Recently the Bahrain National Urban Observatory has been established. The obvious choice for anchoring the Bahrain National Urban Observatory is the Bahrain Urban Indicator Programme. The activities that BUIP is currently undertaking and will in the future undertake are very much in support of the activities the National Urban observatory could and should be doing. For a complete overview on the Global Urban Indicator System check also the UNCHS Urban Observatory website (www.urbanobservatory.org).

The Bahrain Urban Indicator Programme will function as the secretariat of the National Urban Observatory and will over the coming period support the establishment of a full fledged National Urban Observatory through the forming of a broad based National Urban Observatory Committee, the preparation of a workplan, the preparation of a yearly budget and the identification of financial resources.

Some of the activities of the Bahrain Urban Observatory could include:

• To involve local policy-makers and organizations of civil society in dialogue
• To generate information on local themes and problems
• To encourage policy responses to locally felt needs and priorities

As a platform for policy information, the National Urban observatory could:

• Work with partner groups to develop and apply appropriate indicators, indices and evaluation mechanisms for the urban area and its communities
• Maintain management information systems and undertake evaluations and impact analyses at the request of authorities and partners groups
• Build capacity for the generation, management, analysis and dissemination of urban information, including empirical information, on a regular and consistent basis and to apply the information in decision-making
• Identify conditions, trends and priority issues through research and consultative processes involving local officials and organizations of civil society
• Propose options for harmonizing sectoral policies and strategies in the context of the local plan of action
• Cooperate with other Urban Observatories in sharing resources, exchanging substantive and methodological knowledge and disseminating information to the national, regional and global levels
• Assist local urban observatories in developing their capacity to collect and use urban indicators
• Analyze and share lessons learned from ongoing experiences and good practices with other Urban Observatories
• Maintain a local Internet homepage and a newsletter for providing civic society with information on the city and for reporting on activities of the BUO and its partner groups
• Produce a biennial State of the City report, including comparative analysis of indicators and presentation of best practices
  
  

The above mentioned list is not compulsory, not a list of what should be done but more what could be done. The choice all depend on what is felt urgent to deal with.