Author: erik

Voices from Connective Cities – Muncipality of Ras el-Matn

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The Mayor of Ras el-Matn municipality talks about how the municipality serves as the lungs of the capital Beirut in Lebanon, mainly due to its distigiushed eco-tourism projects. He also describes the municipality’s partnership with the private sector partner ‘Green Mount Recycling -GMR’ for sustainable waste management. The general director of GMR commended Ras el-Matn municiplaity and elaborates on their partnership project to promote sorting from source, particularly on how gender considerations were integrated into the planning and implementation of the project’s activities. Moreover, the Mayor also describes how the municipality developed a geospatial database with Connective Cities to promote waste sorting. Both speakers confirmed how this project will ultimately have environmental benefits and contribute to climate change mitigation. They also confirmed the benefits of joining Connective Cities network and peer learning particularly on the topic of waste management, as they learned about procedures that other companies are following in different countries such as the Philippines and Brazil using PPP.

Watch video at YouTube:

https://youtu.be/3uixwUwO9W8

Good practice: Euroregion Pomerania

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The Euroregion Pomerania has existed for 25 years and has given rise to many cross-border friendships and cooperations. The region includes the German districts from Rügen on the Baltic Sea to the district of Barnim near Berlin, and on the Polish side the entire West Pomeranian Voivodeship. When the borders were closed during the Corona pandemic, it was a shock for both sides. But necessity is the mother of invention – through a series of innovative measures such as the “special call”, the region grew even closer together.
For its outstanding achievements and peaceful, people-uniting cooperation, the partnership was awarded the municipal science prize of the Carl and Anneliese Goerdeler Foundation. See here how both cities went through the crisis together and benefit from their experiences!
German, Polish and English subtitles available.

Watch video at YouTube:
 https://youtu.be/0DaR5MS7Tz0

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Dobra praktyka: Euroregion Pomerania – pokonywanie granic poprzez współpracę Euroregion Pomerania istnieje od 25 lat i w jego ramach powstało wiele międzynarodowych przyjaźni i kooperacji. Region obejmuje niemieckie powiaty od Rugii nad Bałtykiem do dzielnicy Barnim pod Berlinem, a po stronie polskiej całe województwo zachodniopomorskie. Kiedy podczas pandemii Corony zamknięto granice, był to szok dla obu stron. Ale konieczność jest motorem wynalazku – dzięki serii innowacyjnych działań, takich jak “specjalne wezwanie”, region jeszcze bardziej zbliżył się do siebie.
Za wybitne osiągnięcia i pokojową, jednoczącą ludzi współpracę partnerstwo otrzymało miejską nagrodę naukową Fundacji Carla i Anneliese Goerdeler. Zobacz tutaj, jak oba miasta wspólnie przeszły przez kryzys i skorzystaj z ich doświadczeń!
Dostępne napisy niemieckie, polskie i angielskie.

Bending the Linear Economy On Urban Metabolism

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“In the Rome Declaration of 2021, the G20 Leaders stressed the link between sustainable urbanization and the development of circular economy to preserve resources and deliver on climate and biodiversity global goals. […] To meet ambitious but necessary net zero targets, waste, water and energy provision have to change dramatically and at a large scale. This includes new technologies, transformations in governance and regulatory systems, the implementation of just-transition financial mechanisms and strengthened international cooperation, combined with enhanced technical cooperation and joint capacity building among emerging and developing markets.”

INTERSECTING is distributed by the Global Solutions Initiative. It is geared towards think tanks, civil organizations, international institutions, in particular the G20/T20.

Voices from Connective Cities – Madaba Municipality

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The representatives of Madaba municipality in Jordan talk about the vital role of the Local Development Unit in forging partnerships as well as the municipality’s achievements in the field of digitalisation. The head of the Local Development Unit, Mr. Mohammed Abou Gaoud, confirms that the work done with Connective Cities in different thematic fields, for example crisis management, digitalisation and circular economy, will be reflected in Madaba’s local development strategy and will have a real impact.

