- DE |
- EN
Mitrovica Municipality (Kosovo) exchanged expertise with international municipal practitioners on engaging the informal waste sector in a three-part series of online events
As it is not possible to organise expert missions on site in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Municipality of Mitrovica took the opportunity to engage in online discussions with experts from Germany, Belo Horizonte (Brazil) and Quito (Ecuador). The topic of the exchange was the establishment of an organisation for informal waste collectors in the city. Mitrovica had formulated this project idea during the Connective Cities dialogue event on plastic waste, which took place in December 2019 in Hamburg.
From September to November 2020, Connective Cities organised three online sessions to facilitate peer-to-peer consultation and discussion of the project idea among international experts. The first session kicked off the series of events and served to introduce the participating municipal experts to each other. In addition, Mitrovica presented its project idea in detail. Accordingly, they then formulated the expertise they require from the international experts to take their project idea to the next level. This in turn could be aligned with the existing knowledge of the participating experts from Germany, Brazil and Ecuador. This laid the foundation for the exchange of expertise in the following two sessions.
The second online event focused on the presentation of international good practices. Belo Horizonte presented its learning experiences in organising the informal waste sector. Thanks to the Brazilian city's decades of experience in this area, sustainable and proven solutions could be presented. Subsequently, the extent to which the findings from Belo Horizonte can be applied in Mitrovica and how the city can make use of them was discussed with all the participating experts. The discussion focused on the three topics "Establishing collaboration structures between the municipality and informal waste collectors", "Forms of organisation and legal aspects" and "Social inclusion and welfare issues".
Mitrovica used the final online session to present a roadmap for the planned activities in 2021 and beyond, which they had formulated after the second online session. It includes, among other things, a survey among informal collectors to obtain basic socio-economic data and information on the types and quantities of waste being collected.
In conclusion, this new virtual format for expert missions, which prior to the pandemic where organised on site, has proven to offer interesting opportunities to involve an even wider range of municipal experts. The diverse perspectives of the participants from Germany, Kosovo and the two South American countries Brazil and Ecuador enriched the exchange and consultation among colleagues.
As Mr. Bernardo Ribeiro from the City of Belo Horizonte said in his closing words to his colleagues from Mitrovica: “Congratulations on the fantastic effort [up until now] and we wish all success in the world in Mitrovica!”.
Belo Horizonte renewed its offer to continue to provide advisory support to Mitrovica in the future.
------------------------------------------------------
Further information: Presentation "Good Practice in Solid Waste Management and Working Together with the Informal Sector Belo Horizonte, Brazil" [pdf, 4,3mb]
