The technical visit to Barcelona by local stakeholders and private companies from the Municipality of Sfax has been one of the key activities of the ENSERES project (ENI CBC Med Programme), to uptake tools capitalized on by the ENSERES project in the field of waste management for the activities of the Sfax fishing port.
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The LASERMed project has now been formally closed after over two years of implementation and a successful closing event held in Jordan, last June 2023. The project has reached over 300 beneficiaries from the four associated municipalities, three of them members of MedCities: Sousse, Zgharta-Ehden,; As Salt, and Oujda.
Sfax celebrated the Sustainable Mobility Week with a series of public events and awareness campaigns focusing on the benefits of a more active and sustainable mode of transport for all. The week took off with a presentation of the activity program and the MAIS Project to different media guests.
Two delegations headed by the Mayor of Byrain and the Secretary General of M’Saken visited Sestri Levante in the framework of the Med4Waste project mentoring scheme, led by MedCities. This scheme includes a twinning and exchange program with a city from another ENI CBC MED project that has implemented a solution to enhance its waste management system.
MedCities participates at the 1st round of workshops to co-design the BlueMissionMed Operational Implementation Roadmap for the mitigation of marine pollution and contamination in the Mediterranean
Several workshops are aiming at defining potential projects to implement the city strategy and they are focusing on different strategic themes. Also, the third meeting for the inter-municipal cooperation on waste management in Greater Tunis was organized during this month of July.
Visit to Tangier and Tetouan to follow up together with the municipal teams on the development of the first TT Emploi project activity: the elaboration of a territorial diagnosis of the labor and employment market...
Representatives of the city of Mahdia visited the city of Vic to learn more about the experiences of the DECOST project regarding community composting to know the main outcomes of the project and conditions needed to work successfully in a community composting system.
With the aim to be closer to the city members and on the framework of the LaserMed project final event that took place in As-Salt, MedCities travelled to Jordan to do and institutional visit to the 5 Jordanian cities that are members of the association: Jerash, Zarqa, Madaba, Irbid and As-Salt.
MedCities participates in the MedCatDays to talk about governance projects and capitalisation strategies for real actions to be implemented in a local level. The MedCoopAlliance was also presented during the Governance and Euro-Mediterranean territorial cooperation session.
MedCities celebrated the second 'MedCities Dialogue' that facilitate the meeting between the Government of Catalonia and the Dubrovnik-Neretva County to talk about the need of the creation of a macro strategy in the Mediterranean.
The Mission4Nature, Interreg Euro Med project partners' met in Barcelona to present themselves and concrete the future actions and main activities. The mission includes the Dialogue4Nature- from which MedCities is partner- and the Community4Nature projects that will be working together for the next 7 years.
MedCities, Med4Waste partner, presented the project’s Mentoring Scheme, a technical support program that Med4Waste is carrying out in six cities on the southern shore of the Mediterranean namely, Byrain and Madaba in Jordan; M’Saken and Mahdia in Tunisia; and Akkar Al-Atika and Deir Qanon EiNaher in Lebanon.
In the framework of the Med4Waste mentoring scheme, Irbid and Akkar municipalities gain valuable insights and establishing a strong foundation for future cooperation in the field of solid waste management
MedCities was one of the Mediterranean actors who participated in the EU Mission Ocean and Waters in Palermo for ocean protection and to keep claiming that regions hold key competencies.
An official delegation from the Government of Catalonia, led by the Regional Minister for Foreign Action and European Union Mrs. Meritxell Serrat i Aleu, visited the Municipality of M’Saken, accompanied by MedCities General Secretary, Mr. Josep Canals Molina.
Sfax has been the center of the ENI CBC MED ENSERE's project. MedCities did a technical visit to the three subgrants sites and finally, a mentoring process was launched.
The LASERMed project closed its pilot actions in Oujda, Sousse, Zgharta-Ehden and As Salt, and gathered all the project partners to present its results in Jordan.
"Together we preserve our Blue treasure; together, we value our Gabès!" With these two sentences have been the slogan of the awareness campaign that took place during May in Gabès in collaboration with local environmental NGOs in the framework of ValEUr Gabès project..
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. MedCities also had the opportunity to meet the 1st delegate of the Governorate of Tunis.
MedCities was at the Med4Waste session on urban organic waste. Following the International Compost Awareness Week 2023, the webinar aimed at highlight and exchange Mediterranean good practices on urban organic waste management for a more resilient Mediterranean agriculture. This webinar revealed how compost can be recovered and better waste management in municipalities.
A group of members of MedCities, the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB), the Gabès City Council, the water department of the Gabès’ Regional Commission for the Development of Agriculture (CRDA), and a specialist in waters conservation and soils of the higher institute of water sciences and techniques of Gabès (ISSTEG) participated in the Tools, Methods and Knowledge Exchange Scientific Seminar in Lyon.
The Secretary General of MedCities, Mr. Josep Canals has made a series of visits to some city members and could exchange with some local authorities representatives from Dubrovnik, Sarajevo ,Naples and Rome. Also, a MoU was signed with the Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, as new MedCitites' observer member.
This meeting aimed at presenting MedCities network and exploring potential opportunities for Libyan municipalities. GiZ Libya will start the selection process of the municipalities that could benefit from the welcome pack activities.
