International Summer School on Addressing the Urbanization Challenge, 15 May - 8 June 2017, Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, Israel

About the Course Background

Cities are currently home to majority of the world's population. Over the next 30 years most of the two- billion-plus person increase in global population is expected to occur in urban areas in the developing world. If well managed, cities offer opportunities for economic and social development. Cities have always been focal points for economic growth, innovation, and employment. Cities are also centers of modern living, where indicators of general health and wellbeing, literacy, women's status, and social mobility are typically highest. While cities command an increasingly dominant role in the global economy, rapid urban growth throughout the developing world is seriously outstripping the capacity of most cities to provide adequate services for their citizens. Of particular concern are the risks to the immediate and surrounding environment, to natural resources, to health conditions, to social cohesion, and to individual rights. For many observers, however, the greatest concern is surely the massive increase in the numbers of the urban poor. Many of these urban poor are living in informal settlements made up of informal housing, often called slums. According to UN-Habitat, there are 823 million people living in slums worldwide. An estimated 72% of the urban population of Africa now lives in slums. The proportion is 43% for Asia and the Pacific, 32% for Latin America, and 30% for the Middle East and Northern Africa.

Application Requirements

The training targets highly motivated decision makers, policy makers and professionals from the fields of urban planning, architecture, engineering, economics, community work, administration, working in government ministries (such as local government, housing, development, welfare, health and others), in local authorities, NGOs and CBOs active in the field, as well as business organizations and academic institutions engaged with urban revitalization and slum upgrading programs.

Application forms

Application forms (download) and other information may be obtained at the nearest Israeli mission or at MASHAV’s website.
The completed forms (including health certificate, declaration etc.) should be submitted in WORD documents to the relevant Israeli mission in your area and sent to our office (ronit@weitz-center.org) no later than the morning of March 10th, 2017. Candidates must also hand in a passport photo by electronic file.

General Information

Arrival and Departure

• Arrival date: May 14 afternoon - 15, 2017
• Opening date: May 15, 2017
• Closing date: June 7, 2017
• Departure date: June 8, 2017 morning

Participants must arrive at the training center on the arrival date, and leave on the departure date. Early arrivals/late departures if required, must be arranged by the participants themselves, directly with the hotel/center, and must be paid for by the participant him/herself.

About MASHAV

MASHAV – Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation is dedicated to providing developing countries with the best of Israel’s experience in development and planning. As a member of the family of nations, The State of Israel is committed to fulfilling its responsibility to contribute to the fight against poverty and to the global efforts to achieve sustainable development. MASHAV, representing Israel and its people, focuses its efforts on capacity building, sharing relevant expertise accumulated during Israel's own development experience to empower governments, communities and individuals to improve their own lives. MASHAV’s approach is to ensure social, economic and environmental sustainable development, and is taking active part in the international community’s process of shaping the Post-2015 Agenda, to define the new set of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

MASHAV’s activities focus primarily on areas in which Israel has a competitive advantage, including agriculture and rural development; water resources management; entrepreneurship and innovation; community development; medicine and public health, empowerment of women and education. Professional programs are based on a “train the trainers” approach to institutional and human capacity building, and are conducted both in Israel and abroad. Project development is supported by the seconding of short and long-term experts, as well as on-site interventions. Since its establishment, MASHAV has promoted the centrality of human resource enrichment and institutional capacity building in the development process – an approach which has attained global consensus.