Alexandria’s Strategy for Sustainable Development

In March 2004, the City of Alexandria received a grant from the Cities Alliance Program to formulate a long-term City Development Strategy (CDS) through a broad-based participatory process, with assistance from the Cities Alliance and World Bank. The CDS would build on the city’s many significant endowments including active private sector, vibrant manufacturing sector, Bibliotheca Alexandrina and unique cultural heritage; assets that make Alexandria a city of multiple civilization and religion across history. “Among the top priorities identified by the Governorate stakeholders was the need to develop a long-term Local Economic Development (LED) strategy that would capitalize on the city’s competitive advantages and promote an enabling local business environment to attract investments and contribute to job creation and economic growth. Another priority was the necessity to develop a city-wide urban upgrading strategy as well as an environmental rehabilitation and redevelopment plan for Lake Mariout and its surrounding underutilized land within a sustainable development framework”, said H.E. Adel Labib, Governor of Alexandria. “We wanted the CDS to include specific measures to improve the living conditions of residents, prevent further deterioration at the Lake, while improving the municipal capacity to deliver services and better manage our local assets”, he added.

A local CDS team headed by the Secretary General was established and very well structured, including senior municipal officials and directors of line-ministries concerned. The Governor of Alexandria invited a selected number of University academics, NGOs and prominent businessmen to be included formally in the CDS team. A partnership forum was established and stakeholder consultation workshops have been held regularly since then. “The objective of the CDS is to build consensus among the city main stakeholders to come up with a shared vision of the city development through two-way information sharing between the technical experts and city stakeholders” Said H.E. Adel Labib, Governor of Alexandria Governorate. 

Due to the size of squatter settlements in Alexandria and the urgency to immediately start a socioeconomic development program, urban upgrading is receiving special attention. Nag Al Arab, one of the 30 squatter settlements in Alexandria, accommodates about 16,000 inhabitants, crammed at a density of 740 persons per hectare. The land where people constructed their houses is State-owned, which poses a critical problem in terms of ownership and, to a lesser extent, tenure security. Streets are so narrow that the private operator of solid waste collection and management cannot service the area, resulting in health hazards. Nag Al Arab has electricity, piped water and sanitation though in poor shape. The settlement has no schools, primary health care unit, post office or youth center. The illiteracy rate is high; 30% of the population and unemployment reaches up to 17-20%, according to social surveys conducted under the CDS framework. Some women sitting in front of their little shops and kiosks said: “our adult children do not have jobs, even those who went to school. They have nothing to do but to hang around doing nothing”. There are some informal small and micro enterprises in the settlement, while children collect empty tins and used bottles on their bicycles or little carts to get them recycled. “The area also has several underutilized skilled laborers and assets”, said the Secretary General. Moustafa, an iron worker in a small handicraft workshop has high technical skills and produces very fine iron works. Yet he explains: “I cannot produce too many pieces as I do not know where to sell my products. People from the settlement cannot afford to buy such pieces of work. I have to find some clients outside the settlement through word of mouth”. Most of the people in Nag Al Arab used to work as fishermen as the settlement stretches east of the Lake. “But due to increased industrial pollution in the Lake during the past decade, the fish productivity decreased by more than half and several people had to give up”, said Dr Shaker Helmy, Environmentalist. Although Nag Al Arab lies in the West District where several textile, soap and wood factories are located, most dwellers in the settlement do not have the skills to work in such industries. Such a situation deprives the city from great potential human resources which could otherwise support the city’s economic development. 

Under the CDS, a team researched Nag Al Arab’s infrastructures and socio-economic conditions along with other settlements in the city. "To achieve a meaningful change in the lives of the poor, we always seek the natural leaders of any community. This is our starting point", said the Secretary General. The CDS team identified, through a broad consultation with the inhabitants and community leaders, the main priorities to be addressed in order to improve the living conditions of the people. Among the top priorities, the population requested an employment generation program and a health care unit. As a quick-win measure under the CDS process, the Governorate secured financial resources from the German Cooperation (GTZ) and the World Health organization (WHO) to construct and equip a Community Center, which will comprise a health care clinic, a youth center and a library (implementation is currently underway). “All other priorities identified by the residents will be addressed in the near future as the CDS will be implemented under a new project that we requested from the World Bank”, said H.E. Adel Labib, Governor of Alexandria.

Indeed, strategic planning process and progress made to shape the city's long-term vision and goals encouraged the Government of Egypt to allocate required budget for all high priority investments identified under the Capital Investment Plan. Most investments support the three pillars of the CDS: Local Economic Development, Urban Upgrading of the squatter settlements and Improving of Environment of the Lake Mariout, including redevelopment of vacant lands surrounding the Lake in partnership with the private sector.  The CDS has thus supported economic growth in Alexandria through better management of local assets and benefiting from the city's competitive economic sectors, cultural heritage assets, land and property that can be leased, sold or revitalized into more productive use, and human resources living in squatter settlements.