Using a Connective Cities learning process, the municipality of Mitrovica in Kosovo drew up a roadmap to establish an umbrella organisation for the roughly 300 informal waste pickers in the city. This is designed to enable the waste pickers to improve their socio-economic situation and access to health care.
Category: Municipal services
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:
Bending the Linear Economy On Urban Metabolism
“In the Rome Declaration of 2021, the G20 Leaders stressed the link between sustainable urbanization and the development of circular economy to preserve resources and deliver on climate and biodiversity global goals. […] To meet ambitious but necessary net zero targets, waste, water and energy provision have to change dramatically and at a large scale. This includes new technologies, transformations in governance and regulatory systems, the implementation of just-transition financial mechanisms and strengthened international cooperation, combined with enhanced technical cooperation and joint capacity building among emerging and developing markets.”
INTERSECTING is distributed by the Global Solutions Initiative. It is geared towards think tanks, civil organizations, international institutions, in particular the G20/T20.
Voices from Connective Cities – Madaba Municipality
The representatives of Madaba municipality in Jordan talk about the vital role of the Local Development Unit in forging partnerships as well as the municipality’s achievements in the field of digitalisation. The head of the Local Development Unit, Mr. Mohammed Abou Gaoud, confirms that the work done with Connective Cities in different thematic fields, for example crisis management, digitalisation and circular economy, will be reflected in Madaba’s local development strategy and will have a real impact.
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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:
India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX)
To build cities of the future, which provide good quality of life, improved economic robustness, and harmony with nature, India needs unique solutions that are not only efficient but also offer services and benefits to all segments of society. It has chosen to leverage data in creating these solutions by facilitating the real-time sharing of data among stakeholders through an open, neutral, and secure platform, the India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX). IUDX is all about the use of data for public good and enabling data providers to create innovative services and generate value.
Sustainable Urban Energy Planning in Southeast Europe (SEE)
Video about Connective Cities’ learning process II conducted in May 2021 – June 2022 to support municipalities in fine-tuning their project ideas in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable energy and developing them further towards bankable project proposals.
Watch video at YouTube:
More information on the dialogue event in November 2021:
Development of bankable project proposals for sustainable urban energy planning in Southeast Europe
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.
Voices from Connective Cities – Jerash municipality
Representatives from the Jordan municipality of Jerash tell how they have benefited from the exchange with other experts at the events and workshops organised by Connective Cities. They were able to take away many ideas for their own projects in the areas of gender-sensitive local economic development, waste management and plastic recycling, which aim at a zero-waste municipality.
Watch video at YouTube: