Project Document >> Project Justification

Expected 'End of Project' situation

As a result of the project a dynamic, collaborative Bahrain Urban Indicators Programme (B.U.I.P) will be operational, that is capable of providing the values for initially the key urban indicators as specified the Global Urban Indicator programme to allow for global comparison plus the base of information for informed participatory decision making processes on issues effecting Urban Quality of Life at a national and subnational level in Bahrain.

To this end a set of key Urban Indicators will have been identified and tested, based on the UNCHS list of key and extensive urban indicators. These indicators will allow for the inclusion of Bahrain as one of the countries participating in the Global Urban Indicators programme and also be capable of measuring the performance of Bahrain at national and subnational level towards the goal of Sustainable Human Settlements Development.

The Bahrain list of key Urban Indicators will take as a starting point the general list of the key Habitat Indicators and complement these with Bahrain-specific urban indicators, based on the user needs of Bahrain's stakeholders especially at the national and subnational level . The applicable data sources for the selected indicators will have been identified and methodologies for collection will have been developed and tested.

Towards the end of the project a second pillar will be in place. This pillar will consist of a well-developed, realistic and implementable capacity building programme for key stakeholders in Bahrain, which has been tested. The programme will build on the existing capacity within Bahrain and foster new and innovative approaches for improvement of data collection and management, data analysis and presentation and application of indicators to policy and planning processes based on participatory principals. The capacity building programme will incorporate options offered by the information technology.

Figure 3: Activity Flow and Outcome

Based on this solid base the programme will provide relevant stakeholders a permanent data-collection facility and database that will permit regular analysis of the status of human settlements and the effects of policies in the different urban sectors.

One of the first 'products' of the Bahrain Urban Indicators Programme will be the real values of the key and other selected urban indicators. These indicator values will form an important input for the report on the state of the urban areas in Bahrain. This report will allow, when done over a sequence of years, for an assessment of the progress Bahrain is making towards Sustainable Human Settlement Development and the improvement of the Urban Quality of Life. The report might include a section on good practices.

Relevant information including 'State of City' reports, related articles, description of Best Practices, summaries of urban indicator databases, etc., will be published both as hard-copy and on the Internet and through this will be accessible to any interested party including the civil society.