The project “A’SIMA Tunis: strategic planning and multilevel governance for a resilient metropolitan city” aims to strengthen strategic planning and waste management capacities of the city of Tunis in its metropolitan context. The project is now more than halfway under implementation and the 2nd Directors Committee took place this May, with representatives from each project partner: MedCities, the Municipality of Tunis and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area. The meeting was the occasion to review project progress and upcoming steps, following the submission of the second progress report.

One of the main highlights at this stage is the completion of the “Strategic and participative diagnosis on the state of waste management in the Grand Tunis”. This diagnosis is the result of exhaustive fieldwork and data-collection to understand the state of the art and main challenges concerning solid waste management in the area. Indeed, experts interviewed more than 30 technical focal points from 25 municipalities of the Grand Tunis during the diagnosis process, and a technical workshop was held at the Municipality of Tunis in 7th and 8th March to discuss preliminary findings. The diagnosis compiles all the most recent data and solid waste management in the area and formulates recommendations as well as several project proposals to mitigate the main challenges in this field.

The diagnosis supports the identification of possible pilot projects to be implemented by the Municipality of Tunis in partnership the Municipal Agency of Environmental Services. In particular, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area put forward the following two pilot project proposals: a multipurpose eco-center that facilitates the disposal, transfer, and sorting of solid waste or the rehabilitation and put in the function of a compost facility for green and organic waste from the central market.

In parallel, the expert team working on the City Development Strategy (CDS) is finalizing the strategic framework phase, integrating numerous inputs from the consultation workshops held in March and April. Plus, in order to gather additional inputs from the entrepreneurial and innovation sector, the CDS teams planned a workshop on May 27th on the topic of “Innovation Networks”. The workshop gathered some 20 actors at the Municipality of Tunis and gave insights on how to enhance Tunis’s attractiveness towards innovation sector investment through the CDS.