Strategic Urban Plans For Small Cities In Egypt (Phase Iii)

§  Egypt is a moderately urbanized country. The proportion of population living in cities has stood relatively steady at 43% in the past 10 years. The average rate of urbanization stands at 1-2 % for the same period.

§  ·         The lack of visions to guide both city development and sectorial strategies has led to widespread weaknesses in urban development generally and in cities of specific nature especially. The formation of slums and its relative social issues (gender and human security), lack of local economic development, moreover the adequate provision of social services, infrastructure and environmental degradation are considered from the most notably rising issues facing these cities.

§  ·         UN-Habitat has been supporting the Egyptian Government to develop strategic urban plans for small cities since 2007 in Phase I and II of the project, but in some cases, the plans were not implemented. UN-Habitat has updated the strategic urban planning processes and methodology in order to bridge the gap of implementation, as well as to reflect the principles derived from the New Urban Agenda and SDGs. In this regard, it should be mentioned that 42 small cities have authenticated strategic urban plans, meanwhile there are 22 cities pending the accreditation of Ministry of Defense and 10 still at the preparatory phase.

§  ·         The GOPP reviews the way city planning is undertaken and also reviews the adopted strategic approach to specific cities and regional levels. The GOPP also reviews its national programme to prepare General Strategic Plans for villages in Egypt. Since then, it has shifted to prioritize Strategic plans for cities in order to strengthen the urban rural links. An integrated approach is sought to identify priority issues, link development planning and budgeting to city planning actions.

§  ·         Based on the experience and the lessons learned captured on the first phase of the project during which UN-Habitat provided technical support to GOPP to undertake Strategic Urban Plans, GOPP has requested UN-Habitat to carry out an assessment of the ToRs used for the SUP exercise to identify gaps and challenges and propose solutions to bridge the gaps and tackle the challenges. This assignment is currently being implemented and it will reflect on the process to be undertaken during the extension period.

§  ·         GOPP gives priority to strategic planning for small cities in Egypt as they act as transitional cities that naturally support development economically. They also act as a mechanism to implement its participatory bottom-up approach to urban planning and enhance linkages with development planning at local, national and regional levels.

2.1 Project Origin

As started in 2007, under a framework of cooperation between UN-Habitat and GOPP the SUP for Small Cities in Egypt Project has been implemented. To date, it finalized Strategic Urban Plans for 48 small cities using a participatory and comprehensive planning methodology. Based on this success, the GOPP requested UN-Habitat to continue its technical support to prepare SUP for additional 12 cities using an enhanced methodology which will be based on the lessons learned from the first phase of the project. In addition, based on the extensive experience gained during this process, GOPP requested UN-Habitat to support the policy dialogue in urban development issues, through the organization of events to discuss issues relevant to urban development; the issuance of the State of the Egyptian Cities Report and organizing the National Urban Forum. Based on the success of the first and second phase of the project, the GOPP has officially requested UN-Habitat to expand the range of work to include completing and updating strategic plans for some small cities, which have witnessed huge changes, and include some special-characterized and special natural ecological cities in addition to its consequential activities.

 

2.2 Core Issues Addressed

 Small cities in Egypt face deteriorated urban conditions, increase in informal urban growth, encroachment on agriculture land, and misuse of marine and natural environment of these cities; resulting lack of basic urban services. These problems have not been addressed in an integrated manner and were not reflected in any urban planning strategies. In fact, the majority of the small cities in Egypt have never had any physical development plan addressing the urban future of these cities. The preparation of locally adopted SUP will assist small cities to identify their urban challenges and define strategic goals and actions in order to respond to these challenges in a sustainable manner based on a thorough problem analysis. One of the essential issues addressed is to organize workshops to address key urban development related issues based on the experience and lessons learned from the project phases in order to support improving the urban planning process in Egypt, moreover to help in conducting policy tools, and to provide data and scientific research that supports the development of policy recommendations.

2.3 Purpose

 The main purpose of the project is to achieve better planning and sustainable management of secondary urban settlements in Egypt. In this regard, the project will enhance the planning methods and tools which are adopted by the Government of Egypt in order to produce Strategic Urban Plans which respond to the local priorities in an efficient and realistic manner.

 The project aims to achieve the following results:

§  1.      National capacity for policy dialogue and sustainable urban development and management strengthened; establishment of several operational urban observatories at regional and local level; updating data on cities, and supporting the Government to report on progress towards achieving the SDGs

§  2.      Improved inclusive urban planning processes and methodologies established for the preparation of SUP for secondary cities.

§  3.      National capacity of managing the coastal cities’ waterfront and linkage of urban development to economic and environmental sustainability strengthened.

