Category: Crisis Management

Building. Forward. Better

Posted on by erik

We look back on an eventful year. Hopes of getting the Corona pandemic under control quickly fizzled out. The World Climate Conference cast its shadow ahead, only to end with a mediocre result. Despite, or perhaps because of, these setbacks, experts at the municipal level intensified their cooperation to better meet the challenges of the pandemic and climate change. Our networks expanded, project proposals became more concrete, working groups more agile, and some “champion municipalities” are themselves doing much to move the networks forward. It is time to pause for a moment, look back and dare to look forward to the future. Our coordinators of the regional networks in South Eastern Europe, the MENA region and Sub-Saharan Africa describe this from their own personal perspective.

The Future of the Southeast Europe Region – by Irakli Samkharadze and Elene Samukashvili

As the year comes to a close Connective Cities Southeast European Region celebrates achievements of every concurrent Learning and Peer-exchange processes held with the support of urban practitioners, experts, consultancies and technical personnel from all over the world.

Activities under Learning Processes on Climate Resilient Urban Development and Sustainable Urban Energy Planning, underway in SEE region will continue into the upcoming year with an updated roadmap. We will proceed with expert missions, financial advisory and project proposals polishing support, in close synergy with financial institutions. This support will be provided for projects identified through Dialogue Events and Planning Workshops held in past two years.

In 2021 under Connective Cities COVID-19 Programme, Southeast European Region (SEE) gathered amazing and motivated professionals from all over the region who worked in two directions of Crisis Management and Digitalisation. As of new year, Programme Teams aims to maintain the close contact with the groups, through the Network, providing them with further news, updates and guidance.

As the network of the region is constantly expanding, planned activities are also amplifying and growing in their directions and frequency. 2022 promises to be a very active and highly engaging time for the network. Our topics include but are not limited to Sustainable Urban Development, Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, Urban Planning, Green Technologies, Infrastructure and recovery, Crisis management & Digitalisation, while also constantly looking into new directions according to preferences of Network Members and political Developments in the region.

Kontakt: Irakli Samkharadze (irakli.samkharadze@giz.de)

Sub-Saharan Africa – an outlook to 2022 – by Sophia Kamau

We have braved another year of virtual learning, networking and finding solutions to our urban challenges. Thank you for being part of this journey by sharing good practices, challenges, contacts and expertise.

We look over the skies into the endless opportunities that time gives and envision 2022. Based on the networks built, relationships established, and ideas exchanged, we would like to share our thoughts with you as we get into a reflective season.

In 2022 we will finalize the learning processes on urban basic services and sector governance and land management and land use planning. This will be through support to municipalities working on their proposals and those seeking expertise support. Through partnerships with like-minded institutions, we will have more opportunities to learn and exchange through the thematic working groups; solid waste management, urban green spaces, climate change and urban mobility.

We welcome you to join this community of transformers in the region.

From the Sub Saharan Africa desk, we appreciate your cooperation and wish you happy holidays!

Contacts: Sophia Kamau (sophia.kamau@giz.de)

Connective Cities in the MENA region: Champion Cities taking ownership of the network in 2022 – by Muna Shalan

Over the past year, the vibrant network of Connective Cities in the MENA region has grown and has intensified its activities: we are now at 235 registered members! To sustain the momentum and ensure the sustainability of the network, champion cities will take the lead in steering the activities of the different thematic working groups starting next year. This will include peer learning, good practice presentation and joint proposal development. Upon showcasing the outcomes of the activities in the planned regional event in January 2022, the network members will be able to nominate themselves or vote for the steering committee of the regional working groups that include local economic development and job creation, municipal energy efficiency projects, biodiversity and environmental protection, digitalisation of municipal services, social entrepreneurship and circular economy.

We are also looking forward for new partnerships with regional city associations in 2022. This includes our recently signed MoU with UCLG MEWA to strengthen decentralised regional cooperation.

Contact: Muna Shalan (muna.shalan@giz.de )

The Connective Cities Lab 2021 – Facts & Findings

Posted on by erik

Municipalities around the world are affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, Connective Cities organised a series of virtual formats to discuss and develop measures, challenges, and solutions to overcome the pandemic and support the municipal recovery.

The Connective Cities Lab – an online programme for urban practitioners and municipal experts – created an international exchange between 85 municipalities from 57 different countries worldwide to support the development of solutions and prototypes for local challenges.

With a total of 72 hours of programme, the following components were implemented and results achieved within the Connective Cities Lab.

Connective Cities Lab Nov 10th – 30th 2021

Posted on by erik

The Connective Cities Lab – an online programme for urban practitioners and municipal experts – created an international exchange between 85 municipalities from 57 different countries worldwide.

