Category: Municipal services

Asset Management to Optimize Water and Wastewater Infrastructure

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Cost-intensive infrastructures such as drinking water and wastewater systems require carefully considered and target-oriented investment decisions from the management. The basis for this is Asset Management: the systematic inventory and documentation of all components, including a condition assessment and an evaluation of a possible extent of damage. The sustainable management of the water and wastewater infrastructure is thus based on a risk-based maintenance strategy. On the one hand, this is to maintain the most undisturbed operation of the facilities possible, and on the other hand, the limited resources are to used as efficiently as possible.

That is the theory! However, what does this mean in practice? About 25 municipal practitioners from 10 cities in Germany, the Palestinian Territories, Tanzania and Uganda exchanged ideas, developed solutions and project ideas together. They had accepted the invitation of Connective Cities and Hamburg Wasser to the virtual dialogue event, which took place from 30.11. – 02.12.2020.

Starting with an exchange of experiences on good practices and projects in the cities, challenges in implementation were identified and ultimately three project ideas were developed for Songea (Tanzania), Bethlehem (Palestinian Territories) and small and medium utilities in Uganda, which can lead to an improvement in efficiency and organisational framework for asset management.

Waste to positive energy in Mafraq governorate in Jordan

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The establishment of the composting plant to produce organic fertilizers was part of the plan for solid waste management in Jordan. The project was jointly planned by the Ministry of Local Administration and the UNDP in its first phase, and then it received technical and financial support from the GIZ in its second and third phases. The project aims to serve Mafraq governorate which hosts a large number of livestock farms, through the collection and treatment of animal manure to produce organic fertilizers to be used in agricultural land in the city.

Towards the Just City in Kenya

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In the next 25 years, Africa’s urban population is set to double. By 2040, the majority of Africans will be living in cities. There are numerous reasons for this: climate change, violent conflicts and the hope of finding work or education, although this list could easily be extended. Urbanisation thus constitutes one of the greatest transformations facing Africa in the 21st century.

Despite the diversity of the African continent, however, they are so far mostly “unjust” cities that people are moving to. The majority live in informal settlements and work under precarious conditions, mostly in the informal sector, without employment contracts and social security.

Towards the Just City in Kenya is the first publication of its kind that explores the conceptualisation and application of the “just city” concept in Kenya. The authors explore the concept from various dimensions, namely:

  • Conceptualisation of the just city in Kenya.
  • Locating the just city in the constitutional, policy, legislative and institutional context.
  • Discussion of spatial justice in the context of planning and housing; and
  • Interrogating practical ways in which cities express injustice and how these can be practically addressed, with examples from the public transport sector.

The study offers recommendations on how the just city concept can be realised in Kenya, looking specifically at urban institutions, citizens’ rights, housing policies and urban public transport systems.

With its just city project, FES Kenya and its partners facilitate dialogues through working groups which bring together civil society, trade unions, Members of County Assemblies, Government representatives, and academia working in urban centres of Kenya with the objective to jointly work for a just city.

Closed pilot cycle of plastic recycling in Rustavi

Posted on by erik

Rustavi is the fourth largest city in Georgia and one of the most important industrial centers. In this city, with partnership of Rustavi City Hall, Rustavi Innovations Hub and its partners, and support of UNDP Georgia, in 2019, was established and launched a closed plastic waste recycling pilot cycle involving municipal kindergartens and public schools. 

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

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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.

Climate Resilient Urban Development in Southeast Europe

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From October 26th until November 6th 2020 around 30 urban practitioners from 11 Southeast European cities (from 8 different countries Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Belarus, Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Germany) came together virtually to exchange their experiences and expertise in the field of Urban Mobility and Green Urban Infrastructure. Especially challenges in waste management, transportation and public lighting system and water revitalization were discussed intensively, as they represent pressing issues for many Southeast European cities.

