MMC and UNHCR’s 2021 Roadmap for Advocacy, Policy Development and Programming highlights the importance of linking cities across regions of origin, transit, and destination as a key approach toward strengthening protection for people on the move and for more effective asylum and migration governance along the Central and Western Mediterranean Routes (CMR and WMR).

In order to develop a better understanding on city-to-city and urban protection initiatives, this study seeks to provide a broad mapping and examination of city-level and urban initiatives that are aimed at making local authorities better capacitated and resourced to improve the protection of people on the move present in their territories, along the CMR and WMR. The report identifies different types of activities implemented by initiatives, aimed at better understanding what drives these initiatives and what determines their success.

This research report also provides recommendations for actions to be considered within the frameworks of the Khartoum and Rabat Processes under the Joint Valletta Action Plan, the Global Compact on Refugees, UNHCR’s Cities #WithRefugees campaign, and during the Africities Summit in Kisumu, Kenya in May 2022.