Category: Integrated urban development

Call for participants: Urban Labs – Tried and Trusted

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Urban Labs have emerged globally as a valuable public policy tool, enabling regular collaboration among diverse stakeholders to co-create innovative solutions for complex urban challenges. These platforms emphasize participatory, cross-sectoral, and inclusive approaches. However, the implementation and experiences of Urban Labs vary significantly from city to city.

This event aims to bring together urban practitioners and city representatives from Southeast Europe and Germany, along with experts from multiple sectors, to explore and discuss the transformative role of Urban Labs in shaping sustainable and resilient cities.

The gathering will promote knowledge exchange, foster new partnerships, and inspire actionable strategies among key stakeholders in urban planning, sustainability, and innovation.

In addition, the GIZ Georgia bilateral project Sustainable Urban Development (SUD) has produced a publication titled “Urban Labs: Tried and Trusted”. This publication offers an in-depth overview of the Urban Lab concept, highlighting their practical impact across different cities. It outlines how Urban Labs operate, showcases real-world examples, and explores the key phases, internal processes, and external factors critical to their success.

Target Audience

  • City representatives and urban practitioners  

from Southeast Europe, Germany and other European countries engaged in urban transformation and policy development.

  • Non-Governmental Organizations:  

Organizations involved in urban development, community engagement, climate action, sustainability, and social innovation.

  • Academic Institutions 

Researchers, scholars, and students focusing on urban studies, innovation, sustainability, and public policy.

  • Urban Planning and development Experts:

Urban planners, and municipal representatives from Georgia and other SEE countries with an interest in urban innovation and sustainable city development.

  • International Experts:  

Representatives from international organizations and professionals with practical experience in designing, implementing, or supporting Urban Labs around the world.

Participation and contact

We herewith kindly invite you to participate in the upcoming Insight Session taking place on Thursday, 17th July 2025, 13:30 – 15:30 CEST. 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 with simultaneous translation in Georgian.

Further information and enrolment here: https://community.connective-cities.net/en/insightsession-urbanlabs

If you have any further questions about the programme or your participation, please do not hesitate to contact us:

Ketevan Papashvili – Regional Coordinator in Southeast European Region: Ketevan.papashvili@giz.de

Jimmy Yoedsel – Junior Advisor Connective Cities: jimmy.yoedsel@giz.de

Date:    Thursday, 17th July 2025, 13:30 – 15:30 (CEST, Berlin time)
Location:    Virtual Event on Connective Cities Community
Enrolment: https://community.connective-cities.net/en/insightsession-urbanlabs

Conference Tool:            Big Blue Button (best operated with Chrome or Firefox)
Conference language:    English/Georgian

Towards Affordable and Sustainable Housing

Posted on by erik

As urban populations grow and climate risks intensify, cities across regions face increasing pressure to provide housing that is both affordable and sustainable. In response to these intersecting challenges, Connective Cities launched a thematic dialogue on 28 May 2025, bringing together city officials, technical experts and urban practitioners from Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.

Participants from Windhoek, Kitengela, Kisumu, Nairobi, Lusaka, Mazabuka, Huye, Bloemfontein, Zanzibar, Nelson Mandela Bay, Hebron, Tbilisi and Berlin engaged in a structured exchange of ideas and approaches, exploring practical solutions for inclusive and resilient urban housing systems. The event marked the beginning of a broader exchange process, which will continue with topic-specific deep-dive sessions beginning on 17 July 2025.

Shared Challenges, Context-Specific Solutions

The discussion underscored that while urban housing challenges are shared across many cities, solutions must be context-sensitive. High construction costs, limited access to finance, and land scarcity were common constraints. However, cities are responding with innovative strategies:

  • Huye presented its experience with a revolving housing fund, which supports incremental housing development and actively involves local communities.
  • Nairobi stressed the importance of improving the quality and availability of housing data to support evidence-based planning and investment decisions.
  • Berlin offered insights on the role of public land management and social rental models to maintain long-term housing affordability.

These inputs highlighted the importance of designing housing policies that reflect both local governance realities and broader social priorities.