The event celebrated its final conference after three years of work to contribute to environmental protection in the Mediterranean area by reducing all fractions of municipal waste, via reuse networks, sociological changes in consumption patterns, and improved waste management policies. ReuseMed is one of the projects capitalized by Med4Waste project, from which MedCities is a partner.
MedCities, as member of the MedCoopAlliance, was in Brussels to participate to the creation of the group of Friends of the Mediterranean Macro-Region.
MedCities visited Zgharta Ehden Municipality on the occasion of the final event of the LASERMed local project that benefited over 30 local producers, youngsters, and entrepreneurs that have been engaged during the last three months.
The meetings marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between the consortium of Med4Waste ENI CBC Med capitalization project and the 6 selected municipalities with the final aim of creating or improving more sustainable and efficient waste management plans for each city.
Read here the main information and FAQs about the Istambul Award that aims at recognizing the role and contributions of cities and local authorities in fulfilling the UNEP/MAP vision for a healthy Mediterranean Sea and Coast.
MedCities was at the Steering Committee of the Interreg EURO MED Governance project held in Albania and met with representatives and officers of its Albanian city members.
MedCities started a cycle of Dialogues between political Mediterranean actors fro the three shores to share experiences and focus on the needs local authorities have to face the climate crisi.
ANERIS project objective is ANERIS to develop the next generation of scientific instrumentation tools and methods for sensing marine life. MedCities is in charge of promoting and facilitating the performance of participatory science events all over the Mediterranean.
MedCities sent a call to member cities to help Izmir, Antalya, Mersi, Gaziantep and Hatay municipalities after the devastation suffered after the eathquake.
MedCities has been working closely with the two local ENSERE’s partners - Sfax City Council and Tyre Coastal Natural Reserve – to narrow down and concrete both capacity-building activities and mentoring on specific tools of the ENSERES toolkit.
Over the last weeks, the four pilot projects of the LASERMed initiatives have made huge progresses and are almost closed. MedCities members: Sousse, As-Salt, Zgharta-Ehden and Ouja has developped their pilot projects.
MedCities is currently leading the implementation of the mentoring scheme for municipalities on waste-integrated management. The scheme includes accompanying six municipalities (2 from Lebanon, 2 from Jordan and 2 from Tunisia)
During the last months a technical consultancy firm is supporting the partners in the preparation of the feasibility and construction studies of the three identified pilot infrastructures.
A’SIMA Tunis project, on the occasion of the “Partnership for Sustainable Cities” event, take the opportunity to look for networking opportunities and share waste management best practices.
In February, the city of Montpellier was incredibly honored to become president of MedCities for the coming four years. Both an honor and a weighty sense of responsibility in the face of how communities and cities respond to the current period.
MedCities is partner to the EU Horizon project BlueMissionMed recently launched in Venice, Italy. BlueMissionMed supports the implementation of the EU Mission “Restore Our Ocean and Waters by 2030” by inspiring, engaging, empowering and activating, connecting, supporting, and operationalising Mediterranean stakeholders to decrease marine pollution by 30-50% by 2030.
The fifth workshop of the Local Planning Network, which is closing the first phase of the network, was organized by the FNCT-Fédération Nationale des Communes Tunisiennes (National Federation of Tunisian Municipalities) in collaboration with MedCities in Hammamet.
MedCities presented some of the project's lessons learned on the role of municipalities in NCWR valorization mainstreaming at the international MEDWAYCAP/NAWAMED projects joint event held in Tunis.
The Final Conference of the Common project gathered together representatives of several Mediterranean countries to discuss marine waste prevention, monitoring and management and present the results. Held in Tunis on the 7 and 8 February.
MedCities was present in the event “Fostering know-how transfer and Nature Based Solutions implementation, building alliances and a common Med policy for non-conventional water valorization (NCW) in the Mediterranean region” . The event gathered practitioners, investigators, policymakers, and entrepreneurs from several Mediterranean countries in a discussion aiming to identify drivers for scaling up Nature Based Solutions in urban areas.
MedCities members of Greater Madaba, M’Saken and Mahdia, together with the cities of Deir Qanon ElNaher, Akkar Al-Atika, and Berain, will be those undergoing the Med4Waste mentoring scheme.
Naturmed project ended with three awarness days in Jerash, Saida and Bethlehem, the identification of potential green infrastructure in the three cities and training activities on the potential uses of Nature-Based Solutions in relation to water management.
The city councils of Sousse, Oujda, Zgharta-Ehden and As-Salt are currently leading the implementation of the LASERMED pilot projects. These are the result of the first phase of the project and the local diagnoses developed locally and they all share an interest to foster local, sustainable and inclusive economic opportunities.
The possitive evaluation analyses how the creation and consolidation of the Youth Council in M’Saken has contributed to the generation of youth projects and policies and has increased the effective participation of young people in the actions of the municipality from 2019 to 2022.
MedCities will be engaged during the coming 7 years in two Interreg Euro-MED Governance projects: the Green Living Areas Thematic Community Project and the Institutional Dialogue Partnership for Protecting, restoring and valorising the natural environment and heritage.
MedCities has been very active over the last six years in two horizontal projects of the InterregMED programme, leading the Urban Transports Community and managing the Communication work package of the Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community respectively. Both Interreg Med Programme projects are closing at the end of this year.
In the framework of the collaboration between MedCities and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation ,the event “Local authorities acting for agrifood and energy resilience” aimed at discussing the current challenges faced by Mediterranean municipalities due to the energy and food crisis at international level, aggravated by the war in Ukraine and the inflation.
