Category: Security in cities

How ‘school streets’ could create safer, healthier cities

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Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, communities living in cities need cleaner air to breathe and outdoor public space to be social yet physically distanced.

Recognition of these issues has led public health experts, architects and urban planners to discuss how to design cities to respond to the pandemic.

One idea put forward has been the establishment of “school streets”: closing roads outside schools to motor traffic during school drop-offs and pick-ups.

School streets often involve other local action, too. This includes promoting active travel, such as walking and cycling, to get to school, getting local people involved in citizen science projects to monitor air quality and putting on events to celebrate the road closure.

Our research focuses on public health and air pollution. We recently worked with Holt House Infant and Carterknowle Junior schools in Sheffield, as well as with Sheffield City Council, to pilot the first school street in the city. The Sheffield pilot provides an excellent example of the valuable role that school streets could play in our cities, especially during a pandemic.

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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.

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

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

Call for participants: Experiences with contact tracing and outbreak management

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This event is part of our series International exchange of experiences: lessons learned in the Covid-19 crisis , and brings German municipal experts together with international actors to discuss how municipal administration can act to improve the response to the current crisis. Among other issues, this dialog will discuss good practices of contact tracing and outbreak management. Practice examples will be presented by experts from Germany and abroad. The overall aim of the event is to achieve a joint exchange of experiences and to develop ideas for cooperation.

Date: 28th September 2020
Time: 13:00 – 15:30 (CEST)

Please find more information in our Call for participants (pdf).

If you have any queries about the event and the participation process, we encourage you to contact:

Alexander Wagner 
alexander.wagner@engagement-global.de
Telefon +49 (0)228-20717-455

Thiago Garcia
thiago.garcia@engagement-global.de
Telefon +49 (0)228-20717-633

South-East European Local Governments in Post Covid-19 Socio-Economic Recovery

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South-East European (SEE) local governments (LGs) have been and will certainly remain at the forefront in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic social and economic crisis. In serving and protecting their communities they have been facing unprecedented challenges in multiple dimensions. SEE local governments have been responding to these challenges with a strong spirit of solidarity, putting their citizens lives before everything else and working tirelessly to provide support to the most vulnerable.

The crisis required local governments to take timely measures to shut down selected local services, quickly switch to remote working practices and digitalise administrative services, expand programs for securing citizens healthcare, expand social protection and care for a significantly higher number of vulnerable people, take measures to allow the smooth implementation of online or long-distance learning, etc. In the aftermath of the control or minimisation of the first wave of infection SEE local governments have taken specific ad hoc measures to support the survival of their local communities and economies.

The purpose of this survey is to help improving the understanding over the impact of the COVID-19 crisis at the local government level in South-East Europe, identifying effective and innovative social and economic recovery strategies and ultimately helping formulating concrete policy proposals to inform advocacy efforts of NALAS member Local Government Associations.

Towards the Localization of the SDGs – 4th Report

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LOCAL AND REGIONAL GOVERNMENTS’ REPORT TO THE 2020 HLPF 4th REPORT

The fourth report of the local and regional governments (LRGs) to the HLPF: Towards the Localization of the SDGs (2020) has been produced at a difficult time, when the world is suffering the effects of a global pandemic. The impact of this crisis on the social and economic fabric of our communities is, however, still difficult to measure. Within this context, the words “solidarity” and “cooperation” take on an even more relevant meaning. This was the message of the UN Secretary-General in his report to the HLPF and it reflects the feelings of our constituency, based on the experiences of numerous cities and territories.

The transformative framework of the universal development agendas remains essential for a more sustainable future. Local and regional governments from all over the world are reinstating their strong commitment to achieve the transformation that their societies call for after the pandemic through the potential of the SDGs and the universal development agendas.

In this context, the report analyses the evolution of the process of SDG localization in cities and territories throughout the world, particularly focusing on the 47 countries reporting this year. In doing this, it builds upon the information presented in the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) and on the views expressed by LRGs through their own reports (more than 40 Voluntary Local Reviews from cities and regions and six reports from LGAs which provide a wider, subnational view of the localization process in the countries reporting this year). It also collects together the answers to the GTF survey, with the visions of LRGs from 75 countries. This report will be presented during the Local and Regional Governments’ Day at the 2020 High-Level Political Forum.
Political Forum.

Cities Policy Responses

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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.

So coronavirus will change cities – will that include slums?

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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?

Read full article at The Conversation