Who we are
The Agency for Sustainable Mediterranean Cities and Territories (AVITEM) is a French cooperation agency dedicated to the Mediterranean, considered a strategic region as a strategic area for both France and the European Union.
It is a public interest grouping created in 2012, bringing together the French State with the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and local and regional authorities – the Southern Region – Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, Territorial Collectivity of Corsica, the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolitan Area, the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolitan Area, the City of Marseille – as well as two public institutions, the Euroméditerranée Public Urban Development Agency, and the Marseille Fos Port – Grand Port Maritime de Marseille.
AViTeM acts as an accelerator of cooperation on the concrete challenges of territorial transformation. For the past 13 years, our priority themes–strategic regional planning, ecological transition projects (nature-based solutions, circular economy, health and nature, port decarbonisation, sustainable tourism, and risk resilience)–have been addressed through numerous European programmes as well as French bilateral decentralised cooperation.
Our activities
AVITEM activities are structured around three main missions contributing to shape the future of the Mediterranean territories: setting up experimental and strategic planning projects, training and capacity-building, and networking for the co-construction of trans-organisational programmes.
In addition, metropolitan expertise and immersion seminars–training courses on metropolitan policies for elected representatives, public or private planning and development professionals from across the Mediterranean–have made it possible to investigate almost all of the major Mediterranean cities. This work led in partnership with the Campus Group AFD, has helped to forge a strong network of metropolitan actors, and to produce capitalisation tools such as the Metropolitan Booklets.
The AVITEM methodology enables field-based experience, fostering direct engagement with local stakeholders, share good practices and inspirations while facilitating collective debate to cultivate potential new partnerships.
9
Members representing: the French State, 6 local authorities and 2 associated public institutions
12
Years of service
37
European projects since 2012
+20
Seminars in 14 Mediterranean Metropolis since 2015
