Third Egypt Urban Futures Workshop Tackles Urban Development from the Legal Perspective
Cairo, 29th of April 2014, The Egyptian-German Participatory Development Programme in Urban Areas (PDP) together with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) and the French Centre d’études et de documentation économiques, juridiques et sociales (CEDEJ) have successfully held the Egypt Urban Futures (EUF) Workshop at the French Cultural Centre in Mounira. In its third session, the workshop series Egypt Urban Futures dealt with the topic ‘Urban Equity: Egyptian Cities from the legal perspective’. Around 150 people participated at this full day event to listen what experts from international organisations, academic institutions, governmental bodies and civil society activists and professionals had to share. “With this workshop series we provide a platform where a dialogue on different perspectives on urban development is possible,” said Dr. Guenther Wehenpohl, Programme Coordinator of PDP. “Moreover, we are creating opportunities to share experiences, best practices and strategic developments amongst different stakeholders.”
Egypt Urban Futures (EUF) Workshop
The workshop series is a joint initiative by PDP, UN-HABITAT and CEDEJ since 2013, as a continuation of the Expert Discussion Meetings on urban development that have been carried out monthly since 2008. In each of its sessions the EUF raises topics in urban development. During the opening of the third workshop results and new perspectives from the 7th World Urban Forum (WUF) which took place in Medellin, Colombia in early April 2014, were presented by Safa Ashoub and Philipp Schuck from PDP and Katja Schaefer from UN-HABITAT Regional Office for Africa & Arab States (ROAAS). They shared key messages from WUF and shed light on what urban equity means in a global debate between urban development experts as well as how it relates to the Egyptian context. “We were part of the Egyptian representatives exhibiting at the WUF in Medellin and could get direct insights of current developments in urban equity ourselves,” said Safa Ashoub, Advisor of PDP. “It is indispensable to integrate internationally discussed objectives and strategies into locally adapted programmes. Since urban equity was the main topic of the WUF we have decided to tackle it in the third session of EUF.” Divided into three parts ‘Urban equity in the Egyptian context’, ‘The Rights and the City – Government Perspective’ and ‘The Right to the City – Civil Perspective’ the event enabled both lively discussions and the way forward based on the participant’s feedback.