Technical assistance in support of the Oued Martil valley development project, concerning the urban planning strategy and the social, environmental and sustainable development strategy, was completed in September 2019.
Outcomes included the formulation of technical recommendations on various topics, with a view to consolidating the urban planning for the project, its coordination strategy and its sustainable development strategy.
PEURL, a multi-city urban development programme in Lebanon, will be launched in 2020 depending on the social, economic and political context. The programme aims to improve economic resilience in nine secondary cities: Aaley, Baablbeck, El Mina, Halba, Jbeil, Nabatiyeh, Saida, Tyre and Zahle. In preparation for the launch, UPFI provided technical assistance designed to contribute to local economic development, foster more balanced territorial development, and improve living conditions and urban environment quality. The capacity of municipal authorities is being strengthened with a “learning-by-doing” process, especially in the areas of project programming, design and management, consultation with civil society, and digital tools.
The suspended call for interest announced in June 2019 should be reopened in the coming weeks. Municipalities interested in taking part in the programme are encouraged to apply. The UPFI has been providing technical assistance for the preparation of the cross-sectoral programme. The design of the programme was completed between January and June 2019 with a high level of engagement from the various public entities.”
The first stage of technical assistance for the preparation of the Oued Martil valley development project has been completed successfully, leading to the proposal of:
The technical assistance recommends orientation schemes across several thematic areas such as neighbourhood identities, mobility, public spaces and landscape continuity or commerce. For example, the development plan proposes improving connections between the neighbourhoods by building new roads, enlarging the park network in Oued and creating two new green spaces within the neighbourhoods.
On 4 July 2019, Tunisian Head of Government Youssef Chahed, together with the Minister of Infrastructure, Housing and Regional Development, and the Minister of Local Affairs, officially launched the second Programme for the Rehabilitation and Integration of Residential Areas (PRIQH 2) at an event attended by around 100 mayors from across the country. Succeeding PRIQH 1 (in place since 2012), PRIQH 2 will help improve living conditions for 800 000 Tunisians in 146 residential areas.
In November 2018, the second collaborative workshop on the renewal of dilapidated urban fabric took place in Algiers. It brought together representatives from key Algerian organisations for the rehabilitation of historic urban fabric: the Ministry of Housing, Urban Planning and the City, ANURB, State Property Services, the Wilaya of Algiers, several real estate offices, CNL, AADL, CNERU, CTC, CNERIB and APRUE. The international experts who contributed to this workshop came from the National Urban Renewal Agency (ANRU), the City of Paris, the local public planning company of the European Metropolitan Area of Lille “La fabrique des quartiers”, and the ID&S consultancy firm. AFD’s head and local offices representing UPFI’s Steering Committee, participated in the three days of workshop activities. The workshop enabled the participants to examine the issues and challenges associated with urban renewal operations, e.g. the technical arrangement and planning of operations, the structuring of the contracting authority, the financial model for this type of operation, and the specialist skills required.
The multi-city urban development Lebanon programme was identified by the UPFI partners in 2016 and has received technical assistance for programme preparation (identification of cities and urban projects, institutional and financial set-up of the programme). This preparation support made it possible to select the nine beneficiary cities (El Mina, Jbeil, Sidon, Tyre, Aley, Baalbeck, Halba, Nabatieh and Zahlé) and to refocus the programme onto urban and economic resilience issues (Program for Economic and Urban Resilience in Lebanon – PEURL).
UPFI is continuing to provide support for PEURL by preparing the implementation of new technical assistance designed to help the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) to launch the programme. The call for tenders to select the technical assistance team is in progress.
The UPFI partners and Tunisian authorities have worked together to draw up a programme to regenerate historic centres in Tunisia (medinas, old European neighbourhoods, etc.). By rehabilitating several historic centres, this programme is intended to build a specific intervention framework for the regeneration of Tunisian old cities and to encourage the adaptation of these urban areas to local economic, social and cultural changes. In September 2018, AFD started a consultation for launching technical assistance for the preparation, implementation and monitoring of the historic centres regeneration programme (PRCA) in Tunisia.
