The Municipality of Junik together with Municipal Spatial Planning Support Programme (MuSPP) representatives organized the first participatory workshop with the relevant stakeholders, with the aim of improving the high school yard in this municipality.

The main aim of the workshop was to extract ideas from the key stakeholders including school children, teachers, parents and other activists from the municipality of Junik, on their vision to improve the school yard as well as access to the school. The CIP “improvement of the high school yard and school access” in Junik has been selected out of five proposed projects in this municipality.

The project seeks to improve access to the school by establishing a pavement along the access road to the school. The project will improve the school yard, which is also to be used as a public place. The workshop was developed into two sessions; the first including a presentation of the project and the area, a SWOT analysis and examples of the school yards and public spaces. The second session focused on group work where further SWOT analysis was used to identify strengths and weaknesses of the location.

The workshop concluded with presentations of SWOT analyses, where interesting ideas where presented by different stakeholders. The recommendations were to build a sport field for pupils and the youth of Junik to practice small football, handball, volleyball and tennis. Building a covered/sheltered stage was also one of the recommendations that came out from the activists’ group, to accommodate concerts and other public events in the municipality. Building a fountain, toilet cabins, greening the yard, lighting and many other facilities were also listed. The use of SWOT analysis enabled participants to provide good input into the development scenarios of this CIP. The proposed CIP in Junik will be jointly funded by UN-HABITAT MuSPP and the Municipality of Junik.