The Urban Poverty and Environment Program Initiative (UPE) of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) announced the selection of the three cities in the Focus Cities Research Initiative in North Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The strategy of the Focus Cities Research Initiative is to advance awareness, policy options, and best practices for the reduction of environmental burdens in urban slums through in-depth participatory research with multistakeholder city teams involving local government authorities, research institutions, and community organizations. UPE has now a total of height Focus cities teams.

During the next four years, City Teams in Cochabamba (Bolivia), Lima (Peru), and Ariana-Soukra (Tunisia), will each receive funding of up to CA $1.2 million for innovative projects linking urban poverty alleviation, environmental management, and natural resource use for food, water, and income security.

The name of the project to be implemented in Tunisia is Improving Socio-economic conditions for integrated water and soil management for urban agriculture in poor neighbourhoods of Ariana-Soukra. The Ariana-Soukra City Team is led by the UNESCO/ALECSO Association on Knowledge and Sustainable Development (Club UNESCO/ALECSO Savoir et Développement Durable (CUA-SDD)). It will focus on wastewater use in urban agriculture. The project also aims to improve livelihoods through the creation of small and medium agricultural enterprises.