The “Connective Cities Lab” was designed as a complementary digital format to promote the international exchange between urban practitioners, tech enthusiasts and municipal stakeholders, that aimed to inspire the development of solutions for municipal recovery from the pandemic and to prepare participants to transfer their ideas into fundable projects.

Instead of exchange formats for sharing expertise and Good Practices, the CCLab 2021 focussed on in-depth formats – including the strengthening of existing capacities and facilitating a creative collaboration between Connective Cities Community members and global networks of innovators and data scientists.

The Capacity Strengthening Capsules were organized as preparation and knowledge base for further discussions. A total of nine challenges were initially formulated, further elaborated in a 3-day Design Thinking process and summarised in project outlines. An additional workshop provided insights on requirements in municipal funding proposals. Six of the nine digital challenges were tackled by interdisciplinary teams in a global virtual 48-hour hackathon and evaluated by a jury of experts.

The concept and results are documented in this report.

Crisis Management in Palestinian municipalities: in the sectors economy, health and education

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The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unique challenges to the public sector worldwide. Especially municipalities play a central role in fighting the pandemic. Increasingly, municipalities are also developing local strategies for the recovery and conceptualising post-pandemic measures.

Due to the constant emergency situation in the Palestinian Territories, coupled with the negative impact of the Corona pandemic, crisis management planning especially at the municipal level is perceived as a high priority. Therefore, and as part of the Connective Cities programme, 10 Palestinian municipalities:

  • Tullkaram,
  • Salfit,
  • Toubas,
  • Al Beera,
  • Beitunia,
  • Jericho  
  • Halhoul,
  • Beit Jala,
  • Bani Naim,
  • and Dura

have come together in 3 working groups to work out solutions for their common crisis management challenges as follows:

Working Group 1: Crisis Management in the Education Sector

Municipalities: Tullkaram, Salfit, Toubas, Beit Jala

Working Group 2: Crisis Management in the Health Sector

Municipalities: Bani Naim, Halhul, AlDura

Working Group 3: Crisis Management in the Local Economy Sector

Municipalities: ElBeera, Bitunia, Jericho

The working groups have worked throughout the past 3 months with the support of national experts on developing various prototypes, projects ideas as well as sharing their good practices in crisis management in the different sectors. The efforts of the working groups resulted in the following products:

The Working Group focussing on the education sector developed a prototype which provides a model for organizational structure for an emergency management cell at the municipal level with clear mandates and roles for different involved units at the municipalities. The prototype proposes practical guidelines on how to structure an emergency management cell at times of crises with the existing units of the municipalities and how to involve various actors in the cell. Further, the working group drafted a project idea which is aimed at the development of an Emergency fund. The fund is to be institutionalized as part of the educational tax collected by the municipality and shall cover educational interventions and support for schools. Membership of the fund shall come from various community representatives. The municipalities of the working group developed and drafted this idea jointly.

The second working group, concentrating on the health sector, created an outline for how to include crisis management as part of strategic planning of municipalities. The task force is developing an additional chapter for a manual for municipal strategic planning, focusing on practical guidelines of crisis management. In addition, the municipalities drafted jointly a project idea, which targets the establishment of a Crisis Management Fund – allocated for municipalities to support the system during crisis situations.

Crisis management in the local economy sector was covered by the third working group. This group has also worked on a prototype, concluding in an organizational matrix for Crisis Management planning in the various units of local governments. The matrix proposes specific actions to be taken by each unit in the municipality during the 3 phases of crises management – pre, during and post crisis. As project idea the group focused on strengthening the role and capabilities of the local economic development unit (LED) in municipal crisis management to assist in crisis. The process includes carrying out an inventory of economic damage and collecting and analyzing key economic data during crises in cooperation with the relevant parties.

The undertakings of Connective Cities and its working groups were a cooperation with and endorsement of activities by the Government of Palestinian Territories and Association of Palestinian Local Authorities APLA. The municipalities and APLA are interested to further build on innovative approaches in cooperation with Connective Cities.

All data (recordings of workshops) of the different working groups has been shared on our Connective Cities Community and can be accessed as registered member. For more insights into the developments of the working groups, watch our YouTube movie and please visit our YouTube Kanal.

Crisis management in Palestinian municipalities

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As part of the activities of the working group “Emergency response and crisis management for Palestinian municipalities”, the kick-off workshop was held on the 12th– 14th October 2021.  The municipal representatives who are members of this working group were introduced to the Connective Cities project and its network, the project methodology and approach and agreed on the working group’s action plan.

Nasser Sheikh Ali (a local consultant on crisis management) started the kickoff workshop with a brief introduction in which he explained the definition of crises. He indicated that any unexpected global event is a crisis in that sense that it causes instability and activates an emergency situation. As such, the Covid-19 pandemic is an example of a crisis.

