Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

The launch of the Strategic Plan of the City of Tunis within the A'SIMA Tunis project was held on January 12 with the participation of the three project partners: MedCities, the Tunis City Council and the AMB. It is funded by the European Union (specifically, by the delegation of the European Commission in Tunisia).

Despite the delay due to the global health situation, the project partners were able to celebrate the beginning of this important strategic planning process with a metropolitan vision for the Tunisian capital. The event was held in a mixed format: physically in Tunis and online with live broadcast, and it had about 150 spectators.

The strategy of the city of Tunis and the A'SIMA Tunis project

The project "A'SIMA Tunis: strategic planning and multilevel governance for a metropolitan and resilient city" has a duration of 48 months (2020-2024) and one of its main axes is the elaboration of the Strategic Plan of the City of Tunis, in concert with metropolitan actors and aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

The project also has an axis on sustainable urban waste management, as well as a line of work focused on the capitalisation and transferability of processes and results at national and regional levels.

Launch event

Souad Abderrahim, mayor of Tunis, was in charge of giving the official start to the process for elaborating the strategic plan of the city, which pursues a process of co-creation and integral participation from the beginning, following the methodology designed by MedCities. Throughout the project, the objective is to work to provide a medium-term roadmap in all areas of the Tunisian society in order to achieve a sustainable and inclusive future for the capital of Tunisia, in line with its metropolitan goals and following the 2030 Agenda. Mayor Abderrahim called for the participation of all actors in civil society and the private sector, who were also represented.

Mr Josep Canals, Secretary General of MedCities, Mr Ernest Maragall, Vice-president of the AMB Area for International Relations and Cooperation, as well as Mr Jean Pierre Sacaze, from the EU delegation in Tunisia, participated in the opening session.

The event was followed by a technical seminar on the challenges of strategic urban planning in Tunis. Several Tunisian experts presented the opportunities, challenges and innovations of the strategic plan for the city of Tunis. A round table was also held with the presence of international technical partners and funders such as USAID, Cities Alliance or the UNDP.

The AMB and the waste management

In his speech, Mr Maragall stressed that Tunis, like the metropolis of Barcelona, has to face big metropolitan challenges. He also explained that the AMB's expertise in metropolitan urban services management, as well as MedCities' expertise in city strategies, will be important factors for the success of the project.

The AMB will play a crucial role in the second phase of the project, that is, in the design and implementation of pilot projects for urban waste management. This approach will be an opportunity to stablish a culture of technical cooperation between municipalities of Greater Tunis (comprising 38 municipalities), creating mutual trust on a specific issue. In this sense, the AMB will give its metropolitan vision and will provide technical support to the municipality of Tunis through its Waste Management Service and its International Cooperation Service, in relation with axis 2 of the project: supramunicipal and sustainable waste management.

These are the specific topics:
  • An intermunicipal consultation on waste management based on an exhaustive diagnosis, including the definition of a baseline on waste management in Greater Tunis.
• The implementation of 4 pilot projects in the territory of Greater Tunis for the classification, recycling and selective recovery of different urban waste.
• The organisation of training and technical monitoring actions on waste management aimed at the municipalities of Greater Tunis in order to strengthen their technical and political capacities.

For both the AMB and MedCities, the project represents an opportunity to implement various Sustainable Development Goals, such as the 11th, focused on making cities sustainable; the 12th, focused on responsible consumption; or the 17th, which underscores the importance of establishing institutional alliances in order to achieve the other 16 objectives.

A'SIMA project