As part of Studio Urban’s interest in understanding the urban space, so far much research has been conducted on the subjects of urban policies, displacement, public spaces, urban development actors, uneven planning and vulnerable groups in the city. The studio’s current interest is to focus more on how all these various topics affect the city in terms of accessibility, inclusivity and social use. The aim of this collaboration with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) is to focus more on the city residents at the individual level and see how the city of Khartoum can become more just. As a part of this collaboration, Studio Urban is planning on building a project focusing on the issues preventing Khartoum from becoming more just, and what possible solutions can be found to its biggest social problems. The collaboration includes building the project design, goals and timeline, developing 5 policy briefs that explore 5 large topics and how to tackle them, and finally co-organize roundtable discussions around the selected topics with select local stakeholders and groups working in related fields in order to jump-start necessary policy processes and raise awareness of social justice and inclusivity in the Khartoum urban space.
Studio Urban is working on producing five policy briefs to help guide the future planning of the project in collaboration with FES. The following five topics are focused on:
Khartoum Urban Periphery: Toward Local Urban Development Looking at how policies and laws affect access to services and livability in Khartoum Periphery and fair living situations in urban spaces.
Women and public transportation. Taking a closer look at the current situation of public transportation in Khartoum, its main problems, and initiatives to solve mobility problems, with the main focus on women in all those aspects.
Khartoum’s Social Fabric Mapping: Social Data Availability and Accessibility. An overview on the situation of different social data availability for development projects. Looking at issues of accessibility and credibility.
Right to city life. After the 2019 revolution, a great interest in reclaiming public spaces has grown in neighborhoods and different urban sectors. This brief looks at actors in these fields, their current efforts and their focus.
The Governance of Khartoum’s Green Spaces. A look at how the local environment of neighborhoods improves the living quality and how different planning typologies might affect equal access to environmentally sound public spaces.
The research process consisted of desk research, a series of interviews with various actors in government entities, civil society, urban space users, large companies and investors, questionnaires as well as analysing government records.
