Overview

As a second milestone of the learning process ‘Action for Cool Cities - Pathways for carbon reduction in buildings and improvement of outdoor thermal comfort’, Connective Cities organised the ideation and prototyping workshop that was held in Amman - Jordan on the 7^th-9^th March 2023. Participating municipalities engaged in peer learning and technical advisory to ideate and envision prototypes for solutions to optimise municipal practices and projects related to mainstreaming climate consideration in municipal urban planning. The following thematic fields were under focus:

1. Designing climate-responsive outdoor public spaces and promoting engagement of citizens

2. Steering Structure: Interdepartmental Communication framework/platform in municipalities

3. Optimizing existing building and urban design regulations by introducing key performance indicators and improving in-house capacity to drive change

4. The role of municipality as a regulator and implementer: budget analysis and strategies for cost recovery of climate action measures

Keynotes

The workshop kicked off with an opening and welcome speech from the senior programme manager of Connective Cities (Ricarda Meissner) as well as the head of the environment and climate portfolio at GIZ Jordan (Christiana Hageneder) welcoming the participants. This was followed by a keynote speech by Akram Khraisat (director of the urban observatory in Greater Amman Municipality) on the local achievements for climate action in the city. In his keynote

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Results

Starting with the identification of the main stages of each project, the participants within their groups focused on specific case studies to develop ideas for prototyping.   This process included the identification of actions, resource and inputs, decision gates, as well as necessary documents and assumptions that will influence prototyping the ideas.

Most participants shared similar challenges in existing strategies and steering structures and agreed that changes in steering structures and communication strategies were highly needed to improve status quo, as well as implementing or enforcing relevant laws and regulations. Furthermore, participants highlighted the need for awareness campaigns and skill development workshops, as well as engaging different sectors into the process.

As a pre-final step, participants have reached out to experts within their respective municipalities to present their ideas and validate it based on their feedback. Finally, the participants presented their ideas using one of the following methods: storytelling, role playing, mini video, or a photo.

Participation in the second module of the learning process ‘Action for Cool Cities’ enabled the municipalities to share experiences, develop their capacities, and develop ideas for prototyping in their municipalities, which include:

• Urban Park Prototype in Bab Amman – Jordan and El Kef – Tunisia
• Green Infrastructure Prototype – Irbid – Jordan
• The Citizen’s sphere: Digitalisation of Municipal Services in Jendouba – Tunisia
• Sustainability and Climate Change Unit in the municipality of Hebron – Palestine
• Regional Park Prototype in Khan Younis – Palestine
• Auji Creek Prototype: urban cooling and flood risk mitigation in Kisumu – Kenya
• The next stage of the learning process will give a chance to these municipalities to test and optimize the envisioned prototypes.