Watch video at YouTube:

https://youtu.be/VU6QWN1XV0Y

Living alongside water instead of fearing it

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Bangkok’s first significant piece of green infrastructure, Chulalongkorn Centenary Park (CCP), aims to lessen the risk of flooding in the city and other ecological issues. The Park can store up to one million gallons of water during periods of heavy rainfall. The Park is an example of alternative landscape strategies for reducing urban flooding and, a reminder of the city’s ability to live alongside water rather than fear it in the face of climate change.

Municipal Policy Award of the Carl and Anneliese Goerdeler Foundation 2023

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Municipalities make an important contribution to climate protection – in Germany and worldwide. They not only work directly on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, but have often additionally committed themselves to further climate protection. Municipalities also face similar challenges worldwide and can therefore benefit from close cooperation and lively exchange. This is especially true for cross-border cooperation projects, which require particularly high motivation, courage and, last but not least, organisational and assertiveness skills during the ongoing pandemic.

In 2023, the Carl and Anneliese Goerdeler Foundation’s Municipal Policy Award will honour cross-border municipal cooperation projects on participatory municipal climate protection and adaptation measures with prize money of 2,000 euros. Outstanding cooperations of municipalities or municipal alliances with the participation of a German municipality or municipal alliance are sought.

All important information about the award and your application can be found in the competition announcement: pdf-Download  [in German]

Deadline extension: The deadline for applications is Monday, 31 October 2022.

The prize is awarded in memory of the communal political work of Carl Goerdeler as Mayor of the City of Leipzig and his resistance activities against Nazi rule. The award is intended to serve the peaceful cooperation of municipalities and municipal alliances that unites people and to promote mutual learning for the benefit of the residents.

Contact:

Ricarda Meissner
ricarda.meissner@giz.de 
Phone: +49 (0)228 4460 1138

Klaudia Sonntag
klaudia.Sonntag@giz.de 
Phone: +49 (0) 228 4460 1587

QuattroPole city network: Together against the pandemic

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The QuattroPole region – consisting of the cities of Trier, Saarbrücken, Luxembourg, and Metz – has shown enormous willingness to help, successful communication and fast action between the cities, not only during the COVID pandemic, but also during the flood disaster in the summer of 2021.

“We, as the city of Trier, were shown that a secure network is necessary, that you can’t always help yourself, that you have to rely on external support… For us it has changed, that we pay more attention to supporting each other, especially in this network, QuattroPole.” (A.Kirchartz)

In 2021, the city network QuattroPole received the special prize of the Carl and Anneliese Goerdeler Foundation for its exemplary cooperation during the Corona pandemic. The foundation hereby honors outstanding achievements in municipal administrative practice in Europe. The award is intended to promote peaceful cooperation between municipalities in Europe that brings people together.

The protagonists are:

  • Wolfram Leibe (Lord Mayor of the City of Trier)
  • Didier Dandrifosse (Head of the Medical Department, Luxembourg Air Rescue)
  • Ingo Wagenknecht (Deputy Head of the Office for Fire and Civil Protection, City of Saarbrücken)
  • Andreas Kirchartz (Head of the Office for Fire, Civil Protection and Rescue, City of Trier)
  • Marianne Goerdeler (Granddaughter of the former Lord Mayor of the City of Leipzig)

Learn how the QuattroPole network of cities together overcame the challenges of the pandemic and successfully strengthened their partnership

Watch video at YouTube:

https://youtu.be/luO1oDNLgdU

Brescia – Darmstadt: Together against the pandemic

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Northern Italy was particularly hard hit by the pandemic at the beginning. In the face of this deadly threat, Darmstadt supported and prepared for the pandemic with rapid, unbureaucratic aid. The exchange between the hospitals, civil protection units and fire brigades of Brescia and Darmstadt was very important for Darmstadt in this respect. The close cooperation during the pandemic further deepened the partnership – for its outstanding achievements and peaceful, people-uniting cooperation, the partnership was awarded the municipal science prize of the Carl and Anneliese Goerdeler Foundation.

See here how both cities went through the crisis together and benefit from their experiences!

German, Italian and English subtitles available.

Watch video at YouTube:

https://youtu.be/YUHsmKb5Omk