A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was recently signed by AUDI / the MENA CPI, and the Municipality of Greater Amman in the framework of their collaboration on issues of children’s needs and interests.  Being financed by  the World Bank and hosted by  AUDI,  the MENA CPI has supported the Municipality of Greater Amman with the sum of two hundred and thirty thousand US Dollars.  Such material and logistic support of Amman Municipality falls within the framework of CPI support of Arab cities, with the aim to contribute to building the capacities of local administrations in the MENA region.   The  support of  Amman Municipality  is intended to cover,  in part,  the budget proposed by  Amman Municipality for the implementation of child and youth oriented programmes and projects,   the costs of which are estimated at one Million Jordanian Dinars (around one Million-four-hundred-thousand US Dollars),   to cover the activities to be executed in the course of  2006.

This financial aid falls within the framework of the MENACPI programme as a regional programme hosted by AUDI and financed by the World Bank and other donors,   with the aim to build a knowledge base on the needs and protection of urban children,   support the efforts of local administrations in the protection of children, and activate their role in the protection of vulnerable children. This financial support also falls within AUDI programmes, the scientific and technical arm of the Arab Towns Organization, whose concerns include all sectors of Arab cities and whose goals are:  the promotion of municipal services in Arab cities, by means of providing technical support to local Arab administrations, upgrading local administrations by means of replicating regional and international models and expertise in Arab administrations.  The CPI support of Amman Municipality comes as a reward  of the longstanding efforts  deployed by the Municipality of Greater Amman on children and youth issues, an instance of which is its establishment of  the “Executive Committee of Amman,  the Child-Friendly-City”,  monitored directly by His Excellency the Mayor of Greater Amman. This institution is concerned with planning, the implementation and follow up of children’s issues within the framework of Amman Municipality, the estimated costs of which are already established.

The MENA CPI and the Municipality of Greater Amman aims for the realization of the following objectives :

a.        Support the considerable efforts of the Municipality of Greater Amman, with the aim to promote the status of children to the interest of the welfare of children .

b.       Support the Municipality of Greater Amman in the implementation of its policy and priorities, with the aim to make of Amman a ‘Child-Freindly-City’, in which children and youth would have access to all their rights and to more convenient living conditions.

c.        Work towards the integration of children’s priorities and needs in the city developments strategy undertaken by Amman.  This strategy is currently being discussed and is supported by AUDI,  the World Bank,  as well as City Alliance.

d.       Benefit from regional and international experiences and successful practices by replicating them in Arab cities, and derive lessons from them .

e.        Work towards a widening of the scope of the participatin of children in the administration of issues that directly involve them.

The CPI works towards the implementation of its sponsorship programme (which includes material and logistic support),  by focusing on bringing material support to the Arab cities most affected by poverty,  the dissolution of family ties,  and the scarcity of educational and health services.   A MOU has been signed lately (mid march, 2006) with the local administration of Khartoum and another two MOUs with Sana’a, Alexandria are under the process. The CPI aims for providing technical and logistic support to all MENA cities, with the view to help local administrations focus their efforts and interests on children and children’s rights, issues that we consider to be of high priority in all development   strategies and programmes in MENA cities, across the region .