 

2.4 Alignment

The project has been designed based on the development priorities the country is currently facing. Hereby, it builds on the national challenges highlighted in the Situation Analysis Report that was prepared jointly with national institutions and civil society in relation to the 2013-2017 Egypt UNDAF, the urban challenges highlighted by development partners active in the urban sector in Egypt as well as on the currently ongoing UN-Habitat projects in Egypt. Moreover, it is relevant to the development agenda in the Arab Region. Recently published UN-Habitat books highlight developmental challenges urban areas are facing in the Arab Region (State of African Cities 2010, State of the Arab Cities Report 2012) and globally (State of the world's Cities 2012/11).

 The main national level policies that will affect the stated problem and proposed solutions amongst others are the Egyptian Constitution, the Building Law and its Executive Regulations, the Law on the Preparation of the State General Plan and its implementation, the local Administration Laws, Education-related Laws, Presidential Decrees, Presidential Decrees related to Industrial and Commercial Zones, the Ministry of Social Solidarity Law and Presidential Decree, the State General Budget Law, the New Urban Communities Authority Law, Laws concerning Desert Lands and Laws linked to state / public property.

 The project builds on the experience of previously and currently ongoing UN-Habitat projects in Egypt; namely Strategic Development Plan for Greater Cairo, SUP for small cities, the Strategic Development Support Project, Strengthening Development Planning and Management in Greater Cairo Region. In addition to that, the project will closely link with the Achieving Sustainable Urban Development (ASUD) Global Programme, with Egypt being one of the five pilot countries as well as the Urban Law Reform Assessment. Lessons learnt and Best Practice drawn by the project will inform the national level policy discourse.

 

 

 

Local Priorities

§  -          Access to suitably located, properly serviced and adequately priced land that is adapted to the needs for community development, housing with adequate provision of public spaces and basic urban services;

§  -          Coping with population growth for balanced urban development by focusing on the development of small and medium sized cities, to eradicate poverty and improve the socio-economic status within those deprived areas;

§  -          Decentralization of planning, management, and implementation.

National Priorities[1][1]

Cross-Cutting institutional Challenges (capacity building, coordination and connectivity, scaling-up Best Practice, access to reliable Data);

Sustainable and inclusive growth (high and sustainable growth , unifying laws on social protection, providing an enabling environment for business and entrepreneurship, implementing Small and Micro Enterprises Strategy, youth employment, CSOs as change agents, export led manufacturing industry, sustainability and product diversification in tourism);

Socio-political rights (poverty reduction, implementing social policy and programs, demographic transition, reducing child deprivations and regional disparities, women’s participation in social and economic activity, gender responsive budgeting, pre-school education for equal opportunity, access to quality basic education, literacy and adult education, reforming vocational training systems, R D and innovation, dealing with health repercussions of environmental degradation, infectious diseases, strategy on prevention of HIV/AIDS, eradicating child malnutrition, decentralization and democratization, protection and respect for human rights);

Environmental and sustainable resources (investment in the agricultural sector, deteriorating land efficiency with increased fragmentation of agricultural holdings, strengthening technical and institutional capacities for managing natural resources, expanding fisheries, shortage of Nile waters, renewable energy, energy security, climate change, protecting the environment, land allocation, expanding transport facilities)

Regional Priorities

§  -          Population and urbanization; economic role of cities; urban development and housing; environment and transportation; urban governance systems; migration and remittance; urban land markers, transnational urban systems[2][2]

§  -          Informal settlements growth in urban and pre-urban areas; serviced land and enforcement of development regulations; demand for affordable housing (both rental and ownership); land management, role of local authorities and private sector; fiscal decentralization and institutional reforms (phasing out parallel hierarchies of appointed executives and elected councils at provincial and municipal level to allow for greater self-determination); property registration (promotion of adherence to procedure, enhanced security of tenure, better development controls, improved land taxation and rent collection, enhanced municipal own-source income from land transactions and land ownership); climate change and urbanization[3][3]

Global Priorities[4][4]

Urban trends: urbanization as a driving of demographic change: wealth of cities versus slums and informal settlements; suburbanization and urban sprawl, spreading low-density urban patterns and negative environmental, economic and social externalities; urban Sprawl in an environment of poverty exacerbates the urban divide.

Divide cities: income inequality; space inequality; inequality of opportunities; social divide (poverty, health, education).

Bridging the urban divide: the right to the city; regional dynamics of inclusion; economic, social and political dimension of inclusion; social inclusiveness and a multi-dimensional approach; political inclusiveness and democratic governance; culture.

[1][1] Handoussa, H. (Coordinator of Situation Analysis Taskforce), Situation Analysis: Key Development Challenges Facing Egypt, 2010.

[2][2] UN-Habitat, State of Arab Cities Report 2012 _ Challenges of Urban Transition, 2012

[3][3] UN-Habitat, State of African Cities 2010 – Governance, Inequality and Urban Land Markets, 2010

[4][4] UN-Habitat, State of the World’s Cities 2010/11 – Bridging the Urban Divide 2010