Category: Integrated urban development

Call for solutions until 9 November: #SolutionsForCities

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Worldwide cities face similar challenges. This has become even more visible through the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic situation has generated inspiring creativity and solidarity. How can we transfer innovative solutions from the pandemic to the future? How can we promote sustainable urban development for the common good? To tackle these questions, the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community initiated the international, digital ideas competition #SolutionsForCities.

In a two-day virtual Challenge Lab, current challenges of cities were identified together with German Smart City model projects and with partner cities of the International Smart Cities Network (ISCN). These challenges will be published on the platform www.solutionsforcities.de with the Call for Solutions from October 28th.

Call for Solutions from October 28th to November 9th 2020

The Call for Solutions is a global call for the submission of digital solutions for the common good. It is aimed at international companies and start-ups, as well as local authorities, research institutions and projects, and civil society. The Call for Solutions opens on October 28th 2020 during the Smart City Day at the Smart Country Convention 2020! Until November 9th 2020, digital solutions can be submitted on the platform www.solutionsforcities.de as response to the published urban challenges.

Scalathon from November 23rd – 25th 2020

After the Call for Solutions, the participating cities or municipalities select the most suitable solutions for their challenges and compete in the Scalathon as a team with the respective solution providers.

The Scalathon is the core of the ideas competition and will take place from November 23rd – 25th 2020. During the three-day virtual workshop, selected solution providers will work closely together with the respective city or municipality, further develop the digital solutions and adapt them to the concrete local challenges.

Used Vehicles and the Environment

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Millions of used cars, vans and minibuses exported from Europe, the United States and Japan to the developing world are of poor quality, contributing significantly to air pollution and hindering efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. The UNEP-report shows that between 2015 and 2018, 14 million used light-duty vehicles were exported worldwide. Some 80 per cent went to low- and middle-income countries, with more than half going to Africa.

The first-ever report of its kind, calls for action to fill the current policy vacuum with the adoption of harmonized minimum quality standards that will ensure used vehicles contribute to cleaner, safer fleets in importing countries.

Green Urban Infrastructure in Asian Cities

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From August 3rd until August 14th, 2020 around 30 urban practitioners from 6 Asian Cities came together virtually to exchange their experiences and expertise in the field of Green Urban Infrastructure. Especially challenges in waste management and water sanitation were discussed intensively, as they represent pressing issues for many Asian cities.

The aim of the workshop was to further develop existing project ideas by discussing arising challenges and trying out new methods to find new perspectives and approaches to urban planning. The event was a follow-up to the dialogue event in Bandung, Indonesia in November 2019.

Due to the restrictions imposed on all of us by the Covid-19-pandemic, the event was conducted virtually by using the Connective Cities Platform. To ensure an enriching learning experience, the event took place over two weeks and included synchronous workdays with various keynote presentations as well as asynchronous days on which the participants could work on their project ideas at their own pace.

Six projects from Indonesia and Nepal were presented and further developed (see presentations).

Digitalisation of Municipal Services in Southeast Europe (SEE) and Caucasus

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Approximately 50 participants from more than 23 municipalalities from Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Albania (11 coutries) participated in the first virtual event of the knowledge-exchange series on Municipal Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The event focused on the process of the digital transformation of cities as a response to the COVID -19 outbreak. From the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, municipalities around the world experienced a strong push to digitalise not only their existing services but also create new protocols to tackle various crisis-induced demands. The aim of the event was to showcase good practices and new digital modalities that are already helping us imagine a greener and more equitable recovery from both the pandemic and ongoing climate crises.

The virtual event provided the space for an interactive exchange of experiences and all participants have engaged in a lively discussion bringing their local expertise to their peers.

Program

In this virtual event, Ms Yulia Besplemennova from “service & system designer” discussed as a keynote speaker Service Design issues for more efficient digital transformation at municipal level. Furthermore, three good practices were shared from Tirana (Albania), Tbilisi (Georgia) and Essen (Germany). The moderated plenary session provided an opportunity for discussion between the presenters and the participants. The participants were then encouraged to continue with the exchange on the virtual platform Connective Cities where other resources were shared in addition to the session outputs. Overall, the following set of questions were addressed by the presenters:

  1. What have been the core challenges for municipal authorities in their role of supporting citizens during the pandemic?
  2. What measures, innovative and digital solutions have municipal authorities put in place?
  3. How do the municipal authorities deal with vulnerable groups which were most affected by the pandemic?
  4. Are municipal authorities planning to set different development-or service-related priorities in the aftermath of the pandemic?
  5. What are the lessons learned from the perspective of municipal authorities?

