GreenfieldCities is developing a Youth Business Campus to create a sustainable future for young Syrians and Jordanians in their own region of origin. We develop the campus in three stages (Pop-up, Touch-base and Fully developed) in the King Hussein bin Talal free zone close to the Syrian border. This is a place where Syrian and Jordanian youth can live, learn and work. To quickly create the first jobs, facilitate education and training, inform people about our plans, increase our visibility and already have actual presence in the free zone, GreenfieldCities aims to build an information and exhibition centre as soon as possible. The center will also serve as a podium for the small but thriving artist community in Mafraq. Right now GreenfieldCities is looking for people and organisations that want to financially contribute to this center.

The information and exposition centre will show the business campus in maquette form and have excellent facilities to present and explain GreenfieldCities plans to visitors. The Center will also be used for the Jordan GreenfieldCities’s office. Students of associated universities (Al Albayt University, University of Jordan) will help run the Center while doing an internship or graduation on subjects related to the center and the development of the business campus. GreenfieldCities’ staff will invest in bringing professional skills of the students to levels required by the (international) labour market. Students (doing Master or PhD thesis) from Dutch educational institutions such as Wageningen University, will help exchange of leading edge knowledge in the same relevant fields (Agriculture, Water, Energy).

Apart from office space, there will be place to organise workshops and courses while dorms for students, staff and the occasional guest will be part of the center as well.
For the sketch-design a grid of 3 m x 3 m x 3 m was strictly maintained, to enable pop-up production methods that make the actual implementation time of the center very short (about 2 months). Energy wise the Center will be operated independently from the grid and hence will be a showcase how energy can be saved, how renewable energy is produced and how the system between energy demand and supply can best be designed and operated. The water system will also be a showcase for sustainability: low consumption, high recycling rates.

The design, development, building and running of the Center will create jobs for Jordanian and Syrians alike. With its strategic location next to the highway, its high-profile characteristics and while connecting the city of Mafraq and the free zone, it will also help to attract national and international businesses to the free zone.

We estimate the costs for the design, development and building of the campus to be € 350 000. That sounds like a lot of money, and it is. On the other hand, if 350 readers of this item decide to donate € 1000 or 3500 readers decide to donate € 100, we can really plant the metaphorical seed for the campus. Please help us make this work!

On November 18th GreenfieldCities organized a workshop on the preliminary results of the Feasibility Study for a clean-tech Youth Business Campus in Mafraq for Jordanian and Syrian youth. The workshop was successful in two ways: the feasibility of the Campus looks positive and there was support across the board from key Jordanian stakeholders.

Supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, GreenfieldCities conducted extensive research in Mafraq governorate to find out how the local economy could be revitalized in a sustainable way through the Campus model. GreenfieldCities presented its objectives, a design for the Campus and key findings from the feasibility study. Feasibility looks good: the overall social, environmental and financial business case for long-term private sector growth in ICT, Energy, Water, Hospitality, Construction and Agri-Food appears strong enough. The roadmap for the creation of 1.500 new jobs for young people in Mafraq is characterized by a step-by-step approach: starting relatively small with a Campus for approximately 150 young people and growing gradually into a fully developed Campus where 1500 young people will learn, work and live.

While the funding of the first phase should come predominantly from public resources and donors, the business model for the Campus allows to make the transition towards private sector funding predominantly after 3 years. The Campus can be financially independent within 5 years. Helped by Jordanian students, our architect made a sketch design of the first phase. The first 150 young talents should be able to start working, living and learning on the Youth Business Campus by the end of 2019 or early 2020.

The event was attended by the Minister of ICT, H.E. Mothanna Gharaibeh, and the Ambassador of the Netherlands to Jordan, H.E. Barbara Joziasse. More than 90 attendants saw presentations from Dr. Iyad Abu Haltam, Board Member of the Chamber of Industry, Nayef Al-Bakheet, CEO of the Mafraq Development Corporation, Ruba Al Zu’bi, Managing Director of the Scientific Research Department of the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation and Haneen Al-Shdifat of GreenfieldCities. The speakers emphazised that the Campus will help tackle youth unemployment, which is believed to be above 50% in Mafraq, with the attraction of private sector investments to Mafraq and stimulate green economic growth. The Campus will furthermore provide the Mafraq Economic Free Zone (King Hussein Bin Talal Development Area) with an attractive front office to help attracting more businesses to the zone.

