Category: Local economic development

International exchange of experiences: lessons learned in the Covid-19 crisis

Posted on by erik

As soon as it was clear that the Covid-19 would pose serious challenges to municipalities around the world, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) addressed Connective Cities to adapt its methodology to provide municipal practitioners with an opportunity to share their experiences in an agile and flexible way.

In many ways, local authorities are constantly at the forefront of global challenges, as they are the first level of government to feel the impact of any crisis. Yet municipalities also have the potential to act as fruitful sources of innovative solutions in addressing these challenges, and those solutions would also require cooperation with different levels of government and the involvement of many different types of stakeholders: Academia, Civil Society, Private Sector, etc..

The series started in July/2020 and had the objective to help improving the responsiveness and resilience of urban actors through exchange and peer-to-peer learning by promoting the exchange of practical solutions between practitioners and to disseminate good practices. The explosive spread of the virus put existing municipal structures and capacities to the test. On the other hand, the interconnectivity and digitalisation opened up the possibility of offering a series of exchange events 100% virtually.

Hardly all the benefits of a well-organised personal exchange can be fully replaced by the current technologies. Nevertheless, in a crisis like the one caused by the Covid-19, technology made it possible to organise more than 35 response dialogue events with the participation of more than 800 specialists in such a short time.

Our main objective was to bring together experiences to be presented during and discuss how local authorities can cooperate, learn from each other and ultimately build their capacity to address global challenges. On the 9th of December, Connective Cities organised the official final event of the series “Municipal Response to COVID-19”.

Besides a keynote presentation from the Head of the Urban Policies and Reviews Unit the OECD, the event on the 9th of December included a showcase of examples from Stuttgart-Germany, Belo Horizonte-Brazil, Aman-Jordan, Tshwane-South Africa and Lviv-Ukraine. In closing an e-learning course on crisis management was presented by Dr. Peter Tinnemann, Head Global Health Science Unit, from the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

During our additional session of 2020 on the 10th of December, tools and protocols that cities employ to monitor and control the infection chains during the COVID-19 pandemic were explored. While taking a closer look at the efficiency and effectivity of the tracking systems applied in the South Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, discuss existing challenges, and explore how can we enhance or scale-up tracing strategies. Speakers shared their experiences from different levels of local governance and research from Georgia, Serbia and Germany.

The Connective Cities team would like to thank all the inspiring and impressive urban practitioners who invested their time in sharing and discussing their good practices in response to the pandemic. In 2021 Connective Cities will continue to offer events and exchanges focused on the municipal needs connected to the Covid-19 pandemic. We warmly invite you to stay connected through our website and all our social media channels and stay tuned for updates and future events.

Local Development Program for the City of Agadir in Morocco

Posted on by erik

Agadir municipality has pursued ambitious policies aimed at enhancing the quality of life of the city’s inhabitants, while protecting the environment and fostering sustainable development. The undertaken efforts targeted various key areas, in which the requirements and responsibilities for achieving environmental, social and economic sustainability were met.

Local Economic Development and Job Creation in the Middle East and North Africa

Posted on by erik

More than 40 local urban practitioners from 22 municipalities and 10 countries from the MENA region and Germany took part of the virtual dialogue event organized by the Connective Cities project. The dialogue event consisted of five virtual sessions held between the Sep 29th – Oct 7th focusing on facilitating the exchange of know-how and experiences through peer-to-peer learning among municipal representatives and urban practitioners. Moreover, the dialogue event aimed at enriching the analysis and planning capacity of the participating municipal representatives to address existing challenges of implementing LED and job creation programs. The discussion also led to identifying the gaps in resources and the support needed to implement future LED projects.

Local economic development (LED) remains a top priority for cities in MENA and a driver for economic stability and job creation for a region with one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. A wide spectrum of stakeholders are engaged in fostering LED including governments, NGOs, the private sector, and development actors. Nevertheless, there remains the need to intensify exchange of practice-oriented experience and good practice among municipal representatives and urban practitioners  on related topics  such as strategizing for LED and creating partnerships with the private sector, sustainable livelihood programs and decent job creation, as well as green economic transformation.

The facilitation approach focused on designing, planning, and conducting a series of virtual knowledge-exchange activities in which several steps were taken:

  1. Clustering: of partners according to their regional distribution, municipal needs, and vision for future development for their cities;
  2. Defining: the subtopics for dialogue that are in harmony with their current ambitions and future objectives;
  3. Inviting: partners to virtual dialogue sessions after outlining the goal of this dialogue and defining roles and responsibilities agreed upon by all partners, as well as the anticipated outcome;
  4. Facilitating: the virtual exchange sessions in a manner that will ensure maximum interaction and knowledge exchange;
  5. Evaluation and Follow up:  with all partners after all sessions are completed to share the outputs of the dialogue to maintain ongoing knowledge exchange for future collaboration in between the different municipalities;
  6. Reporting: on all conducted activities and the overall summary of the dialogue.

The project has built a Network, an exchange platform for municipal representatives and urban practitioners, which provides a systematic access to practice-oriented solutions for sustainable urban development by facilitating change and providing mutual support.

Dialogue event introductory video: English version | Arabic version

The role of innovation in curbing the impacts of the pandemic

Posted on by erik

More than 15 municipal representatives from around 15 cities in MENA and sub-Sharan Africa participated in the virtual event of the knowledge-exchange series on Municipal Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, which took place on the 14th October 2020.

Municipal representatives from both political and technical levels were invited and they engaged in knowledge-exchange to analyse and discuss practical examples on how innovation contributes to curbing the impacts of the pandemic.

