{ "types": { "node": { "label": "Node" } }, "properties": { "node_title": { "label": "" }, "node_comment_statistics_comment_count": { "label": "" }, "node_revisions_body": { "label": "Body" } }, "items": [ { "type": "node", "label": null, "node_title": "The State of the Arab Cities Report 2012", "node_comment_statistics_comment_count": "0", "node_revisions_body": "\x3cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\x3e\x3cstrong\x3ePress Release\x3c/strong\x3e\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\x3e\x3cstrong\x3eThe State of the Arab Cities Report 2012 \x3c/strong\x3e\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\x3eThe United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN HABITAT), Amman Institute for Urban Development and Housing and Urban Development Corporation are organizing editorial board meeting for finalizing the \"State of the Arab Cities Report 2012\"\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\x3e\x3cstrong\x3e Amman, 20-21 November 2011:\x3c/strong\x3e The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) in coordination with The Amman Institute for Urban Development (Ai), Housing and Urban Development Corporation, The League of Arab States and Arab Towns Organization organized a review meeting for the pre-final draft of the \"State of Arab Cities report 2012\". The meeting was inaugurated by His Excellency Eng. Yahia Al-Kasabi , Minister of Public Works and Housing and His Excellency Ammar Gharaibeh, the Chairman of Greater Amman Municipality Committee and Dr. Alioune Badiane, Acting Director of regional and Technical Cooperation Division.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3eThe meeting took place \x26nbsp;on Sunday the 20th of November 2011 and Monday the 21st at the Landmark Hotel, Amman, and was attended by experts and consultants working on the report, including independent international and regional experts as well as representatives from UN ESCWA, UN Women, the World Bank, Arab Towns Organisation and the League of Arab States. The meeting aims at reviewing and assessing the current pre-final draft of the report and seeks directions for its finalization. The meeting will further be expected to decide on the next steps towards the launch of the report in May 2012 at an international conference in Kuwait and, later, at the World Urban Forum in Napoli, Italy, September 2012.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3eGiven the important role cities play in the Arab world, where more than half of the population are currently living in urban areas, and with the recent developments and changes the Arab countries are facing, the report comes in the right moment to address the challenge of providing the decision makers, urban practitioners and scholars with numerical and analytical information on Arab cities through the collection and the analysis of timely, accurate and objective data on socio-economic and social conditions, environmental matters, housing, governance and other human settlements-related issues. The report also endeavors to review the existing public policies for the urban sector.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3eVisit our Facebook page \x3ca href=\"http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?id=100000963396719\x26amp;qn=1322134363\x26amp;tid=110839018955015\x26amp;success=20\x26amp;session_id=0\x26amp;start_time=1322134363\x26amp;failure=0\x26amp;set=oa.283601615012087\"\x3ehere \x3c/a\x3eto view pictures of the event.\x3c/p\x3e" }, { "type": "node", "label": null, "node_title": "New Urban Topologies", "node_comment_statistics_comment_count": "0", "node_revisions_body": "\x3cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\x3e\x3cstrong\x3eNew Urban Topologies \x3c/strong\x3e\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\x3eLast year, Färgfabriken implemented a NUT project in the cities of Chisinau, Moldova and Minsk, Belarus. This was the first step in preparing a possible extension of NUT to countries in the Middle East and Balkans. The main funder, the Swedish Institute (SI) is encouraging the use of the so-called “Färgfabriken Method”. This method allows collaboration with different kinds of stakeholders and facilitate new encounters. In Chisinau and Minsk, Färgfabriken teamed up with art organisations with knowledge on and interest in different urban issues and with wide social urban research. In addition to these organisations Färgfabriken worked together with city officials from the planning authorities and politicians.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3e\x3cstrong\x3e NUT in the Middle East \x3c/strong\x3e\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3eThe main objective is to start a process where Färgfabriken, in collaboration with participating partners, initiates a discussion regarding urban problems and possibilities in the Middle East. An important aspect of the NUT project is to create new contacts and new conditions for an exchange of experiences. In the Middle East Färgfabriken is now, focusing on Alexandria, Amman, Beirut and Damascus, and if funds are available, Istanbul.That city is technically outside the Middle East but developments in Turkey carry great weight for the MENA region. In collaboration with the partners Färgfabriken want to identify a number of geographical areas of interest for development and/or general discussion and problem solving. The purpose is not to deliver complete solutions or answers, but to point out different ways of thinking and address and discuss complex matters.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3e\x3cstrong\x3eExecution \x3c/strong\x3e\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3eFärGfabriken have created a model for execution of NUT that will be used in the Middle East, partly based on the experiences from Eastern Europe. The model is divided into four parts:\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3e1. A seminar, where representatives from the City Planning Office in Stockholm, the Office of Regional Planning in Stockholm and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm give short lectures on urban planning in Stockholm and Sweden, mirrored by similar presentations by representatives from Alexandria, Amman, Beirut. Damascus and possibly Istanbul. This part of the project is mainly an exchange of experiences, and will be open for students, architects, urban planners and interested people in each partner’s network.