Medcities
Encyclopedia
Medcities is a network of Mediterranean coastal cities created in Barcelona in 1991 at the initiative of the Mediterranean Technical Assistance Programmes (METAP). The METAP, whose objective is environmental improvement in the Mediterranean region, was established in 1990 by the World Bank
, the European Investment Bank
and the United Nations Development Programme
.
The goals of the network are to strengthen the environmental management capability of local administration, through decentralised activities involving technical assistance, and also to reinforce awareness of interdependence and common responsibility regarding the policies of urban environmental conservation in the Mediterranean basin.
The goals of the Medcities Network are the following:
- to reinforce the awareness of interdependence and common responsibility regarding the policies of urban environmental conservation in the Mediterranean basin
;
- to strengthen the role and the means (institutional, financial and technical capability) of municipalities in the implementation of local sustainable development
policies;
- to develop awareness and involvement of citizens and consumers on urban sustainable development;
- to set up a direct cooperation policy in order to implement the partnership between coastal Mediterranean cities.
Medcities includes today 27 cities from Mediterranean countries:
- Aleppo
- Alexandria
- Ancona
- Ashdod
- Barcelona
- Benghazi
- Dubrovnik
- El Mina
- Gaza
- Grand Lyon
- Izmir
- Larnaca
- Latakia
- Limassol
- Marseille
- Oran
- Roma
- Sfax
- Silifke
- Sousse
- Tangier
- Tetouan
- Thessaloniki
- Tirana
- Tripoli
- Zarqa
Board: the Association is governed by a Board of 5 to 9 members: the President, the Secretary General and from three to seven members. It meets at least once a year.
Presidency: the President represents the Association in all acts of civil life, and he is invested with all the powers to this effect. The mandate of the President covers the period from one General Assembly to the other. The Presidency has been held by Barcelona, Marseille, Tangier, Limassol and Rome (at the present time).
General Secretariat: it is an administrative body which helps the Association's President and Board in their respective tasks. It is managed by a General Secretary and it takes care of the management of the network, identifying the needs of the cities, representing the Medcities network in international events (together with member cities), ensuring technical and financial coordination, the preparation and follow-up of field projects, the organisation of the General Assembly and the Board's meetings and the publishing of presentation material. The General Secretariat has a four-years mandate, and may be re-elected. Limassol, Marseilles and Barcelona (at the present time) have held the function of Secretary General.
, World Bank
, UNDP) and the co-operation agencies of developed countries. Training is also provided through seminars, visits by technicians, training manuals and exhibitions. Medcities publishes an internal bulletin providing information on actions taken by the different cities and the network's own activities.
, institutional support, local finances;
- Urban planning
and development;
- Environment and risk management
(waste, air quality and mobility, water).
“Urban mobility plan” in Sousse.
“Regional solid waste management” in Mashriq
and Maghreb
countries.
“Local Sustainable Development Networking" project.
“ICZM – Integrated Coastal Zone Management” project, co-financed by the EU SMAP programme.
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, the European Investment Bank
European Investment Bank
The European Investment Bank is the European Union's long-term lending institution established in 1958 under the Treaty of Rome. A policy-driven bank, the EIB supports the EU’s priority objectives, especially European integration and the development of economically weak regions...
and the United Nations Development Programme
United Nations Development Programme
The United Nations Development Programme is the United Nations' global development network. It advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP operates in 177 countries, working with nations on their own solutions to...
.
The goals of the network are to strengthen the environmental management capability of local administration, through decentralised activities involving technical assistance, and also to reinforce awareness of interdependence and common responsibility regarding the policies of urban environmental conservation in the Mediterranean basin.
History
The creation of Medcities was a consequence of METAP's objective of strengthening decentralised actions involving technical assistance as the best means of promoting awareness of urban environmental problems and making those actions into a vehicle for empowering municipalities in developing countries in respect of management of urban environmental issues. Medcities continues offering this support. Afterwards, Medcities has extended its activities from the initial local environment to the wider local sustainable development field.Objectives
The Medcities network is a tool to strengthen the environmental and sustainable development management capability of local administration, but it is also useful in order to identify the domains where a common activation could be the most useful means to improve the regional environmental conditions.The goals of the Medcities Network are the following:
- to reinforce the awareness of interdependence and common responsibility regarding the policies of urban environmental conservation in the Mediterranean basin
Mediterranean Basin
In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin refers to the lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have a Mediterranean climate, with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation...
;
- to strengthen the role and the means (institutional, financial and technical capability) of municipalities in the implementation of local sustainable development
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
policies;
- to develop awareness and involvement of citizens and consumers on urban sustainable development;
- to set up a direct cooperation policy in order to implement the partnership between coastal Mediterranean cities.
Members
The network originally comprised one city in each country, with a preference for cities other than the capital. Then an accord was subsequently reached expanding possible membership to two cities per country, and including Jordan.Medcities includes today 27 cities from Mediterranean countries:
- Aleppo
Aleppo
Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...
- Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
- Ancona
Ancona
Ancona is a city and a seaport in the Marche region, in central Italy, with a population of 101,909 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region....
- Ashdod
- Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
- Benghazi
Benghazi
Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, the main city of the Cyrenaica region , and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area is also a district of Libya...
- Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
- El Mina
El Mina
El-Mina or El Mina,which means "harbour" in Arabic, is a coastal city in Northern Lebanon. El-Mina occupies the location of the old Phoenician city of Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest city...
- Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
- Grand Lyon
- Izmir
Izmir
Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...
- Larnaca
Larnaca
Larnaca, is the third largest city on the southern coast of Cyprus after Nicosia and Limassol. It has a population of 72,000 and is the island's second largest commercial port and an important tourist resort...