Presentations of good practices

  1. Digitalisation of the Tirana municipal services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Ms. Faola Hodaj, Tirana municipality
  2. Ensuring continuous delivery of municipal services in Tbilisi through web-platform with an integrated hotline.
    Ms. Sophio Barnabishvili; Tbilisi Municipality
  3. Using innovation and technology to improve municipal services during the COVID-19 outbreak in Essen, Germany.
    Mr. Peter Adelskamp, City of Essen

Results

During the event, urban practitioners from more than 20 municipalities discussed the specific cases from South East Europe, Caucasus and Germany, shared their insights on the topic, and laid out the framework for future cooperation. City leaders and urban practitioners discussed together paramount trends, opportunities and challenges emerging along with the process of developing and reinventing municipal responses amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

In order to follow through with the initiatives of the municipalities, Connective Cities provided a practice-oriented exchange between network members on Connective Cities platform where members could share their challenges and interventions in the provision of their municipal responses.

Pandemic Response in refugee-hosting cities

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More than 20 municipal representatives from around 8 cities in MENA participated in the sixth virtual event of the knowledge-exchange series on Municipal Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The event aimed at showcasing good practices and special measures tailored to the needs of the vulnerable group of refugees and their host communities. For example, information-sharing through local networks of community volunteers, religious leaders and humanitarian workers became a decisive factor in combatting the spread of the virus. Other effective measures undertaken by refugee-hosting cities have put the Global Compact for Refugees into action with respect to targeting migrant and refugee communities in the context of the pandemic.  The virtual event provided the space for an interactive exchange of experiences and all participants have engaged in a lively discussion bringing their local expertise to their peers.

Program

In this virtual session, the experience of the municipal unions of Dreib Al Awsat and Jurd El Qayteh in Lebanon was presented and their good practice of developing and employing an open source tracking application was showcased.  In addition, insights from Irbid (Jordan) were shared by the representative of the city’s municipal council who has shed light on the economic impacts on refugees and host communities employed in the agricultural sector.

Moreover, the following set of questions were addressed:

  1. What have been the core challenges for refugee-hosting municipalities?
  2. What measures have refugee-hosting municipalities implemented to protect the vulnerable group of refugees?
  3. Are there any lessons learned with respect to service provision and preparedness against pandemics in refugee-hosting settings such as camps?

Presentations

In Arabic: Pandemic response using the open source application ‘Salamti’ in the municipal unions of Jurd Al Qayta and Dreib Al Awsat in Lebanon.
Mr. Abdul Ilah Zakaria, head of Jurd El Qayteh union, Lebanon
Mr. Abboud Merheb, head of Dreib Al Awsat union, Lebanon
Ms. Souraya Hammoud, SKLI

Measures to alleviate the economic impacts of the lockdown on Syrian refugees and their host communities in Irbid, Jordan.
Arabic version  |  English version
Ms. Iman Al Zoubi, Representative of municipal council, Irbid-Jordan

Results

Pandemic response in the refugee-hosting municipal unions of Jurd Al Qayta and Dreib Al Awsat in Lebanon was optimized using the open source application ‘Salamti’. The showcasing of this good practice resulted in an opportunity for cooperation between the initiators of Salamti application and greater Absan municipality in Gaza. Connective Cities will facilitate this cooperation as part of the follow-up activities.

Update on follow-up activities: Concrete cooperation on a solid basis

Connective Cities has organized a meeting between the initiators and developers of Salamati application at Balamand university in Lebanon and representatives of Greater Absan municipality in Gaza- Palestine (the mayor Dr.Anwar Abu-Zarifa and Mr. Ahmad Abu-Ismail) to discuss the dissemination of the good practice of Salamati application in Greater Absan municipality. The Representative of GIZ in Gaza has also participated in the meeting.

It has been agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the municipality and the initiators and developers of the application in order to kick-start the process of good practice dissemination including the provision of the Salamati application in Greater Absan municipality.

Salamati app is an open-source GIS-based application that enables local authorities to rapidly screen potential COVID-19 cases and to classify areas and people at high risk.

The launch of this pilot project is supported by SKL International under the aspect of digitization. As part of the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR), SKL International works worldwide to promote and strengthen local and regional self-government and resilience. By supporting active citizenship in Akkar-Lebanon through the promotion of local systems, community capacity building and community participation in local decision-making, Covid-19 can also be better contained and the negative effects of the pandemic reduced.

The EcoCentro in Quito

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The city of Quito, being the capital of Ecuador, is home to important companies and the second most populated city, with 2.65 million inhabitants. In the Metropolitan District of Quito (DMQ), around 2,200 tons of common solid waste are produced daily; of which almost 1,254 tons (57%) are of organic origin. Around 80% of the weight of organic waste is moisture that is transformed into leachate, which generates difficult treatment and high costs for the Public Company of Integral Waste Management of the Metropolitan District of Quito (EMGIRS-EP).

