December 7, the International Growth Centre (IGC) in partnership with Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) co-hosted a webinar titled Amman’s COVID-19 urban response: Lessons and Outlook. The webinar examined the response of Amman to the spread of COVID-19 and provided academic evidence on the role of planning for urban resilience. In addition, speakers interacted with attendees to discuss the challenges and opportunities for recovery in Amman.

Patrick Lamson-Hall from New York University emphasized that density does not directly impact COVID-19 transmission. Cities that are denser have not been shown to have higher COVID-19 incidence than cities that are less dense once city size is controled. The relationship between density and COVID-19 transmission is tied to crowding.

Eng. Nuha Qteish, Executive Director of Planning at GAM, reviewed the results from the report on the institutional performance and city’s resilience that discusses the key measures taken by GAM in response to the health crisis as well as the city’s status as the pandemic evolved.

Dr. Fuad Malkawi, Senior Urban Development Specialist at the World Bank, provided an analysis about how the urban challenges for Amman cited in previous urban plans remain persistent and unaddressed. Finally, Sandra Hiari, the moderator and IGC’s Advisor for Jordan invited the speakers to consider how a city like Amman can best allocate its urban growth in the center or the periphery.

For more information about the IGC’s country programmes in Jordan: click here. 

About the International Growth Centre
The IGC aims to promote sustainable growth in developing countries by providing demand-led policy advice based on frontier research. The IGC directs a global network of world-leading researchers and in-country teams in Africa and South Asia and works closely with partner governments to generate high-quality research and policy advice on key growth challenges. Based at LSE and in partnership with the University of Oxford, the IGC is majority funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)