Smaller businesses in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany, have been particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Eager to assist them, the city launched a project to help its businesses (‘Gmünd hilft seiner Wirtschaft’). Its main objective is to provide fast-track and unbureaucratic support to see enterprises through a liquidity bottleneck.
Category: Local economic development
Municipal Response to COVID-19 for Sustainable Urban Development in Southeast Europe and Caucasus
The COVID-19 pandemic tested the robustness and resourcefulness of mostly all municipal services, from transportation and waste management to recreation and communication, pushing cities to reinvent new ways to serve their citizens. Besides, pandemic-centered protocols set new behavioral patterns – many of which were quite stressful for urban economies. Others, on the contrary, made both city leaders and citizens rethink the status-quo regarding sustainability and resilience. They created the opportunity for a green and circular economy to determine the mood of the recovery. Thus, a deep and better understanding of a city’s systems and operation is required in order to move towards sustainable development and greater resilience. If cities manage to learn from the COVID-19 crisis and proactively apply long-term prevention and risk reduction approaches, they will meet future emergencies better prepared or avoid some of them.
The following report summarizes the study on municipal response to COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted in September 2020, more than half a year after the global emergency was announced. It covers cities of Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine.
Interview with Faola Hodaj on Innovation Ecosystems
Learn through Faola Hodaj, Director of Innovation at Municipality of Tirana, how did the municipality reflect this innovative spirit through its services and response to the pandemic.
More: https://youtu.be/BpnLZLcky00
Join us and watch a special series of videos and podcasts that will show how to overcome a crisis from many different points of view. More videos, podcasts and interviews on our COVID-19 page.
Interview with Leila Ben Gacem: Social Innovation
Beni Khalled, Tunisia, a city famous for its citrus farms, is home of Leila Ben Gacem, social entrepreneur and as elected city councillor head of the Finance Committee. The brave woman worked late hours throughout the first lockdown in order to coordinate volunteers, health companies and municipal activities through social entrepreneurship skills.
More: https://youtu.be/w4ihfI_Gg00
Join us and watch a special series of videos and podcasts that will show how to overcome a crisis from many different points of view. More videos, podcasts and interviews coming soon on our COVID-19 page.
Podcast with Dr. Lardo Stander: Economic Response and Housing
“The social compact is critical in order to respond quickly and appropriately to future pandemics.”
Economic modelling to better understand crisis scenarios; mapping vulnerable groups for targeted help. Dr. Lardo Stander from Pretoria, South Africa, told us how did they deal with the South African slums’ economic and housing problems during lockdown.
More: https://youtu.be/Z2XUO7wxIPI
Join us and watch a special series of videos and podcasts that will show how to overcome a crisis from many different points of view. More videos, podcasts and interviews coming soon on our COVID-19 page.
Podcast with Armin Berger: Digital Innovation
Welcome to Berlin, where thousands of artists lost their stages because of lockdown. Learn how Armin Berger got support from the senator of culture and how good ideas emerged during breakfast to fill Berlin with new life: Berlin(a)Live
More: https://youtu.be/UwqjbiMlIGE
Join us and watch a special series of videos and podcasts that will show how to overcome a crisis from many different points of view. More videos, podcasts and interviews coming soon on our COVID-19 page.
Impact of Covid-19 on the tourism sector
The tourism sector has been adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. This ranges from the from SMEs to the international sector players including the airlines, the hotel industry, travel agencies and other associated players. Many African countries are tourist destinations thus must have been dented by the lock downs and closure of airspaces. Upon opening though, a lot of domestic tourism has been promoted.
Connective Cities sought to understand the nature of the impact on the sector players and some of the measures being put in place to cushion against the negative impacts and future pandemics.
Program
With the knowledge that a lot of the players in this sector come from the private sector, little wonder it is that the 11 participants were drawn from the private sector. This was a moderated session and the examples from Mpumalanga in South Africa, those from Asia and the global perspective on response to the pandemic gave a clear picture of the impacts and response measures. In this session we sought to answer these questions:
- What have been the core challenges for the sector players?
- What measures have you put in place?
- Have there been any lessons learned already for long term strategies to improve the sector’s resilience (i.e. preparedness for pandemics or similar events in the future)?
