We are happy to share some moments of the two-day event “Hope 2023: Housing, People and the Environment”, held last week at Oman National Museum. HOPE is an initiative supported by GUTech, Oman, Oman National Museum, Ministry of Health, World Health Organization, Bashkia Tirane, Albania, seeks to nurture dialogue between scholars, planners and decision-makers with civil society and industry in the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA) to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda beginning in Oman.
On the 30th of January 2023, we had a series of talks in the presence of a group of officials, academics, researchers, students at colleges and universities, and those interested in transforming cities in order to a better and healthier future for all, inside and outside the Sultanate of Oman.
The talks aimed to provide an opportunity for prominent national and international speakers and policy makers to discuss practical tools to transform our cities to be more sustainable, resilient, healthy and safe. We had the pleasure of hearing a keynote from distinguished Prof. Billie Giles -Corti, a Researcher and Director of the Healthy and Livable Cities Laboratory at (RMIT) University. It was followed by a talk by Mr. Erion Veliaj, The Mayor of Tirana, Albania who discussed governance challenges for implementing urban regeneration and people centered development in urban areas.
That was followed by a discussion panel mediated by Mrs. Ruth Mabry, Global Health Consultant, about the available methods to improve environmental qualities to transform cities, and monofunctional residential neighborhoods, in particular, into active and more livable places. The following were the speakers which took part in the panel: Prof. Stefan Devoldere, dean of the Architecture Department at Hasselt University in Belgium and Head of Stadsatelier, Dr.Huda Al Siyabi, Director of Community Initiatives at the Ministry of Health, Mrs. Maryam Al Sharji, Director of Real Estate Development Department at Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning and Mrs. Fathyia Al Azri, Civil Engineer representing Muscat Municipality.
For more information, please visit the official website https://mena-hope.com/ that is being regularly updated with the latest news.
