As the world moves towards a more sustainable future, municipalities across Southeast Europe and the Caucasus are actively seeking innovative solutions to address their energy needs. In this context, Connective Cities facilitated two peer-to-peer exchange activities as part of a regional learning process on renewable energy options at the municipal level. These exchanges not only fostered collaboration but also provided valuable insights and inspiration for future projects. Let’s delve into these transformative experiences:
Category: The social city
Peer-to-peer exchange session between Eredvi and Senaki Municipalities, Georgia
Discover highlights of the Connective Cities Southeast Europe Region, a peer-to-peer exchange session that took place under the umbrella of the Learning Process Renewable Energy Options at the municipal level from April 10th to April 11th. This event brought together representatives from the Municipality of Eredvi, Georgia, and the Municipality of Senaki, Georgia, for a productive discussion. Both municipalities have experience implementing renewable energy projects in IDP settlements. During the session, participants exchanged best practices and addressed common challenges faced by their municipalities. Additionally, we had the opportunity to visit Tech Park Senaki, a prominent technology hub supporting startups and businesses in Senaki, Georgia.
Watch video at YouTube: https://youtu.be/iI6mujbmwdw
Further Information:
Publication about the good practice:
Eredvi Municipality (Georgia) grants renewable energy solutions for IDP settlements
Accommodation for evacuees and the use of volunteers
If German municipalities face an extreme event or disaster and have to evacuate parts of the civil society, they generally operate under standardised plans and the affected population can be temporary accommodated in emergency shelters. But what if they cannot return to their flats or houses for weeks or months? Many places lack concepts for such situations. The City of Cologne raised the question of how municipalities around the world are handling this issue. Connective Cities approached this question and organised a one-year international learning process on disaster management, which focused on the accommodation of evacuees as well as on the involvement of volunteers.
Eredvi Municipality (Georgia) grants renewable energy solutions for IDP settlements
Eredvi Municipality, located just five kilometers from Tskhinvali, has been navigating the challenges stemming from the 2008 Russian-Georgian War, remaining under the de facto control of the breakaway Republic of South Ossetia. Despite these challenges, the local government, operating from Tbilisi, has dedicated efforts to aid internally displaced families dispersed throughout Georgia.
The Eredvi Municipality’s Good Practices center on implementing sustainable solar power projects in internally displaced persons (IDP) settlements in eastern Georgia. Through a collaborative initiative with Lithuanian companies and financing, the municipality aims to address energy needs, providing free electricity to 692 families and municipal facilities while drawing inspiration from Lithuania’s successful experience in renewable energy solutions.
Women’s leadership in municipalities
As part of the network activities in the MENA region, an insight session was held on 5 February 2024 to delve into the opportunities and challenges influencing women’s leadership and representation in municipalities.
Gender equality and the inclusion of women in decision-making processes has been catapulted to the forefront of the political debate in the last few decades in the MENA region. Efforts to promote women’s leadership in municipalities are promising, with some states implementing policies aimed at increasing women’s representation. Despite this progress, persistent challenges such as limited access to education and institutional barriers, hinder women’s progress towards leadership positions.
In this insight session, participants have engaged in discussions about the importance of women’s leadership in municipalities and the related challenges, while acknowledging the progress that has been achieved. Dr. Manal Al-Abdallat, the director of the women’s regional network at the Greater Amman municipality, has presented an overview of the tools that increased women’s representation in municipalities including the establishment of women’s empowerment units. Nonetheless, she highlighted that women’s limited access to funds for lobbying limits their chances of success in election campaigns. An additional challenge is the phenomenon of nominating a single candidate for tribal representation, which puts women at a disadvantage compared to male candidates.