Currently, the sanitary landfill located in the Inga sector, administered by EMGIRS-EP, has a remaining useful life of 3 to 5 years due to its available space. Thus, the diversion of organic waste and its respective use is the most appropriate solution. With this background and in the framework of the program “Quito Free of Waste – Organic waste”, EMGIRS-EP designed in 2018 the EcoCentro project. EcoCentro aims to raise awareness among citizens about the use of organic waste, the use of biological fertilizers and the planting of vegetables and/or fruits in urban gardens.

EcoCentro counts on the contribution of the academia to develop research in topics such as optimization of composting and vermiculture processes, fertilization of urban crops (bio fertilizers), and urban metabolism (flows of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus in the city). The Economic Development Agency CONQUITO and its program AGRUPAR – Participatory Urban Agriculture Project, and the Quito Food Bank, which delivers the products of the EcoCentro to vulnerable groups with limited access to healthy food in orphanages, nursing homes and social foundations, also support the project.

EcoCentro is an integral initiative that manages to articulate spaces for sports, leisure and nature protection; and allows citizens to better understand the urban and rural link, contemplating the idea of a healthy life, responsible consumption and sustainable management of resources.

Civil society initiatives during and after the corona pandemic

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More than 15 municipal representatives from Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, Tunis, Libya, Morocco and Algeria participated in the fourth virtual event of the knowledge-exchange series on Municipal Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The aim of the event is to showcase good practices that reveals what civil society organizations are doing on the ground, and the added value they bring to municipal response to the pandemic.

 The virtual event provided the space for an interactive exchange of experiences and all participants have engaged in a lively discussion bringing their local expertise to their peers.

Program

In this virtual event, three good practices were shared from Beni-Khalled (Tunisia), Greater Amman (Jordan), Zletin (Libya). The moderated plenary session provided an opportunity for discussion between the presenters and the participants. The participants were then encouraged to continue with the exchange on the virtual platform where other resources were shared in addition to the session outputs. Overall, the following set of questions were addressed by the presenters:

  1. What have been the core challenges for civil society organizations in their role of supporting municipalities during the pandemic?
  2. What measures have civil society organizations put in place?
  3. How do the civil society organizations deal with vulnerable groups which were most affected by the pandemic?
  4. Are civil society organizations cooperating with municipalities to set different development-or service-related priorities in the aftermath of the pandemic?
  5. What are the lessons learned from the perspective of civil society organizations?

Presentations of good practices in Arabic (for members only)

Civil society initiatives supporting municipal response to the pandemic in Beni- Khalled, Tunisia and the community development sector.
Ms. Leila Ben Gacem, Beni-Khalled municipality

The role of civil society and the community development sector in the Greater Amman Municipality
Ms. Ghaida’a Al Hadidi; Greater Amman Municipality

Civil society and private sector initiatives to alleviate the impacts of the pandemic and the lock-down in Zletin, Libya
Dr. Taha Wali; Zletin Municipality in Libya

Results

The input given and discussion thereafter confirmed the immediate role of civil society in monitoring the pandemic’s impact on municipal service delivery as well as facilitating engagement with affected communities, a critical part of ensuring contextually relevant responses.

 In order to follow through with the initiatives in the municipalities, Connective Cities provided a practice-oriented exchange between network members on Connective Cities platform where members could share their challenges and interventions in the provision of their civil society responses.

More: COVID-19-Update

Urban Gardening: Urban green spaces for social and economic resilience

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Connective Cities, together with partners from 5 districts of Berlin/Germany and other 10 municipalities in 6 countries, had prepared a dialogue event on Urban Gardening in Berlin from April 22nd to 24th. Due to travel and contact restrictions in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the event was unfortunately postponed until the first half of 2021.

A virtual exchange was prepared together with the original participants on September 22, with the aim of bringing together the participants of the dialog event to discuss aspects of urban gardening, the relation between Covid-19 and urban gardening policies and challenges, as well as to warm-up for the next year`s dialog event.

The exchange focused on the role of urban gardening in building social resilience and included three input presentations that inspired rich discussions. Dr. Carolin Mees was the keynote speaker and shared her experiences with urban gardening development and policies in New York City. She was followed by Paul Yeboah, who presented a good practice from Ghana. A civil society project called “Ghana Permaculture Urban Garden Project” to promote sustainable urban gardening and food production in the municipality of Techiman. The third contribution was provided by Cornelia Mirke from the Berlin district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf with a beautifully produced short documentary on the history and current role of urban gardens in the district.

The documentary can be watched under the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69jKSmA9P8c.

Transport for under two degrees – the way forward

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The transport sector is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions at present. It accounts for approximately one quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions and hence figures prominently in efforts to transform the energy economy and protect the climate. Without a scaled-up global mitigation effort, it will not be possible to reach the climate targets of the Paris Agreement. A low-carbon transformation of the global transport sector is the next necessary step in the global energy transformation.

