Category: Public Health & Public Services

Municipal experts wanted: Implementing vaccination and communication strategies on the local level

Posted on by erik

Is your city administration currently carrying out or planning a Covid-19 vaccination campaign implementing national vaccination strategies? Has your city made first experiences in launching a communication and outreach campaign to your citizens about the vaccinations?

On the 22nd and 25th of March 2021, Connective Cities will hold a two-day response dialogue on “Covid-19: The local implementation of vaccination strategies and related communication in municipalities”.

The event brings together municipal experts from Germany with international municipal actors to discuss how municipalities can better deal with the challenges involved in implementing and communicating Covid-19 vaccination strategies at the local level. One thematic focus of the event will be communication strategies that municipal actors can adopt to inform citizens on the vaccination as well as to manage expectations and to create trust.

Municipal experts from public health departments, communications departments or Covid-19-related crisis units are warmly invited to apply for participation in the two-day online event (approx. 3 hours per session).

Please contact us if you would like to present a concrete case or project idea from your city. This could cover, for example:

  • How your municipality is carrying out Covid-19 vaccinations among existing challenges (e.g. vaccinating as many people as possible in the shortest period of time, lack of infrastructure for mass vaccination, decentralised vaccinations/the use of mobile vaccination teams, vaccine hesitancy or the spread of misinformation among citizens, difficulty of reaching vulnerable and at risk persons); and/or
  • How to organise a public information campaign on the vaccinations and the mentioned challenges.

If the topic falls into your area of expertise and you wish to participate in the discussion without presenting a specific case, we also invite you to contact us.

More information: Call for participants [pdf, 190 kb, 2 pp.]

Contact:

Alice Balbo, alice.balbo@staedtetag.de, +49 (0)221-3771-573

Nikola Krause, nikola.krause@engagement-global.de, +49 (0)228-20717-2672

Thiago Garcia, thiago.garcia@engagement-global.de, +49 (0)228-20717-2633

The deadline to apply for participating in the event is 12th March 2021.

Interview with Leila Ben Gacem: Social Innovation

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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.

Podcasts with Salih Mahmod on Public Health Innovation

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Meet Salih Mahmod, a young Iraqi that rebuilt his maker space entirely after ISIS left Mosul and knew what to do after the hospitals in his city lost their medical supplies in the middle of the pandemic.

More: https://youtu.be/JkgV4-eN9Ww

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.

Provision of basic services: solid waste management

Posted on by erik

Effective solid waste management service is vital in ensuring a sanitary environment for any population. With changes in lives and partial or total lock-downs, the provision of this crucial service was interrupted. With the spread of the virus, the general public is now using a lot of medical equipment including surgical gloves and masks. The unsafe disposal of this waste including the increase of medical waste, increases the risks and hazards especially to the waste handlers both formal and informal.

The virtual session on the 29th of October, 2020 was to highlight the issues that cities/municipalities are grappling with to ensure that this service is adequately provided, the workers are safe, and minimize the spread of the virus through the medical waste. Through cross-pollination kind of exchange between cities/municipalities in SSA and Kosovo, a very insightful discussion was experienced. 14 participants from Ghana, Kenya, Kosovo and Zambia with representatives from Nairobi, Kisumu, Accra, Kiambu, Gjilan and Vushtrri cities/ municipalities actively engaging.

Program

5 presentations from cities/municipalities and input from UNEP defined the discussions. The presentations were from Nairobi City, Accra, Municipality of Vushtrri, Municipality of Gjilan and then we got the recommendations from UNEP on how cities can improve solid waste management during the pandemic. The session was moderated and provided an opportunity for discussion and exchange among the participants. The cities/municipalities sought to answer the following questions:

  1. What have been the core challenges for the municipalities?
  2. What measures have municipalities put in place?
  3. How do the municipalities deal with vulnerable groups which were most affected by the pandemic?
  4. 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

Solid waste management in Nairobi during the Covid-19 period
Ms. Patricia Akinyi

Covid-19 and solid waste management in Ghana
Ms. Charlotte Akwaah-Adjei

Current situation in the Municipality of Vushtrri – waste management system
Mayor Xhafer Tahiri

Solid waste management in the Municipality of Gjilan
Mayor Lutfi Haziri

UNEP’s recommendation to cities on solid waste management
Mr. Muhammed Omotola

Results

Different cities/municipalities are at different levels in solid waste management with Municipalities like Vushtrri having waste separation and recycling practices. Nairobi City had a lot to learn from the two municipalities in Kosovo. Cities need to be intentional about continuous improvement in the waste management chain. With the rich and diverse input, the discussions were beneficial.

