The project has been working with national and local government to re-channel to the local communities some of the benefits of being in a world heritage site. Interview

Declared a World Cultural Heritage site by UNESCO in 1982, the historic city of Shibam in Hadhramawt in Yemen had been a junction of caravan trade routes since ancient times. Named after King Shibam Bin Harith Ibn Saba who ruled from here, Shibam used to be a major city on the overland spice and incense route.

The present settlement seems to have been established around the third century AD. It has been the commercial and political capital of Hadhramawt many times. Shibam is made up of domestic, commercial, educational, administrative and religious building – a small walled city that is a complete unit in itself. Its unique architectural heritage of 500 mud-brick houses is an extraordinary example of traditional Yemeni building skills. The city’s towering appearance prompted Freya Stark to describe it as "the Manhattan of the desert". A notable feature in the older part of Shibam is the ornamental woodwork of windows and doors.

An urban development plan now aims at Shibam’s preservation and economic self-sufficiency based on the potential and skills of its inhabitants.

An exclusive interview with Mr Omar Abdulaziz Hallaj, teamleader of the Shibam Urban Development Project.

Your Project has been just awarded the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture. How was the news received, what does the award mean for your project?

Our approach to preserve the city through economic and community development was not well understood by many in the preservation professional field. The field is dominated by technical expertise that often concentrates on narrow conservation issues. The Award will highlight and provide a justification for our approach and propagate it to the professional world. We in the project as well as the people of Shibam are very proud and this has only made us more determined to continue our work.

What is the objective and aim of Shibam Urban Development project?
The basic philosophy of the project is very simple. It aims at empowering communities to preserve their heritage and reap the benefits of living in a heritage site. Heritage sites are national assets, but the local communities hardly ever see the rewards of living in such a site. Often they are overburdened with increased costs of marinating their housing stock, being denied development rights, and are restricted in the way they can use their property. The project has been working with national and local government to re-channel to the local communities some of the benefits of being in a world heritage site.

Can you please briefly outline the project, when and how it all begun?
The project began in 2000. It is now in its third phase expected to last till 2010. In principle the project works on four main fields of related development measures.

Urban heritage management is of course a main area of intervention. There, we cooperate with the Social Fund for Development of Yemen to provide subsidies to assist house owners and residents to restore and improve their houses. This is carried out in small increments to assist each owner according to their own capacity to meet their demands for housing improvements. The subsidy provided is aimed at neutralizing the extra costs of restoration and making rehabilitation on par with regular house maintenance elsewhere. The owner still has to contribute to cover the standard costs of house maintenance. The second area of intervention is economic development, where we work with local NGO's on literacy programs, women's education and vocational training, agricultural projects and handicrafts. The third area involves strengthening community initiatives where we try to strengthen local capacities to manage and develop projects and cultural programs.

In general, the project worked with local government and community based organizations to close the gap that was created by years of abandonment and neglect of the traditional solidarity networks. Slowly new networks of mutual interest and collective benefits are being created to insure the long term sustainability of the above mentioned initiatives. Finally we are attempting to improve the services and infrastructure of the city through cooperating with the local government to establish a solid waste system and to install a new comprehensive infrastructure system.

What approach are you using?
We are mainly a technical development program, so we do not have huge financing capacities. What we try to do is to establish small training program on the job where we empower local institutions to develop their capacities and then work with them to tap onto local, national and international resources to develop sustainable financing mechanisms for the future.

What has been achieved so far?
More than half the buildings of Shibam have been upgraded and improved. Also, scores of public edifices have been restored. The demand on traditional mud crafts has quadrupled creating more jobs and contributing an increase of 7% to the local economy. 20% of the illiterate women in the district have been alphabetized. Double the numbers of girls graduate from high-school and go to college, of these 70% are being employed once graduating. Six NGO have strong developmental agendas and are working to improve the lively hoods of their constituencies. A large part of the traditional spate irrigation system around the city has been upgraded and reclamated after years of neglect. A viable solid waste management system is in place and is being used as a model by other districts in the region as a model. The list goes on, and I hope I am not sounding too boisterous. We also had our share of difficulties and delays.

The infrastructure project we were hoping to start implementing two years ago is only no beginning. The tourism fee meant to replenish our housing funds is approved but not yet fully implemented. Receiving the award does not mean that our work is complete but we are determined to go on.

What are the immediate challenges?
Mainly we need to insure that the mechanisms we have established on the ground are sustainable. We are currently intensifying our work with our partners on this issue. Most basic technical issues have already been acquired and the majority of work is carried by local persons.

You are based in Seyun, in Hadhramawt. How it is like to work out of Seyun?
I was actually based in Shibam itself. However, I resided in Seiyun for a while (now I am stationed in Sana'a as the project was set to expand to other historic cities of Yemen in the coming three years). Hadhramout is a wonderful place to live and work.

I have always been heartened by the way people there feel proud of their history and culture. Nonetheless it is a very conservative social climate and many of the social amenities I was used to in my home country are not available there. However, one has to be open and flexible; the region offer many rewards once one is willing to savor its culture and understand it.

Tell us something about yourself, how do you find yourself as team leader of the Shibam Urban Development Project? What experience are you bringing to the project?
I have worked in the past in the old city of Aleppo. And my work there has given me both a great appreciation to the genius of traditional architecture as well as solid professional skills to handle urban and heritage management issues. My background is mixed, I come from the Middle Eastern region and I bring that cultural baggage with me. But I am also educated in the US. There I acquired my technical knowledge but more importantly I got to meet people from other cultures and understand the role culture plays in development.

What cooperation are you getting and from whom?
The German Technical Development (GTZ) is supported on the national level by the Ministry of Culture and the Social Fund for Development of Yemen. On the local level we work closely with the General Organization for the Preservation of Historic Cities and the Local Government and its various agencies. We also collaborate with scores of local NGO's and CBO's. We have been supported from the German Development Services (DED) with two experts. However, our main source of funding is still the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation (BMZ)

And the response and cooperation of local residents?
Like I said above, I have been very touched to be working with a community that is very aware of the value of its heritage and is very keen on preserving it. Though at first the initial building of bridges was not easy, it paid of to be honest with people. They understand the sacrifices they have to make but they also are very capable for understanding the rewards.

What are the benefits, for example for tourism?
It is hard to assess the long term benefits related to tourism as these are dependent on geopolitical conditions beyond the local boundaries of Shibam. However, I have already explained that many of the rewards and benefits have taken place because of community organization and without the full dependency on tourism.

Any last wishes, comments?
Yes, I would like to extend an invitation to come to Shibam and to experience its culture. When you do that try to plan your stay in such a way that you can take some time to build a human bridge with local culture. Most visitors come on package tours that rush them through Yemen to see as many places in a short time. In the end they see nothing and contribute little to the local economy.

Tourism should be a tool to learn about cultures and not merely to take a photo in hurry of a place that may not survive the next tourism season. Unfortunately many of the tourism packages in the world and not just in Yemen are very poorly designed. It is up to the tourists themselves to also demand to experience the places they visit and not just to sail through them.

Irena Knehtl

irenaknehtl@gmail.com