Bahrain’s Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) held a a workshop on human settlement measurement and methodologies, which is an integral part of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 11 that aims at making cities and communities safe and sustainable.
According to the Bahrain News Agency, the workshop was held in cooperation with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with the participation of statisticians from iGA’s SDGs unit and its Geographic Information System (GIS) specialists.
Representatives from the Bahrain Ministry of Housing; the Ministry of Works, Municipalities and Urban Planning; the Survey and Land Registration Bureau (SLRB); the Urban Planning and Development Authority; and the Supreme Council for Environment also attended the event.
The four-day workshop focused on the participants’ ability to use spatial data and GIS platforms. It emphasised statistical capabilities, and reinforced the abilities of national statistical offices and local observatories to collect, analyze, and prepare reports on SDG Goal 11 and its indicators.
Participants also took part in indicators-related training such as measurements on the percentage of the population living in decent housing conditions, and the percentage of civil society’s participation in the implementation and evaluation of urban policies.
The workshop also helped participants create a roadmap to collect indicators and measurements on interspaces and open areas during different time periods, which are used to calculate urban development and land consumption.
