The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) Regional Office for Arab States, in cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the United Nations Economic and Social commission for West Asia (UN-ESCWA) have joined forces to develop the report ”Informal Settlement in the Arab Region: “Towards Arab Cities without Informal Settlements Analysis and Prospects” which was launched at the tenth session of the World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi. The study analyses the informal areas in different Arab countries and introduces general recommendations to support the establishment of a regional programme that supports participatory city-wide development with a focus on social, economic, and environmental aspects.
In this context, we are pleased to launch this call for Arab cities to participate in the first phase of the regional programme “Towards Arab cities without informal areas”. The participating cities will be chosen according to the criteria mentioned below.
Criteria for selecting cities participating in the first phase of the programme:
The proposed city ...
- Is in the process of developing strategies or plans for related urban developments or preparing related development projects. (List the strategy / plan / project and the available funding)
- Has a variation in the social structure, urban fabric of the city, and land prices, with a noticeable percentage of deteriorated areas
- Has a high exposure to climate change, environmental hazards and/or epidemics
- Has an effective presence of institutional framework capable of supporting the participatory development process (priority will be given to proposals that have a consortium of local governments, civil society and/or the private sector)
- Has availability of sources of financing for integrated and sustainable development and providing the possibility of integrating resources for development
- Has an updated geographic database and digital maps
The advantages of being selected are:
- Exchange benefits through sharing experiences, knowledge and the various means of implementation of the integrated city-wide approach.
- There will be a possibility of financing development projects in the selected cities and that will be studied according to the initial feasibility studies conducted.
**This call is open for national and local governments**
- Please provide an introductory summary of no more than 5 pages to nominate your city and be part of the knowledge network and regional programme.
- Please submit the summary and contact details (on an official letter head) no later than May 31, 2020 to: unhabitat-roasinfo@un.org
If you have any inquiries get in touch on the same email.