As part of the workshop, the working group members conceptualized the challenges based on the indicators with the support of the national experts. Municipal plan on crisis management will be achieved on 6 stages: the theoretical framework for crises, segmental diagnosis, municipal role in all stages of the crises, real-time requirements, a successful Palestinian model in crisis management, and how to determine the project ideas. International municipalities will be involved in the future activities. Two follow-up workshops are planned on the 23rd and 24th October 2021.

Workshop’s recording and presentation

Press coverage and media report (in Arabic)

First Response Mechanisms, Fake News and Crisis Communication

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Working group of crisis management, consisting of urban practitioners from 14 municipalities across 9 countries: Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine, commenced its work on 20th September 2021 with Kick-off meeting.

Considering that this initiative comes as part of Connective Cities COVID-19 Programme and its objective is to support cities’ resilience during and after COVID-19, working group had embarked on a journey of rigorous analysis and discussions on matters and issues most relevant to their realities, worsened due to pandemic.

Process of work for the group consisted of homework being prepared for each session, depicting various scenarios of crises, disasters, their solution schemes as well as plans that could have been internalized by institutions for future preparedness.

During the session’s topics of Disaster Risk Reduction, First Response Mechanisms, Fake News and Crisis Communication were featured as important structures and knowledge basis for participants to take into account in their everyday works.

As work in the sessions continued, group members had jointly worked on the list of challenges, they considered important, such as lack of resources invested in piloting of appropriate technologies, contingency plans or in support of most vulnerable groups or even establishments such as SMEs. After compiling a comprehensive catalogue of challenges, participants were asked to focus on coming up with initiatives that would come as interventions dealing with issues indexed before. Participants were later using S.M.A.R.T. scheme for assessment of initiatives and solutions they have come forward with.

As a consequence of this series of workshops on guided peer-to-peer exchange, involved urban practitioners gained, tremendous experience in coming up with action plans, they learned methods and outlets of effective crisis communications, while also gaining some theoretical practice in potential risk and loss assessment.

Sessions in Retrospect

Working Group has met on four occasions, allowing members to present their initiatives, projects and thoughts on establishing elaborate crisis response mechanisms in their respective municipalities.

Workshop I: identification of crisis management, resilience and Covid-19 response challenges

Workshop II: analysis and definition of the challenges based on experiences, knowledge transfer and international discussion

Workshop III Crisis Management Southeast Europe (SEE): Prioritisation and solutions scan

Workshop IV Crisis Management in Southeast Europe (SEE): Identification of cities’ future initiative

Call for Participation: Join the Connective CitiesCity Lab

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A open and flexible online program for local municipal employees and urban practitioners around the world.

Municipalities around the world are affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, Connective Cities is organising a series of virtual formats to discuss and develop measures, challenges, and solutions to overcome the pandemic and support the municipal recovery.

By joining the Connective Cities Lab, you get full access to international experts and urban practitioners from other cities, who will support you to develop solutions and prototypes to the challenges you are working on in your local community.

Successful Launch of Crisis Management working group in Southeast Europe (SEE)

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On 20 September, the working group of crisis management, consisting of urban practitioners from 14 municipalities across 9 countries in Southeast Europe (SEE), was set in motion.  The Event gathered 22 participants from Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine. The kick-off introduced participants to the work plan, designed by two international experts, who will be leading the effort and learning process of the group. The event was also dedicated to familiarizing group members with one another and their common challenges or interests in the field of crisis management.

This initiative is part of Connective Cities COVID-19 programme and its objective is to strengthen the cities’ resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing capacity-building activities in the direction of crisis management. For reaching this objective a working group is formed with several primary aims:

  1. identification of crisis management, resilience and Covid-19 response challenges in participating municipalities,
  2. analysis and definition of the challenges based on experiences, knowledge transfer and international discussion,
  3. solutions scan, assessment of resources and support of municipalities in development of applicable actions.

This working group will also allow participants to learn from each other and build a peer network with similar initiatives, giving space for potential future collaborations.

Programme

After a short welcome and insight into this year’s Connective Cities COVID-19 programme, Dr. Irakli Samkharadze, Regional Coordinator, GIZ gave word to representatives of Policy and Management Consulting Group (PMCG),  a consultancy agency managing two COVID response working groups in SEE region, who introduced the timeline and the international experts who would be working with the participants throughout the following three months.

Afterwards, the action plan of the group and its goals were introduced by the international consultants Mr. Edmunds Akitis and Mr. Sjirk Meijer. They set the scene for upcoming activities and explained the general methodology and tools to be used during the working process of the group.

As a getting to know each other activity, every urban practitioner participating in the event was given spotlight to introduce themselves, their municipalities and challenges they have come across during their work related to dealing with crises.

Finally, three upcoming workshop dates and themes were agreed upon by the members of the group. These workshops (in the form of presenting ideas and best practices, including the round table discussions) will be a combination of knowledge transfer and stepwise working towards the programme of projects exploiting the crisis management cycle – prevention, preparedness, response and recovery.