Circular Materials and Building Reuse as Cost-Saving and Climate Strategies

The reuse of existing buildings and the application of circular construction principles were central to the discussion. Participants shared examples of how:

  • Traditional building materials such as mud and straw can offer significant cost and environmental advantages when combined with engineering improvements and clear construction standards
  • Adaptive reuse of buildings contributes to both resource efficiency and urban revitalisation
  • Circular strategies also open new opportunities for local employment and innovation in the housing sector

The discussion emphasised that promoting material reuse requires an enabling policy environment and technical support at city level. Circularity is not only a technical approach but also a governance challenge, tied to regulation, planning practices, and land use policies.

Making Housing Finance More Inclusive

Financing remains a significant barrier to the delivery of affordable housing. Participants explored how to improve access to housing finance through:

  • Microcredit schemes and community savings models, adapted to informal or low-income contexts
  • More inclusive rent-to-own mechanisms and cooperatives
  • Capacity building for local governments to structure and manage housing finance, including pre-feasibility support and institutional partnerships

Throughout the discussion, participants underlined the need for financing models that are inclusive and flexible, particularly for groups who are often excluded from formal housing markets—such as women, tenants, and people in informal settlements.

Next Steps: Deep-Dive Tracks Starting 17 July 2025

To build on the outcomes of the initial exchange, Connective Cities will facilitate a series of thematic deep-dive sessions launching on 17 July 2025, offering a space for collaborative learning, peer support and project development. These tracks will focus on:

  1. Finance & Microcredit for Housing
  2. Reuse & Circular Materials
  3. City Partnerships & Pilot Platforms

Participants will be invited to work in smaller groups, explore tailored solutions, and develop practical ideas for implementation, replication, or upscaling.

Moving from Dialogue to Action

The exchange clearly demonstrated that affordable housing is not just a construction issue. It is a multidimensional challenge that touches on urban resilience, social equity, and environmental sustainability. While no one-size-fits-all solution exists, platforms like Connective Cities can help accelerate progress by connecting cities, facilitating technical exchange, and supporting municipal capacity.

The discussion also reaffirmed that locally grounded innovation—backed by peer learning and international cooperation—can unlock new pathways for action. By drawing on shared experiences and contextual knowledge, cities can co-develop housing models that are inclusive, financially viable, and climate-responsive.

Next session: 17 July 2025

For further information or to join a thematic track, please contact:
jelena.karamatijevic@giz.de

Resilient Cities in Times of Multiple Crises – Strategies for Resilient Municipalities

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In times of multiple crises, cities must become increasingly resilient. They are increasingly under pressure due to war, the climate crisis, and economic uncertainties. At the seventh German-Ukrainian Municipal Partnership Conference on 18 June 2025, Connective Cities will host an expert forum on the topic of ‘Resilient cities in times of multiple crises – strategies for resilient municipalities’.

The expert forum will examine and classify aspects of resilient urban development in Ukrainian and German municipalities. Christian Rauch from the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) will present the concept of urban resilience and report on the ‘city stress test’ with German municipalities. How does urban resilience manifest itself in practice? Invited panelists from German and Ukrainian municipalities will use visual material to present their strategies for sustainable urban development on a wide range of aspects of urban resilience. Led by the moderator, the audience will also be involved in the subsequent panel discussion.

The seventh German-Ukrainian municipal partnership conference will take place in Münster from 16 to 18 June 2025. It is directed at local government representatives and other committed individuals from the German-Ukrainian municipal partnership network and offers space for professional and personal exchange, insights into support services, as well as expert forums and panel discussions on pressing current issues. More information on the partnership conference can be found here.

For more information, please contact Sibylle Loyeau sibylle.loyeau@engagement.global.de

 

Renewable energy options at the local level

Posted on by erik

From 16 to 18 June 2025, Connective Cities is inviting municipal experts, specialists from administration, science and business to Podgorica, Montenegro. Together, we will take a practical look at specific project ideas from the Southeast Europe/Caucasus region, discuss success factors for their implementation and promote the international exchange of experience.

Experts with expertise in the following areas in particular are invited to attend:

  • Renewable energies and municipal energy planning
  • Energy-efficient refurbishment and building management
  • Financing municipal infrastructure
  • Development and implementation of sustainable urban projects

The aim of the event is to strengthen the dialogue between municipalities, financial institutions and experts, to make good practice visible and to further develop concrete, implementable project ideas.

