Author: erik

Towards a gender-sensitive city

Posted on by erik

Without a gender-sensitive approach to urban development in the post-COVID era, the pandemic could have far-reaching effects including the risk of widening gender inequalities in various areas such as public health, urban participation, and social life. At the same time gender mainstreaming tools and good practices of gender-sensitive recovery strategies already exist, which, if used effectively, can mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-19 and contribute to an increased gender equality.

We are pleased to invite you to the Kick-off event of our COVID Cluster “Gender sensitivity in the pandemic” on Thursday, September 2nd, 2021, from 15:00 to 17:00 CEST. The event promotes the exchange of challenges and good practice in the planning and implementation of urban gender-sensitive recovery measures by focusing on the following topics:   

  • Gender-sensitive urban planning and development
  • Urban approaches combating domestic violence
  • Gender responsive urban mobility

The kick-off event brings together municipal representatives and urban practitioners to present and discuss their challenges and good practices and to develop new project ideas through peer-learning and exchange. The kick-off event will set the ground for the formation of different working groups which will aim at further developing these project ideas by peer-to-peer exchange formats and with the support of relevant regional and international experts.

To register for the event and stay updated on the agenda, the announcement of speakers and further details of the session please follow:  

COVID Gender Cluster Kick-off | Connective Cities Network (connective-cities.net)

We are looking forward to welcoming you in the event!

Date: Thursday, September 2nd, 2021

Time: 15:00-17:00 CEST

Event language: English (translation tba)

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Contact: franziska.loibl@giz.de

Beyond Climate

Posted on by erik

When planning and investing in infrastructure projects, innovative cities bundle together a larger set of overarching objectives in the social, economic, environmental, health and governance realms. Integrating multiple benefits in climate infrastructure projects tends to enhance their political and financial/ fiscal viability, scalability, and replicability. Identifying and planning for benefits during early project development stages increase the project’s success, both in delivering positive environment and human-centred impacts, as well as in mobilising political buy-in and connecting with finance.

This report aims to show that project preparation facilities (PPFs) can and should aid in integrating climate action with other, highly synergetic development and cooperation objectives.

Sustainable Urban Energy Planning – Road to Energy Efficient and Renewable Energy powered municipalities

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Approximately 90 experts and urban practitioners from more than 30 municipalities within 9 countries of Southeast Europe, gathered to discuss major opportunities and challenges convoked by the shift towards greener energy consumption around the world. As major countries of the world come out with bod statements of reaching climate neutrality by 2050, all of us need to keep up the pace and start acting on the promised shift. The Dialogue event held during the week of 17-21 May focused on discussions of energy efficient solutions, innovative renewable energy sources as well as on getting some new insights into the EU Green Deal.

This event offered a virtual platform to discuss these challenges and supported municipalities in developing locally adapted solutions for climate challenges, specifically those related to energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.

During these 5 days of asynchronous and synchronous digital meetings participants listened to inspiring Keynote presentations from leading European scientists and shared insights with peers.

This report is the detailed documentation of the event.

The city of Krusevac during the pandemic

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Krusevac, a city in the heart of Serbia, took multiple actions during the pandemic to protect its approximately 58,000 inhabitants. The city’s crisis management included preventive measures. For instance, disinfectants in 200 large canisters were placed throughout the city and made available to the population free of charge, and the public enterprise “Veterinary Station Krusevac” disinfected public facilities. Furthermore, public health was an integral part of crisis management. Namely, the municipality of Krusevac built a temporary hospital with 150 beds in a sports hall to treat people with mild disease progression. In addition, a larger hospital with 500 beds was built after the first wave to be prepared for the second wave of the pandemic. 

For an effective and fast implementation of the COVID measures, not only the involvement of different stakeholders, such as the Serbian military, public enterprises, and the political administration of the city, but also the protection of vulnerable and at-risk groups was vital. Therefore, Krusevac organised and coordinated a volunteer service. Volunteers packed and distributed 62,175 food rations to pensioners, single parents during the first three months of the pandemic. Moreover, the city provided taxis to deliver food and medicine to people in need.

By now (as of July 2021), about 45 percent of Krusevac residents are fully vaccinated. In the coming months, the municipality will mainly focus on keeping interest in vaccination high in order to achieve herd immunity. 

The city of Krusevac is also working on sustainable and inclusive mobility concepts, for example by building new bicycle paths.

