Category: Good Urban Governance

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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Climate Resilience and Urban Development

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Many cities in the Latin American region have been pioneers in the implementation of environmental measures and policies, as well as in resilience building and adaptation of their territories to the incre- asing effects of climate change. Planning for the future is key for the well-being of our communities, and we need to continue working with and for them in order to mitigate and adapt to the impact that climate change will continue to have on our territories in the coming decades.

This peer-learning note summarizes good practices of Latin American cities with a focus on four different thematic areas: risk assessment, comprehensive planning, finance, and citizen engagement. The practices were discussed during our ConnectiveCities peer-learning event hosted by the city of Niteroi, Brazil between November 26-28, 2019.

More information: 

• Read the Peer Learning Note 26 about Climate Resilience and Urban Development in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.
• Short documentation with all presentations and pictures of the events

15 Pathways to localise the Sustainable Development Goals

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This publication illustrates how the 15 pathways of the Basque Declaration can be used by towns and cities to localise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In this publication, the 15 pathways of the Basque Declaration are illustrated with stories taken from the Transformative Action database of the Sustainable Cities Platform. Each of these stories are former applications to the Transformative Action Award 2017-2019 and have been reviewed by a jury of experts, which includes representatives from the European Committee of the Regions, the European Investment Bank, UNESCO Etxea, the City of Aalborg (Denmark) and ICLEI Europe.

The purpose of these stories is to provide local governments and other local stakeholders with inspiration for action, rather than the formulation of yet another action plan. The examples also give insight into how to implement the goals using an integrated approach across sectors and departments. For each story, the most relevant pathway and SDGs are indicated, based on an independent assessment by ICLEI Europe. They show the diversity of approaches across topics, geographical locations and local cultures.

The Power of Cities

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“The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified urbanization as one of the key challenges for public health in the 21st century. It is typically discussed in negative terms, including infectious outbreaks, unhealthy lifestyles and environmental threats. Yet cities offer significant opportunities to improve public health through health-enhancing policies and actions. […] City leaders are key allies in delivering national public health objectives among large parts of the population. City leaders have the means, opportunity and obligation to protect the health and well-being of their people by defining priorities, uniting stakeholders around common goals, and ensuring accountability for outcomes. City leaders’ commitment is important not just for the health of cities, but for global health as a whole. […] Cities are the main implementation sites for national health policies and programmes – without their support, global targets are unlikely to be achieved. This report is a call for city leaders to rise to the challenge and show the world how local action can help solve global health problems.”

Resilient cities, thriving cities: The evolution of urban resilience

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“This report uses the decade-long experience of the Resilient Cities Congress series as a proxy to track the evolution of the global resilience debate over the last ten years, creating a solid base to build the next decade of bold action.
It explores a variety of resilience approaches; for example, how multi-stakeholder planning has contributed to finance and boosted local resilience, or how leveraging nature-based solutions has enabled cities’ adaptation to climate change and improved people’s quality of life. The report also provides successful examples of social cohesion benefitting physical resilience, especially in informal settlements.”