The Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) is a partner in a network that coordinates the voice of European local and regional authorities for development with the European institutions. This network, hereafter "PLATFORMA," has signed a strategic partnership with the European Commission with the objective of "Working together towards the empowerment of local and regional governments for better governance and more effective development results in the EU partner countries." This training was developed as part of Result R.3.2. of this strategic partnership: "Enhanced capacities of LRAs and associations in neighbouring European areas to achieve their own development objectives" and the A.3.2.2 activity “Dialogue with the Southern Neighbourhood of Europe”. The CPMR was the responsible organization for implementing these activities. The objective of the Training, related to a specific Manual, is to establish a framework on integrated territorial development addressed to decision-makers and civil servants in the Mediterranean region, with specific attention to the regional and local territorial contexts of Morocco and Tunisia. Its reference Manual aims to be a practical tool to strengthen the capacity of public actors of regional and local authorities (LRAs) in the Mediterranean to implement participatory and sustainable development policies based on the principles of integrated territorial development. The main objective of the training and its Manual was and still is to encourage regional and local authorities to ask themselves the key questions on the reasons, the methodology and the tools of Integrated Territorial Development (ITD), so as to define their public policies according to a holistic vision of growth and sustainability. The Manual is indeed a flexible tool and, recognizing the impossibility of being fully exhaustive, offers guidelines that can be adapted to different administrative, economic, environmental and social contexts. The need to address the topic of integrated development is increasingly relevant in the region, particularly in a disrupted political, economic and social context in which LRAs face many challenges that they tackle with limited and unstable means, especially in budgetary terms. The training therefore mobilized "en petit comité" about 40 representatives of Mediterranean regional authorities, the majority of them coming from Morocco and Tunisia (though not limited to those countries). Several practices identified as "relevant" for Integrated Territorial Development" were presented, including a maritime dimension as linked to activities of coastal territories (sustainable tourism, energy efficiency in Mediterranean public buildings, strategic development plans, integrated coastal zone management, etc.). Several regional authorities have also shown their interests to replicate this training to the specificities of their territories and on identified themes of interest. Drop us an email for more information!