As part of the inclusive and creative city, created by Ramallah Municipality through Makani Innovation Hub and under the field of the City Challenge: Inclusive and Creative City program, has successfully concluded a dynamic three-day training aimed at enhancing innovation capacity within the public sector.
The training, facilitated by Waheed Zahran, Leadership and Innovation Expert, was designed to equip Ramallah Municipality employees with entrepreneurial thinking, lean innovation tools, and creative problem-solving skills. The program offered a highly interactive and tailored learning experience to help civil servants reimagine service delivery with citizens at the center.
The training kicked off with a provocative prompt: “What if your department were a startup?”
Participants explored entrepreneurial methodologies and applied lean startup tools to rethink challenges in urban governance. Using creativity frameworks such as SCAMPER and How Might We, they began reshaping public services through citizen-centered design and innovation.
Day two emphasized the importance of storytelling and communication for public innovation. Through hands-on role-play and pitching simulations, municipal teams practiced framing their department challenges for future collaboration with startups and external partners.
The session concluded with the use of structured prioritization tools to map citizen complaints and identify key challenges with the highest innovation potential.
The final day transitioned from ideation to action, as participants entered co-creation to develop validated problem statements using tools like the Problem Canvas and citizen personas.
The training closed with an exercise in preparing challenge briefs and aligning internal structures to ensure the municipality is ready to engage effectively with startups and innovators in the upcoming City Challenge innovation journey.
This training marks a foundational step in Ramallah Municipality’s broader vision to foster a new generation of public innovators—civil servants who are agile, proactive, and committed to co-creating meaningful solutions with the communities they serve.
The initiative also reflects the growing shift in local governance across Palestine towards inclusive, human-centered, and innovation-driven practices, with Makani Innovation Hub serving as a key enabler in making this vision a reality.
Stay tuned as the City Challenge moves into its next phase: engaging entrepreneurs and community members to solve the very challenges identified during this training.
