Ramallah –  October 08, 2011  Al-Etihad Municipality held a second community meeting within the project of developing strategic and physical plans for Al-Etihad municipality. The goal of the meeting was to present the strategic development plan of the town that was developed through community participation. Al-Etihad Municipality is composed of Deir Ammar and Beitillu and Jammala towns, and this union is the first successful Palestinian experience in applying the concept of integration of the Palestinian communities in the form of larger areas or communities.

The meeting was opened by the mayor of Al-Etihad municipality, Mr. Abdullah Abdul Wahid who welcomed and thanked all parties who have worked to prepare a strategic development plan such as the Ministry of Local Government, the MDLF, and the IDMC Company.

A group of teams and committees has been formed, including the basic planning team committee, the development strategic planning committee, and specialized committees; they participated throughout the project which started in February 2011. These committees held more than 20 meetings and were attended by more than 300 participants. These committees have actually diagnosed and identified community priorities, formulated union vision, strategic goals, and identified projects. Thus, this meeting was end result of the project and it presented the strategic development plan with its various elements.
IDMC consultants presented the implementation plan, monitoring and evaluation plan, and gave examples of projects. At the end of the presentation, participants gave comments and inquiries about the plan and answers and clarifications were provided.

The success of this project came as a result of some features, the most important of which was that the project included 3 different communities that were required to work together for the first time. IDMC Consultants were able to resolve differences and solve problems related to the development process and to combine and bring together all parties to a balanced common goal. This project is a success model that can be applied to similar circumstances.