Germany’s Federal Foreign Office has commissioned the project “T4<2° – Transport for under two degrees”, a global foresight study on the decarbonisation and transformation of the transport sector to identify challenges and opportunities for a sustainable, low-carbon transport sector. The findings provide decision-makers with a clear vision and specific recommendations on how to achieve decarbonisation of the sector and orchestrate international efforts for a global transport system transformation.

Call for participants: Prevent infections through distance, communication and support of the informal sector

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Prevenir las infecciones mediante la distancia, la comunicación y el apoyo del sector informal

Intercambio virtual de experiencias sobre la pandemia de COVID-19 en América Latina el 14 de octubre y el 5 de noviembre de 2020

Para la versión en español, ver abajo.

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Shortly after the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe, the virus also hit Latin America hard. The current challenges in combating the pandemic require a combined solution strategy consisting of medical care, regulatory infection control measures and short-term economic bridging measures – and all this with the help of appropriate and convincing communication. How can cities and municipalities make a contribution here?

Even though many Latin American countries imposed strict measures, including curfews in accordance with the above-mentioned distance rule, at a very early stage, the pandemic could not be contained – the number of infections continues to rise in many countries.

In Latin America, other important factors come into play: a decisive factor is the high proportion of workers in the informal (urban) sector, who have to commute from densely populated urban fringe areas to the city centre to perform their daily work. The home office option does not exist for the informal sector, and the renunciation of the daily wage is not sustainable. As a result, distance rules cannot in fact be observed for a large part of the population working in the informal sector.

In addition to economic support, it is essential to follow chains of infection. Without precise observation of those infected and the tracing of infection chains, distance rules will not lead to success. Communication and the strengthening of public awareness is also an important factor here.

Connective Cities offers cities and municipalities the opportunity to exchange their experiences and success strategies and to discuss challenges together. In the process, approaches to solutions from German cities and cities in the Latin American region will be presented. If you would like to present a practical example from your city or discuss a specific challenge, we invite you to participate in our event.

After the virtual session the participants can continue their exchange on the virtual platform of Connective Cities in special virtual working groups. A virtual follow-up event (on 05.11.2020) offers the opportunity to deepen the solutions developed and to further develop possible project ideas.

Date: 14 October 2020 (part 1) and 05 November 2020 (part 2)
Time: 16:00 – 18:30 CEST / CET
Language: Spanish / Portuguese

Registration deadline: 09 October 2020

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Poco después del brote de COVID-19 en Europa, el virus también golpeó duramente a América Latina. Los desafíos actuales en la lucha contra la pandemia requieren una estrategia de solución combinada que consista en atención médica, medidas reguladoras de control de la infección y medidas económicas de transición a corto plazo, y todo ello con la ayuda de una comunicación adecuada y convincente. ¿Cómo pueden las ciudades y los municipios contribuir a ello?

Aunque muchos países latinoamericanos impusieron medidas estrictas, incluidos toques de queda de conformidad con la regla de la distancia mencionada anteriormente, en una etapa muy temprana no se pudo contener la pandemia – el número de infecciones sigue aumentando en muchos países.

En América Latina entran en juego otros factores importantes: un factor decisivo es la elevada proporción de trabajadores del sector informal (urbano), que tienen que desplazarse desde las zonas periféricas urbanas densamente pobladas hasta el centro de la ciudad para realizar su trabajo diario. La opción de la oficina en el hogar no existe para el sector informal, y la renuncia al salario diario no es sostenible. Como consecuencia de ello, las normas sobre la distancia no pueden observarse de hecho para una gran parte de la población que trabaja en el sector informal.

Además del apoyo económico, es esencial seguir las cadenas de infección. Sin una observación precisa de los infectados y el seguimiento de las cadenas de infección, las reglas de la distancia no conducirán al éxito. La comunicación y el fortalecimiento de la conciencia pública es también un factor importante en este sentido.

Connective Cities ofrece a las ciudades y municipios la oportunidad de intercambiar sus experiencias y estrategias de éxito y de debatir juntos los desafíos. En el proceso se presentarán enfoques de soluciones de las ciudades alemanas y de las ciudades de la región de América Latina. Si desea presentar un ejemplo práctico de su ciudad o debatir un desafío específico, le invitamos a participar en nuestro evento.

Después de la sesión virtual los participantes pueden continuar su intercambio en la plataforma virtual de Connective Cities en grupos de trabajo virtuales especiales. Un evento virtual de seguimiento (el 05.11.2020) ofrece la oportunidad de profundizar en las soluciones desarrolladas y seguir desarrollando posibles ideas de proyectos.

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Further information / Más información: Konzeptpapier (DE), Papel de conceito (PT), Documento conceptual (ES)

If you are interested or have any questions, please contact us / Si está interesado o tiene alguna pregunta, por favor contáctenos:

Paulina Koschmieder, paulina.koschmieder@giz.de