Autor: erik

Dealing with the Corona Virus

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Lokale Versorgungsunternehmen auf der ganzen Welt stehen vor beispiellosen Herausforderungen im Umgang mit dem Coronavirus. Deutsche Stadtwerke haben ihre Erfahrungen und die von ihnen ergriffenen Maßnahmen ausgetauscht, um sich gegenseitig zu unterstützen und voneinander zu lernen. Der Deutsche Verband kommunaler Versorgungsunternehmen hat diese Erfahrungen zusammengetragen, niedergeschrieben und ins Englische übersetzt, so dass sie den Versorgungsunternehmen weltweit zugute kommen können.

Das Dokument ist nur in englischer Sprache verfügbar. 

culture 21 – #CULTUREcovid19

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COVID-19 is severely hitting the cultural life of our cities. Cultural venues as libraries, theaters and museums had to close and events had to be cancelled, with harsh consequences for freelance artists and creative professionals. The UCLG Committee for Culture has established a page listing the actions that cities and local governments are undertaking to ensure the right to culture for all citizens: http://www.agenda21culture.net/culturecovid19.

This page is updated periodically by the UCLG Culture Committee, using Twitter to share this page, using the tag #CultureCOVID-19

This page is part of the BeyondTheOutbreak initiative, the „Live Learning Experience: beyond the immediate response to the outbreak“, developed by UCLG.

Tackling coronavirus (COVID‑19) Contributing to a global effort

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On its microsite about COVID-19 the OECD is compiling data, analysis and recommendations on a range of topics to address the emerging health, economic and societal crisis, facilitate co-ordination, and contribute to the necessary global action when confronting this enormous collective challenge.

In addition it offers “a country policy tracker”.
What are countries doing to contain the spread of the coronavirus? How are countries helping people, small businesses and the economy to weather the crisis and beyond? This Country Policy Tracker helps you to navigate the global response.

http://oecd.org/coronavirus/en/?fbclid=IwAR2fvsMo0Y86zUxab4nK4lNtK7JGpBMl3KSXTuF2r41ejnpOslxFAt6d6Tc#country-policy-tracker

In addition – on city level – a summary can be found in the briefing note on
Cities policy responses
https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/view/…
Cities may be better equipped than the rest of their country to respond to the COVID19 crisis due to their well-developed health care facilities. However, cities are densely populated places where people live and gather, thus at risk of spreading the virus due to the close proximity among residents and challenges to implement social distancing. The briefing note provides examples of measures taken by cities to respond to the current coronavirus epidemic, clustered around six categories: i) communication and awareness raising, ii) workplace and commuting; iii) social distance; iv) vulnerable groups; v) local service delivery; and vi) support to business.

If you wish to submit examples of how your cities respond to COVID-19, please contact

CFEcities@oecd.org

Incremental community-based exit strategies for initiating and removing COVID-19 lockdowns

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„Many nations across the Asia-Pacific have implemented guidelines for social distancing and introduced lockdowns to control COVID-19. However, now many leaders face the question of how they will be able to relieve their communities of the protective constraints in place. Who decides when safe is ‘safe enough’, or what level of residual risk is acceptable? Getting this wrong is something no leader can afford. By applying a community-based incremental approach to the easing of lockdowns, tailored to demographic and social stratifications of risk, much of the guesswork can be eliminated.“

Cities for Global Health

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As of  2 April, 1 p.m., 43 cities shared already 144 initiatives – worth browsing it! And share your own!

The global crisis generated by the COVID-19 outbreak is pushing cities of all shapes to give immediate answers to an emergency that is seriously threatening not only citizens’ health, but the social cohesion, the economy and the infrastructures of our territories.

While the virus spreads regardless of administrative boundaries, territorial scales or weather conditions, affecting millions of individuals simultaneously in different ways, it drives us to overcome management barriers. In metropolitan spaces, the collaboration of central cities and peripheries can make a huge difference to ensure that quality of life is not further threatened under scenarios of fragility and that no one is left behind.