The Sfax Elmezyena publicly launched the project SAVE THEANAE to the media and general public in the “Theatre municipal de Sfax”, using their new brand from the project. Sfax Elmezyena board presented the project along with a representative of the Thyna municipality and the General Direction of the forests in Sfax.
The 4 associated cities of the LASERMed project participated in a visiting study in Barcelona to strengthen the capacities and promote the exchange of knowledge between local public administrations about local economic promotion and employment policies, with particular attention to the support of vulnerable groups and the promotion of green jobs.
Following a long process of consultations with 170 Tunisian stakeholders and 10.750 citizens, the Strategic Framework for the development of Tunis was presented to the different entities and organizations that took part in the debates on the occasion of a public conference on Wednesday 7 December 2022 in Tunis.
MedCities organised, in the frame of A’SIMA Tunis project, funded by the Delegation of the European Union in Tunisia, a study visit to the metropolis of Barcelona on Solid Waste Management. The mission addressed political and technical representatives of the Municipality of Tunis as part of the project objective to improve management capacities.
MedCities took part of the 13th plenary session of the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM)took place on Monday 7 and Tuesday 8 November 2022 in Izmir.
MedCities, throught the Secretary-General, Josep Canals, was present at the COP27 in Sharm El Sheik. For the firt time, a Mediterranean Pavilion was installed promoted by the Union for the Mediterranean.
The Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community project celebrated the final event in Brussels The energy and interest of the participants ensured the future capitalisation of results and demonstrated the legacy and hard work of this community project.
The Mediterranean Mobility Forum (25th and 26th of October in Athens, Greece), marked the closing of the Urban Transports Community. During 3 years MedCities has been leading the Interreg Med Programme project.
With the occasion of the final event of the Interreg MED Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community (MBPC) held at the Committee of the Regions Premises in Brussels (2-4 nov) , MedCities co-organised with the ETC of the University of Málaga a session dedicated to the transfer and uptake of ecosystem based management tools and experiences from MBPC to other territories and contexts through the ENI CBC MED project ENSERES.
MedCities is launching a call of expression of interest for public Tunisian, Lebanese and Jordanian local authorities that want to be part of Med4Waste mentoring scheme.
In the framework of the NATUREMED Project, Saida municipality organized the 'Environmental Day' event that aimed at raising awareness of citizens regarding the benefits that nature can bring into the cities
The overall objective of WEFE4MED is to foster the adoption of a Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus approach in the Mediterranean through a Nexus Community of Practice to confront the climatic and environmental challenges facing societies and agro-ecological systems.
Two days to study an integrated management model of marine-coastal systems, two days to strengthen ties and develop new strategies for a sustainable future of the Mediterranean. The exchange visit on 6th and 7th October involved 7 representatives of Tunisian partners from the municipality of Sfax and the Gulf of Gabes, and 2 from the city of Tyre, Lebanon, and its Nature Reserve, the experts of ETC-UMA University of Malaga and MedCities.
The end of October was marked by an important milestone of the project, the validation of the strategic document of the non-conventional water resources (NCWR) Plan.
The Mediterranean Mobility Forum gathered over 30 Mediterranean cities and a total of 80 key stakeholders in Athens to wrap up the Urban Transports Community with an ambitious look into the future !
The month of October marked the achievement of two important milestones of the project: the finalisation and approval of the Strategic Framework of Tunis 2050 after a long process of consultations and reviews and the validation of the pilot project aiming to improve waste management through enhanced intermunicipal cooperation.
MedCities participated at the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders congress, this year held in Daejeon. This is the largest gathering of mayors, presidents of associations, councilors, and local and regional practitioners from around the world that UCLG celebrates every 3 years.
An online seminar was organised last 27th of September to share the results of the project in Chefchaouen and M'Saken and identify transferable elements to other municipalities in Morocco and Tunisia with the aim of strengthening the role and capacities of the local governments as actors of economic development in supporting its youth population’s employability and promoting entrepreneurship.
MedCities attended the 'Conference on Sustainable Urbanisation through Port City Transformation' organized by the Union for the Mediterranean. The SG, Josep Canals, referred to the importance of taking into account the voice from local authorities when ports urban regeneration is proposed.
In the frame of ValEUr Gabès project, funded by the EU Delegation in Tunisia, and coordinated by the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB) with the participation of the Municipality of Gabès and MedCities, several water stakeholders of the city discussed the proposed strategy for improving non-conventional water management and valorisation
Join the Urban Transport Community’s last events in Cornellà de Llobregat (METROSolutions) and in Athens for the final conference. You can now register for both!
The city council of Sfax (Tunisia) organised “Day without cars” in the frame of the MAIS Project the 23 and 24 September.
MedCities has contributed to the MBPC advocacy paper “The urgent need to protect and conserve wetlands for the future of Mediterranean people, nature and economies” which convey clear messages to guide decision makers at all levels on how to activate the transformative changes that are now required to scale up wetland ecosystem conservation and restoration.
MedCities and ETC UMA representatives co-organised a session with the city of Sfax – MedCities member and ENSERES partner- to present the ENSERES Catalogue of Tools for ecosystem based management to local stakeholders.