The aim of the workshop was to jointly work out comprehensive project plans which can be the basis for technical and financial proposals for funding. The workshop focused on the following topics:

  1. Green Infrastructure – based on the notion that protecting and enhancing nature and natural processes are consciously taken into consideration in the context of spatial planning and territorial development.
  2. Urban Mobility – developing and implementing sustainable urban mobility plans (SUMP) including private as well as public transportation.

The event was a follow-up to the virtual dialogue event conducted in June 2020 with representatives of 24 municipalities as well as international experts. Where, based on innovative methodologies such as Design Thinking, participants from 9 countries worked on their first project ideas.

These two weeks of synchronous and asynchronous workshops were participated by the officials from institutions, representatives from urban networks that share the project’s objectives, and experienced professional from the civil society and the private sector, who work in the thematic areas as well as academia in the field of urbanism, spatial planning, geography, climate change and other disciplines. During the workshop, also donor organizations were invited to get to know the projects, to answer questions of the municipalities and to support financial proposals and grant applications written in a professional way.

Local Development Program for the City of Agadir in Morocco

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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.

Improving Efficiency and Effectiveness in the Provision of Water, Wastewater & Urban Mobility Services in Sub Saharan Africa

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Between the 7th and 18th of September, 2020 in intermittent virtual sessions, about 43 participants from 24 cities and representing 7 African countries and Germany, congregated to share best practices and develop project ideas in the afore-mentioned areas

With the ever-increasing population and urbanization in most countries in Sub Saharan Africa, the demand for basic services also increases yet the municipalities and cities have not been able to match the supply to demand. A lot of challenges ail these sectors but there are efforts to sustainably sustain service provision.

The objectives of the dialogue event were to:
1. Facilitate exchange of experiences based on good practices of public service delivery among urban practitioners from municipalities in Sub-Saharan Africa and Germany,
2. Facilitate peer-to-peer advisory services to address the current challenges of public service delivery in the cities of the participants and create new knowledge,
3. Develop the capacity of the participants to analyse existing strategies and to formulate project ideas and envisaged solutions for efficient and effective public service delivery, and
4. Define future support measures to strengthen project development and implementation skills as well as ongoing exchange through the community of practice, Connective Cities.

The countries involved in this dialogue event were; Ethiopia, Ghana, Germany, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The event was a starting point for action planning for project ideas to be developed.

This report is the documentation of the virtual event.

Municipal services in the pandemic

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Numerous German and international experts from 11 different countries met on 04.11.2020 at our virtual event “Municipal services in the pandemic”. The central topic was how municipal administration and municipal companies can act to improve the response to the current crisis.

Their practical experience was at the forefront. The cities of Rostock and Bremen (Germany) presented good practice examples of waste and water companies, and the Secretary for International Relations of Sao Paulo presented good practices from Brazil’s largest city. The other participants from Tunisia, Indonesia, Morocco, Somalia, Nepal, Iraq, Jordan, Sri Lanka, Palestine and the United States also shared their approach to the pandemic in the municipal services sector and discussed possible lessons learnt from the crisis.

Through our peer-to-peer consultation, the exchange was intensified and all participants had the opportunity to discuss among their peers, in order to support each other. In the end, new project ideas for further cooperation could be discussed and next steps suggested.

Communication in the crisis: citizens, passengers & customers

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As part of the series “International exchange of experiences: lessons learnt in the Covid-19 crisis”, a virtual meeting between various municipal actors took place on 28.10.2020. This time, the focus was on the question of how reliable and adequate information can be provided on time during a pandemic to all citizens, to public transport passengers or to customers of municipal service providers.

Good practices from Stuttgart (Germany), Belo Horizonte (Brazil) and Hebron (Palestine) were presented. These good practices provided impulses for an intensive exchange of expertise and development of new ideas. Other participants from Lebanon, Brazil, Kenya and Palestine also shared their experiences in dealing with the current Covid-19 crisis.

Our peer-to-peer consultation approach enabled to initiate discussions that provided an added value for all participants. In the end, new project ideas for further cooperation could be discussed and next steps suggested.