BOX 3.
URBAN MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME/ARAB STATES REGIONAL (UMP/ASR)

Over the last ten years, the Urban Management Programme (UMP) has grown into a major initiative of the United Nations family of organizations and other external support agencies with the objective of strengthening the contribution that cities and towns in developing countries make towards human development, including economic growth, social development and the alleviation of poverty. UMP is operational in Africa, the Arab States, Asia, and Latin America. Its capacity-development strategy is carried out through city and country consultations based on a participatory structure that draws upon the strength of developing country experts and by expediting the dissemination of best practices at the local, national and regional levels.

UMP in the Arab States is a model case on how to institutionally anchor a global programme at the local, national and regional levels. This success is attributed to the foresighted leadership of the programme coordinator, who decided early on that the programme must be locally driven and that UMP/ASR does not have to focus on issues identified by the core team that may or may not be compatible with priority areas identified by the Arab States themselves.

-Selection of a competent coordinator. The success of the UMP/ASR is partly attributed to the dedication of the coordinator, who spent several months doing preparatory work to select a high-quality country panel of experts and to identify country and regional priorities in the seven programme countries. The advance work helped to shape both the content of the programme and the composition of the country and regional panels which now constitute the building blocks of the delivery mechanism of the programme.

-Work with an indigenous firm. Unlike the other UMP regional offices, the activities of UMP/ASR are carried out by a well-known Egyptian consulting firm, Environmental Quality International (EQI). The regional office has a distinct advantage in that there is an administrative agreement between UMP/UNCHS and EQI and the regional office simply acts as a facilitator rather than a direct service provider. The regional coordinator is also the head of the consulting firm. EQI, with 90 employees, has an excellent track record in managing and monitoring of projects worth millions of dollars. It is set up to account for people's time, to process forms and requests, to see that payments are made on time. This is a tremendous advantage to UMP. On the other hand, the United Nations as a public institution is very bureaucratic and this has created some administrative problems for both organizations.

-Synergy between country and regional panels. While country panels constitute the building blocks of the delivery mechanism, regional panels consist of two members from each country panel. They meet on a yearly basis to review UMP regional and country-based activities as well as provide guidance for future activities. Information-sharing and dissemination within the region are thus easily facilitated by the way the panels have been organized and constituted. Both the regional and country panels are assisted by seven panels of professional experts covering each of UMP's specific components. The expert panels become a resource base that country panels can draw upon for assistance.

-Regional support office. EQI functions as a technical secretariat for both country and regional panels. UMP/ASR is very often sustained by resources and facilities of EQI that offer a net gain to UMP in terms of resource availability. At present, after the completion of the anchoring process, the Regional Support Office is engaged in the development of sustainability strategies. This delivery mechanism has enabled UMP/ASR to be anchored in the seven countries it covers in the region (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen).

-Gender as a priority area. Of the five UMP regions, the UMP/ASR has been more successful than any other when it comes to the integration of women into the country and programme activities to the point that it has become a priority theme. UMP/ASR works very closely with the Women in Human Settlements Development Office of UNCHS (Habitat) and regularly secures the services of that office to conduct gender training in the seven programme countries. In addition, half of the panel members and half of the coordinators are women.

-Awareness creation through mass media. The UMP/ASR's effort to mobilize mass media as a way to sensitize, develop and increase public awareness about urban issues (e.g., environment) has been one of the most successful characteristics of the regional strategy. It is the only regional programme that has developed an in-country information programme in the seven countries plus the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Increasing gender awareness figures among the core activities of the information office.

-Willingness to collaborate with other United Nations agencies. UMP/ASR has taken a pragmatic approach on how to maximize its limited resources by collaborating with other donors and United Nations agencies working the urban field. Cooperation between the Local Initiative Facility for Urban Environment (LIFE) programme and UMP/ASR has taken place in Lebanon although a lot more needs to be done in the future. UMP/ASR has been able to share the results of its highly successful small-scale enterprise in solid waste collection and recycling project in Egypt with the Mega-Cities Project.

UMP/ASR is now concentrating its effort on designing self-supporting activities. Country panels are shying away from the traditional thematic concepts developed by the core team in Nairobi and instead offer the Government and the municipalities demand-driven services that they are willing and able to sustain financially. This programme is working hard to expand the scope of private-sector participation in service delivery.