Urban observatories in Jordan
| Subject: International Relations
Medcities and Al-Fayha KTC new training session in Jerash and Zarqa
Some 60 people participated in the Urban Observatories training sessions in Jerash and Zarqa (Jordan), organised by the secretary general of Medcities and the Knowledge Transfer Centre (KTC) of Al Fayhaa on 2 and 3 March. Some of the participants were municipal councillors in both cities, experts on local development and different local players, such as associations, universities, public and private institutions, as well as social and economic stakeholders.
The training was held in each city for one day with the same core areas: the mission and objectives of the urban observatories and the identification of topics, sectors and indicators to follow for each of the observatories. In Zarqa, work was done on the industrial and cultural sectors and on handling emergencies. Jerash centred on the tourist, cultural and agricultural sectors.
Participants pointed out the importance of these types of training sessions based on the experiences of other members in the network. They also stressed the need to go into greater depth for specific indicators, and to work on starting up urban observatories in each city, in cooperation with the local development office and geographic information system office.
This training is part of the activity schedule developed by the Al-Fayha KTC to disseminate and raise awareness on sustainable urban development strategies in Mashreq and is based on the experiences of the city of Tripoli, with the implementation of the first Urban Observatory in Libya. The need for this training was identified in a mission in November 2015, and the collaboration of MedCities was established with the two cities. The project to consolidate the network's KTC has financial support from the Barcelona City Council and the AMB.
Jerash requested adhesion to Medcities. It was the 5th membership application since the beginning of the year, after those from Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina) and M'saken, Menzel Bourghiba and Tataouine (all three in Tunisia). The network thus celebrates its 25th anniversary with new cities and future projects.