Category: COVID-19

Call for participants: Experiences with contact tracing and outbreak management

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This event is part of our series International exchange of experiences: lessons learned in the Covid-19 crisis , and brings German municipal experts together with international actors to discuss how municipal administration can act to improve the response to the current crisis. Among other issues, this dialog will discuss good practices of contact tracing and outbreak management. Practice examples will be presented by experts from Germany and abroad. The overall aim of the event is to achieve a joint exchange of experiences and to develop ideas for cooperation.

Date: 28th September 2020
Time: 13:00 – 15:30 (CEST)

Please find more information in our Call for participants (pdf).

If you have any queries about the event and the participation process, we encourage you to contact:

Alexander Wagner 
alexander.wagner@engagement-global.de
Telefon +49 (0)228-20717-455

Thiago Garcia
thiago.garcia@engagement-global.de
Telefon +49 (0)228-20717-633

Call for participants: Local Economic Development and Job Creation in MENA

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Beyond the Immediate Response to the Economic Impacts of the Pandemic

The international cities platform, Connective Cities and its initiators, the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the German Association of Cities (Deutscher Städtetag) and Engagement Global GmbH with its Service Agency Communities in One World (SKEW), invite urban practitioners from the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) and Germany to take part in the virtual dialogue event “Local Economic Development and Job Creation” from 29th September to 07th October 2020.

Thematic focus of the virtual dialogue event:

The Connective Cities virtual dialogue event on will focus on the following subtopics:

  1. Strategic planning for LED: guiding a participatory LED process that encourages partnership arrangements and inclusive representation; mobilizing strategic partnerships with the private sector and investors to access alternative financing mechanisms; enabling the joint design and implementation of a common development strategy; using local resources and competitive advantages to create a resilient locality.
  2. Promoting sustainable livelihood opportunities and social enterprise: implementing livelihood programs to enhance entrepreneurship skills and support the establishment of microbusinesses; contributing to social cohesiveness and conflict prevention through decent job creation for local communities.
  3. Public investments in green infrastructure and circular economies: creating decent jobs and revenues for localities through the investment in green infrastructure and circular economy; transformation towards green economy.

Objectives and Methodology

This virtual dialogue event is the first component of the Connective Cities learning process on LED and job creation and it aims at promoting the exchange of expertise on good practices for planning and implementing LED and job creation programs in cities in MENA. It thus facilitates practice-oriented exchange and peer-to-peer consultations among municipal actors on effective solutions to address challenges related to LED and job creation in their local realities. Through its virtual format, the dialogue event enables sharing of a broad variety of information synchronously as well as asynchronously, while ensuring the ease of communication between the participants. Interaction will take place using a variety of tools and the discussions will be recorded for future reference.
The objectives of the dialogue event include:

  • Facilitating exchange of know-how and experience on good practices through peer-to-peer consultation among urban practitioners from MENA and Germany;
  • Developing the capacity of participants to analyse and overcome challenges of implementing LED and job creation programs;
  • Determining future support needed for projects, which includes support from the Connective Cities International Community of Practice for Sustainable Urban Development.

Participation and Contact

Prospective participants are expected to provide a good practice example from a project they implemented or are currently implementing fitting the thematic focus of the event. We particularly encourage showcasing of good practices that incorporate gender- and/or climate-sensitive solutions.
The deadline for application is 11st September 2020.

For further details see: Call for participants [pdf 4 pages]

For applications and queries from interested experts from the MENA region, please contact: Dr. Muna Shalan, GIZ Regional Network Coordinator Connective Cities – MENA region (muna.shalan@giz.de).
Interested German experts should contact Ms. Alice Balbo, Connective Cities Project Manager at the German Association of Cities (alice.balbo@staedtetag.de).

Connective Cities and the COVID-19 pandemic

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Dear experts and colleagues,

many municipalities around the world are currently facing many challenges, some of which were identified as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic, some other existing challenges were also negatively affected and increased their complexity and urgency. In view of the prolonged necessity of social distancing and several travel restrictions that persist in many places, our upcoming events will be offered in various virtual formats until further notice. Face-to-face events and activities will be considered for a later stage, until such options are possible.

