Highlights

His Excellency Mr. Tarek Mahdi, Governor of Alexandria, Egypt, visited the CMI on December 3rd during a trip organized by the City of Marseille as part of the ongoing cooperation between Marseille and Alexandria. He was welcomed in the Villa Valmer by Mourad Ezzine, the CMI Manager.

In a group comprising of: Dominique Rojat, the AFD program coordinator and representative to the Center; Sara Boughedir, Consultant on Cities and Climate Change and Integrated Risk Management; and Hervé Levite, Senior Environment Specialist on the CMI program on Green Growth; His Excellency Tarek Mahdi further discussed ongoing development challenges in Egypt while focusing on the themes around which the CMI operates, including sustainability.

HE Mr. Mahdi discussed the CMI program on Sustainable Transport, focusing on the program's activity for Leaders in Urban Transport Planning (jointly organized by AFD and the World Bank): a capacity building initiative offered in many languages in addition to in French. The Governor expressed interest in joining or sending staff to one of the forthcoming LUTP sessions in Marseille (French) and Singapore (English).

Furthermore, the signing of an MoU on April 15, 2013 by AFD CEO to support Bibalex's Research Center (Bibliotheca Alexandrina) was signaled as a promising area for collaboration. In this vein, a Workshop on Urban Development is to be organized in early 2014, in which the Governor was keen on participating.

His Excellency expressed interest in the existing WB/CMI study on disaster risk management and climate change adaptation in Alexandria, and in particular, what the included vulnerability mapping could provide to the City's Master Plan. It was suggested that further dissemination of this study should be supported.