Program

As part of the virtual event, four good practices from Aachen (Germany), Biskra and Batna (Algeria), and Mosul (Iraq) were showcased. The virtual event aimed at facilitating the sharing of experiences of interventions undertaken from a production, innovation, and scientific point of view to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on cities in MENA and Germany.

Moreover, the following set of questions were addressed:

  1. How did the local actors implement innovative initiatives to curb the impacts of the pandemic?
  2. What have been the core challenges in developing the innovative solutions?
  3. How can partnerships initiate strategic and operational response to the short-term challenges resulting from Covid-19, as well as the long-term planning recovery?
  4. What are the lessons learned from the perspective of local and national entities, research institutions and the private sector in developing these initiatives?

Presentations

Fight Corona.AC initiative in RWTH Aachen university, Germany
Prof. Jan Borchers, RWTH Aachen university, Germany
English   Arabic

COV-Fight Project in Biskra, Algeria
Mr. Imad Tibermacine, Biskra, Algeria
English   Arabic

3D printing technology for the production of medical supplies in Batnah, Algeria
Mr. Belcasem Islam, Batnah, Algeria
English   Arabic

Mosul Space in Mosul, Iraq
Ms. Susan Long, Innovation Lead for Middle East at Field Ready
Mr. Salih Mahmod, Mosul Space
English   Arabic

Results

The showcasing of good practices resulted in an opportunity for cooperation between the innovation hub in Mosul, Iraq and Algerian good practices. Connective Cities will facilitate this cooperation.

Municipal expert exchange to COVID-19- compact

Posted on by erik

Topics: Public Health & Crisis Management / Economy, Housing & Education / Digitalisation & Communication / Innovation

Time: 23 November – 3 December 2020

Cities worldwide are severely affected by the impacts of COVID-19. Unlike national governments, municipalities are in close contact with their citizens and are responsible for the implementation of measures decided by governments to reduce the spread of Corona infections.

Cities worldwide also have collected important experiences, which will be of immense relevance in the global fight against the virus. The crisis has shown how important the resilience of municipalities is: this directly applies to local crisis management and disaster preparedness as well as to the need for constantly adaptive urban planning. The current crisis has shown and proven once again that resilience is an essential capacity of municipalities.

To continue tackling the challenges of the pandemic in the future and to find suitable solutions to minimise its negative impact, it is now necessary to learn from and share experiences that will support the joint development of further measures. In the framework of its COVID-19 Municipal response dialogue, Connective Cities is organising a virtual global exchange series on “Municipal Response to COVID-19” from 23 November to 3 December 2020 and kindly invites you to be part of this series of events. This international exchange effort takes place in cooperation with engaged urban practitioners, municipal experts as well as local experts from academia, civil society and business.

More information

Transport for under two degrees – the way forward

Posted on by erik

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: The role of innovation in curbing the impacts of the pandemic

Posted on by erik

The crisis inflicted by the Covid-19 pandemic has triggered many initiatives around the world to employ innovative solutions that aim at impeding the spread of the virus and curbing its disastrous impacts.
Examples of these impactful innovations include shift labs, remote screening and monitoring of patients, DIY face shields, low-cost ventilators, and the mobilisation of 3-D printing and robotics to manufacture vital medical devices or test kits. Overall, the registered progress at this front has highlighted the underlying and more critical long-term need to better resource and institutionalize strategic innovation in rebuilding local capacities of the health and economic sectors. Some expert opinions advocate for greater investments in developing platforms for diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics as a means to overcome the huge economic toll of this pandemic. Similarly, supporting and funding highly innovative start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs is crucial to the economy’s fast recovery.

Given the urgency for innovative solutions to the pandemic, sharing existing and emerging breakthrough achievements is of utter importance. Sharing and disseminating such knowledge can potentially facilitate the creation of partnerships which in turn are pivotal to initiating strategic and operational response to the short-term challenges resulting from COVID-19, as well as to the long-term planning for recovery.

To this end, this virtual knowledge-exchange event showcases ongoing grassroot initiatives developed collaboratively by local and national entities, research institutions and the private sector. In particular, FIGHTCORONA.AC initiative1 from Aachen (Germany), COV-Fight project2 from Biskra (Algeria), as well as the good practice of using 3D-printing technology for the production of medical supplies3 in Batnah (Algeria) will be presented.

Language: English and Arabic.

Date: 14th October 2020
Time: 13:00 – 14:45 CEST

More Informationen: Programme [pdf]

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

Muna Shalan, Connective Cities’ regional coordinator for MENA: muna.shalan@giz.de

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

Posted on by erik

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.

———————————

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

—————————————–

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.

—————————————–

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: Covid-19: Economic impact and recovery

Posted on by erik

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a deteriorating impact on the national and local government economic resources. In economies that largely depend on informal labour market, a lot of people have lost their livelihoods. The governments have been torn between life and livelihoods as the interaction of people propels the spread of the virus.

This shift affected the revenue stream for the local government especially in the cities as a result of shrinking businesses and also a mass migration of the urban population to the rural areas. This has a negative impact on effective operations of the municipalities and service provision.

Whilst the impact of this pandemic has been felt worldwide, cities have responded with different measures to avert the spread and cushion against long-term impacts and even future pandemics. It’s against this background that Connective Cities1 is offering a platform in which cities will share the challenges they have experienced and interventions that have either been implemented or are being planned to safeguard against the negative impacts and future pandemics.

In the second series  at10th & 12th November, 2020, 13:00- 15:00 (CET), we look at the economic impact of the pandemic, recovery and resilience of cities.

Conference language is English.

More information:Concept paper [pdf 3 pages]

Participation and contact

If you have further questions or would like to participate, please send an e-mail to Sophia Kamau (sophia.kamau@giz.de), Regional Coordinator for Connective Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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

Posted on by erik

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.