Presentations
Tourism recovery process- the case for Mpumalanga Province, South Africa
Mr. Oupa Pilane
Covid-19 and the tourism crisis: how some municipal authorities around the world are supporting tourism sector recovery
Ms. Jennifer Bartlett
Responding to Covid-19 challenges- how Nepal’s tourism sector is finding its way out
Deepak Adhikary
Results
- Tourism in Mpumalanga province was on a positive trajectory until Covid-19 struck and the sector was adversely affected like in many other countries where tourism is a major economic activity
- Massive job losses experienced in many countries as well
- Mpumalanga thus collaborated with the private sector to develop the tourism recovery plan that will protect & rejuvenate supply, re-ignite demand and strengthen enabling capability.
- From a global lense, a lot is going on with expected post-crisis growth in market demand for nature-based & wellness travel.
COVID-19: Economic impact and recovery
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a deteriorating impact on the national and local government economic resources. When most governments directed a shift in the normal way of life where businesses thrived, and goods and services exchanged, many businesses were affected. 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.
Against this concern, Connective Cities organized a virtual exchange on the 10th of November, 2020 for cities to share on how their revenue stream has been affected and the measures they are putting in place to cushion against the current and possible future pandemics. 7 participants from Ghana, Kenya and South Africa with a representation of Tshwane, Kumasi, Nelson Mandela Bay, Rustenburg and some local government associations were present to exchange and discuss.
Program
This was a moderated session with two main presentations from the City of Tshwane shedding light on their economic recovery plan and the Kenya Private Sector Association highlighted the different ways in the Government of Kenya is supporting the key economic sectors to cushion against the negative impacts. The discussions were enriching to the participants as many cities/municipalities run out of resources to run their operations including provision of services. The questions that were being answered in this session included?
- What have been the core challenges for the municipalities?
- What measures have municipalities put in place?
- How do the municipalities deal with vulnerable groups which were most affected by the pandemic?
- Have there been any lessons learned already for long term strategies to improve cities’ resilience (i.e. preparedness for pandemics or similar events in the future)?
Presentations
City of Tshwane’s proposal on economic recovery
Dr. Lardo Stander
SME economic impact of Covid-19, recovery and resilience of cities- Nairobi and Towns in Kenya
Mr. Mairura Omwenga
Results
The City of Tshwane’s economic recovery plan confirmed how fragile the local economies of most African cities are. The quick response to cushion the SMEs & the citizens while safeguarding the City’s purse is a good call.
Access to funds by SMEs & informal businesses will propel the bouncing back of the economic lifeline. The special focus on vulnerable groups is commendable.
The case from Kenya highlighted the impact of Covid-19 on different economic sectors including housing, manufacturing/ SMEs, road transport, community service and professional services. In all these sectors, massive job losses have been experienced but the national government has put in measures to cushion eg establishing SME credit guarantee scheme with local banks and giving tax rebates. The Telcom company offering mobile money services was required to reduce transaction costs up to certain amounts.
Kiel: Entrepreneurship and Digitalisation
We traveled to Kiel, where we captured deep insights from a city that, as a digital champion, had to adapt quickly. How do you keep your StartUp community alive if people cannot meet personally?
More: https://youtu.be/-QxhW-Gx-3M
Join us and watch a special series of videos and podcasts that will show how to overcome a crisis from many different points of view. More videos, podcasts and interviews coming soon on our COVID-19 page.
Final Report: Virtual Global Exchange
The exchange was designed to bring together urban practitioners from all over the globe. The goal was to ignite creativity, innovation, solidarity and motivation, while creating and enhancing this global community of practice around the common purpose of combating the global COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences with smart local solutions and strategies.
During the first week, urban practitioners and experts from different municipalities, the civil society, business and academia, presented a total of 56 Good Practices in 18 sessions and gave insights into their experienced challenges and local solutions to deal with the pandemic. The exchange were centered around the nine topics were Public Health, Crisis Management, Economic Response, Housing, Education, Digitalisation, Crisis Communication, Innovation, and Green Urban Recovery.
The second week was about receiving practical “How To” capsules with practical exercises on topics that came up repeatedly during the exchange events such as: social media usage, digital tools, and how to plan for virtual meetings. Finally, the newly learned mindsets and tools could be applied in a 4-hour solution design workshop.