In the wake of the Pandemic, municipalities in the MENA region in both urban and rural areas need to rethink their modes of operation and accelerate their shift towards building resilience during the recovery process. In an effort to support municipalities that are members of the Connective Cities network in the MENA region, four thematic working groups were established as part of Connective Cities program ‘Municipal Recovery from the Pandemic.’ Objectives of this working group include promoting practice–oriented knowledge exchange between municipal and urban practitioners, facilitating peer learning on sustainable and innovative approaches to build resilience in cities through biodiversity and environmental protection, digitalisation of municipal services, and promoting social entrepreneurship for circularity. The program has resulted in the development of concrete urban solutions. Another outcome was the creation of partnerships between municipalities as well as with private sector actors to articulate the proposed solutions and scale up the impact. This report summarizes the main achievements until February 2022.
Category: Integrated urban development
Planning by doing – Tactical Urbanism during the COVID-19 pandemic
On 16 February 2022 Connective Cities invited three experts on tactical urbanism to share their insights with over 55 participants from Jordan, Ukraine, Nepal, Germany, Namibia, Burkina-Faso, Congo RDC and Spain, among others. In the one-and-a-half-hour session the benefits of using tactical urbanism as a new approach to shaping the urban space were presented via examples form Barcelona, New Delhi, Chennai, Kochi and Coimbatore. Particularly noteworthy was the great interest shown by practitioners from city administration, especially from German municipalities, who were astonished that radical planning approaches can be implemented in large cities without major judicial disputes. The event forms part of the series “Insight Sessions: (Post-)COVID Urban Futures”, which facilitates recurring exchange on various topics of sustainable urban development in the (post-)COVID-19 era. The brief and concise format of exchange is intended to initiate reflection and present innovative solutions to local challenges.
Quito: not returning to the “old normal” after Covid-19
In Quito, many people have started travelling by bike during the Covid-19 pandemic. This momentum has to be used to change people’s mobility behaviour also in the long-term.
Call for participants: Insight Session – Urban Safety for Women and Girls
Safer public spaces for women and girls mean safer public spaces for everyone. On 8th March 2022 we celebrate International Women’s Day, and Connective Cities is seeking this opportunity to inspire urban practitioners worldwide to strengthen a gender sensitive approach in their city planning.
Urban public spaces as well as public transport were mostly designed by and to accommodate the needs of men. A lot of them are not fit for women’s needs or pose a threat to women’s safety, their design complicates everyday lives and reduces possibilities to engage in community life. Therefore, if possible, a lot of times these urban areas are avoided by women.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated these existing gender inequalities in various aspects. At the same time, this crisis can be an opportunity to make urban planning more equitable and sustainable. Participatory approaches provide great opportunities to include voices and their ideas in urban planning that might have been unheard in the past. A rich community life and democratic urban societies can only thrive if public spaces are safe and functional for all citizens to meet and engage.
Objectives
As part of our virtual global exchange series “Insight Sessions: (Post)-COVID Urban Futures”, the Insight Session on “Urban Safety for Women and Girls – Strategies for safer public spaces in Cities” aims to discuss the design and policy strategies for safer public spaces for women and girls. The objective is to inspire the participating urban practitioners to address women and girls in their urban planning.
Participation and contact
We herewith kindly invite you to participate in the upcoming Insight Session taking place on Wednesday, 9th March 2022, 15:00 – 16:30 CET. The event is addressed to urban practitioners from local governments as well as from academia, the private sector and civil society. The conference language is English.