The recording of the Kick-off event can be found here.

Outlook

In the coming weeks planned workshops will take place on following occasions:

Workshop 1: identification of crisis management, resilience and Covid-19 response challenges

Workshop 2: analysis and definition of the challenges based on experiences, knowledge transfer and international discussion

A new normality: unforeseen climate-related risks

Posted on by erik

As part of the virtual series Insight Sessions: (Post) COVID Urban Futures, the event “The importance of disaster preparedness in cities and municipalities: experiences and lessons learned” took place on September, 1st 2021. The series facilitates a recurring exchange on various topics of sustainable urban development in the (Post) COVID-19 era between urban practitioners and interested parties worldwide. In the exchange formats, space is created for impulses and reflection and good practices are presented.

Considering the recent flood events in Germany in July, the session discussed global challenges and lessons learned from devastating flood events around the globe. Practitioners and experts from the field of urban planning exchanged ideas on how cities can better prepare for extreme weather events, improve early warning systems and increase public awareness of disaster risks.

Programme

In the first keynote speech “Cities and Flooding – Integrated urban flood risk management”, Abhas K. Jha, Practice Manager, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, South Asia Region at World Bank, discussed the challenges and possible courses of action in dealing with climate related risks of unprecedented and therefore unpredictable magnitude – so-called Black Swan Events. He stressed the importance of functioning (early) warning systems and their continuous further development as well as interdepartmental agreements within the authorities so that they can react appropriately in the event of a disaster.

In her keynote address “Reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience of cities to climate change impacts”, Dr. Koko Warner, UNFCC, spoke about the increasing risks worldwide due to global warming of more than 1.5 °C, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts. The importance of adaptation measures in municipalities and regions was particularly emphasized.

Both emphasized the importance of green infrastructure solutions in contrast to the expansion of grey infrastructure such as floodwalls and dikes. Sponge cities in Bangladesh were presented as an exemplary good practice, in which falling or inflowing water masses are absorbed by unsealed surfaces.

The two presentations were followed by a panel discussion of the experts William Mazibuko, Director of Disaster Management, City of Johannesburg, South Africa, Markus Sulk, Team Leader, Vocational Rescue Service, Fire Brigade Dortmund, Germany and Karma Dupchu, Director of the National Centre for Hydrology and Meteorology, Royal Government of Buthan on the topic “Good Practices and challenges in municipal flood risk management worldwide”.

Recording

You can find the recording of the event here: Insight Session: The importance of disaster preparedness in cities and municipalities | Connective Cities Network 

Call for participants: Risk informed urban development

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Are you an urban representative, employee of a municipality or an urban practitioner from a NGO, university, research unity, or other working directly with cities administrations in a low- or middle-income country? You want to work towards a flood risk informed urban development and would like to apply for the City Climate Finance Gap Fund?

Join our working group and:

  • Get introduced to the City Climate Finance Gap Fund and what it offers
  • Profit from peer-to-peer consultations and jointly work on challenges, project ideas and expressions of interest with your peers
  • Learn from good practice examples of international cities working on risk management
  • Receive individual expert’s advice on your ideas
  • Benefit from a strong cooperation with UNFCCC, UNDRR and the WorldBank
  • Profit from different capacity building measure to improve your skills and understanding of risk informed urban development

European cities have experienced flooding many times in history, however, the scale and numbers of losses of life from the flooding in July 2021 have been devastating. Hitting the long safely imagined temperate zone, the events reveal the importance and urgency of discussing measures to enhance disaster preparedness, strengthen resilience and enhancing preparedness in cities around the globe. The need of cities worldwide to adapt to a changing climate and an increasing number of extreme weather events is more prominent than ever to save lives, reduce economic losses and protect critical infrastructure. The competences and institutional capacities of policy- and decision-makers need to be strengthened to address risks.

Within the working group on risked informed urban development, which will be hosted jointly by the Global Initiative Disaster Risk Management (GIDRM) and Connective Cities, cities will work together towards handing in their expressions of interest for the City Climate Finance Gap Fund by peer-to-peer exchanges, learning from good practice examples and profiting from individual experts’ advice. Specific topics of the project ideas may include public sensitization for disaster management, risk assessment and communication, risk governance, as well as other scopes depending on the participating cities’ needs.

You are interested in becoming part of the joint GIDRM and Connective Cities working group on risk informed urban development? Please consider the following steps:

Join the working group online: Risk informed urban development | Connective Cities Network

Join the first meeting: 12 October 2021, 14:00-15:00 CET

For further requests, do not hesitate to contact Karl-Heinz Gaudry (karl-heinz.gaudrysada@giz.de) or Ricarda Meissner (ricarda.meissner@giz.de).