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3e2. An excursion by bus through each city, where possibilities and problems are highlighted. The history of the city and possible development areas will be discussed in order to generate questions and themes for the upcoming workshop.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3e3. A workshop where Färgfabriken mixes participants with various backgrounds in five to six groups. These are given a set of different questions concerning issues such as participation, identity, current problem areas or ideas for new development. The questions will finally be formulated together with the local project partners.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3e4. The results will be shown directly after the workshop as a presentation that consists of videos, sketches, drawings, texts, photos, models or suchlike produced within the project. The results will also be included in the future publication that will summarize the project and the ideas from all cities.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3e\x3cstrong\x3e Time plan \x3c/strong\x3e\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3e\x3cem\x3eFebruary/March 2011 \x3c/em\x3e\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3eA reconnaissance visit to each city by Färgfabriken to identify interested local partners\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3e\x26nbsp;\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3e\x3cem\x3eOctober 2011 \x3c/em\x3e\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3eA joint seminar and workshop with participants from Alexandria, Amman, Beirut, Damascus and Istanbul, in and about Alexandria. Hosted by the Swedish Institute in Alexandria and Färgfabriken.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3eDuring this session Rawan Attour, Principal Urban Designer \x26amp; Planner at the Amman Institute for Urban Development (Ai) presented about the different phases of the Amman plan, and participated in the different phases of the workshop; field visits and the workshop on the city of Alexandria, she was a member of the public spaces group where they analyzed the city along with international participants and planners and students from Alexandria and came up with recommendations and action plans for that sector.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3ePreliminary discussions resulted in the possibility of conducting a workshop in Amman in April 2012, at the electricity Hanger with Ai as the main supporter for logistics and coordination along with other local partners such as Hamzet Wasel \x26amp; Jordan University for Science \x26amp; Technology, details will be discussed during the Stockholm session in December 2011.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3e\x26nbsp;\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3e\x3cem\x3eWinter and spring 2011/12 \x3c/em\x3e\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3eA workshop in each city.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3e\x26nbsp;\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3e\x3cem\x3eSummer 2012 \x3c/em\x3e\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3ePresentation of the publication.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3e\x26nbsp;\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3e\x3cem\x3eFall 2012 \x3c/em\x3e\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3eWorkshop and seminar in and about Stockholm together with participants from all above mentioned cities.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3e\x3cstrong\x3ePartners \x3c/strong\x3e\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3eIn each city Färgfabriken will collaborate with a similar organization and with the local governmental authorities. From Sweden Färgfabriken will invite participants from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, the City Planning Office in Stockholm and the Office of Regional Planning in Stockholm. Each organization will give a short lecture on the work of their offices and relevant projects in each city considering planning, environment, collaborations and political processes among other issues. In each city Färgfabriken will also consult Swedish diplomatic missions.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3eAttached is Rawan Attour\'s reflection about the City of Alexandria which might be published in the book reading of the workshop.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3eTo view some pictures, please visit our Facebook Group \x3ca href=\"http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?id=100000963396719\x26amp;qn=1321269089\x26amp;tid=110839018955015\x26amp;success=3\x26amp;session_id=0\x26amp;start_time=1321269089\x26amp;failure=0\x26amp;set=oa.278467438858838\"\x3ehere\x3c/a\x3e\x3c/p\x3e" }, { "type": "node", "label": null, "node_title": "Request For Proposal (RFP/2011/01)", "node_comment_statistics_comment_count": "0", "node_revisions_body": "\x3cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\x3e\x3cstrong\x3eRequest For Proposal (RFP/2011/01) \x3c/strong\x3e\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3eAmman Institute for urban Development (Ai) is a not-for-profit Think \x26amp; Do Tank established by the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) to advance urban development within Jordan and the Arab Region.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3eAi is requesting proposals for the provision of International / National Consultants Services to Set up a Disaster Risk Management Unit within Greater Amman Municipality, with its administrative/ organization structure, operating procedures, and emergency operations plans, under a project “Strengthening the institutional frameworks and capacity development for the preparation, implementation and monitoring of a Disaster Risk Management Program in Amman”.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3eInterested entities can download the Request for Proposal documents from the attached PDF below.\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp\x3eDeadline for receiving your Technical and Financial Proposals in sealed envelopes, marked RFP/2011/01 is 10:00hrs on 13 November 2011 at our address:\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\x3e\x3cstrong\x3eAmman Institute for Urban Development, Omar Matar Street \x3c/strong\x3e\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\x3e\x3cstrong\x3eCity Hall Building, Amman, Jordan \x3c/strong\x3e\x3c/p\x3e\x3cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\x3e\x3cstrong\x3e(No Proposals will Be Accepted After the Deadline)\x3c/strong\x3e\x3c/p\x3e" } ] }