You can find more information in the Call for Participation. If you are interested in participating, please send a brief expression of interest by e-mail to the relevant contact person by 26 May 2025:

For Southeast Europe / Caucasus:
Ketevan Papashvili
✉️ ketevan.papashvili@giz.de

For Germany and other international participants:
Paulina Koschmieder
✉️ paulina.koschmieder@giz.de

 

Results of the Connective Cities Deep Dive process ‘Heat in the city’

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How does your city deal with increasing heat? What can you do to protect the urban population from the impacts of heat burden in cities?

We would like to invite you to learn from the intensive exchange of expertise between the cities of Aswan in Egypt, Heidelberg and Lüdenscheid in Germany, Mombasa and Nairobi in Kenya and Lviv in Ukraine. The experts jointly identified and analysed challenges and developed locally-adapted solutions in the form of pilots that were implemented in their respective cities. We would like to present and discuss the results of the two-year deep dive process ‘Heat in the city’ on 12 June 2025, from 9:00 – 12:00 am:

You will have the opportunity to ‘dive’ into the projects and understand which key elements are important for successful implementation and upscaling in the future. In Lüdenscheid, efforts began with forming a multi-departmental core team to guide the development of a comprehensive heat action plan tailored to the city’s needs. Meanwhile, in Aswan, an integrated heat action framework was developed to address the unique challenges of the region’s hot climate. In Mombasa, initiatives focused on raising awareness and mapping urban heat island hotspots to inform better both stakeholders and citizens. Similarly, in Nairobi, schools became the focus of heat mitigation efforts, using temperature data to guide the strategic planting of shade-providing fruit trees, complemented by awareness programs aimed at students and educators. Meanwhile in Lviv, the participatory initiative of pocket parks was successfully launched in three different sites. Heidelberg is planning both to create a climatological database for all public spaces and outdoor areas and to develop up to three best practice examples for urban heat mitigation in public spaces.

The event is aimed at municipal experts from Germany and around the world as well as at potential donors and financial institutions who may be interested in supporting the projects. We look forward to welcoming you!

The working language of the event is English. In order to attend the meeting, subscribe here.

For more information, please contact Sibylle Loyeau sibylle.loyeau@engagement-global.de

Empowering Communities: The Ripple Effect of Women’s Leadership

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The initiative “Making My School More Beautiful,” led by five women elected for the municipal council of Yarmouk al-Jadida municipality in Jordan, showcases a successful model for promoting democracy and empowering girls through school parliaments. By collaborating closely with local communities, schools, and mothers, the project not only enhanced school environments but also fostered civic awareness and active participation among young women. Its structured approach offers a replicable framework for similar initiatives in other communities.

Green Hydrogen for Local Development

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Naivasha, Kenya | 14–17 April 2025 – Green hydrogen is gaining global attention as a key energy carrier for the future. While much of the discussion centres on export potential, green hydrogen production also holds significant potential for local development—boosting municipal infrastructure and stimulating local economies, especially in Africa, where the continent’s high potential for solar and wind energy brings African cities in a unique position to become innovation hubs and key drivers in the global energy transition.

To foster exchange of experiences and best practices between African and German cities, Connective Cities organised the workshop “Exploring the Potential of Green Transition for Local Economic Development”, bringing together over 30 municipal professionals from both regions.

The role of cities in promoting green hydrogen

The workshop, which focused on the role of cities in advancing green hydrogen as a lever for sustainable economic growth, facilitated a peer-to-peer learning space for municipal actors to exchange experiences, address challenges, and explore pathways for green hydrogen adoption at the local level.

Municipal strategies and shared challenges

Konferenzraum: Teilnehmende sitzen gruppiert an runden Tischen. Auf dem Plenum sitzen fünf Personen und diskutieren.
Photo: Connective Cities

A central focus of the exchange was how technological innovation can align with local development needs. Discussions ranged from decentralised hydrogen production systems and seawater electrolysis to the use of organic waste as a renewable source. Especially for coastal or water-scarce cities in Africa, such technologies were seen as promising solutions to local resource constraints.