The knowledge and experience exchange amongst peers shall continue with regional and thematic focus in accordance with current situation and needs. In addition to the established Connective Cities methodology the new formats offer several new virtual tools, that can strengthen the joint development of new ideas and practical solutions for current challenges. More information about upcoming events will be announced through our usual communication channels.

The Connective Cities Team

Series of virtual events on local climate leadership in times of COVID-19

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The GIZ project “Climate Policy Meets Urban Development” is organizing a series of three online-seminars on local climate action in times of #COVID19. The series will kick off with its first online-seminar on 7 July 2020, 3-4 pm (CEST/UTC+2). The session will introduce Germany’s multi-level governance framework with a focus on the German National Climate Initiative (NCI) and its mechanisms to foster local climate projects.

Session 2 on maintstreaming climate projects into city governance frameworks and session 3 on steering local climate leadership trough collaborative action will take place on 1 September and 5 October. 

More Info

Call for participants: Municipal Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

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A series of virtual events will be organised with the focus on municipal response to the pandemic. This municipal knowledge-exchange activity aims at analysing and discussing practical examples from municipalities in MENA, Sub Saharan Africa and Germany. The event will thus provide a platform for learning how to plan, manage and evaluate effective measures to curb the impacts of the pandemic. It will also be possible to discuss individual questions with urban practitioners. Municipal representatives from both political and technical levels are invited to participate in the exchange.

Thematic focus of the events

1. Public health and municipal administrative processes:

All countries evoked the public health legal framework and the WHO guidelines to enforce measures to reduce the spread of the virus. Nevertheless, the pandemic has revealed shortcomings in municipal capacities to overcome its implications. Investing in digitalizing municipal administrative processes, IT systems as well as the overall healthcare infrastructure is being prioritized by many localities. Countries have also applied a combination of measures and technologies to monitor and control the situation at both the local and national levels. This session will focus on the possible strategies and measures implemented by public health and administrative municipal actors.

2. Municipal service delivery including water, sanitation and solid waste management:

Maintaining high standards of hygiene requires adequate provision of urban services such as water, sanitation and solid waste management which are key in combatting the spread of the virus. In many regions, the pandemic has heightened the existing shortcomings in the provision of these services. Some municipalities have provided temporal measures in order to improve the service delivery. Urban informal settlements in particular, are struggling with the situation, especially where social distancing rules cannot be effectively enforced. This session will focus on municipal service providers in the water and sanitation sectors.

3. Economic impact:

The pandemic has negatively impacted the economy on all levels. Most countries resolved to partial or complete lock down that resulted in paralyzing many economic sectors. It is in those cities that imposed the strictest lock down measures that the negative economic impacts are most apparent as per initial observations. A significant part of the labour markets in developing countries is informal and is comprised of daily wagers who have suffered immensely from the lockdown measures that impacted their livelihoods and ability to pay for services. These measures have also had a negative impact on the revenue stream for the municipalities. On the flip side, some economic sectors are witnessing growth. For example, many cities are relying on local manufacturing enterprises to produce medical equipment like masks, protective gear and ventilators which they would import in the past. This session will focus on possible measures to cushion the negative economic impacts of the pandemic on the local level.

More information: Call for Participants

Contact

If you wish to participate kindly email Dr. Muna Shalan (muna.shalan@giz.de) for MENA region, Sophia Kamau (sophia.kamau@giz.de) for Sub Saharan Africa and Alex Wagner (Alexander.Wagner@engagement-global.de) or Thiago Garcia (Thiago.Garcia@engagement-global.de) for German cities and counterparts

German-Turkish Municipal Partnership Conference

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In cooperation with the German Association of Cities and Towns (Deutscher Städtetag) together with the Association of Turkish Municipalities (Türkiye Belediyeler Birliği, TBB) and with the support of the city of Istanbul (Istanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi, IBB), the German representations in Turkey are planning a two-day German-Turkish municipal partnership conference in Istanbul in the second half of 2020. The municipal partnership conference is intended to identify mutual issues and challenges as well as successful approaches for project cooperation.