Related publication:
Municipal Observatory for Gender Mainstreaming
A guide for municipalities in the MENA region
Involvement of civil society actors on both sides is crucial
Yarinacocha is located in the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon. The city of around 100,000 inhabitants is close to the regional capital Pucallpa. 26% of Yarinacocha’s population live in poverty, 3.6% in extreme poverty. A large proportion of the urban population has no access to clean drinking water. All the district’s wastewater is discharged into the Ucayali River and the Yarinacocha Lagoon untreated. This has a negative impact on the environment, health, tourism, and economic development in the region.
To meet the increasing challenges of climate protection and climate change adaptation, the Yarinacocha district administration has developed an action program in collaboration with their German Partner City Cologne. This program includes the planning and implementation of improvement measures in areas such as the provision of municipal, climate and environmentally relevant basic services, the use of renewable energies, the preservation of biodiversity and local economic development through value chains. The district administration is working on building appropriate planning and project management capacities in the administration and establishing mechanisms to increase the participation of relevant interest groups from civil society, in particular indigenous actors, and universities, in local planning and decision-making processes. To support these objectives, an expert is supporting the district administration and the climate partnership between Yarinacocha and Cologne in the framework of the program “Experts fund for Municipal Partnerships Wordwide”, which is implemented by GIZ and SKEW.
In this good practice partnership-based cooperation with indigenous communities and their organizations as well as the commitment of political decision-makers are important success factors, e.g. to set up a center for indigenous medicine in Yarinacocha or to implement projects benefitting the indigenous population in the areas of local governance, biodiversity, and autonomous indigenous energy supply.
Rebuilding, but better!
From the German participants, the urban planning offices of the cities of Münster and Munich presented current examples of integrated urban development. It became clear that “integrated” encompasses all levels, from spatial planning to the participatory design of a square. To link these levels, Munich relies on the development of specialist guidelines (climate change adaptation/sponge city, avoidance of heat islands, mobility, strong residential districts) and the definition of action areas. Münster relies above all on the instrument of center funds (smaller sums to promote new ideas for redesign, simple application) and, upgrading the city center as a leisure and recreation area.
Gender mainstreaming and inclusive governance in municipalities
Gender equality has emerged as a critical driver of social progress and inclusive governance, in which municipalities play a crucial planning and implementation role. To strengthen the municipal role in gender mainstreaming and inclusive governance, Connective Cities has co-organised a workshop on 8-10 August 2023 in Amman-Jordan for municipal actors and experts to showcase good practices in this field as well as to support the participating municipalities in developing measures to achieve sustainable, inclusive and gender-equitable development in their respective contexts. Get inspired by short video!
Watch video at YouTube: https://youtu.be/JHvDIx2e40k
Further information: https://www.connective-cities.net/en/news/gender-mainstreaming-and-inclusive-governance-in-municipalities
KOTOR – centuries young town on the map of the rainbow cities
A UNESCO-protected small town with a rich history and cultural heritage, Kotor is an attractive destination with a lot to offer.
The name itself, in the Greek variant Decaterum, appears in records from the 7th century and has since been known as a city of multi-harmony, openness and acceptance of differences in all matters.
In 2014, the Municipality of Kotor was the first municipality in Montenegro to sign a cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights to improve the status and rights of LGBTQIA+ persons. Since 2020, it has been a proud member of the Rainbow Cities Network, a global network for LGBTQIA+ equality.
Gender mainstreaming and inclusive governance in municipalities
Gender equality has emerged as a critical driver of social progress and inclusive governance, in which municipalities play a crucial planning and implementation role. To strengthen the municipal role in gender mainstreaming and inclusive governance, Connective Cities has co-organised a workshop on 8-10 August 2023 in Amman-Jordan for municipal actors and experts to showcase good practices in this field as well as to support the participating municipalities in developing measures to achieve sustainable, inclusive and gender-equitable development in their respective contexts. The collaboration included other programmes: WoMENA, the Municipal Know-how for Host Communities in the Middle East Programme (IKKN) (German-Jordanian-Lebanese) and PAL (German-Palestinian).
Watch video about the workshop at YouTube: https://youtu.be/JHvDIx2e40k