Med Pact

The Project Coordinator together with members of the Scientific Committee visited Sin El Fil October 12-15th 2009 and Marrakesh on December 1-4 in order to plan for the last stretch of activities ..

GUIFORMED

GUIFORMED project (GATAB, Turkey) has been struggling with the process of data collection from its partners in Germany, Greece, Tunisia Lebanon and Turkey..

SHAMS

SHAMS has completed most of its planned activities in Tunisia and Morocco and is planning to finish its activities in Bosra – Syria by June 2010 ...

APUDUI

APUDUI is continuing its remarkable work in assisting the Urban Community of Annaba in Algeria in establishing an urban planning and development agency ...

Workplan for the coming period

Activity 5 Experimental Learning shared (November 2007-January 2008):

ACTIVITY 5’S RESULTS: Terms of reference and guidelines for the institutional assessment will be elaborated;
Municipality assessments of the institutional framework will be completed;
A number a good practices gathered and systemised based on the topics identified by the Working Groups;
A number of good practices deeply studied;
Benchmarking on Local Sustainable Development-policy system will be constructed;
A Final report elaborated by each Working Group containing the results achieved.

Activity 6 Pilot Projects drafting - City-to-City Partnerships identified (February-May 2008):

ACTIVITY 6’s RESULTS: at least 3 Pilot Projects identified in the Mediterranean partner countries  ;
At least 4 thematic city-to-city partnerships set up;
At least 4 thematic meetings held according to city-to-city partnerships;
At least 4 city-to-city agreements to be signed;
Action Plan for the preparatory activities for the implementation of the pilot project defined.

Project Plan (PHASE TWO - THIRD SEMESTER)

November 2007

Project leader:                 Municipality of Prato
Project co-leader:           City of Marrakech
Partners of the project:   Municipalities of Sin El Fil, Bodrum, Brtonigla, Lucca, Rio Marina and the City of Skopje

1. INTRODUCTION

This plan refers to the third semester of project implementation. The third semester starts on the 20th November 2007 and it ends on 19th May 2008. As soon as partners will explicitly validate all priorities and choices the plan will become definitive and complete with the whole project action plan of the Second Year (21 November 2007-20 November 2008).
Some of the details concerning the implementation of Task 5.4.”Exchange of Experiences” between the European and the MEDA Partners need still to be defined in detail, therefore the cycle of seminars scheduled and herein included must be considered as provisional.

2. SUGGESTED CHANGES FOR THE APPROVED ACTION PROPOSAL

Given the results and feedbacks obtained during the first year of project implementation, the Project Management and the Scientific Committee suggest that the project approach should slightly change according to the following principles:

Increase as much as possible face-to-face contact (within the assigned budget constrains) of the partners with the Project Management, the Scientific Committee members and in respect to the territorial stakeholders already identified and to be identified during this Second Year of Project implementation;
Keep high project motivation among partners by finalising most tasks in favour of the pilot actions (activity 6) foreseen in the MEDA countries;
reshape slightly the learning approach by placing more focus on capability mobilisation embodied on key people and less on the formal analysis (i.e. benchmarking) of a relevant number of best practices.

The justification of the proposed change is that, in this first year of project implementation all three south-Mediterranean partners have clearly expressed their specific co-operation priorities, while the analysis on the European partners has already estimated the potential in terms of capabilities, know-how and best practices that can be mobilised to meet the priorities expressed by south-European partners.

Consequences of the proposed changes can be summarised as it follows with respect to:

- Activities, tasks and inputs/outputs:
(a) by May 2008 to organise an additional mission to each south-Mediterranean partners to foster the implementation of Task 5.4. (Experience Exchange). During this mission some seminars could be organised and to reinforce the face-to-face contacts, as above, which appear to be essential for an effective interaction in knowledge;
(b) reorganise Task 5.6. (benchmarking policy system which should employ 25 man-days of the Scientific Coordination Committee) so that this task will rather become a support to the MEDA and the European Partners for analytic standardisation and design of an evaluation system to be applied on pilot actions, which may later become good/best practices of the territories and the project alike. As originally planned in the action proposal, this task should consist of benchmarking among already existing and implemented good/best practices, although a significant issue at stake while performing this task is that the number of good/best practices available so far is too limited to perform a sound comparative analysis, though enough for the practical purposes of trans-border co-operation, that is why a mere exercise of benchmarking becomes unfeasible or not relevant within the objectives of this particular Project.

-Budget and Costs: there will be no significant change on the overall budget and its composition by headings, this because the additional mission costs will be financed by project savings on the same budget heading;

- The Logical Framework and the main expected results will not be changed as regards the expected impact on each of the south-Mediterranean territories.

3. ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION

As a whole, Activity 5 “Experimental learning: Municipality internal analysis and exchange of experiences” that has already began in the First Year by establishing the working groups, collecting the partners’ good/best practices and drafting the guidelines regulating the functioning of these working groups.

In terms of tasks the implementation PHASE II - Third Semester of the project can be outlined as follows::

Task 5.2. Coordination of working groups. Implemented by municipality staff, this task refers the overall coordination of the Working Groups (30 man-days for each of the two Working Groups). It already began at the end of the First Year project, however its core will be implemented in the second year. The organisation of mission during this semester and the organisation of the overall meeting in Bodrum or Skopje during the next semester will be important duties, although this task will cover all responsibilities referring to partners coordination, enhancing networking, problem solving in respect to tasks of the Activitiy 5, making sure that time frame is respected.

Task 5.3. Municipality Internal analysis. This task will be finalised around the specific priorities and topics dealt in the working groups; sub-tasks as the collection of data, Institutional analysis and policy options, also the analysis of municipality power, responsibilities, capability will be all targeted to planning and management for sustainable development (Working Group 1) and city marketing (Working Group 2). This analysis will benefit from technical on-field missions in terms of supervision concerning the results obtained, and how research and survey methods were applied; it must be underlined that field mission to the south-Mediterranean municipalities will serve for additional purposes, beyond the technical supervision of task 5.3. Namely, these missions (which see the participation of one external expert and a member of the Scientific Committee and the intense involvement of local staff) also contribute to exchanging experiences (task 5.4.), to designing in-depth analysis (task 5.5.) and to pilot project drafting (task 6.1.).

Missions can be considered as essential to reach the expected results, they help keep the technical standards, they also help ensure an optimal degree of interaction among partners and stakeholders. However, missions for these tasks were not foreseen in the approved and contracted action proposal, neither their cost was included in the budget with respect to travel and per diems expenses. As already mentioned, their cost will be covered by project savings and by the search of lower-cost alternatives for stay and flights.

Task 5.4. Exchange of experiences. This task will be implemented by opting for the solution of face-to-face meetings/seminars, seminars which were not originally foreseen and which will be carried out during the missions mentioned in Task 5.3. Though seminars will be the ‘momentum’ for this task, exchange of experiences will already occur during the preparation of seminars, by making available all material and information in advance, and in the a follow-up. This latter will consist of interactive ‘problem solving’ finalised to the application of knowledge and experiences on the design of task 5.5. (in-depth analysis) and task 6.1. (pilot project drafting).

A provisional list of seminars and meetings is the following:

PERIOD	PLACE	SEMINARS

Beginning April 2008	Sin-El-Fil (Lebanon)	- Youth Development and Local Animation (first day: general practices; second day, cultural events and youth self-employment and professional incubators)

Mid-April 2008	Marrakech (Morocco)	- Sustainable Development and Awareness Building on eco-tourism (first day: general practices and tools; second day: local community-targeted awareness building and sensitisation strategies for eco-responsible tourism)

End-April 2008	Bodrum (Turkey)	- Local Sustainable Development and Public Utilities (first day: projects and practices on sustainable solid waste management; second day: communication, sensitisation and awareness building); - From Beach Tourism to Valorisation of Cultural Heritage: Experiences and Practices of Promotion and Management of Archaeological Sites

Task 5.5. In-depth analyses. When each mission in the south-Mediterranean territories will be completed, the in-depth analysis (carried out by a specialised local external consultant) will be implemented. The design and planning of the in-depth analysis will benefit from the face-to-face contact among local staff, the external consultant and the representative of the Scientific Committee which will keep on supervising and technically supporting the in-depth analysis from Prato. Immediately after the mission, and before the external consultant begin implementing the assessment/analysis, a brief research design will be produced and approved by the whole Scientific Committee to be circulated among the Partners.

4. Activity schedule – 6 months implementation

				2007		2008
Tasks and Activities	Date of beginning	End Date*	Type of human resources	Nov	Dec	Jan	Fev	Mars	Apr	May
ACTIVITY 5
Task 5.2 – Working groups co-ordination	02/11/2007	01/11/2008	Senior Staff
Task 5.3 – Municipality internal analyses	02/12/2007	21/03/2008	Senior internal staff
			External Local Consultants
			Scientific Committee
Task 5.4 - Exchange of experiences	26/03/2008	25/07/2008	Senior internal staff
			Junior internal staff
			Scientific Committee
Task 5.5 – In-depth analyses	02/04/2008	18/07/2008	MEDA external experts
Task 5.5 – In-depth analyses	02/04/2008	18/07/2008	Scientific Committee

* Note: Tasks 5.3; 5.4; 5.5 see their natural end beyond the first 6-months of the Second Year