Takween’s mission focuses on innovative and concrete solutions that have been researched, tested and implemented to meet the needs of communities and their specific built environments to achieve inclusive urban spaces that will thrive for generations to come. With this mission, Takween aims to improve the quality for inhabitants living in cities across Egypt and the Middle East.
TADAMUN: The Cairo Urban Solidarity Initiative
The TADAMUN Initiative believes that all citizens have an equal right to their city, as well as a shared responsibility towards it. TADAMUN also believes that solidarity among citizens is the only way to achieve social justice and a decent standard of living, particularly for many who have been ignored for too long. Our research results are published in a way that is accessible to the public on our website.
Location:
Greater Cairo Region, Egypt
Duration:
April 2012 - June 2019
Project Partner:
The project was in partnership with the American University (Washington D.C.).
Objective:
The project aims at engagement of different stakeholders in order to achieve sustainable improvements in the built environment of Greater Cairo’s underserved neighborhoods. It concentrates on underserved urban areas in Greater Cairo to strengthen affordable housing, enhance public services, and create more public open community spaces.
Website:
Scope:
In order to achieve our mission, TADAMUN:
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Encourages city inhabitants to demand their urban and environmental rights, a better standard of living, their right to information, and an equitable distribution of public resources and services among different city inhabitants and neighborhoods;
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Supports decision-makers and local administrators to enhance existing urban policies;
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Promotes realistic solutions to urban challenges and more effective, equitable, and sustainable alternatives to current urban management practices;
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Redirects government attention to use public resources to develop existing urban areas where most of our population live, instead of investing in new cities where so few live;
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Supports citizens and residents in finding the information and resources they need to improve their homes and communities;
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Encourages the government to value, recognize, and celebrate the contributions and assets of all areas of the city;
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Disseminates knowledge and lessons learned from sustainable urban development and participatory upgrading experiences so that community participation in urban planning and upgrading processes becomes normalized.
TADAMUN Project activities include the following:
1. Planning (in) Justice:
This project aims to collect and analyze data and increase public awareness regarding the absence of spatial justice in the distribution of public resources between different urban areas. This is in addition to examining the institutional causes that enable this situation in Egypt, with a special focus on the Greater Cairo Region (GCR).
2. Know Your City:
Cairo’s tremendous recent growth has produced a diverse, historic, and dynamic city, yet too many of its neighborhoods remain unknown. TADAMUN seeks to build a more inclusive understanding of the city by profiling Cairo’s neighborhoods, their histories, character, and challenges. By highlighting neighborhoods, we hope to demonstrate how their inhabitants are vital to the Greater Cairo region and have an equal claim to the Right to the City.
3. Urban Initiatives:
These Urban Initiatives highlight participatory development projects in Cairo where residents and government officials work together to address common urban challenges such as enhancing service provision or improving a community’s roads or markets. Here, we tell the stories of community leaders and initiatives so their insights can help others overcome similar challenges.
2. Voices of Cairo:
One of the best ways to learn about the richness of Cairo and its urban challenges is to hear from Cairo’s residents themselves. In this section, we include footage and information from TADAMUN workshops, as well as interviews and commentary from Cairenes about their neighbourhoods.