Further Information: 

Presentation: CITY OF KRUSEVAC  [PDF, 5mb]
THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AND EMERGENCY SITUATIONS

Veranstaltungsaufzeichnung in Englisch (Präsentation Krusevac beginnt bei der Minute 92:00): „Infection Chain Tracing in Southeast Europe (SEE) and Caucasus“ (Nur für Registrierte auf der Connective Cities Plattform) 

Contact

Dusan Todorovic,
Head of the Department of Defense and Emergency situations
dusan.todorovic@krusevac.rs

Wiesbaden: sustainable urban logistics

Posted on by erik

The increasing number of delivery vehicles is congesting our city centers and is causing more CO2 emissions. In the Landeshauptstadt Wiesbaden (Germany), the situation was getting so bad that the city had to take action. The city government introduced the Green City Master Plan. One focus of the plan: Urban Logistics. Learn in our video how the city brought together different stakeholders and how delivery and pick-up traffic were optimized by a team of urban logistics experts.

Watch video at YouTube: https://youtu.be/-evOxsOsyn0

More information: Nachhaltige Stadtlogistik Wiesbaden (in German)

Municipal Response to COVID-19: Driving smart city development

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Online workshop on April 29, 2021:

Overviewing EU Green Deal Agenda, smart cities models and concepts, acceleration of digitalisation processes and financial attraction possibilities in the period of a pandemic.

More: https://youtu.be/ti5vfBTsQn8

More good practices, articles, videos, podcasts and interviews on our COVID-19 page.

COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control in the cardiovascular hospital in Shanxi, China

Posted on by erik

The Shanxi Cardiovascular Hospital was founded in 1980 and is affiliated with the Shanxi Medical University. In addition to medical treatment, the hospital focuses on research, education and pre- and postoperative care.  

The hospital has about 1,300 inpatient beds, over 1500 employees and normally treats over 250,000 outpatients and 35,000 inpatients a year. The Department of Cardiology has been authorized as the National Key Clinical Specialty, Key Medical Discipline of Shanxi Province, Shanxi Provincial Quality Control Centre for Cardiovascular Interventional Diagnosis and Treatment, amongst others.

Over 6000 percutaneous coronary intervention – PCI – cases including over 1000 Primary PCIs are performed in this centre each year. Radiofrequency – RF – ablation and pacemaker implantation are accomplished in around 1,500 and 1,000 patients every year. Over 1500 cases of various cardiovascular surgeries are performed each year in the hospital.

Upon the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, the hospital established an effective pandemic preparedness and control strategy, including the following:   

  • Routine meetings on analysis of fever patients in hospital 
  • Various forms of COVID-19 prevention and control training in the hospital 
  • Standardised reporting of fever patients and suspicious cases 
  • Strengthened surveillance and inspection of prevention and control work 
  • Strengthened hospital-acquired infection control 

The existing pandemic response plan is continuously improved and adapted to the current situation. This enables the hospital to react quickly to changes in the incidence and to integrate new scientific findings into the measures. The holistic approach of the measures, the use of digital management systems and an effective hygiene concept have reduced the number of patients infected with COVID-19 drastically. 

The experience of the Shanxi Cardiovascular Hospital shows that comprehensive planning, scientific prevention and control, as well as adherence to the “four early” principles (early detection, early diagnosis, early isolation and early treatment) are effective methods to contain the spread of the virus. International exchange and learning from each other’s experiences is important to further combat the virus effectively in the future.

Contact 

Wang Fei MD, PhD

Cardiovascular Department

Shanxi Cardiovascular Hospital

No.18, Yifen Street, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, P.R. of China

Zipcode: 030024

Phone: +86-13453189752   

Further Information 

COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control in a cardiovascular hospital in Shanxi, China (PDF)   

Event Recording (Presentation on Shanxi starts min. 37:00): „Infection Chains & Mobile Testing | Connective Cities Network (connective-cities.net)“ (only for those registered on the Connective Cities Platform)

Early warning systems and disaster preparedness to protect against forest fires and preserve biodiversity

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The kickoff event aims at introducing the participants to the thematic working group ‘Biodiversity and Environmental Protection, as well as presenting two examples on best practices from Germany and Lebanon on the deployment of early warning systems for forest fires. There is an ever-growing need to strengthen decentralised cooperation between the MENA region and Germany on the dissemination of good practices peer advisory in this thematic field.

At a regional level, the land resources of the MENA region suffer from three main challenges: aridity, recurrent drought, and desertification. Major causes of land degradation are forest fire, deforestation, inappropriate agricultural techniques.  Land degradation in MENA is due to wildfire especially that forest management is weak, and that residential developments are spreading to mountainous and vegetated areas. Wildfires are often originated due to human carelessness, to the lack of their consideration to the environment and the climate change.