Launched in January 2022, the strategic framework phase of the City Development Strategy (CDS) of Tunis is coming to its finalisation during the month of September, after the launch of a successful communication and citizen participation campaign during the months of June and July 2022.
Last 17th of September the city of M’Saken organised the 1st ever municipal job fair, gathering 29 companies offering more than 1.000 job opportunities. More than 500 young job seekers from the city took part in this event organised in the framework of the EMPLOIMed project.
During the month of July, MedCities has been fully engaged in two ENSERES activities; the ENSERES sub grating selection and the mission in Tyre for the pilot area visit and the Toolkit presentation.
MedCities was responsible for the development of the policy recommendations aiming at facilitating the integration and implementation of Circular Economy principles in Mediterranean fisheries and aquaculture.
On the 26-27th of July, the municipality of Chefchaouen organised the 1st youth job fair offering the opportunity to more than 260 young unemployed to pass job interviews with 10 cross-sectoral companies of the region.
MedCities visited three of four Jordanian Members during the month of July to reinforce and identify key actors for the LASERMED and NATURMED projects.
During the first week of July, the project’s steering committee validated the final version of the diagnostic on non-conventional water resources, a process that has taken several months of participatory work and a final phase of local stakeholder revisions and comments.
The learning unit “Cycling your cities” was part of the Green Living Cities module of the Interreg MED Academy, and was first published online in early July 2022. The learning unit was aimed to provide skills in planning and evaluating integrated cycling policies, that is, policy packages covering all relevant dimensions of cycling mobility for a low carbon mobility scheme in our cities.
The 3-days course was organised at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences in Oujda in collaboration with the local city council and was aimed to reflect and analyse the main challenges and driving factors of human mobility trends currently experienced in the western Mediterranean basin
LASERMed (Local action for the socioeconomic recovery in the Mediterranean : the cities respond) is funded by the Diputació de Barcelona and led by MedCities in association with the municipalities of Zgharta-Ehden (Lebanon), Oujda (Morocco), Sousse (Tunisia), As Salt (Jordan).
The project supported the implementation of the CDS citizen participation campaign in order to actively target the migrant population. After thoroughly mapping CSOs and migrant communities in Tunis, three focus group meetings were organised on the 9th and 10th of June in the Municipality of Tunis, targeting migrant students; migrant support CSOs and resource people representing vulnerable groups of migrants, namely informal workers
The delegation led by GiZ Jordan and comprised of more than 20 informal waste pickers was received by the Mayor of Nabeul, Ms Besma Maatoug, municipal councilors and the responsibles of the plastic collection facility. Organised with the support of MedCities, this exchange visit focused on the results of Coop-Verd, implemented in 2018 with funding from the Municipality of Barcelona.
At the World Urban Forum, Mr. Josep Canals, the Secretary General, intervined in the dialogue 2 session about "Building resilience for sustainable urban futures".
A’SIMA Tunis project has focussed on the launch of a citizen participation campaign. Participation from citizens, civil society, and institutions is one of the main elements the A’SIMA Tunis project and of the Tunis Strategic Plan (SdVT) at the current phase, that of the strategic framework, where the shared vision and the strategic priorities of the city of Tunis are being debated.
MedCities, as partner of the Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community (MBPC), was recently engaged in two MBPC related events to stress the need to engage local authorities and their networks into transboundary efforts to preserve and enhance Mediterranean coastal and marine environments.
The partners and donors of the MAIS project met in Sfax to celebrate the launch of this project which aims to strengthen active and intelligent mobility in Sfax. More than 60 people were present at this conference, which was inaugurated by the Mayor of Sfax, Mr Elloumi, the Mayor of Chihia, Mr Tmar and the Secretary General of MedCities, Mr Canals.
MedCities and the partners of the Urban Transports Community have launched this week the online course “Cycling your city challenge” in the frame of the Greener Living Areas programme of the MEDAcademy.
The partnership, led by the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, together with MedCities and the Municipality of Gabès, and the consultants of WE&B finalised the diagnosis regarding water-related challenges in the region and the potential of non-conventional water resources (NCWR)
The BLUEfasma project ends with the publication of the policy recommendations to facilitate the integration and implementation of Circular Economy principles in Mediterranean fisheries and aquaculture.
Last 11th of June an event was organised in M’Saken to launch the opening of M’Corner, the first co-working in Tunisia that it is public and run by the Municipality in the framework of the EMPLOIMed project.
Last 7th of June 2022, the InCircle project held in Barcelona its final event: “Tools, finance, opportunies and bottlenecks towards a circular and sustainable tourism”, which gathered over 70 people of different organisations that work for a more circular and sustainable tourism.
MedCities as one of the Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community project partners was present to MARLICE 2022 forum about marine litter, in Sevilla.
In Brussels, the conference "Working for a greener Mediterranean: sustainable mobility solutions for a greener and better experience living and visiting the Mediterranean" was hosted by MEP Mr Corrao (Greens / EFA), member of the European Parliament's Committee on Transport and Tourism.
From the 23rd to the 26th of May, MedCities co-organised a study visit to Crete and Cyprus to learn about the pilot demonstrators implemented in both islands on circular tourism in the framework of the INCIRCLE Interreg-Med project.
MedCities’ Knowledge transfer center in Sfax was invited to the event hosted by GIZ in order to present and capitalize the experience together with the Municipality of M’Saken on the consolidation of its Local Youth Council.
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.
