This methodology allows for a negotiated aggregation of local demands and provides inputs for an adaptation/redefinition of national and local policies in order to meet such demands, discusses Taghrid Lahham.

The main purpose of the process is to strengthen the dialogue and mutual trust among the various actors and between the actors and the institutions. Decentralized institutions (whether local or municipal) represent the main entry point in a collaborative attempt to influence social, cultural and political change and to improve the design of and coordination between the interventions at the different decision levels (from civil society and organizations related to the state and its decentralized bodies). Nonetheless, as most changes (at peri-urban/peri-rural level) take place outside administrative and political borders, it is important to take into account the external factors that influence local development and actions undertaken in a particular area.

Thus, the problem is how to guide inter-municipal and regional intervention or, in more general terms, how to direct interventions which go beyond the local and in some cases even national level.

Furthermore, each specific case should be analysed from the points of view of the actors regarding:    

• current issues and problematic trends,                                         
• causes of tensions or conflicts and 
• local opportunities and potentials that need to be developed (human, social, environmental, productive, etc.)

This developmental approach is based on the idea that all identified territorial issues be placed on a negotiation table that will gather all the stakeholders in order to discuss area-related problems, with the aim of possibly collaborating in the formulation of a Social Territorial Agreement. This approach to the territory is based on the concept of an open process of diagnosis as a means to support the definition of a collective territorial project. Such a project (i.e. the Social Territorial Agreement) provides a new perspective to the management and prevention of problems arising from local competition over the use of and access to land and natural resources. The following table gives an idea of the process and the products.