The attendants expressed strong support for the plans and actively contributed during break out discussions about the main challenges and opportunities for partnerships and funding. These discussions were facilitated and summarized in a plenary session by Mahmud Al-Duwayri, Ruba Al-Zu’bi, Laila Abuhassan, Abdelnabi Fardous and Ahmed Al-Salaymeh, members of the GreenfieldCities Advisory Board Jordan. Our Advisory Board contributes with strategic advice, network building, creating governmental support and local embedding of the project.

The event was hosted by the Amman Chamber of Industry which offered GreenfieldCities professional assistance and a wonderful venue for the workshop. Looking back at the event, GreenfieldCities is delighted with the positive reactions from stakeholders and support from the Advisory Board, and is looking forward to work with partners and donors to implement the first part of the Youth Business Campus in 2019. Arie van Beek, co-founder of GreenfieldCities, reflected upon this outcome: “During and immediately after the workshop, we realized our initiative has gained significant momentum”.

GreenfieldCities presented output for the feasibility study for a clean-tech business campus in Mafraq in the form of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); “Decent work and economic growth”, “Quality education” and “Climate Action” to name a few. The organizing committee of the SDG Action Day asked GreenfieldCities to host a workshop to illustrate the theme of the day. We came up with a teasing proposition: “Realizing SDGs while capitalizing on international business opportunities”

The SDG action day held in Amsterdam aimed at cross-sector cooperation and boosting SDG action from the Netherlands. Participants were members of the business community, from municipalities, social organizations and knowledge institutions. By way of introduction, a lively plenary presentation offered an inspiring podium for outstanding SDG performers as well as promising organization all sharing their work and initiatives.

The second half of the day was allocated for workshops by different organisations from across the Netherlands. GreenfieldCities hosted a workshop session which was attended by about 30 persons interested in sustainable, international business opportunities foreseen in the GreenfieldCities business campus in Mafraq, Jordan. The workshop focused on presenting key sectors present in the future business-campus in Mafraq: water, agriculture, energy, hospitality, ICT and built environment.

The presentation underlined the potential for business opportunities in Mafraq within each sector, which in turn should be seen as powerful actions within the SDG framework. After presenting GreenfieldCities to the group, participants were divided into groups according to the six sectors. Feedback and advice was collected from individuals regarding the plans for each sector and several contacts were made with those interested in future communication. Overall, staff from GreenfieldCities were pleased with the outcome of the day and were glad to present the preliminary results of the business case for potential investors and sponsors for the business campus whilst making new and valuable contacts.

Link to the report of the SDG Action Day 2018 (Dutch).

The sketch design of the Mafraq clean-tech business campus is one of the key tasks of the feasibility study commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Recently, GreenfieldCities lead architect, Dana Ibrahim, visited Jordan and spent four weeks working more closely with the Jordan team, also meeting with Jordanian architects, engineers and urban planners including students for these professions.

Importantly, Dana visited the location of the campus site giving her a much clearer perspective of, and a new sense of enthusiasm for, the design she has been working on when based in the Netherlands. Dana also deepened her knowledge about Jordanian architecture and urban planning and their relationship with the Jordanian climate and culture.

In order to acquire firsthand feedback and knowledge from local people, GreenfieldCities has been working with student groups at Al al-Bayt University (AABU) as well as the University of Jordan. Students from both universities have been working on focused design projects outside of their curriculum, to learn more about urban planning, its challenges and its various layers, for example; energy, greenery and water. University students analyzed the clean-tech campus site and made a design proposal for the site. Whilst in Jordan, Dana supervised these students, discussing their progress, exploring research questions and attending a final presentation of results at the University of Jordan.

With some students from AABU, Dana also visited The Edgo Atrium – a Leed Gold Certified Building – where students listened to a presentation about sustainable architecture and the importance of building green. Working with students from the Jordan universities has provided GreenfieldCities with a great starting point for the urban planning aspect and the sketch design of the project, whilst simultaneously forging connections with the institutions and students for future collaborations.
Now back in the Netherlands and with a clearer perspective of the local context, Dana is busy working on the urban plan and sketch design for the GreenfieldCities business campus.

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has given GreenfieldCities a grant of 400 k€ to fund an in-depth feasibility study for a pilot campus project in Mafraq, Jordan. The campus will serve and accomodate 1500 young local inhabitants, Jordanians and Syrian refugees alike, who will be able to live, study and work on site. The Campus will boost the local economy of Mafraq and will focus on creating jobs in several industries: ICT, Agriculture, Energy, Water and Leisure.