MedCities recently hosted the webinar “Exchange of good practices among cities on participation of migrants in local affairs and planning processes” aimed at fostering knowledge and experience transfer among Mediterranean cities’ representatives
During the month of May, the InCircle Catalan replicating territories have been very active in the InCircle project, working on the final steps that will lead the project to its end
ENSERES launches call for sub-grants to involve Civil Society Organizations in the management and sustainable development territories of Tyre and Sfax
The first part of the training focused on building the team’s capabilities around three issues: how to use and navigate through the ArcGIS geographic platform, how to publish data and use it to create their web maps...
MedCities and the Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community (MBPC) are organizing an in-person workshop on "Transboundary governance in the South Adriatic Ionian Straight Ecologically or Biologically Significant Area (SAIS-EBSA) and contiguous regions: from the identification of an area to biodiversity conservation"
During the month of April, the Strategies for Coastal protection developed under two projects financed by EU DG Reform, with participation of MedCities, have been presented by the Spanish government to the concerned municipalities and local actors.
INCIRCLE, implemented by MedCities and the City Council, has installed 15 new water sources in tourist spots to encourage tap water consumption and the reduction of plastic bottles.
The project TangerAccueil concluded its implementation last 31st March with an overall balance of 300 people reached and 10 civil society organisations directly involved in a rich program of activities for training, awareness, and dialogue.
interview and meet all relevant actors in the city's water management field. A total of 26 interviews have been done with 22 stakeholders linked to the municipality; regional services of environment, infrastructure, agriculture, and coastal protection and management; as well as with some actors of the civil society, academy and private sector.
Following the launch of the “Strategic Framework elaboration phase” of the City Development Strategy of Tunis (CDS or SdVT for its French acronym) in 2021, April activities have focussed on consultation with territorial actors in order to enrich and adjust the document.
The 23 and 24 of March, MedCities participated in the MedCatDays 2022, an event co-organised by the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Catalan Government and the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), with the collaboration of the MedCoopAlliance.
The 23 and 24 of March, MedCities participated in the MedCatDays 2022, an event co-organised by the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Catalan Government and the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), with the collaboration of the MedCoopAlliance.
The Secretary General of MedCities, Josep Canals and their Director, Oriol Barba, travelled to Lebanon the 7th of March to visit the Lebanese municipalities and members of the organization, with the aim of determining their priorities and to provide the support needed by MedCities to municipalities.
MedCities secretariat traveled to M’Saken and Chefchaouen this month to finalise the diagnosis phase of the EMPLOIMed project, which seeks to establish a support service for employability and entrepreneurship in M’Saken and Chefchaouen, offering spaces for co-working, information, training opportunities and support for young people.
Following the launch of the “Strategic Framework elaboration phase” of the City Development Strategy of Tunis (CDS or SdVT for its French acronym) last December, this month activities have been centered on stakeholder consultations in order to review, enrich and adjust the Strategic Framework document.
MedCities organised an online workshop last 3rd of March where we invited the cities of Montpellier and Sant Feliu de Llobregat (Barcelona) to share their experiences in supporting youth employability and entrepreneurship. HIVE 12, an entrepreneurial hub and coworking space located in Sousse (Tunisia) also shared its experience.
On the 7th and 8th March, MedCities and the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB) visited Tunis in the first technical mission targeting the waste management component of A’SIMA Tunis project.
MedCities secretariat traveled to Sousse and Oujda this month to discuss the launching of the LASERMed project in both cities.
The InCircle project aims at supporting touristic insular and low density territories in their transition towards a more circular tourism. During the first phase of the project, partners developed a set of tools that were used to build the circular tourism strategies of the partner territories. These were a circular economy assessment tool; a tool to develop participatory processes, and a tool to evaluate the circularity of resulting strategies.
On the 4th of February, the team of MedCities met at the association’s headquarters, the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, in order to participate in the team working day for the annual planning of the work.
The Development Agency of the Berguedà County, situated in Catalonia (ES), is one of the six replicators’ territories of the Interreg-Med project on Circular Tourism INCIRCLE.
The EMPLOIMed project, financed by the Catalan Agency for Cooperation to the Development, aims to establish a support service for employability and entrepreneurship in M’Saken and Chefchaouen, offering spaces for co-working, information, training opportunities and support for young people.
The city of Sfax is strongly committed to fight climate change with innovative and ambitious solutions in many fronts. With the support of MedCities and by participating in front-line internationally funded projects, the city is looking into active and smart mobility, together with its coast-line protection, as focus of two very new projects in the city.
On February 18 MedCities organised an online seminar on sustainable blue food in Catalonia to disseminate the objectives and activities of the BLUEfasma project and discuss the results and the preliminary policy recommendations with more than 30 stakeholders from the fisheries, aquaculture and food sector. This event was organised within the framework of the Barcelona’s World Capital of Sustainable Food 2021.
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.
This week, the Geographical Information System (GIS) consultancy Nexus Geographic presented the first version of Tripoli’s City Guide web app to the IT Tripoli’s City Council department and MedCities technical staff. After the revision of the IT team, this online City Guide will include information on points of interest, tourism routes and activity Agenda for citizen’s use. In addition, the web app also consists of a version for internal use to provide the City Council with geolocated tools to manage the city.
This 27th January the kick off meeting of the LASERMed project took place online, marking the start of this Mediterranean socioeconomic recovery initiative. The partners could meet each other and share some first ideas about the sectors and objectives to be prioritised through the implementation of local economic pilot projects until may 2023.
