Following the official launch of the “Strategic Framework elaboration phase” of the City Development Strategy of Tunis (CDS or SdVT for its French acronym) last December, the A’SIMA Tunis project reaches cruising-speed this 2022 with multiple activities implemented in each of its working packages.

Firstly, related to the elaboration process of the CDS of Tunis, several capacity-building activities took place this February. On one hand, the technical teams have developed the “Strategic Framework” document of the SdVT, that is, the main strategical lines of action for the city and their respective objectives. This document will be reviewed by the SdVT steering committee comprised by 30 city actors and taking place on March 3^rd. On the other hand, a training on “Social Inclusion: taking into account marginalized groups and migrants’ perspectives in local planning” took place online on the 7, 8 and 15 of February. In total, 12 city actors from civil society, the public and private sector took part in the sessions, which, despite being online, have been highly participative. A main outcome of the training is the “Brief guide on the steps to take into account marginalised groups and migrants’ perspective in local planning (French)“.

Secondly, progress is being made on working package 2:“sustainable waste management”. Indeed, the first version of the strategic and concerted diagnosis on the state and challenges of waste management in the Grand Tunis was finalised this February. This first draft is the result of extensive data collection and in-depth interviews with several technical managers from different cities of the Grand Tunis. This draft document will be reviewed and discussed during a workshop on March 8^th, gathering Grand Tunis city representatives, as well as MedCities and the AMB waste management representatives.  

Thirdly, progress is also being made concerning the “networking and capitalisation work package”. Following the launch of the network of Tunisian cities for strategic local planning last year with the FNCT, some 30 members of the network met again on February 9 and 10^th.  The workshop was organised to discuss and validate the charter that defines the network’s objectives, structure and activities, namely: (1) to implement capacity-building activities on local strategic planning; (2) to strengthen the legal grounds for local strategic planning policies and budgets; (3) to capitalize on experiences and tools for innovative strategic planning projects.