A brief presentation on assessing the future stability of implementing the provisions of the Local Governance Chapter in the current draft constitution was given by Dr. Anas Baiera, Director of the Center for Public Administration and Institutional Development at the University of Benghazi. This presentation was part of a specialized workshop titled “Reading the Libyan Draft Constitution,” organized by the Research and Consulting Center at the University of Benghazi on January 14, 2021. The presentation included the following key points:

– Geographical or administrative division clearly defined from the outset.
– Presence of elections and democracy for councils, mayors, and governors at the local governance level.
– Tasks and delegations granted to local governance units according to constitutional provisions.
– The relationship between the national central level and the sub-national local governance level.
– Fiscal decentralization.
– Basis for supervision, review, follow-up, and monitoring of the performance of local governance units.

The presentation concluded with final notes on urgent issues that need to be addressed, such as:

– Determining the appropriate type of decentralization in local governance that ensures real governmental functions (planning, legislation, implementation, justice, and oversight).
– The dilemma of the state’s financial system, which operates under an old law dealing with local units financially as a single central region.
– The ambiguous term “expanded decentralization” mentioned in the first article of the proposed local governance chapter.

The panel was chaired by:

– Dr. Salwa Al-Daghili, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Benghazi.
– Dr. Ahmed Al-Zarrouk, Executive Director of the Research and Consulting Center at the University of Benghazi.
– Dr. Abdulbaset Al-Kuza, Director of the Planning Center for Crisis and Emergency Management at the National Planning Council.