MedCities participated in the signature of the annexes of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Permanent Secretariat of the Pelagos Agreement and the Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community (MBPC), which has been developed with the objective of promoting and facilitating technical and scientific transboundary cooperation in the design and implementation of biodiversity protection and management actions.
The Municipality of Sfax, with the support of MedCities, has successfully submitted for funding the project “MAIS”: Active and Intelligent Mobility in Sfax through innovative actions and initiatives in energy saving and resilience to climate change” in the frame of the call Climate for Cities (C4C) in the Southern Neighbourhood.
On the 19th January, the partners of Med4Waste project met online with 5 projects funded by ENI CBC Mediterranean Sea Bassin programme in a first presentation and exchange meeting.
MedCities has led the communication and stakeholders engagement activities, engaging among others the member city of Palma.
In the frame of the COHESIMED project, funded by the City Council of Barcelona, MedCities coordinated an online training on “Urban planning from a gender perspective in the Mediterranean”, which took place the 14, 16 and 21 of December 2021. The webinar sessions were facilitated by Sara Ortiz, expert of “Col.lectiu Punt 6”, a Barcelona-based cooperative specialised in urban planning from a feminist perspective.
The process of elaboration of the City Development Strategy of Tunis (CDS) –part of the A’SIMA Tunis project- evolved into a new phase in the last months of 2021: the team is now working on the Strategical Framework phase to define the vision, mission and the strategic objectives of the development plan for Tunis in its metropolitan context. The Municipality of Tunis hosted a public conference on December 14th in order to launch this new important phase of the CDS, and invite all city actors to participate in this collective thinking process.
The 9th of December, the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, MedCities and Gabès City Council, partners of ValEUr Gabès project funded by the EU Delegation in Tunisia, met with the experts of Water, Environment and Business for Development (WE&B). This meeting reviewed and validated the methodological proposal and has subsequently launched a participatory process that will lead to a “Non-Conventional Water Resource Municipal Plan” for the city of Gabès in Tunisia. At the end of the project, Gabès will be the first city in Tunisia to implement a strategy and concrete actions to manage this scarce and valued resource.
The International Migrants Day was last Saturday 18 December and MedCities celebrated by promoting intercultural and sport activities in Tangier in the frame of the project TangerAccueil. This project is implemented by MedCities and Tangier City Council in collaboration with local civil society organisations. It is funded by the European Union, the Swiss Development Cooperation Agency and framed by the MC2CM program of the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).
December had been a special month in the City of Saida. The city council and the Tourism Table have been launching one of the actions the strategic study on tourism promotion using the new branding image of the city in the framework of the second phase of the COHESIMED project funded by Barcelona Municipality. The strategic action had two main pillars: Some promotional events for Lebanese tourism stakeholders and the general public and a provisional municipal tourism office near Sea Castle, one of the main touristic attractions of the city.
The INCIRCLE Training School is over! Last 12th of January the INCIRCLE School organised its last online training session to clarify doubts about the assessment of tourism circularity and strategies development in the 6 replicating territories.
Read the last news of MedCities for this year! We will be back in January 2022 with much more news.
The 17th annual General Assembly of MedCities was held in the Maison of Rélations Internationales of Montpellier in a hybrid format and with the participation of their members, some of which were participating on-line.
MedCities supports the bilateral cooperation between its members by promoting technical and political exchanges in the frame of concrete projects or city-to-city diplomacy. In this context the mayor of Tunis, Mrs Souad Ben Abderrahim, visited the city of Barcelona and held several meetings aiming to move forward in two directions: the bilateral cooperation with the Municipality of Barcelona, following the cooperation agreement signed by the two cities in 2019 and the cooperation with the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona in the frame of the A’SIMA Tunis project.
As a part of the 22nd edition of the Barcelona Convention (COP22) held in Antalya from the 7th to the 11th of December, two MedCities members were awarded with the Istanbul awards for best sustainable policies: Malaga and Genoa. The Secretary General of MedCities, Josep Canals, participated in the meeting and stated, "This encourages to work even harder to better improve the capabilities of our members".
During the last month, the city of Valencia was the scenario for the 9th Mostra Viva del Mediterrani, in which the prizes “Pont del Mediterrani” were delivered to the associations, institutions and people committed to work for a better present and future for the Mediterranean.
From the 22nd to the 24th November, a Lebanese delegation of 2 council members and two technical staff of Saida and Zgharta-Edhen came to Barcelona for a study visit on tourism management and promotion in the frameworks of COHESIMED and TER BRAND projects both managed by MedCities and funded by Barcelona City Council. Unfortunately, the current COVID restrictions made it impossible to bring the full mission members composed of 8 people.
During the days 28th of November to 1st of December took place the 2020 Forum of the Marine Protected Areas in Monaco, co-organised by the network of Marine Protected Areas managers in the Mediterranean (MedPan), UN Environment Programme, the Mediterranean Action Plan, the Regional Activity Center for Specially Protected Areas (SPA/RAC), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Prince Albert II Monaco Foundation.