UPFI is helping STAVOM, the wilaya of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima Region and the municipalities of Tetouan and Martil to prepare the Oued Martil valley development project. This vast integrated and sustainable urban development project aims to reconcile the inhabitants of the plain and the once flood-prone wadi, which is of major ecological value, in order to develop the valley into an urban centre that meets the needs of the population of Greater Tetouan (development of new urban areas, renovation of existing neighbourhoods, improvement of transport and mobility), and to attract private investment and thus promote local economic development.
After identifying the support and assistance requirements of the project and its promoters, in September 2018 AFD issued a call for tenders aiming to recruit technical assistance to complete a pre-operational assessment for the project and expand the capacity of the contracting authority, STAVOM.
call for tenders
UPFI, for the creation of a network of urban expertise in the Mediterranean: AVITEM (Agence des Villes et Territoires Méditerranéens Durables) organizes each year workshops for town planning executives of the Mediterranean region. Thanks to an immersion in 3 metropolises of the region, these workshops aim at developing common analyses of the governance issues of these territories and identifying outstanding experiences. In the framework of the Institut Méditerranéen des Hautes Etudes Urbaines et Territoriales, and in partnership with AFD, GIZ, CMI and the Mediterranean Climate House, AVITEM proposes for 2018 a focus on Tanger-Tetouan, Greater Tunis and Greater Algiers. The first workshop of the program “Metropolitan transitions: from project to action” will be held in Tanger-Tetouan from May 7th 2018 to May 11th 2018 and focus on the Moroccan experience of decentralization, and urban resilience to climate change. The second workshop will be organized in Tunis in July 2018, and the third workshop will be conducted in Algiers in autumn 2018.
In the framework of the relaunch of UPFI projects identification in Algeria and the resumption of technical dialogue between AFD and the Algerian authorities in 2017, the UPFI Steering Committee (AFD, EIB, EU, UfM), the Algerian Ministry of Housing, Town Planning and Township, the Algerian Ministry of Transports and their respective operators have agreed on the organization of two collaborative workshops on the following topics: renewal of old urban fabric in Algeria, and enhancement of railway urban infrastructures heritage. Activities of follow-up of the results of these two collaborative workshops will be then conducted with the ministries and their operators, with the objective to deepen these topics and, if applicable, to launch the preparation of an urban project. In order to conduct these activities, a call for tenders has been published on the dedicated procurement platforms for selecting a service provider on the European delegated funds of the UPFI.
Meeting in Cairo on 22 May 2017, as part of the second ministerial conference of the Union for the Mediterranean on sustainable urban development, ministers of the 43 UfM member states responsible for urban development, housing and municipal affairs adopted a new agenda for urban development in the Mediterranean region, based on an integrated approach to urban development and to improving the resilience of cities. The agenda focuses on the challenges facing Mediterranean cities: secondary cities, climate, migrations, job creation, urban infrastructure, etc. In parallel with this urban agenda, the inter-ministerial conference also approved the creation of a UfM regional platform for urban development. The UPFI initiative was presented during the conference, and the Imbaba project was officially launched by the Egyptian Minister of Housing, Public Services and Urban Communities, His Excellency Moustafa Madbouly.
The fourth UPFI Steering Committee was hold in June 13th 2017 in Brussels, under the Presidency of the European Commission, in the presence of the AFD, the EIB, the UfM and the UPFI Projects Management Unit (PMU): Transtec. During this meeting, the general state-of-play of the initiative and the progress of each projects’ preparations have been presented. The launch of UPFI supports to Lebanon and to Tunisia for the multi-city programmes MCUDP and PRIQH 2 has been endorsed by the Steering Committee. New UPFI identification missions, launched in coordination with the EU delegations in the countries, have been planned for Algeria, Morocco, Jordan and Palestine.
In June 2017, the technical assistance and feasibility study mission to the Jordanian Ministry of Municipal Affairs was extended to further analyse and select the secondary cities that will benefit from the programme, as well as to carry out an initial social and environmental impact study of the investments foreseen in the RLDP 2.