Further information and enrolment here: https://community.connective-cities.net/de/node/1141
If you have any further questions about the programme or your participation, please do not hesitate to contact us:
lina.kratz@giz.de / paulina.koschmieder@giz.de
Date: Wednesday, 9th March 2022 | 15:00 – 16:30 (CET, Berlin time)
Location: Virtual Event on Connective Cities Community
https://community.connective-cities.net/de/node/1141
Conference Tool: Big Blue Button (best operated with Chrome or Firefox)
Conferrence language: English
Call for participants: How to promote locally-driven knowledge networks for climate neutral city development solutions
“How to assure a locally-driven and knowledge network-oriented approach to Climate neutral City Development?” is one of the key questions the 2nd Green City Pioneers of Change Workshop will provide answers to. Join us in this 2nd Pioneer-Event and register here!
As part of the Connective Cities’ recovery program on “Municipal response to COVID-19” the topical cluster “Green Urban Development” is currently working on synergies between mobility and urban space solutions involving cities like e.g. Kigali, Kisumu, Hamburg, Hanoi, Dortmund, Belo Horizonte, Kochi, Lalitpur, Quito, and Buenos Aires.
The cluster wants to encourage an exchange between Green City Pioneers of Change which involves, apart from peer-learning between the above-mentioned cities, two public events.
The first of the two planned Green City Pioneers of Change Workshops was conducted on 19. January 2022. It focused on the presentation of inspirational international practices and encouraged a reflection among city pioneers on how to promote first green initiatives and the role of pioneers in facilitating them (see video and case documentation here).
This 2nd Green City Pioneers of Change Workshop on 25 February 2022 will focus on the reflection of critical success criteria for the promotion of bottom-up approaches to Climate neutral City Development. The cities cooperating in the cluster and the experts facilitating the cluster will share their efforts and their way of learning in
- the creation of local knowledge networks that integrate young researchers und local universities, change makers in the local administration, existing firms and start-ups with new business models
- promoting several smaller “learning by doing” and implementation-oriented initiatives that are becoming building blocks for a more systemic transformation approach in the respective cities.
Based on the presentation of these concrete experiences we will reflect with the participants in an interactive way on the need and ways to promote a locally versus mainly externally driven approach to Climate neutral City Development.
Join us in this 2nd City Pioneer of Change Event! Register now here.
Conference language is English.
Urban Gardening Guidebook
From July to December 2020, an initial intensive global programme on ‘municipal response to the pandemic’ was conducted by Connective Cities that has been augmented with the programme ‘municipal recovery from the pandemic’ starting August 2021. The working group “Biodiversity and Environmental Protection” was the first group to be established as part of this programme.
This Guidebook is one result of an extensive exhange. It explains, why Urban Gardening Matters? and guides the reader through all steps of an urban gardening project – from the first situational analysis, over the preparatory and implementation phase up to a final monitoring and evaluation.
Support for vulnerable groups in Tbilisi, Georgia
As part of its support during the COVID 19 pandemic, Tbilisi has adopted a number of measures and social projects to support vulnerable groups during the pandemic and has involved businesses, the Red Cross and many volunteers in its implementation.
Innovation for the environment
As the case with the majority of municipalities in Lebanon, Bikfaya municipality lacked support from the central government and was unable to provide viable solutions for solid waste management (SWM). This motivated local residents to propose grassroot initiatives. A group of volunteers (with no prior technical knowledge in solid waste management), promoted recycling and sorting at source. Initially receiving technical support from a local environmental NGO, this case has eventually transformed into a best practice that is resonating in Lebanon and the MENA region.
Digitalisation in Madaba Municipality, Jordan
In line with the efforts in Jordan to drive economic transformation and application of international quality standards, Madaba municipality developed a vision towards achieving equitable growth and sustainability. An integral part of this vision is the digital transformation of municipal services.
Towards a gender sensitive urban development
Why do we need a gender sensitive approach in urban planning?
Existing urban public spaces as well as public transport were mostly designed by and to accommodate the needs of men. A lot of them are not fit for women’s needs – some even pose a threat to women’s safety, they complicate their everyday lives and reduce their possibilities to engage in community life. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated existing gender inequalities in various aspects.