The project, launched in January 2021, aims to promote the valorisation of urban rainwater and non-conventional water resources by proposing innovative strategies and tools at municipal level. ValEUr Gabès is implemented by the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB), in partnership with MedCities and the Municipality of Gabès, with funding from the EU Delegation in Tunisia.
entrepreneurship in M’Saken and Chefchaouen, offering spaces for co-working, information, training opportunities and support for young people.
entrepreneurship in M’Saken and Chefchaouen, offering spaces for co-working, information, training opportunities and support for young people.
Since mid-November, over 30 migrants have received language training and 80 more have been informed about the civil society entities deploying targeted services for migrants in the city of Tanger.
MedCities organised as a side-event of its General Assembly this 1st and 2nd December a thematic seminar on sustainable mobility planning and innovation.
MedCities and the Municipality of Tunis, are elaborating the City Development Strategy of Tunis (CDS) in the frame of the A’SIMA Tunis project. Having finalised the diagnosis phase, the CDS of Tunis recently launched the strategic framework phase of the project, which is aimed at determining the cities’ vision on the long term, the mission of the CDS, as well as its strategic axes.
The aim of the Temathic Working Groups is to bring the experience of testing and transferring activities to draw join recommendations and key messages on how to better integrate circular economy into fishing and aquaculture sector.
The aim of the Temathic Working Groups is to bring the experience of testing and transferring activities to draw join recommendations and key messages on how to better integrate circular economy into fishing and aquaculture sector.
The aim of the Temathic Working Groups is to bring the experience of testing and transferring activities to draw join recommendations and key messages on how to better integrate circular economy into fishing and aquaculture sector.
The aim of the Temathic Working Groups is to bring the experience of testing and transferring activities to draw join recommendations and key messages on how to better integrate circular economy into fishing and aquaculture sector.
The aim of the Temathic Working Groups is to bring the experience of testing and transferring activities to draw join recommendations and key messages on how to better integrate circular economy into fishing and aquaculture sector.
The aim of the Temathic Working Groups is to bring the experience of testing and transferring activities to draw join recommendations and key messages on how to better integrate circular economy into fishing and aquaculture sector.
The aim of the Temathic Working Groups is to bring the experience of testing and transferring activities to draw join recommendations and key messages on how to better integrate circular economy into fishing and aquaculture sector.
The aim of the Temathic Working Groups is to bring the experience of testing and transferring activities to draw join recommendations and key messages on how to better integrate circular economy into fishing and aquaculture sector.
The aim of the Temathic Working Groups is to bring the experience of testing and transferring activities to draw join recommendations and key messages on how to better integrate circular economy into fishing and aquaculture sector.
MedCities guided the discussions around the transfer and replicating activities’ work plan. The city of Sfax and surrounding areas of ecological importance will be one of the partner territories fully engaged in these activities.
The aim of the Temathic Working Groups is to bring the experience of testing and transferring activities to draw join recommendations and key messages on how to better integrate circular economy into fishing and aquaculture sector.
After the summer break, our September newsletter is full of new content! Read all news here.
After the summer break, our September newsletter is full of new content! Read all news here.
The aim of the Temathic Working Groups is to bring the experience of testing and transferring activities to draw join recommendations and key messages on how to better integrate circular economy into fishing and aquaculture sector.
The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) one of the founder members of MedCities, has approved the new agreement with MedCities to continue with all projects that our Mediterranean network will start and follow during this year 2021.
The Mediterranean Cooperation Alliance will be present the next 14th October in the workshop: "MedCoopAlliance: how multilevel governance fosters green transition" during the EU Regions Week in which it will present practical examples of multilevel governance & innovating approaches to foster green transition.
One of the priority actions identified in the "Sustainable Tourism Promotion Study" for Old Saida took place successfully during the month of July complemented with a development of a branding image in to products to promote Saida as a sustainable tourism destination.
MedCities organised a webinar series to discuss the challenges of the reception of migrants in Mediterranean cities and outline the future work of the network in the field.
The webinar "CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION THROUGH SUSTAINABLE URBAN MOBILITY PLANS (SUMPS)" took place the 15 september and gathered over 200 participants, including the works department representative of the city of Sfax, Tunisia.
In the frame of the A'SIMA Tunis project, in July 2021, the team of experts involved in the City Development Strategy of Tunis (CDST), submitted their sectoral diagnostic reports as well as a transversal analysis of the major Facts and Challenges faced by the city of Tunis and its de facto metropolitan space.
Last 2nd of September INCIRCLE technical partners met online to evaluate the candidatures received and selected 6 replicating territories. InCircle will assist them in the creation of territorial strategies to increase circularity and sustainability of tourism and to support the relaunch of the sector in a post-covid time.
12 municipalities benefited from a set of one-to-one sessions with the experts of the training module between June and July. The mentoring finished and these are some of the main challenges addressed by Mediterranean participant cities.
As part of the Interreg-Med InCircle project, the Tourism Agency of the Balearc Island, hand to hand with the municipality of Palma (member of MedCities network), have organized a set of stakeholder working groups with relevant stakeholders of the Balearic touristic sector.
The InCircle project (Interreg Med Programme) supports territories in their transition towards a more circular tourism economy and relaunch their tourism sector in a post-covid time. Now, the project is looking for Mediterranean destinations interested in circular tourism and in developing or adapting their sustainable tourism strategies.
These mentoring processes have started during this month of June, and three municipalities per each one of the four topics are benefiting from it.
