As part of the activities of the working group “destination management organization and product design in tourism”, Kufranja municipality in Jordan has hosted a workshop on ecotourism and designing touristic trails’. The workshop was attended by key actors in this field including representatives of the tourism ministry in Ajloun governorate, the Royal Society for Nature Conservation, and Bookagri.com which is an agritourism experiences and destinations development company. The tourism expert, Hanane Haber, has provided an overview of the principles of establishing sustainable tourism in Kufranja municipality that is known as “the city of oxygen”.
Category: Local economic development
Building Resilience: Insights from the Project Planning Workshop
The Connective Cities Project Planning Workshop, themed “Resilience in Times of War – Municipal Exchange between Ukraine and Germany,” unfolded in Munich, Germany, from November 28th to 29th, 2023. This gathering brought together municipal representatives and technical experts with a collective goal – to strengthen a more resilient and sustainable future for Ukraine. The workshop, occurring just a month after the 6th German-Ukrainian Partnership Conference in Leipzig, aimed to emphasize the pivotal role of cities and municipalities in shaping the nation’s post-war trajectory.
Diverse Participation and Collaborative Learning
Representatives from diverse Ukrainian municipalities, such as Sambir, Sumy, Brovary, Lutsk, Vinnitsa, Trostyanets, Berenzhany, Zbarazh, Mykolaiv, Melitopol, and Novovolynsk, comprised the active participation of over 35 delegates in the Connective Cities event. Kosovo had representation from Prishtina and Gllogoc, and Germany was represented by Munich and Eichenau. The event also featured participation from municipal utilities Gersthofen & Cologne (RheinEnergie) and delegates from the private sector. The diverse mix aimed at fostering collaborative learning, as cities shared their successes and challenges, recognizing the importance of joint experiences in the journey towards resilience.
Thematic Focus Areas
The workshop delved into three crucial thematic areas:
- Regional and Local Economic Development
- Renewable Energy Options on the Municipal Level
- Integrated Urban Development
Skilled technical experts facilitated discussions on topics ranging from green urban development to energy grid optimization and cluster development, providing valuable insights for participants to implement in their respective municipalities.
Renewable Energy for Local Economic Development in Africa
The main objective of the workshop is to develop renewable energy projects in African cities.
The workshop was attended by 30 practitioners* from city governments, associations and the private sector representing 7 countries and 20 cities from Africa, as well as high-level guests including the Country Director of GIZ, the Kenyan Ministry of Energy, the head of the Romanian Development Agency (RoAid), the City of Gersthofen from Germany, and officials from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). Representatives from various cities in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, and Tunisia also contributed to the success of the conference with their presentations of the framework conditions and project examples.
Protecting viticulture and tourism against the impacts of climate change
In December 2021, the municipalities of Eltville and Tunuyán met online for a professional dialogue, which was also attended by representatives of scientific institutions from both countries. A total of 30 people took part in the event. The two sides decided to work together in the future within a climate partnership, in order to minimise the negative impacts of climate change on wine production and the tourism industry.
Connective Cities with side event @COP27
Join us on November 12th, 6:30 – 8:00 pm UTC+2, virtually or at the German Pavilion at COP27 – and discuss challenges and solutions to energy supply and energy efficiency in cities.
Cities worldwide face dependence on energy imports and energy supply as well as high prices and price fluctuation due to wars, conflicts, and insecure situations worldwide. The expansion of renewable energies and energy efficiency in urban development are therefore currently gaining further momentum.
How can cities work towards energy autarky? What role can cities play in eliminating energy imports? To what extent can cities and municipalities produce their own energy?
The side-event is organized by Connective Cities and the German Association of Cities (Deutscher Städtetag) and addresses challenges and good practices examples in the fields of:
- Energy supply and energy consumption of different sectors in cities
- Good Practices in reducing energy consumption (e.g., nearly zero energy buildings; renewable energy; clean energy)
Keynote: Mrs. Lea Ranalder, UN-Habitat
Panel discussion:
- Mr. Andreas Wolter, Mayor, City of Cologne, Germany
- Mrs. Melanie Grabowy, Mayor, City of Bonn, Germany
- Mr. Houcine Jrad, Mayor, Municipality Houmt Souk, Tunisia
- Dr. Georges Youssef, Municipality Menjez, Lebanon
- Mme Gladys Wanga, Governor County Government of Homa Bay, Kenia
Moderation: Sabine Drees, German Association of Cities
Virtual participation is possible via: Side Event | Responding Russia´s war: Towards Energy Autarky on a local level (german-climate-pavilion.de)
Voices from Connective Cities – Muncipality of Ras el-Matn
The Mayor of Ras el-Matn municipality talks about how the municipality serves as the lungs of the capital Beirut in Lebanon, mainly due to its distigiushed eco-tourism projects. He also describes the municipality’s partnership with the private sector partner ‘Green Mount Recycling -GMR’ for sustainable waste management. The general director of GMR commended Ras el-Matn municiplaity and elaborates on their partnership project to promote sorting from source, particularly on how gender considerations were integrated into the planning and implementation of the project’s activities. Moreover, the Mayor also describes how the municipality developed a geospatial database with Connective Cities to promote waste sorting. Both speakers confirmed how this project will ultimately have environmental benefits and contribute to climate change mitigation. They also confirmed the benefits of joining Connective Cities network and peer learning particularly on the topic of waste management, as they learned about procedures that other companies are following in different countries such as the Philippines and Brazil using PPP.
Watch video at YouTube:
Voices from Connective Cities – Abasan Al-Kabira municipality
The representatives of Abasan Al-Kabira municipality in Palestine talk about how they are acting as Connective Cities’ Ambassador in Palestine, by organising several workshops for municipalities in Gaza to promote the regional network’s activities in different thematic areas such as crisis management, response to the Covid-19 pandemic, circular economy, local economic development and renewable energy. They also confirmed that working with Connective Cities on several projects and benefitting from knowledge exchange with their peers have enabled the municipality to progress in achieving its SDG-related targets and has resulted in developing capacities of the municipal employees.
Watch video at YouTube:
Partnerships for Circularity
Through strategic partnerships, Jerash municipality in Jordan was able to overcome impediments in solid waste management and embark on a path of circularity. By partnering with multiple stakeholders, the municipality succeeded in designing strategies for effective solid waste management and overcoming challenges related to insufficient operating budget, low collection coverage, waste dumping, and the associated environmental and public health concerns.
Municipal Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic – MENA region
In the wake of the Pandemic, municipalities in the MENA region in both urban and rural areas need to rethink their modes of operation and accelerate their shift towards building resilience during the recovery process. In an effort to support municipalities that are members of the Connective Cities network in the MENA region, four thematic working groups were established as part of Connective Cities program ‘Municipal Recovery from the Pandemic.’ Objectives of this working group include promoting practice–oriented knowledge exchange between municipal and urban practitioners, facilitating peer learning on sustainable and innovative approaches to build resilience in cities through biodiversity and environmental protection, digitalisation of municipal services, and promoting social entrepreneurship for circularity. The program has resulted in the development of concrete urban solutions. Another outcome was the creation of partnerships between municipalities as well as with private sector actors to articulate the proposed solutions and scale up the impact. This report summarizes the main achievements until February 2022.
Trash to Cash
Despite the weaknesses that permeate solid waste management in Lebanon, some municipalities have committed themselves to innovate solutions and overcome the challenges that include cost recovery issues, treatment and disposal difficulties, low capacity of dumpsites, lack of commitment from the local community for recycling, and a low demand for recycled products. Al Manara and Ghalboun municipalities are two examples on how municipalities were able to transform these challenges into opportunities.