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State of Arab Cities, UN-Habitat Report & Conference, “Challenges of Urban Transition: Municipal Management and Urban Development Conference for Sustainability in Arab States,” 2012

Abstract

In 2012, UN-Habitat launched the first State of Arab Cities report and conference to address urbanization trends and challenges in the four major Arab and Middle Eastern regions: Mashreq, Maghreb, Gulf Cooperation Council, and the Southern Tier Countries (defined below). With Mona Serageldin as team leader, I2UD contributed a significant body of research for the conference, “Challenges of Urban Transition: Municipal Management and Urban Development Conference for Sustainability in Arab States.” The conference was hosted by the UN-Habitat Regional Office for Arab States (ROAS) and the Kuwait Knowledge Development Regional Centre.

The I2UD team compiled urban housing and demographic data for nations in Maghreb and Mashreq. The I2UD team reviewed 180 documents for each region, covering topics such as the following:

  • “Population and Urbanization;”
  • “Growing Role of Economic Cities;”
  • “Urban Development and Housing Conditions;”
  • “Transportation and Mobility;”
  • “Urban Environmental Challenges;”
  • “Urban Governance Systems;”
  • “Transnational Migration;” and
  • “Emerging Urban Issues and Innovations.”

Documents include I2UD’s inception report, progress report, a I2UD board meeting presentation on the project, and a conference presentation (from the “Municipal Management and Urban Development Conference for Sustainability in Arab States,” from Kuwait, May 2012). The final report for the 2012 UN-Habitat State of Arab Cities lays out urban development and migration issues in the Middle East and North Africa, including I2UD’s contributions. Additional materials include data on regional food and water security, energy security, and air pollution.

Maghreb includes Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia; Mashreq includes Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria; the Gulf Cooperation Council includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates; the Southern Tier includes Comoros, Djibouti, Mauritania, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

Excerpts, Final Report, “State of Arab Cities,” December 2012
Project Year:2010-2012
Project Type:Regional Report
Geographic Regions:Middle East / North Africa
Reports:
Authors:François Vigier; Mona Serageldin; María-Luisa Fernández; Kendra Leith; Linda Shi
Sponsors:UN-Habitat Regional Office for Arab States (ROAS)
Categories:Urban Planning
  
ID:2010_07_001

Related I2UD Projects

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“Local Authority-Driven Interventions to Improve the Lives of Slum Dwellers,” Mona Serageldin for UN Millennium Task Force 8 on “Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers,” 2003

Abstract

In October 2003, Mona Serageldin participated on “Task Force 8,” a working group for the United Nations Millennium Project, directed by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General.

The Task Force 8 sought to recommend strategies to achieve the defined Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted by world leaders at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2004. MDGs were targets to reduce global poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and gender discrimination for populations around the world.

Along with authors from the Center of Urban Development Studies (CUDS) at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, Serageldin prepared an assessment of 50 best practices worldwide as a background paper for the Task Force 8. The paper highlighted the key features underlying their success–namely, partnerships, strategic priorities, multi-sectoral action plans–and focused on programs targeting vulnerable populations and marginalized informal settlements.

Documents include the October 2003 report, a goal indicators document, a case study on the Tsiganes in Greece, and a presentation titled “Partnerships and Targeted Programs.” See also the UN-Habitat Mandate for the Millennium Development Project initiative, which includes a guide section on “The Do’s and Don’ts of Slum Upgrading.”


[Excerpt: Report, October 2003, 1. Executive Summary – Overview, p. 5]

1.1 Overview

“This background paper is based on an extensive review of local authority-driven initiatives that managed to improve the lives of slum dwellers. The review discusses the growing role of local authorities with reference to the institutional context conditioning government action. The imbalances created by asymmetrical decentralization of powers, responsibilities and resources is a cross cutting theme prompting local authorities to seek strategic partners for their initiatives. The conceptual framework used to define the range of locally driven initiatives that can improve the lives of slum dwellers underscores their breadth and diversity. The review focuses on process, strategy and action, and how these were shaped by the nature of the challenges that local authorities had to cope with and the partnerships they managed to structure in order to access resources, engage poor communities, reach marginalized populations and address vulnerable groups.”

“The performance of these institutional frameworks and decision making processes are assessed with reference to the difficulties encountered and results achieved. The selected initiatives presented in the different sections of the paper are grouped under headings highlighting recent trends and pointing to future directions. The paper focuses on initiatives implemented during the past decade in different economic, social, political and cultural settings. Emerging trends with regard to processes, strategies, and actions highlight the expanding scope of partnerships and the emphasis on empowerment and social inclusion.”

Project Year:2003
Project Type:Research Paper
Geographic Regions:Weihai, China (Conference Location) / Sofades, Greece (Case Study)
Reports:
Authors:Mona Serageldin; Elda Sollos; Luis Valenzuela; Peter Stathopoulos
Sponsors:United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UN-Habitat)
Categories:Informal Settlements and Urban Upgrading
  
ID:2003_10_001

Related I2UD Projects

Gallery 2: Côte d’Ivoire: Adjamé, Abidjan, 1990-1995

Gallery 4: Chile: Santiago, Concepción, and Talcahuano, 1992-1993

Galleries 6-7: Egypt: Cairo and Helwan, 1986, 1990

Gallery 16: Venezuela: Caracas, 1989

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“Second Urban Project,” Urban Development Study Proposals for Conakry, Guinea, 1990

Abstract

In May 1990, the Unit for Housing and Urbanization (the Unit) at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design proposed an urban development study, “Strategies for Sustainable Improvements Through Community Participation,” as part of the “Second Urban Project” for Conakry, Guinea. The Unit’s proposal reflected the need in Guinea for an action program designed to better local neighborhood conditions in 1990. Suggested plans aimed to boost community participation and improve urban health through local planning guidelines, developing strategies for progressive improvements at the neighborhood level and providing analytical tools to support long-term development.

Documents include an annotated final report for “Guinea’s Second Urban Project,” study proposals by the Unit, notes by John Driscoll, and population distribution map.


[Excerpt: Report, February 1990, page 16]

“The Housing and Land Development Component will include the implementation of a first 200-ha land development operation, in Conakry, following the financing and institutional proposals of the recently completed housing policy study (see para. 1.32). That study identified procedures and mechanisms to implement the Government’s strategy to increase formally recognized housing production through subdivision and development of urban land, to rationalize unregulated urban growth through the creation of a regulatory framework for urban planning and land market operations, and to maximize the number of households with access to security of tenure, housing and urban services.

The implementation of this policy is based on replicable land development operations relying on procedures which will limit public sector involvement to construction of secondary infrastructure, whose costs will be fully recovered, and will encourage a variety of public, semipublic and private developers to undertake subdivision and tertiary works within the blocks delimited by the secondary infrastructure network.”

See related I2UD projects below

Project Year:1990
Project Type:Urban Development Study
Geographic Regions:Conakry, Guinea
Reports:
Authors:John Driscoll
Sponsors:Unit for Housing and Urbanization, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Categories:Informal Settlements and Urban Upgrading
  
ID:1990_01_002