The Interreg Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community project, from which MedCities is partner leading the communication component, hosted the online workshop: "Mediterranean Pollution, Biodiversity and Health". MedCities also gave support together with UNEP/MAP Regional Activity Center Plan Bleu. Over 70 partners and experts from around the globe gathered for this event to find the best solutions to combat marine litter impacts across the Mediterranean.
MedCities has recently received the endorsement of the Ocean Decade of United Nations for the Ocean Cities (OC-NET) Programme, an international network coordinated by The Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM) and Unitat de Tecnologia Marina (UTM), part of one of the largest research institutes of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
The catalogue of measures and their selection and prioritisation enters the process of stakeholders' consultation. MedCities is part of the technical team developing redacting the strategies where we lead the communication and participation activities.
The website, which is fully available both in French and in Arabic, introduces the role of the local Youth Council, its objectives, displays the councils' activities, publications, as well as the contact details of 24 youth organizations on the territory.
The A'SIMA Tunis project continues at good pace with important milestones met in this first phase: the participatory diagnosis of the City Development Strategy of Tunis (CDS).
The mentoring programs of the Urban Transports are entering a key phase: first assessments, field work and second round of peer to peer meetings between replicators and pioneers.
After defining the pilot area, the participatory diagnosis kicked off with a number of workshops and exploratory walks in the neighbourhood with over 40 women involved.
MedCities took part of the 19th Meeting of the Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development (MCSD) organized by UNEP MAP, within 50 other members and obervers. The three-day meeting virtually hosted by Slovenia examined a report on sustainable development activities carried out from June 2019 - May 2021, and review progress in the implementation of the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development.
MedCities leads this component and has been in charge of developing the Capitalisation Plan.
MedCities, throught its Secretary General and as part of the Interreg Mediterranean Biodiversity Protection Community and its Working Group 1 on Biodiversity protection and transboundary challenges, has been involved in the second capacity building workshop on the topic of marine litter and marine protected areas, with a focus on Montenegro.
MedCities Secretary-General, Mr. Josep Canals Molina, contributed to the MIO-ECSDE issue 'Sustainable Mediterranean: climate change' with an article based on the role of Mediterranean cities.
The Strategic Plan about tourism promotion in Old Saida was presented in the Saida's tourism table, while a branding campaign and the pilot project to promote the sustainable tourism in the city have already started.
The mentoring expert has been supporting the municipality in the last months by providing advice on how to identify the key variables to calculate traffic congestion or pollution and how to collect data.
We had the opportunity to visit the city councils of Tetuan and Tanger and took part in the closing activities of the COHESIMED project on urbanism and gender. This mission has been very rich and useful to strengthen the links with our city members and make projects advance, and close, in a smooth way.
During the month of July, Rev'ACTE project, promoting a network of Tunisian cities allied for climate and energy transition, finalised its activities. The network mobilised 7 cities in activities of capacity building in order to promote energy transition in 4 different areas: sustainable urban mobility, diversification of energy sources, energy autoproduction and public lighting efficiency.
This July newsletter brings you news about tourism in Saida, about our first mission in Morocco -after all this pandemic time- where we had the opportunity to follow up our projects in Nakkata
During 2020 MedCities has continued supporting member cities in participating in multiple projects and initiatives. This is the sumary of all the work carried out during a complex, and also rich, 2020.
The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) one of the founder members of MedCities, has approved the new agreement with MedCities to continue with all projects that our Mediterranean network will start and follow during this year.
The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) one of the founder members of MedCities, has approved the new agreement with MedCities to continue with all projects that our Mediterranean network will start and follow during this year.
The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) one of the founder members of MedCities, has approved the new agreement with MedCities to continue with all projects that our Mediterranean network will start and follow during this year.
The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) one of the founder members of MedCities, has approved the new agreement with MedCities to continue with all projects that our Mediterranean network will start and follow during this year.
The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) one of the founder members of MedCities, has approved the new agreement with MedCities to continue with all projects that our Mediterranean network will start and follow during this year.
The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) one of the founder members of MedCities, has approved the new agreement with MedCities to continue with all projects that our Mediterranean network will start and follow during this year.
The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) one of the founder members of MedCities, has approved the new agreement with MedCities to continue with all projects that our Mediterranean network will start and follow during this year.
The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) one of the founder members of MedCities, has approved the new agreement with MedCities to continue with all projects that our Mediterranean network will start and follow during this year.
The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) one of the founder members of MedCities, has approved the new agreement with MedCities to continue with all projects that our Mediterranean network will start and follow during this year.
MedCities will act as Bluefasma Living Lab initiator at the Barcelona Metropolitan Area and leads the Capitalisation (...)
MedCities will act as Bluefasma Living Lab initiator at the Barcelona Metropolitan Area and leads the Capitalisation (...)
The Urban Transports Community of the Interreg Med is preparing the activities of what will certainly be a very (...) autumn.
The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) one of the founder members of MedCities, has approved the new agreement with MedCities to continue with all projects that our Mediterranean network will start and follow during this year.
Secretary General, Josep Canals i Molina participated in the conference hosted by ALDA (Association of Local Democracy Agencies) on its 20th anniversary. Mr.Canals presented (...)
The Urban Transports Community of the Interreg Med is preparing the activities of what will certainly be a very (...) autumn.
"To bring the municipalities of the Mediterranean closer to the citizens: decentralization and inter-municipal cooperation for the provision of services", this was the premise under which several representatives of city members discussed in three round tables during the seminar linked to the General Assembly 2019
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