Background and objectives:

Under the joint management of a national project manager from the Urban Planning Agency (UPA) and an international project coordinator from UN-HABITAT, Libyan planners and technicians are engaged, trained and guided to perform their duties. This project focuses on the institutional development and capacity building of the Urban Planning Agency. The objectives are to:

• Support the process of implementation of the third planning phase.
• Support the creation of information centres and
• Develop the institutional capacity of the UPA and train its staff.

Activities:
The main activities include:

• Evaluating the 1996–2020 draft National Physical Planning Policy (NPPP) and production of final 2000–2020 NPPP 
• Setting-up operational geographic information management systems (GIS) in the UPA main office and familiarizing the staff with the equipment
• Setting up evaluation teams for regional and urban plans;
• Advising on urban planning approaches utilizing participatory decision making and planning techniques suitable for regional, sub-regional and urban planning
• Undertake study tours to best practices.

Results:
The results so far have included:

• Progress in all project activities 
• UN-HABITAT providing support to UPA to manage the Third Generation project.  
• UPA staff members trained in IT in Egypt.
• UPA organize international conference on Urban Planning and launch a new post-graduate, multi-sectoral diploma course in collaboration with international universities to strengthen capacities and ensure sustainability of training.
• UPA produce four regional and 18 sub-regional plans and initiate preparation of urban plans.