Amman, The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM), in cooperation with the United Nations Human Settlement Program (UN-Habitat) and partnership with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), on Thursday held a workshop on incorporating community farming concepts into urban planning.
The workshop falls under UN-Habitat’s regional project: “Inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable development in urban areas hosting Syrian refugees in Jordan and Turkey.” It highlighted urban agriculture’s role in achieving food security and social cohesion, facing difficult economic and social conditions, and adapting to climate change.
Executive Director of Engineering at GAM, Nima Qatanani, said the workshop will help build GAM staff capabilities in handling topics related to green infrastructure and environment-based solutions to achieve urban resilience.
The project’s manager at UN-Habitat, Lubna Shaheen, emphasized the significance of the initiative in advancing efforts toward multifunctional green infrastructure to improve social cohesion and adaptation to urban climate change as well as provide vocational training for refugees and the host community. The project will also improve the capacities of nations and cities and their social and environmental sustainability, she added.
The project’s first phase has been completed, and several members of the local community have received training on how to make fertilizers and use them in urban agriculture, according to Rasha Al Shawarbeh, manager of Queen Rania Al Abdullah Park, where the project is being carried out.
Source: Jordan News Agency