Informal Street Markets in Egypt, DAAD, 1 September - 31 December 2021
Prof. Dr. Philipp Misselwitz, Prof. Dr. Elke Beyer, Dr.-Ing. Hassan Elmouelhi

Informal Street Markets in Egypt
Towards Good Governance for Informal Street Markets in Egypt – Practice-oriented Approach

Street markets are considered a vital part of the local economy, significant business incubators, and a survival source of income for many citizens. Moreover, they significantly influence people’s daily lives as public spaces for social interaction. However, according to the informal settlements development fund (ISDF), around 1088 street markets in Egypt are informally operated. For the period from September till December 2021, this project aims at introducing practice-oriented teaching with regards to the Urban informality topic and exploring the urban good governance and the situation of the informal street markets in Egypt. It intends to build a cooperation between academia and practice: the university (Kafr El Sheikh university, department of architecture), and the governmental authorities such as the ISDF, and Kafr El Sheikh governorate, and national research centres such as UTI-HBRC. in dealing with the issue of the informal street markets, in particular, “Met Elwan” street market in Kafr El Sheikh city as a case study. This market is chosen based on the recommendation of the informal settlements development fund (ISDF), as a potential street market for development.

This project will include two workshops. The first workshop is proposed to be in the form of academic -experts workshop to analyse the informal street markets situation in Egypt, regarding the legal framework, the involved stakeholders, the governmental development process, and to reach guidelines for the design process and the governance system. Moreover, German street markets examples are to be presented as benchmarks. In addition, the second workshop focuses on the practical fieldwork as The Egyptian and German students and participants will be involved in the assessment for the current situation of this informal street market regarding the urban condition, services, public spaces, in addition to the legal, social and economic conditions. The fieldwork will include site visits, interviews, participatory process and the analysis findings can support the decision-making process regarding the development and upgrading.

This project will be a complementary and follow-up activity to the previous project of “Delta city planning: Global issues, local actions. Urban planning education in Delta – Interdisciplinary practice-oriented approach for local regional urban development” project, conducted by the Urban Development department (TU Berlin Campus El Gouna), funded by DAAD, from October till December 2020, and based on the master thesis “Towards Good Governance for street markets in Egypt” by Hellen Aziz, the master student at TU Berlin Campus El Gouna.