This event is an opportunity to showcase the progress achieved by local disaster management offices as well as promoting peer learning for additional improvement of the local and national capacities. Sharing practice-oriented experience facilitates transferring, sustaining and innovating effective applied solutions. The event’s objectives are as follows:

  • Initiate a practice-oriented knowledge exchange between urban practitioners in the field of biodiversity and environmental protection.
  • Facilitate peer learning on state-of-the-art technology to increase resilience and improve disaster preparedness related to forest fires.
  • Foster development of concrete projects ideas related to forest fires prevention.
  • Raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity and the value of ecosystem protection, risk factors, and the protection and preparedness tools.

Date: Monday, 09.08.2021

Time: 11:00-13:30 CEST

Event language: English, Arabic, German (tbc)

Agenda and Registration

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us!

Contact: muna.shalan@giz.de

Covid-19 and Urban Mobility

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Summary of the Connective Cities Virtual Dialogue Event in partnership with United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and UN-Habitat and hosted by the City of Wiesbaden – Germany , 19, 20 and 22 July 2021
 

1. Covid-19: A major turning point for urban mobility

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to fundamental changes in urban mobility worldwide. Some impacts are short-term, especially during lockdowns. Others are long-term changes in the way urban mobility and traffic will operate in the future.

One of the main responses of governments worldwide to the pandemic was to restrict circulation of people. However, municipalities still had to guarantee the mobility of essential workers and goods. There was also a shift in behaviour, with citizens changing their regular modes of transport for reasons of safety and hygiene. Modes of transport which allow for physical distancing, such as walking, cycling and private cars are now favoured, whereas there is a decline in the use of public and shared transport. Lockdown restrictions further contribute to the rise in e-commerce and delivery services, posing particular challenges for last mile freight distribution.

Having experienced reduced traffic and less pollution during lockdowns, the motivation to promote more sustainable urban mobility has grown for many local governments. Investing in measures such as active mobility infrastructure, safer and more accessible public transport and low-emission transport options are in accordance with the imperative aim of economic recovery, as infrastructure investments may lead to job creation and private investment in diverse economic sectors.
 

2. Focus on local public transport, bicycle traffic and urban logistics

During the three-day event, 55 participants, including representatives of municipal administrations and enterprises, civil society, business and academia from over 15 countries, discussed how they could shape the future urban mobility in terms of

  1. Local public transport: Local public transport operators around the world face an unprecedented decline in passenger numbers and, consequently, severe revenue losses due to the restrictions imposed to control the pandemic. In many cities, financing models had to be reconsidered and it is necessary to regain passengers’ trust and maintain the attractiveness of services.
  2. Bicycle traffic: The pandemic has underlined the need for more bike-friendly cities and can be an opportunity to rethink urban space and the role of cycling in urban mobility. Many municipalities promote active travel.
  3. Sustainable urban logistics: With growing e-commerce and an increasing number of goods deliveries in cities, freight movement within cities has to be adapted.

In her opening speech, Stefanie Holzwarth from UN-Habitat emphasised that “we have a window of opportunity to learn from this pandemic and to build back better by making our mobility systems more resilient and responsive to crises. We should aim to get out of this stronger and ready to address climate change, air pollution and road fatalities, because the world cannot accept any further delays!” Sergio Arredondo from the Latin American Federation of Cities, Municipalities and Municipal Associations (FLACMA), speaking on behalf of UCLG, reminded participants that it was not enough to continue to provide local transport services; they have to be provided in a healthy and safe manner. Around the world, municipalities were witnessing a bicycle revolution – which has to be reflected in future urban development and design. In a welcome speech, Bettina Gies from the event’s host city of Wiesbaden said that international exchange on urban mobility was crucial, because agile and active solutions were needed to tackle current and future urban mobility challenges.

After presenting thirteen examples of good practice in the areas of public transport, bicycle traffic and urban logistics, municipalities, civil society and private sector participants shared their related challenges, discussed them in peer-to-peer learning processes and jointly developed potential solutions. The challenges presented ranged from reducing e-commerce-related waste in the city of Taoyuan (Taiwan) and increasing citizens’ acceptance of bike lanes in Cuenca (Ecuador) to making public transport more attractive in terms of speed in Yerevan (Armenia) and increasing mutual appreciation and respect between different road users in Wiesbaden (Germany).