In the first quarter of 2017, a new project was identified for UPFI support: Phase 2 of the Programme for the Rehabilitation and Integration of Residential Areas in Tunisia (Programme de Réhabilitation et d’Intégration des Quartiers d’Habitation or PRIQH 2). Following a consultation through the UPFI Framework Agreement, the consortium awarded the contract began providing technical assistance in June 2017. This TA aims to support the Urban Rehabilitation and Renewal Agency (Agence de Réhabilitation et de Rénovation Urbaine or ARRU) in the design, programming, management and follow-up of interventions under PRIQH 2. The design of the programme will, in particular, be based on an approach of local participation and consultation with the population. The mission also aims to support the Tunisian Ministry of Equipment, Housing and Territorial Development in preventing the formation of informal settlements.
The French Development Agency and the European Investment Bank have launched the preparation of the multi-city urban development programme in Lebanon, through the UPFI Framework Agreement. This new project was identified, between the end of 2016 and the first quarter of 2017, as part of a relaunch in the identification of UPFI projects. The technical assistance activities aim to support the Council for Development and Reconstruction in defining and designing this multi-city programme. The service, carried out by the contracted consortium of consulting firms, began in June 2017.
The UPFI supports the AAVB in programming the urban planning of the zone 3 of the Bouregreg valley. This vast project of 6 zones aims at creating a Moroccan eco-city, which will give the opportunity to the inhabitants of the Rabat-Sale agglomeration to live, work, and enjoy leisure and culture in one place respecting the environment of the valley. Under the guidance of the AFD and the EIB, this technical assistance mission’s objective is to equip and support the local project holder, the AAVB. The first component of the technical assistance study, which was dedicated to market analyses (housing, commercial activities, offices, etc.), has been completed in February 2017. The second and third components focusing on the programming and the peri-urban agriculture are the following steps of this support. Find out more about the Bouregreg project.
In January 2017, the feasibility study and technical assistance, conducted by the experts mobilised on this project, has been extended with a complementary mission dedicated to the analysis of the environmental and social impact of the urban project in Imbaba. All the information on the Imbaba project is available on the dedicated page.
The third UPFI Steering Committee was hold in October 25th in Brussels, under the Presidency of the European Commission, in the presence of the AFD, the EIB, the UfM and the UPFI Projects Management Unit (PMU): Transtec. In order to enable the preparation of high-quality projects, a demand of extension of the duration of the FIV, which funds the UPFI activities, has been presented during the Steering Committee meeting. This extension has been accepted by the European Commission. The UPFI will support urban project holders in the Mediterranean until December 2019.
The French Development Agency and the European Investment Bank, through the UPFI Framework Agreement, launched a consultation at the end of June 2016 among the specialised consultancy firms selected for the framework agreement, for a technical assistance and feasibility study for zone 3 of the Bouregreg Valley development project. This technical assistance mission will start in September 2016. Find out more about the Bouregreg project.
In June 2016, the technical assistance mission to Greater Agadir was renewed in order to intensify the support provided to the project promoter in the creation of a Local Development Corporation dedicated to urban mobility and in particular the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. Find out more about the Agadir BRT project.
In May 2016, the technical assistance and feasibility study mission conducted for the Municipality of Jericho was extended in order to go further, in particular, in the analysis of the environmental impacts of the UPFI project. Read about the entire multi-site regeneration project in Jericho.
The fourth meeting of the Project Committee of the UPFI initiative took place on 17 March 2016 in Barcelona under the Presidency of the Union for the Mediterranean, in the presence of the AFD, the EIB, the EBRD, the Generalitat de Catalunya, MedCities and the Transtec PMU. Progress in the UPFI projects that have been identified and those in their preparation phase was presented to participants. Opportunities were discussed for synergies between the UPFI initiative and other initiatives in the field of urban development, such as the CES-MED project or MedCities. To find out more about how the UPFI works, read about its mission.