The Arab Urban Development Institute (AUDI) was founded in 1980 with permanent headquarter in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. AUDI is a regional, non- governmental, non-profit urban research, technical and consulting organization. The Institute is affiliated with the Arab Towns Organization (ATO), with headquarters in Kuwait. The Institute serves as the technical and scientific arm of (ATO). The institute has active membership of more than 400 Arab cities and towns representing 22 Arab states.
A major goal of the Institute is the enhancement of the quality of municipal services in Arab towns and cities. AUDI, within its areas of concern, seeks to achieve the following objectives:
- enhance the Arab city standard while maintaining its Arabic identity, historical characteristics and architectural, physical and cultural heritage as well as highlighting its originality and distinctive features
- foster communication and cooperation among Arab cities , ATO, and other cities and organizations that have relative concerns
- identify the problems that confront cities and municipalities and seek solutions for difficulties that constrain development and improvement
- conduct studies and researches on the Arab city in the economic, social, technical, physical and environmental areas
- provide consultative professional services to Arab cities in the field of urban planning, housing and municipal services as well as other fields of AUDI activities
- establish center(s) to collect information data, documents and statistics and to conduct classification, categorization, analysis and processing according to modern scientific systems
AUDI, in these researches and studies, also consider closely the fields that serve training and consultation activities. AUDI provides case studies, scientific and technical assistance to researchers in the fields of its activities and supplies them with related information, literature and references.
The AUDI website provides more information on the institution and the kinds of activities it provides. The website features news and publications related to their activities.