- Latakia
Latakia
Latakia, or Latakiyah , is the principal port city of Syria, as well as the capital of the Latakia Governorate. In addition to serving as a port, the city is a manufacturing center for surrounding agricultural towns and villages...
- Limassol
Limassol
Limassol is the second-largest city in Cyprus, with a population of 228,000 . It is the largest city in geographical size, and the biggest municipality on the island. The city is located on Akrotiri Bay, on the island's southern coast and it is the capital of Limassol District.Limassol is the...
- Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
- Oran
Oran
Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country.It is the capital of the Oran Province . The city has a population of 759,645 , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately 1,500,000, making it the second largest...
- Roma
Roma
- Places :Italy* Rome, the capital of Italy, is called Roma in Italian and some other languages* Roma Tre University, a university located in Rome, Italy, and founded in 1992...
- Sfax
Sfax
Sfax is a city in Tunisia, located southeast of Tunis. The city, founded in AD 849 on the ruins of Taparura and Thaenae, is the capital of the Sfax Governorate , and a Mediterranean port. Sfax has population of 340,000...
- Silifke
Silifke
-Antiquity:Located a few miles from the mouth of the Calycadnus River, Seleucia was founded by Seleucus I Nicator in the early 3rd century BCE, one of several cities he named after himself. It is probable that there were already towns called Olbia and Hyria and that Seleucus I merely united them...
- Sousse
Sousse
Sousse is a city in Tunisia. Located 140 km south of the capital Tunis, the city has 173,047 inhabitants . Sousse is in the central-east of the country, on the Gulf of Hammamet, which is a part of the Mediterranean Sea. The name may be of Berber origin: similar names are found in Libya and in...
- Tangier
Tangier
Tangier, also Tangiers is a city in northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 . It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel...
- Tetouan
Tétouan
Tetouan is a city in northern Morocco. The Berber name means literally "the eyes" and figuratively "the water springs". Tetouan is one of the two major ports of Morocco on the Mediterranean Sea. It lies a few miles south of the Strait of Gibraltar, and about 40 mi E.S.E. of Tangier...
- Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
- Tirana
Tirana
Tirana is the capital and the largest city of Albania. Modern Tirana was founded as an Ottoman town in 1614 by Sulejman Bargjini, a local ruler from Mullet, although the area has been continuously inhabited since antiquity. Tirana became Albania's capital city in 1920 and has a population of over...
- Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
- Zarqa
Zarqa
Az-Zarqāʔ is a city in Jordan located to the northeast of Amman. With a population of more than one million 1000,000. It is the country's second largest city after Amman. Zarqa is the capital of Zarqa Governorate . Its name means "the blue one".- Overview :Zarqa is Jordan's industrial centre, home...
Organisation
General Assembly: it is the supreme body of the Association, and it is composed of all its members. It must be convened at least one every three years, and it gives a ruling on the items on the agenda proposed by the board, and on various others issues. It elects the President and the members of the Board.Board: the Association is governed by a Board of 5 to 9 members: the President, the Secretary General and from three to seven members. It meets at least once a year.
Presidency: the President represents the Association in all acts of civil life, and he is invested with all the powers to this effect. The mandate of the President covers the period from one General Assembly to the other. The Presidency has been held by Barcelona, Marseille, Tangier, Limassol and Rome (at the present time).
General Secretariat: it is an administrative body which helps the Association's President and Board in their respective tasks. It is managed by a General Secretary and it takes care of the management of the network, identifying the needs of the cities, representing the Medcities network in international events (together with member cities), ensuring technical and financial coordination, the preparation and follow-up of field projects, the organisation of the General Assembly and the Board's meetings and the publishing of presentation material. The General Secretariat has a four-years mandate, and may be re-elected. Limassol, Marseilles and Barcelona (at the present time) have held the function of Secretary General.
Institutional activities
Medcities is a tool that reinforces the environmental management capacity of local administrations. The network identifies areas where joint actions could contribute to improve regional environmental conditions. A key objective of Medcities is promoting sustainable urban development as a general policy in the Mediterranean. To this effect, it participates in the Nations Mediterranean Action Plan, and it is also a member of the Commission on Sustainable Development in the Local Government Area. Medcities is also a member of the steering committee for the European Sustainable Cities and Towns Campaign and of the Mediterranean Working Group of the Union of Cities and Local Governments.Operational activities
The network's normal working procedure is based on environmental audits and medium-term environmental plans, followed by specific programmes to pursue the priorities that have been identified. Experts from Northern cities take part in developing these programmes, and those cities provide financing for one half of the cost of the work of those experts, with the remainder financed by METAP organisations (European UnionEuropean Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, UNDP) and the co-operation agencies of developed countries. Training is also provided through seminars, visits by technicians, training manuals and exhibitions. Medcities publishes an internal bulletin providing information on actions taken by the different cities and the network's own activities.
Areas of intervention
- GovernanceGovernance
Governance is the act of governing. It relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of management or leadership processes...
, institutional support, local finances;
- Urban planning
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
and development;
- Environment and risk management
Risk management
Risk management is the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor, and control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events or to maximize the realization of opportunities...
(waste, air quality and mobility, water).
Projects realised
“Urban air quality improvement trough air quality and mobility plan and the institutional strengthens of local administration on air quality”, with the participation of Barcelona, Larnaca, Limassol, Tetouan and Al Fayhaa.“Urban mobility plan” in Sousse.
“Regional solid waste management” in Mashriq
Mashriq
Mashriq or Mashreq is derived from the Arabic consonantal root sh-r-q relating to the east or the sunrise, and essentially means "east"...
and Maghreb
Maghreb
The Maghreb is the region of Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. It includes five countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara...
countries.
“Local Sustainable Development Networking" project.
“ICZM – Integrated Coastal Zone Management” project, co-financed by the EU SMAP programme.