However, participants agreed that technology alone is not enough. Effective local hydrogen strategies require strategic urban planning, transparent land management, and strong community engagement. Several municipalities shared examples of inclusive planning processes, involving traditional authorities and local universities in shaping future-oriented land use plans and infrastructure projects.

Eine Gruppe von zehn Personen sitzen um einen runden tisch und diskutieren intensiv. Im Hintergrund steht eine Metaplan-Tafel.
Peer Learning Session | Photo: Connective Cities

Participants from countries including Namibia, South Africa, Mauritania, Kenya, and Germany presented concrete initiatives demonstrating how hydrogen projects can generate local value. The example of Arandis (Namibia) illustrated how targeted investment and strategic partnerships are enabling the town to position itself as a production hub for green hydrogen. In contrast, the Heilbronn region (Germany) focuses on the application and industrial use of hydrogen, building a regional value chain by attracting user industries and technology providers.

Furthermore, Karlsruhe (Germany) showcased a successful ecosystem for start-ups working in hydrogen technologies, supported by research institutions and public-private partnerships. Across all cases, one message became clear: municipal masterplans and coordinated strategic planning are essential for cities to fully benefit from the emerging hydrogen economy.
The discussions underscored the growing role of cities not only as implementers of national energy goals, but as active shapers of the green transition. The workshop aimed to empower municipalities to position themselves as testing grounds, innovation platforms, and investment destinations within a future green hydrogen economy.

Outlook and next steps

The workshop concluded with a strong call for municipal leadership in developing local hydrogen strategies that reflect both environmental ambitions and socio-economic priorities. Participants identified three key areas for action:

  1. Local value creation: Prioritising domestic use of hydrogen for local industries – such as fertiliser or building materials – rather than relying solely on export models.
  2. Education and skills development: Aligning vocational training and higher education programmes with future labour market needs in the hydrogen sector.
  3. Partnerships and knowledge exchange: Strengthening peer-to-peer learning and cooperation among municipalities through platforms such as Connective Cities.

Participants also highlighted that green hydrogen offers more than energy solutions – it can help create future-oriented jobs, stimulate innovation, and improve urban living conditions. By linking clean energy production with economic development, municipalities can promote both resilience and inclusivity.
The workshop in Naivasha confirmed that green hydrogen can become a key pillar of sustainable urban development – provided that cities take a proactive role. Where political commitment, technical capacity and community participation come together, green hydrogen has the potential to drive long-term prosperity and shared growth.

Gruppenbild mit sechs Teilnehmenden aus Deutschland und Kenia
Photo: Export-Akademie Baden-Württemberg

 

“Whether peer learning sessions, inspiring impulses or practical insights into hydrogen strategies, sustainable mobility and local project development – the variety of formats impressively demonstrated how much potential there is in partnership-based cooperation.“

– Felix Sossalla, Wirtschaftsförderung Raum Heilbronn GmbH (LinkedIn, translated)

 

“We’re looking forward to partnering with more cities, industries, and changemakers who share our vision for a greener, more inclusive future. Let’s create the green cities of tomorrow — together.”

– Export-Akademie Baden-Württemberg (LinkedIn)

The Haus der Statistik

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Author: Dr. Susanne Reiff

Publisher: Connective Cities

A new district for administration, housing, social affairs and culture is being built on the large site of the former administrative building for the Federal Statistical Office – Haus der Statistik – in the center of Berlin. A civil society initiative had prevented the demolition of the existing building from the 1960s and, together with the administration and other stakeholders, developed the concept for the conversion – a beacon for alternative approaches to urban development.

4 pages

Year of publishing: 2025

Expert exchange on the Voluntary Subnational Review

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During the Connective Cities Dialogue Event on “Sustainability reporting and Voluntary Local Review” that took place last December in Berlin, some participants decided to start a network for the acceleration and implementation of VLR/VSR. The group is composed by the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), the Council of Governors of Kenya, the City of Stuttgart, the City of Bonn, the Association of German Cities and Connective Cities.

