Local Government
The Four Strategies of the Local Government Division
Municipal accelerator program
The municipal accelerator program is Yanabia’s flagship program, operated in partnership with the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services and Joint Elka. The program seeks to support the central managerial avenue, through which we concentrate efforts by integrating professional consultants who previously held senior local government positions and excelled in their roles, and who have the appropriate character to train and support comparable positions in Bedouin local authorities.
Each municipal accelerator contains a team of up to four consultants and is directed by the team leader (usually the professional consultant for the authority’s head or director general). The accelerator starts by managing expectations and mapping the agenda of the body being supported (personal and professional issues) and its main interfaces with the authority’s agenda. The professional consultants support the local authority’s director for 10-16 hours a week, helping connect to the processes of change and offering close assistance with optimizing daily administration.
The Yanabia team operates the support processes in the background: connecting to new opportunities; publishing research and position papers; and utilizing economies of scale to build a professional community where the local authorities in the accelerator can learn from one another.
In accordance with the spirit of the initiative and the axioms that guide it, Yanabia establishes and operates professional communities that act as a stimulus for local leadership.
■The community of directors general of Negev Bedouin local authorities is the first professional community to be established and operated under the initiative’s umbrella. This community is the first leadership body of its kind and its members aim to lead significant work for the advancement of residents of the Bedouin local authorities in particular and the Negev population as a whole.
■Within the framework of developing professional knowledge communities, we accompany and are there for graduates of the Cadets for Municipal Service program who work in the Bedouin local authorities in the Negev. Working with the Alumni Administration of the Ministry of Interior, we support them with personal and professional challenges.
Together with our partners, we plan to establish another professional community that will create a “thematic” relationship between members (for example, residents' services or planning…units and functions who work together on a specific area).
Professional Knowledge Communities
Initiating Partnerships
Establishing relationships with all relevant partners: government ministries (the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and more), local government (heads of local authorities, senior professional figures and graduates of leadership programs who work in the authorities), relevant civil society organizations operating (Shatil – the New Israel Fund, the Mandel Foundation, AJEEC-NISPED, Desert Stars and more), philanthropic organizations, academia and additional partners. The main goal of this is to pool resources for optimal impact while identifying and developing solutions that are currently inadequate.