At the same time, this crisis can be an opportunity to make urban planning more gendersensitive, equitable and sustainable. There are a lot of gender sensitive practices already existing. The task is to implement these practices and help municipal actors achieve sustainable, inclusive and (gender) equitable development in the (post-)COVID era.
This was the aim of the two Connective Cities Working Groups on:
- Gender sensitive urban planning
- Gender responsive urban mobility
Connecting municipalities in their efforts towards a gender sensitive city
The participants of the working groups joined us from the municipalities of Nabeul and Sfax in Tunisia, Mexico City and Guadalaja in Mexico, Tena in Ecuador, Nairobi in Kenya as well as Uruguay and the Municipality of Gaza, Palestine.
In bringing municipal representatives and urban practitioners together to present and discuss their challenges and good practices they were supported to develop new project ideas through peer-learning and exchange. In this they were inspired by regional and international experts who shared their insights in gender sensitive planning approaches.
The first kick-off meeting was aiming to sensitize for the various risks of widening gender inequalities in urban development and to identify the roles cities administrations can play in this context.
Annika Dalén, Strategic development and gender equality officer, Municipality of Umeå, Sweden presented the efforts of the Swedish city of Umeå as a model city for gender sensitive urban planning and mobility. Until today, reliable data on how women move in cities is missing in a lot of countries. Therefore, to redesign cities and their transport systems to effectively respond to women’s needs, it is the first essential step to collect gender-specific data at the municipal and national levels.
Due to curfews and social restrictions, the pandemic put women at a higher risk to suffer from domestic violence. Katja Schülke, Gender equality officer, City of Bonn, Germany and Conny Schulte, General manager, Arbeitskreis Opferschutz Bonn/Rhein-Sieg presented their approaches for combating domestic violence of the City of Bonn.
A third keynote by Giada Cicognola, programme analyst, Cities Alliance introduced the participants to the programme Femmedina in Tunis, Tunisia. The programme’s goal is the rehabilitation of public spaces for women in the historic centre of Tunis, the Medina, through participatory decision-making.
During the following working group meetings, the participating municipalities identified one gender related challenge in their cities. They are exemplary for the issues women face in many places around the globe:
- Enhancing the integration of women in decision making processes in Tunis, Tunisia
- Improving the situation of commuting women from rural areas in urban environments in Tena, Ecuador
- Incorporating the needs of women in the implementation of e-mobility projects and addressing sexual and gender-based violence in the e-mobility space in Nairobi, Kenya
- Promoting cycling for women in Mexico City and Guadalaja, Mexico
Connective Cities working groups promote the idea of Peer-to-Peer Consulting so that the participating municipalities can benefit from each other’s experiences and good practices. If you are interested to learn more about this approach, you may find more information here. As an outcome of lively discussions, the groups developed Guidelines that can also help other municipal actors to get going. their guidelines for:
Guidelines:Towards a gender-sensitive urban development [pdf, 307 kb, 7 pp.]
Guidelines: Towards a gender responsive urban mobility [pdf, 337 kb, 8 pp.]
Without a gender sensitive approach to urban development, the pandemic could have far-reaching effects including the risk of widening gender inequalities in various areas. At the same time gender mainstreaming tools and good practices of gender-sensitive recovery strategies already exist, which, if used effectively, can mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-19 and contribute to an increased gender equality.
Find more useful resources on gender sensitive urban planning:
Gender Responsive Urban Planning and Design | UN-Habitat (unhabitat.org)
How Vienna designed a city for women (apolitical.co)
How to Design a City for Women – Bloomberg
Gender in Mainstreaming Urban Development (berlin.de)
Harsh-realities-Marginalized-women-in-cities-of-the-developing-world-en.pdf (unwomen.org)
A safe city for women and girls in El Alto, Bolivia | UN Women
Goal 11 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs (un.org)
Brief-Recommendations-COVID-19-Safe-Cities-and-Safe-Public-Spaces-en.pdf (unwomen.org)