Collaboration between administrations of different levels is key to deal with this crisis. Seeking to foster collective responses and facilitate the access of decision-makers to first-hand experiences about how urban areas across the globe can deal with situations alike, local and regional governments of all sizes from across the globe are invited to share:

Initiatives (e.g. plans, strategies, policies) designed specifically as a reaction to the COVID-19 outbreak

Initiatives designed to face other health emergencies such as sanitary crisis or epidemics.

https://www.citiesforglobalhealth.org/

COVID-19 in informal urban settlements

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„Most of the information about COVID-19 and who is at risk is based on data from middle and high income contexts. Many of the recommendations (to wash hands, self-isolate and physically distance) assume basic living conditions and access to essential services (e.g. water, space etc). […] Many of these strategies will not be possible to the same degree in low and middle income countries (LMICs), and especially not in urban informal settlements. With 1 billion people living in informal settlements, there is an urgent need to consider feasibility and develop locally appropriate approaches. This brief sets out key considerations for protecting informal urban settlements from the spread and impacts of COVID-19 and discusses what is known about vulnerabilities and how to support local action.“

Gesundheitlicher Bevölkerungsschutz bei biologischen Gefahrenlagen auf kommunaler Ebene

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Welche Maßnahmen sind nötig, um Bürger vor Infektionskrankheiten und Epidemien nachhaltig zu schützen? Wie ist das Vorgehen in deutschen Kommunen und anderen Städten und Regionen der Welt organisiert? Und wie können lokale Gesundheitssysteme gestärkt werden? Diese Fragen standen im Mittelpunkt der Dialogveranstaltung „Gesundheitlicher Bevölkerungsschutz bei biologischen Gefahrenlagen auf kommunaler Ebene“.

In Kooperation mit dem Gesundheitsamt Frankfurt hatte die internationale Städteplattform Connective Cities deutsche und internationale Akteure aus Brasilien, Jordanien und Liberia zum Erfahrungsaustausch und zur Präsentation guter Praktiken vom 25. bis 27. November 2015 nach Frankfurt eingeladen. Zu den Teilnehmern zählten unter anderem Mediziner, Mitarbeiter aus Kommunen, Landesregierungen und Ministerien sowie Experten aus dem Bereich Infektionsschutz und Krisenmanagement.

Primäres Ziel der Veranstaltung war es, umsetzungsorientierte Präventionsansätze und kollektive Projektideen zur Bekämpfung und Abwehr biologischer Gefahren zu erarbeiten.

Vieles davon ist heute aktueller denn je.

Weitere Informationen und Impressionen zur Veranstaltung in der Kurzdokumentation, im ausführlichen Tagungsbericht und im Video (auf YouTube).

The impact of COVID-19 in informal settlements – are we paying enough attention?

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As we in the global North brace ourselves for the coronavirus pandemic we are being told to wash our hands (for 20 seconds!) and self-isolate if sick. But what if you cannot do either of those things? One billion people live in slums or informal settlements where water for basic needs is in short supply – let alone 20 seconds worth – and where space is constrained and rooms are often shared. Yet discussion about vulnerability in these contexts has been startlingly absent.

A recent IIED blog raised the issue of poor infrastructure in ‘slums’ and informal settlements and rightly concluded that an overhaul of urban planning and development is needed to bring about improved infrastructure and public health. But in the meantime, we need to consider how COVID-19 could impact people living in densely populated and unsanitary environments, and what could mitigate the worst of these impacts. This is challenging as the health and social needs of these populations are often invisible.

So what are the health experiences, challenges and priorities of people in informal settlements? How do residents organise to address existing health threats? And how does this provide a basis for a COVID-19 response? These are the questions IDS and SLURC have been exploring as part of an ESRC research project on post-Ebola urban health in Sierra Leone, and also in a new GCRF funded hub on Accountability for Informal Urban Equity – ARISE.

Some of the insights from this research and some potential lessons for COVID-19.

How Are Cities Dealing With The COVID-19 Outbreak?

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More than half the world’s population live in urban areas. Cities are hubs for transnational businesses and traffic movements. When infectious disease outbreaks occur, cities accelerate the spread and transmission of the disease through increased human contact. But cities also play a central role in preparing for, mitigating and adapting to pandemics. Those that are open, transparent, collaborative and adopt comprehensive responses are better equipped to manage pandemics than those that are not. This article explores why cities like Taipei and Singapore seemed better prepared to deal with the current COVID-19 outbreak and why it is important to learn from past pandemics.

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The Covid-19 pandemic from an urban planning perspective

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From an urban planning perspective, epidemics historically have always left their traces in our cities. Now COVID-19 joins a long list of infectious diseases – such as the Spanish flu of 1918 in New York and Mexico City or the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014.

CityLab has talked to Michele Acuto, Professor of Global Urban Politics at the University of Melbourne, about the intersections of urban planning and public health in the age of digitalization and globalization.

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