This note was developed by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE) in collaboration with the OECD Working Party for Urban Policy and the OECD Champion Mayors Initiative for Inclusive Growth. It is an update of the earlier versions released on 27 March and 13 May, which expands the examples of measures taken by cities to respond to COVID-19 and recover from the economic and social crisis. The note provides analysis on issues related to the economic, social and environmental impacts, lessons learned in terms of digitalisation, mobility, density, urban design and collaborative governance, and action-oriented guidance to build back better cities, building on previous work on urban resilience. Short and medium term responses provided by cities are clustered around six categories: i) social distancing; ii) workplace and commuting; iii) vulnerable groups; iv) local service delivery; v) support to business; and vi) communication, awareness raising and digital tools. The note also includes updated information on how cities are progressively exiting the lockdown.
Category: Integrated urban development
Series of virtual events on local climate leadership in times of COVID-19
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.
Climate Resilient Urban Development in Southeast Europe
The virtual event was the first component of the learning process conducted by Connective Cities in Southeast Europe. The aim of the virtual event was to support knowledge exchange and networking by increasing the visibility of good practices from municipalities in SEE region on one hand, and on the other hand by facilitating the needed virtual space and tools to create innovative solutions for local challenges through knowledge exchange and peer-to-peer consultations.
The virtual event, thus, supported transforming dialogue and exchange possibilities into a digital and remote format especially during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak affecting heavily the lifestyle of urban dwellers and planers. As this will include effects on sustainable urban development, municipal urban practitioners need to develop more innovative and agile processes to improve future crises responses. Here, the interest was mainly in pragmatic solutions and approaches that can be applied or adapted to the different regional/local contexts. Furthermore, the event offered a virtual platform to discuss the challenges around the theme of climate resilient urban development and supported municipalities in developing new project ideas among peers that can be further implemented in the respective home communities or in the framework of existing or new thematic municipal partnerships.
COVID-19 in African cities
“COVID-19, a global pandemic declared by the World Health Organization (WHO), is crippling the global economy and upending people’s lives thereby threatening sustainable development across all its dimensions. Africa is also facing the dire consequences of the crisis, necessitating timely response, recovery and rebuilding policies and strategies. Globally, urban areas are the epicenters of the epidemic accounting for most of the confirmed COVID-19 cases. UN-Habitat in collaboration with UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG), African Development Bank (AfDB), and Shelter Afrique have joined hands to produce this new report: COVID-19 in African Cities: Impacts, Responses and Policies. The report proposes several interventions to promptly and effectively address the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic in Africa at the urban level led by national and local governments supported by international and regional development institutions.”
German-Turkish Municipal Partnership Conference
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:
- Digital City
- Sustainable urban development
- The role of municipalities in protecting marginalised groups and refugees in the COVID 19 crisis
- Youth exchanges in municipal partnerships
Please refer to the conference announcement (in German) for further information on registration, programme and technical requirements.
Promoting female employment in the water sector services in Jordan
Despite societal and structural challenges that impede women’s participation in the Jordanian labor market, a pioneer program in Jordan has resulted in promoting female employment in the water sector services in refugee-hosting cities.
So coronavirus will change cities – will that include slums?
for David Sanderson, it’s hard to see how the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to any better outcomes for the close to a billion or so people who live in fast-growing, low-income, informal settlements, or slums, that cram cities throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific. These settlements are some of the densest and most poorly serviced places on Earth.
The Ebola outbreak of 2014-16 killed over 11,000 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and had devastating impacts on economies, lives and health-care systems. However, yet evidence of post-Ebola improvements in urban planning are hard to find. The coronavirus — just one more tragedy for many who live in slums?
Migrants’ contribution to the COVID-19 response
Refugees and other migrants are part of the global workforce of essential workers responding to the COVID-19 pandemic: every day they save lives and contribute to our economies and societies. Yet their contributions can be hidden, their skills undervalued, and their rights denied. These examples of reforms, new initiatives, and campaigns to recognize and better support migrant essential workers in the COVID-19 response demonstrate that change is possible. Regular updates! ODI collected already more than 80 examples worldwide and presents them with an impressive visualization.
Cities SHIFT: Capacity building and networking for climate- and people-friendly mobility report
“With the pressing issues of congestion, air pollution, inequality, and climate change, the question is no longer if a sustainable and ecomobile transportation system will exist but when. Effective implementation can be realized by making an informed decision. This is imperative because you cannot manage what you do not know. This report demonstrates how the EcoMobility SHIFT+ tool can be adopted to assess and measure the transportation system of six cities in China, India, and Uganda. The EcoMobility SHIFT+ is a useful tool for local authorities to measure, assess, and act to improve ecomobility. Furthermore, evaluation and monitoring is an essential step in the process of developing sustainable urban mobility plans.”
Call for participants: Climate Resilient Urban Development in South East Europe and the Caucasus region
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)