MedCities was in the city of Tunis for a technical follow-up mission between 23 and 25 May 2023 during which the Action Plan phase of the A’SIMA Tunis project officially started through the organization of the first 2 participatory workshops. As a matter of fact, after the Strategic Framework phase ended, the Action Plan is the following step in this process. This new phase consists of 6 concertation workshops in total focusing on different strategic themes that aim at reviewing the potential projects of each strategic theme and defining their details and levels of priority. Subsequently, detailed project sheets will be established, including their performance indicators aligned with the SDGs. The strategic themes are as follows:

• Valorisation of the central axis of Tunis
• Resilience and eco-responsibility of the territory
• Economic innovation, attractiveness and outreach
• Socio-economic inclusion and integration and territorial animation and articulation
• Efficiency, transparency and accountability of the territorial governance

On 23 May, the concertation workshop focused on the “Valorisation of the central axis of Tunis”. It was attended by 20 participants, among which representatives of the Ministry of Infrastructure and other national agencies. The second concertation workshop, “Resilience and eco-responsibility of the territory” was held on 25 May and 9 participants attended the meeting, including representatives from the Directorate General of Forests from the Tunisian Government and the Agency for the Protection and management of the Tunisian Coasts.

Two other concertation workshops took place after the follow-up mission, namely the workshop on “Economic innovation, attractiveness, and outreach” on 7 June with 13 participants, and the “Socio-economic inclusion and integration and territorial animation and articulation” on 22 June with 16 participants. The last workshops are due to take place by early July.

In addition to these, the MedCities delegation had the opportunity to participate in the third meeting for the inter-municipal cooperation on waste management in Greater Tunis, which took place within the framework of component 2 of the project. The meeting was organized on 24 May with thirty-nine participants and focused on inter-municipal collaboration for waste collection and transport. Participants agreed that the inter-municipal dimension was vital to establish a functional waste management system and solving current issues that the different municipalities are individually experiencing in this field. Several realistic actions to implement through inter-municipal cooperation resulted from the discussions such as common procurement activities for waste collection material or for managing municipal vehicles.

Finally, MedCities also had the opportunity to meet the 1^st delegate of the Governorate of Tunis, acting as Governor, Mr. Fares Mejri, during the mission. Together with the Municipality of Tunis, they could present the A’SIMA Tunis project, its results as well as the activities that are foreseen for the coming period.