Documentary Video for Jordan National Urban Policy Project

UN-Habitat's Strategic Focus in Jordan

UN-Habitat has been operational in Jordan since 2005, cooperating with regional and international organisations, local authorities and civil society organisations, and private sector, to promote the implementation of UN-Habitat global programmes, including the two global campaigns and good urban governance and secure tenure, in the Arab States, as well as  developing information and training packages and awareness building materials on the issues of housing and urban development, and disseminating public information and undertaking other public relation activities within the framework of Habitat agenda. Since July 2013, UN- Habitat Jordan office has been transitioning into a program-oriented office engaging in activities with other UN agencies to support the Government of Jordan nationally and locally in addressing impacts of the Syrian Crisis in urban areas.

In line with Jordan’s priorities 2019-2022 in managing the country’s urban growth and its Vision 2025, the UN-Habitat Regional Office for Arab States, in collaboration with the Regional and Metropolitan Planning Unit at the Urban Planning and Design Branch of UN-Habitat, aims to support the GoJ to initiate the development of a sustainable, inclusive and evidence-based National Urban Policy (NUP) for the country. The Jordan National Urban Policy (JNUP) development process is composed of five overlapping and interrelated phases including the feasibility, diagnostic, formulation, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. Throughout the five stages of the NUP process, three key pillars were considered: inclusive participation, capacity development at all levels, and grounding policy through acupuncture projects, to enable the JNUP to respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by urbanization.

Overall Objective of the JNUP Project 

A national urban policy (NUP) is: “A coherent set of decisions derived through a deliberative, government-led process of coordinating and rallying various actors for a common vision and goal that will promote more transformative, productive, inclusive and resilient urban development for the long term.” (UN-Habitat, 2014).

UN-Habitat is currently launching a project entitled “National Urban Policies in the Arab World”. The project aims to strengthen capacities of policy makers in four selected Arab States including Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco and Sudan for more informed, sustainable and inclusive National Urban Policies (NUP). It works with national, sub-national and local governments to strengthen their policy-making processes while promoting a participatory and inclusive approach.

The main objective of the JNUP programme is to strengthen policy-making capacities in Jordan and promote a participatory and inclusive approach to urbanization with a focus on the evidence-base and accountability aspects. Moreover, the programme’s outreach has a much broader scope that goes beyond building capacities of government authorities (primary beneficiaries). It aims to increase awareness of the country about tools and best practices in NUP making and provides a platform for engagement and interactions among a cross section of stakeholders as well as various levels of government.  A NUP is intended to harness the opportunities and address the challenges of urbanization in the country. It does this by adopting an integrated approach to urban and territorial planning and its management that will lead to improved economic, social, and environmental conditions for communities and their surrounding regions. UN-Habitat promotes the development policies that stimulate the development of cities which are compact, integrated, and connected in order to ensure the urbanization is both sustainable and resilient to climate change.

Following the launch of the NUP development process for Jordan in November 2018 and under the leadership of the NUP consultant, UN Habitat conducted a series of consultation with stakeholders to further the understanding of the context in which the NUP operates. As per the National Urban Policy Guiding Framework, the diagnosis report for Jordan was developed in 2019 around three key thematic areas: urban legislation, urban economy, and urban planning and design. In addition to these areas, the Jordan National Urban Policy (JNUP) diagnosis phase also included a section dedicated for addressing pandemics in NUPs in response to the global crisis of COVID-19.

The process also included the establishment of technical and steering committees chaired by the Ministry of Local Administration (MoLA) to provide guidance and support to the NUP development process. Besides, a national tailored training was carried on October, 2019 out for the technical committee members and urban stakeholders to discuss the preliminary findings of the diagnosis undertaken for the NUP, to achieve a consensus on the objectives of JNUP and to identify the key urban priorities. Followed by, virtual workshops and focus group meetings which were conducted during the year 2020 for the technical committee and other members to present the findings of the diagnosis phase, in addition to the proposed methodology of formulating the JNUP, challenges, opportunities, and recommendations.

Based on the collected evidence, the definition of the policy problem and goal to be attained, the JNUP was formulated to act as a guide for the policy, and state why the policy should be undertaken, and how it should be done. This JNUP stimulates the development of cities which are compact, integrated and connected in order to ensure sustainable and resilient urbanization.

As part of the project, UN-Habitat is seeking to recruit a video company to prepare a documentary about the JNUP. The documentary should depict current urban challenges in Jordan; the experiences and lessons learnt throughout the project; and summarise the policy proposal based on the 4 aforementioned thematic areas and the identified sectors that include housing, infrastructure and basic services, transportation, urban economy, urban institutionalisation, urban agriculture, rural urban linkages, urban mobility, and the urban fabric of the country, etc.

Duties and Responsibilities 

The company will be specifically expected to deliver a 5 minutes documentary that highlights the Jordan National Urban Policy and its objectives. The company should consider the following:

• Footages from three Jordan governorates including Amman, one north and one south governorates, which will be determined later along with the video company.Video shooting will be in different locations within the selected governorates including (urban areas, rural areas, reserves plus any additional locations that might be identified at a later stage) and will translate urban challenges identified in the JNUP diagnosis report in these locations, the experiences and lessons learnt throughout the project, and the proposed policy options based on the four aforementioned thematic areas in the JNUP highlighting the identified sectors including housing, infrastructure and basic services, transportation, urban economy, urban institutionalization, urban agriculture, rural urban linkages, urban mobility, and the urban fabric of the country, etc.
• Footages for all locations must be done by regular and drone cameras.
• 30- 50 still images (photos) per governorate from the selected locations.
• Animation works for maps and infographics for data provided by UN Habitat.
• 3 interviews with selected stakeholders
• Meeting and workshops’ photos that will be provided by UN Habitat.
• Voice over in Arabic. The narrative (script) will be provided by UN Habitat.
• English Subtitles.
• Background music.
• The company should provide a workplan (timetable) for the requested work.
• The company should provide a detailed budget (breakdown)
• The company must take care of any authorization/authority approval needed to perform their work (UN-Habitat can help with the required official letters)
• All footages (video/photo) captured during this project are the soul property of UN-Habitat and must be delivered to UN-Habitat along with the final video made by the company. These materials should not be used by the company or shared with any third party at a later stage without a written consent from UN-Habitat.

Full details about the main tasks and expected deliverables are indicated in the attached Terms of Reference (ToR), which constitutes an integral part of this RFQ