Madinatuna

Madinatuna or The Aleppo City Development Strategy (Aleppo CDS) is an undertaking in which public, private and civil society actors in Aleppo City work together on finding a shared vision for a better future of the city, and on bringing that vision to reality.

We, at Madinatuna, are all volunteers and we are all residents of Aleppo. We are organized into groups, each group works on a theme, and each group is supported by local and international experts.

We are working on the following seven themes, simultaneously:

• Economy: our goal is to develop the local economy to become more competitive and more adaptive to change, and to provide more jobs.
• Urban form: our goal is to enhance the spatial structure of the city to have more multifunctional open spaces, multiple centers, better mobility, more proximity, and the right density and mixture of uses.
• Informal settlements: our goal is to improve the informal settlements in the city and to minimize their growth in the future
• Services: our goal is to improve urban services delivery
• Environment: our goal is to protect the urban environment
• Youth: our goal is to make the city more children-friendly
• Urban Administration: our goal is to modernize the administration of the Municipality and enhance its fiscal capacity.

Residents have a vested interest in Aleppo city, even if they are not fully aware of it. People want to live in a place that offers them a decent quality of life, job opportunities, good transportation systems, access to services, quality education and health care, entertainment choices, and public spaces for gathering. The Aleppo CDS is about all that! It also gives residents a chance to say what they want. It is a way for them to participate in the process of shaping a strategy for their city and subsequently monitor the government’s progress in achieving that strategy.

We need volunteer residents to participate with us due to the following reasons:

• Searching for as much buy-in as possible is one of our key underlying principles. Community Participation is the master key to that end.
• If people can share in explaining the causes of their problems, they may more readily identify with the solutions.
• Greater participation in the city development process is often accompanied by a greater sense of responsibility and a change in the way residents view their city. Instead of focusing exclusively on what the government is going to do for them, residents work together and share responsibilities to make their city a better place to live.
• We want the Aleppo CDS to be fair (just) to all groups or residents. This will mean participation, negotiation, commitment, and compromise by all stakeholder groups.
• Participation will allow us to have fair, transparent and better informed decision making, and to become more accountable.
• Participation will enhance our reputation with individuals, our partners and other stakeholders.

Everyone can contribute their time, skills and knowledge through volunteer action, and their combined efforts can be a significant force for achieving development and a better future for Aleppo City.

As a Madinatuna volunteer you have the opportunity to create beneficial change and have a positive impact on our lives. Even if your assignment is fairly short, it can have a long-term impact and achieve a ripple effect that extends far beyond the immediate beneficiaries of your efforts.

Your role as a Madinatuna volunteer is that of both facilitator and catalyst. We encourages you to be creative and entrepreneurial in finding ways to develop capacity and to promote and foster volunteerism for development - both within and beyond the formal framework of your assignment.

Ultimately, if development is to be effective and sustainable, the people affected by it must take ownership of its processes and drive them forward. Indeed, our vision can only be reached if Aleppians voluntarily mobilize to achieve it. Your actions as a Madinatuna volunteer can also inspire others to volunteer and to believe that they too can make a contribution towards development.

Our volunteers come from different backgrounds, and thanks to this wide variety of perspectives they bring a range of experiences, expectations and approaches. This diversity gives their work a particular dynamism.

Madinatuna volunteers are thus part of a national, cumulative effort that integrates volunteerism as a core contribution to local development: and the concept of volunteerism for local development is at the core of our mission.

Madinatuna offers you two options to get involved in volunteering:

• Option 1: as a member of “Friends of Medinatouna”. No specific skills required.
• Option 2: as a Professional Volunteer in any of the following themes
  • Local Economy
  • Urban Form
  • Informal Settlements
  • Children & Youth
  • Cultural Development
  • Urban Environment
  • Urban Service Delivery
  • Urban Risk Reduction
  • Administration & Financial Modernisation

Interested volunteers will need to register with us, first. If you are ready to register, please click on the Registration button below, you will find a simple form, kindly fill it up, and please do not register more than once.

By registering, you help us to create a database of volunteers that can be called on to support Madinatuna. We will correspond with you via email soon after you fill up the registration form, and inform you of the next steps.

If you have any questions or require additional information on Madinatuna, please use the contact us form to send us any questions or comments.

• Registration