Background:
Tanta is the capital city of Gharbia Governorate and is administratively divided into two districts, each consisting of seven sheikhas. The total population of the city is 424000. Located in the south of the governorate, the city lies on both the Cairo-Alexandria agricultural road and the Cairo-Alexandria railway, 110 km from Cairo and 120 km from Alexandria.
The local authority in Tanta faces several challenges including but not limited to lack of local financial resources, dependence on central governmental fiscal transfer, and a limited number of qualified personnel. This has lead to poor quality service delivery. However, the governorate currently has an active governor who is proactive and expresses willingness to improve the city. There are 9 slums and informal areas in Tanta characterised by insufficient solid waste disposal systems, poor quantity and quality of potable water, a resulting to water canals and drains being polluted by industrial waste and sewage. Further to that is heavy traffic together with the burning of rice stalks and the hazardous waste from hospitals and healthcare units causing air pollution.
Women in slums, such as Tel El-Hadadeenand Ganabia, suffer from violence and a higher crime rate. The aim of RUSPS is to develop formal inter-agency collaboration in order to create a coordination body integrating a wide range of stakeholders in a single response mechanism.

Objectives:
To contribute to urban poverty reduction and policy development in Egypt through an urban sector profile study — a rapid assessment of needs, response mechanisms and capacity gaps — to be addressed at the local, national and regional levels.

Activities:

1. Research on the general background of the urban sector in Tanta, based on the findings of the Tanta assessment report, a desk study, interviews, and a city consultation that was held in Tanta on 30th April 2006. The background includes data on administration, urban planning, economy, informal economy and the private sector, urban poverty, infrastructure, water, sanitation, public transport, street lighting, energy, health and education.
2. A synthesis of the four main areas: - governance, slums, gender, HIV/AIDS and environment — in terms of the institutional set-up, regulatory framework, resource mobilisation and performance. This step highlights agreed priorities and includes a list of identified projects.
3. SWOT analysis and outlining of priority project proposals for each theme. The proposals include beneficiaries, partners, estimated costs, objectives, activities and outputs.

Results:

• Study introduced to stakeholders and TORs tailored to local contexts
• Urban indicators collected, city assessment and profiling completed
• City consultations undertaken by including different stakeholders from all levels of urban society and priorities identified and agreed upon
• Capacity building gaps identified at the local level
• Priorities identified and project proposals formulated

Besides training the Tanta City Council and NGO staff in gender awareness, agreed priorities are support for the local community associations’ to be able to work in the environmental field financed by a percentage of revenues collected from environmental fines as well as providing sewage service to deprived areas and increasing the capacity of wastewater plants.
Furthermore, access to credit and loans to generate new jobs shall be simplified and new businesses and light industries that depend on large numbers of labourers shall be established to improve the economic situation of Tanta.

The published profile can be found under publications. (Link)