we have the knowledge and sometimes or in many times we have also the resources the main resources and the money to implement something but we just need your partnership we just need like to do something so trust us and we'll show you that we are worth to this trust this is like my message to the government and we're really looking forward for any action to welcome like civil society initiatives or like like so we could like work with the government side by side or thank you very clear messages from all of you it's clear that everybody on this panel is working for the improvement of the situation in Libya I hope that we've helped to highlight a few of the bright spots in Libya and there's more there's much more than what we see here with that I'd like to thank Ambassador Borregas and before that Dr. Mikey Afi for opening remarks Craig Brown Ahmed Al-Bibas and Abdurrahman Ghayriani thank you all and continue the good work thanks