To benefit from the knowledge and expertise of municipalities hosting refugees both in Germany and in BMZ’s partner countries, BMZ established the “Municipal know-how for host communities in the Middle East” programme. The network consists of 26 municipalities in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Germany that cooperate on subjects as diverse as waste management, vocational training, economic development, and urban planning. For example, the Jordanian city of Deir Alla is home to some 60,000 inhabitants, one tenth of whom are Syrian refugees. The rapid population growth in Deir Alla entails infrastructural challenges, such as waste disposal. In cooperation with the German municipality of Jena, Deir Alla is currently drafting a comprehensive waste management and separation plan.