In order to enrich and enlarge the network, the group organizes a peer-to-peer meeting on the topic Voluntary Subnational Review on May 7 at 3 p.m. (CET). The Voluntary Subnational Review is a reporting tool that allows a countrywide localization of the SDGs from the perspective of municipal administrations. By drawing up the Voluntary Local Review, municipalities provide the basic data for a detailed analysis of the local sustainable development. By aggregating these data, a country obtains a comprehensive and detailed overview of the implementation of the SDGs. Meanwhile, municipal administrations are more represented at a national level and can present a united front with regard to national development policies.

Through the support of Local Government Associations, the creation of the Voluntary Subnational Review can be quick and effective. During the peer-to-peer meeting, representatives from South Africa and Germany will present their recent efforts in the creation of their Voluntary Subnational Reviews. After the presentation, we will open the stage for a broader discussion about the Voluntary Local and Subnational Review.

To attend this meeting, please contact Francesco Schapira francesco.schapira@engagement-global.de

Avoiding vacancy by opening buildings to interim use

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During the process of redefining a building’s purpose and outlining the procedure and financing of the venture, constructions might fall vacant. A vacant building is wasted potential in many ways, for both the community and the cities’ urban development.

Moreover, an unused building often leads to an increase in visual and atmospheric pollution due to the accumulation of waste, water infiltration and possible growth of mold or toxic materials. Besides these ecological consequences, vandalism may increase as well as insecurity in the surroundings. Hence, the revitalisation of vacant buildings can come costly to municipalities and possible investors.

How can vacancy be avoided? Opening public buildings to interim use was one of the topics that participants of the learning process “2nd Hands on Public Buildings” wanted to focus on during the one-year-long learning process on reusing public buildings from the 1960s and 1970s. Therefore, experts from Germany, Kenya, Palestine and Montenegro came together virtually on March 12, 2025.

During the meeting, the German guests Oliver Hasemann, ZwischenZeitZentrale Bremen, and Moritz Tonn, Transiträume e.V., elaborated on the facilitation of interim use in Bremen and Berlin. With years of experience and quite some examples of moderating agreements between the buildings’ owners and users, the inputs allowed for a general understanding of the opportunities and challenges related to intermediate tenants. Given the vibrant cultural scene in Berlin, Transiträume e.V. has successfully allowed artist to transform vacant halls to impressive exhibition spaces, attracting large numbers of visitors. Among other, ZZZBremen showcased its “Wurst Case” (translates into “Sausage Case”), in which a sausage factory was reused involving the public in an extended participation process. The factory was then rented in a small scale to local entrepreneurs, artists, and for social initiatives and artisans testing of various kinds of use (offices, workshops, studios).

Giving the buildings a temporary use helps their protection, reduce the operational and maintenance costs for public vacancy and can support the cultural and creative industry. Through the participation of neighbourhoods, the interim use of vacant buildings also helps revitalizing disadvantaged areas. The main challenges consisted in setting a frame for interested users, which means to create the basic infrastructure and the legal framework for working in the abandoned buildings as well as finding sponsorships and raising awareness for the new project.

Based on these inputs, the group of experts discussed their project examples and ideas regarding a possible temporary use. Twenty floors of the former Hilton Hotel in Nairobi are currently vacant and the participants were interested in how interim use might lead to the attraction of possible investors. Although in one case an investor who had visited an exhibition in Berlin had finally bought the complex, the guests stated that this was not the main objective of interim utilisation. Financing was also a concern of a participants from Montenegro and Regensburg.

The consense was that those who profit most from the interim use should also be hold financially responsible. In most cases, tenants only pay a symbolic rent, but their conservation of the building presents an economic advantage for the owner. Cases are very individual. In Regensburg, the activation of central heating in the concerned building would have caused high costs. While the guest suggested house in house solutions, Regensburg had yet found creative forms of interim use and offered the fireguard and police to use the building for training purposes. Asked from Hebron, questions concerned the public participation process and best practices. The ongoing Connective Cities learning process will offer another follow-up activity on the involvement of the public, soon.

„Think about your interim project from the end. How is it guaranteed that the project ends in everybody’s consent?” Oliver Hasemann, ZweischenZeitZentrale Bremen