As a kick-off to the German-Turkish municipal partnership conference, a virtual pre-conference will take place from 15 to 18 June 2020. Topics of the technical workshops are:

  1. Digital City
  2. Sustainable urban development
  3. The role of municipalities in protecting marginalised groups and refugees in the COVID 19 crisis
  4. Youth exchanges in municipal partnerships

Please refer to the conference announcement (in German) for further information on registration, programme and technical requirements. 

Application: Award of the Carl and Anneliese Goerdeler Foundation 2021

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Topic: Exemplary measures to overcome the corona induced crisis

In memory of his municipal governance work of Carl Goerdeler as the Lord Mayor of the City of Leipzig as well as his opposition to the Nazi-Regime, Carl and Anneliese Goerdeler Foundation has established since 2015 an annual practice-oriented “Award for municipal governance of the Carl and Anneliese Goerdeler Foundation” to recognize outstanding practical achievements of municipal administrations. The award is intended to serve the peaceful cooperation of municipalities and municipal alliances that brings people together, especially in Europe (as defined by the Council of Europe) and beyond. At the same time, mutual learning for the benefit of the inhabitants is to be promoted.

The call for proposals is also in the context of the activities of the Connective Cities project, which is being carried out as a cooperation between the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Engagement Global gGmbH / Service Agency Communities in One World and the German Association of Cities. Implementation partners include selected regional and national city associations in Africa, America, Europe and Asia and their member cities. The project is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Content description and target group

The prize serves to honour outstanding achievements (“best practices”) in local government or regional communities of responsibility, if necessary also involving civil society forces. The award is intended to honour cooperation between municipalities or municipal alliances with the participation of a German municipality or municipal alliances. The cooperation should have taken place in areas relevant to the management of the pandemic (e.g. health, civil protection, security, urban services, mobility, schools/education, economic development or similar). This should have sustainable positive effects in the following areas: strengthening civil society and/or social cohesion, improving services of general interest, modernising public administration, strengthening economic power, promoting European and global integration.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Application is open until the 31th of Oktober 2020

More about the award:

Kommunalpolitischer Preis der Carl und Anneliese Goerdeler-Stiftung 2021
[pdf, 190 kb, in German only]

www.publicgovernance.de/goerdelerpreis

Call for participants: Climate Resilient Urban Development in South East Europe and the Caucasus region

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Responding to climate change plays a crucial role today in sustainable urban development policies worldwide. The Southeast European region is no way exception being heavily impacted by growing trend of urbanisation. This is now coupled with the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 affecting the lifestyles of cities and municipalities, which need to adapt to more innovative and agile ways of working for future crises responses. Against this background, the international cities platform – Connective Cities cordially invites municipalities & urban practitioners to take part in the unprecedented and unique experience: Connective Cities Virtual Event: “Climate Resilient Urban Development” on 8-19 June 2020.

Bring your initial urban project idea and we will incubate it within 2 weeks of digital experience where you can expect to listen to inspiring keynote presentations from leading European scientists and share insights with your peers in carefully curated Peer2Peer collaboration and exchange formats. During asynchronous and synchronous workshops, you will learn how to collaborate digitally and get acquainted with tools, methods and the overall mindset Design Thinking that helps you to be more innovative and successful.

Check out our Call for Participants for more details and apply by 17 May 2020. The invite is predominantly open for the countries fitting under the EU’s reginal dimension of Eastern Partnership and Western Balkans

More information in the Call for Participants [pdf, 1,89mb].

Concerning the questions from international applicants on the event and the participation process, please contact: Mr. Irakli Samkharadze, GIZ Regional Network Coordinator Connective Cities – Southeast Europe. Tbilisi, Georgia (irakli.samkharadze@giz.de)

Interested German experts should contact Ms. Alice Balbo, Connective Cities Project Manager at the German Association of Cities (Alice.Balbo@staedtetag.de)

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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