The Dutch Ministry praised the innovative and entrepreneurial ways in which GreenfieldCities works to contribute to the alleviation of the migration crisis and the tangible ways in which they work towards creating enabling environments for refugees in the region of origin.

For GreenfieldCities the 400 k€ grant represents an important milestone, as it reflects both the recognition and material support from the government for the project. As Arie van Beek – one of the founders – puts it: “Our mission can never be realised without public and political support”.

Download Proposal Feasibility Study (PDF, 1.7 MB)

“We happily contribute to causes that aim for a fundamental solution of a problem” answer Janneke van Beek and Gerard Sipkema to our question why they gave such a big donation to GreenfieldCities.

Just before the summer break GreenfieldCities received the one of the first big, personal donations from Janneke van Beek and Gerard Sipkema. She, a lector on an advanced college and family therapist; he, a former lector Sociology and former trade union board member.

Pleasantly surprised we asked the generous givers about the why of their action. “We always gladly give to our traditional charities, but what really speaks to our heart is that GreenfieldCities works towards a structural solution for the migration crisis. Additionally, you make it very tangible with the plan for a campus in Jordan”. They think it is fantastic GreenfieldCities develops these plans with refugee talent that is now living here in the Netherlands. “At the same time GreenfieldCities offers refugees a very meaningful job; that in itself already prevents a lot of integration problems here. Even for relatively well-educated refugees the perspective on a paid job is very bleak indeed. They will often need social benefits for a long time.” This is even more true for poorly educated people. As a language mentor Gerard Sipkema helps a hardly educated, yet very well skilled Syrian craftsman. “The language and cultural gap are so wide”, he observes, “almost impossible to bridge. Only after a generation the perspective gets better. Poor integration in Dutch society also causes tensions with native Dutch people” Gerard states. “Providing sustainable shelter in regions that are much closer to their culture and values is to be preferred”.

“We try to live according to a christian ethos (where “giving tenths” is important), but in almost every belief or philosophy looking after your neighbour in need is a key value”, says Janneke. “From all motives or perspectives we Dutch can contribute”. “Just because GreenfieldCities has an ANBI certificate, the tax office also contributes to this noble cause. That is a great afterthought” they conclude.

In the first half year of 2016 we had about 100 meetings with stakeholders of the migration crisis. The results were twofold: (1) the views about our solution were predominantly positive and maybe more importantly even (2) we learned a lot discussing our initiative.

“I clearly remember one of the first times I discussed our presentation with Leen Verbeek, Flevoland’s high commissioner of the King” recalls Arie van Beek, co-founder of GreenfieldCities, “He started with giving historic lessons about the coming into being of the borders of the current Middle Eastern states. It made me double aware of the complexity of the situation and the necessity to include (or start from) the Middle-Eastern and North African perspectives. That’s not one perspective, that is many” he said.

Almost all thought it was a groundbreaking concept: using refugees here to develop good plans for sustainable urban regions  there, with many challenges ahead. Though Rob de Wijk (The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies) embraced the idea, he pressed home the message: “the business case from a Western perspective is rock solid, however the business case for the host country needs to be made! Without it GreenfieldCities will not get the support it needs.”

Tom Middendorp, our Army General-in-chief said “the migration crisis and the climate change (which is fueling it) are the biggest threats to national and international security”. Joris van Esch, former commander of 1 CMI of the Ministry of Defense had his reservists company help exactly building that business case for Jordan. For us it came as a surprise how many fields of expertise are avalaible: economists, energy specialist, arabists, psychologogists, all very useful in drafting the business case. What van Esch liked about GreenfieldCities was the long-term commitment. “In Afghanistan we have helped build up something substantial, but we couldn’t stay there for the long run. The moment we announced we would leave, things gradually started falling apart”.

Member of Parliament, Sjoerd Sjoerdsma underlined that in his view we had to start with something tangible and start relatively small. The idea of a pilot in the shape of a Cleantech campus near the Zaatari refugee camp was born.

Last not least: we needed to check what refugees themselves thought about our ideas. During a meet and greet organized by Radboud UMC we were able to talk with them and hear firsthand what they thought: they responded enthusiastically to our plans. We asked them as well: would you consider going back to build a GreenfieldCity yourself? Or become a citizen? Provided sufficient safeguards in place they indeed would go back to the region. Obviously, remigration is not the main goal of GreenfieldCities. But it is a useful by-catch.