Northern Africa cities face a huge urban sprawl and population growth, as well as an increasing urban poverty. Urban Strategic Planning is a methodology which supports these cities in their critical decision making process, through a specific selection of strategic challenges for the sustainable urban development and the implementation of local action plans. STREAM Cities promotes a bottom up approach that develops a strong partnership between the local authority and the local stakeholders.

Problems to be resolved and needs to be met:

• Problem/need: highly centralized systems of urban governance with limited autonomy and accountability. STREAM Cities solution: Decentralisation and better governance - structural dialogue
• Problem/need: Unbalanced exploitation of land, environmental and natural resources. STREAM Cities solution: Environmental issues, addressed and integrated into a development strategy.
• Problem/Need: Training of human resources. STREAM Cities solution: Training Local Administrators in a crucial sector such as urban strategic planning represents an opportunity with many multiplier effects on several urban policies and sectors.
• Problem/need: Unbalanced economic development, disproportionate share of economic activity. STREAM Cities solution: Boosting economic activities, improving competitiveness and employment; encouraging local entrepreneurship focusing on concrete results for a long term success
• Problem/need: Weak participatory approach in decision making. STREAM Cities solution: Enhancement of civil society - This action will give impulsion to local democratic participatory process, with effective involvement of stakeholders. Foster local leadership and accountability of the decision makers