Heinrich Böll Stiftung (hbs) Wraps Up its Regional Summer School 2018 in Tunis | Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung

On the topic of “Citizen Participation in Urban Sustainable Development”, Heinrich Böll Stiftung (hbs) represented by its offices in Palestine & Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia and Morocco concluded a five-day regional summer school in Tunis, hosted and organized by hbs Tunisia Office.

The event took place between July 15th – 21st, 2018. It brought together 23 environmental activists, architects, artists and young community leaders from the MENA Region and provided them with a platform for capacity building, debate, and the exchange of ideas, opinions and experiences from the region on civil participation and sustainable urban development.

The sessions of the regional school addressed a range of topics such as urban space politics, negligence of urban space & marginalization, citizen participation and organized urban planning. Further topics were initiatives for sustainability, legal challenges and ways of litigation) including litigation to protect the environment), working & negotiating with stakeholders on urban development, and artistic interventions and peaceful resistance for a community catering environment in the urban space.

The event included lectures, debates, and presentations of artistic, architectural, and community based initiatives in the urban space from different countries in the region. It also encompassed an excursion to the the Medina (Old Tunis City) where our participants met with Tunisian artists & activists to learn about their initiatives and exchanged ideas.

The Summer School also helped to create a bond of friendship between the participants, who set up facebook and Whatsapp groups to keep in touch and maintain the professional and personal relationships that were formed in Tunis.

This year’s regional summer school marks the sixth event of its kind organized by Heinrich Böll Stiftung in the MENA Region as part of its Environmental Justice Program. The program promotes networking among civil society actors, researchers, and activists in the region working in the fields of citizen participation and intervention in the urban space, civil society and local governance, sustainable development, gender and environment.