The highlights of the session were:

  • The pandemic led to increase in domestic waste as lock downs loomed and also use of medical equipment (masks & gloves) by the public.
  • Financial constraints were a hindrance to ensuring timely provision of this basic service. There is need for budgeting and allocation of resources.
  • Intensive communication and education of the public and the municipal staff on proper handling of waste including promoting waste separation even at household level.
  • Digitalization of systems and procedures to minimize contact including payment for services.
  • Need for effective environmental policies and guidelines on management of waste especially the hazardous medical waste.
  • Coordination of the different levels of government and other sector players.
  • How past pandemics/ disasters have helped municipalities like Gjilan prepare for covid-19. We shouldn’t waste this pandemic and instead use the lessons learnt to prepare for future emergencies.
  • Establishing of emergency preparedness facilities and crisis management teams.

Final Report: Virtual Global Exchange

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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.

Provision of basic services: water supply

Posted on by erik

Water has been a critical commodity in the fight against the Corona. It has been used in regularly washing hands and maintaining hygiene. Cities/ municipalities therefore, have been in the forefront in ensuring that there is enough supply of water.

On the 27th of October, 2020, 13 participants from various cities/ municipalities in Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe came together to engage on the subject of water supply. The composition of the participants varied from cities/municipalities to local government associations including Kiambu, Lusaka, Mbeya, Nairobi and Pretoria. The aim was to engage each other on the challenges being faced and the changes that need to be adopted going forward in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector.

Program

Four presentations were made in this session and the scope covered views and experiences from the cities (Nairobi City County), research work and civil society organizations (Ferrial Adam – researcher & Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor- WSUP). The session was moderated and gave room for response to the presentations and sharing of experiences from other cities. The session sought to respond to the following questions:

  1. What have been the core challenges for the municipalities?
  2. What measures have municipalities put in place?
  3. How do the municipalities deal with vulnerable groups which were most affected by the pandemic?
  4. 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

A Civil Society Response to the Water Crisis During Covid-19 – a Place for Activist Citizen Science
Ms. Ferrial Adam

Nairobi City County Response to Covid-19
Mr. Mario Kainga

How can the Global WASH Sector Respond Better in Future Crises?
(Blog: https://www.wsup.com/blog/how-can-the-global-wash-sector-respond-better-in-future-crises/)
Mr. Kariuki Mugo & Ms. Eden Mati

Results

The presentations and discussions confirmed that most cities in SSA have inadequate coverage of the basic service; water. The sector players need to look into more sustainable solutions to the gap in provision of the service as opposed to short term measures in response to emergencies that are not long lasting. The highlights of the session were:

  • most of the countries in Africa are still water scarce.
  • there had to be sporadic interventions to reach the vulnerable in society who had no water & that the actors should not ignore the poor at their peril.
  • water has value hence encouraging the consumers not to pay has a negative impact on the service providers.
  • water utilities need operational sustainability plans that will stand in emergencies.
  • need for structured mandates & coordination mechanisms for institutions.
  • ensure equity in access to basic urban services.
  • the mapping of the water stressed communities using online tool by the activists is commendable and worth upscaling and replicating.

Infection chains – preventing infections through distance, communication and support for the informal sector

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Around 100 municipal practitioners from more than 20 Latin American and European cities, including Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany, participated in two virtual events on the topic of “Infection Chains – preventing infection through distance, communication and supporting the informal sector”.

During the virtual exchange of experiences, which was held as part of the series of events on “Municipal response to COVID-19”, the participants presented and discussed practical examples from their cities and exchanged experiences on the topics of infection chains and prevention measures, as well as on the topic of crisis communication.

In the first virtual event, the challenges in the areas of infection chain tracing and Covid-19 testing strategies were discussed intensively, because they represent urgent problems for many Latin American cities. The exchange of experiences revealed that crisis communication in particular is an important concern for municipalities – in European as well as Latin American cities alike.

Municipal practitioners face the challenge of raising public awareness of the need for the measures taken over a long period of time. Therefore, the focus of the second event was on the topic of communication. Among other things, strategies of cities were presented on how municipal crisis communication can be designed. It was discussed how cities can inform their residents about public restrictions and Covid-19 in a transparent, inclusive and understandable way.

The virtual events provided space for an interactive exchange of experiences, which was very positively received. All participants took part in a lively discussion and were in favour of continuing the offer.

The languages offered included Spanish, Portuguese, English and (partly) German.

Programme

During the two events, six good practices from Essen and Stuttgart (Germany), Aracaju, Niterói, Belo Horizonte (Brazil) and Naucalpan (Mexico) were presented.

Participants also gained a new perspective on the pandemic from the presentation of three studies on municipal management of Covid-19 by the Brazilian municipal associations “Asociación Brasileña de Municipios” and “Confederación Nacional de Municipios,” as well as “Design Thinkers Group Spain” and “Whiteboard Innovation Israel”.

The aim of the virtual event was also to actively involve the participants. The space for questions between the presentations and the subsequent discussion were used intensively for exchange.

The following questions were discussed during the two events:

  1. What measures can be taken to interrupt infection chains and what role can the municipality play in this?
  2. How can infections be traced and what are local challenges in doing so?
  3. What is the role of the informal sector in relation to infections?
  4. What strategies can be taken to make crisis communication inclusive, transparent and understandable?
  5. How can communities with limited access to digital communication tools be reached?

Good practice presentations

Presentations on 14.10-2020

Decentralised mobile sample collection strategy of the city of Essen.
Jörg Spors, Hygiene Officer of the Fire Department of the City of Essen, Germany

Measures taken by municipalities to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eduardo Tadeu Pereira, Director “Asociación Brasileña de Municipios” (ABM), Brazil

Fighting the pandemic with strategic management and innovative measures, Aracaju, Brazil.
Waneska de Souza Barboza, Aracaju Health Department, Aracaju City Hall, representative of the National Front of Mayors (FNP), Brazil

Government action to combat Covid-19 in Naucalpan, Mexico.
Mauricio Eduardo Aguirre Lozano, Secretary of the Municipality of Naucalpan, Mexico

Survey on covid-19: focus on local government and support from federal agencies.
Carla Albert, Health Worker, Confederación Nacional de Municipios (CNM), Brazil

Presentations on 05.11.2020

Opening Speech “Global Human Research Project”. Jorge Roriguez Nieto,
Design Thinkers Group Spain and Amir Hoshia, Whiteboard Innovation Isreal.

Integrative Crisis Communication, Stuttgart, Germany.
Ayşe Özbabacan, Integrative Crisis Communication Officer, Stuttgart, Germany,
Simone Fischer, Integration Policy Officer, Stuttgart, Germany,
Reinhard Schröter, Operations Manager Bus and Tram, Stuttgarter Verkehrsbetriebe, Stuttgart, Germany.

Covid-19 and the implications on the sewage system, Niterói, Brazil.
Camilla Franco, Undersecretary of Health, Niterói Municipal Health Secretariat, Niterói, Brazil

Communication in Crisis: Citizens, Passers-by & Customers, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Hugo Salomão França, Director of International Relations, Belo Horizonte City Hall, Brazil.

Results

Through peer consultation, participants were able to share their knowledge and experiences around the topics of infection chains and crisis communication, as well as analyse common challenges. Furthermore, thanks to international expertise and the presentation of good practice examples, new approaches to solutions were disseminated.

After the virtual session, participants can continue their exchange on the Connective Cities virtual platform.

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.

Virtual Global Exchange

Posted on by erik

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” workshops 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.

Download documentation

115 good practice examples for municipal responses to COVID-19

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Some of the good practice examples were presented at the Connective Cities international dialogue event on lessons learned during the coronavirus crisis. These inspired the roughly 800 participants from 250 municipalities worldwide to see how they could improve their responses to COVID-19.

Municipalities the world over are on the front line of the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. Above all, they have to maintain basic public services. Public health officers must organise tests and vaccinations, and public order offices need to monitor contact restrictions. Child day-care centres and schools must be largely kept running; public transport companies have to adapt to changed user behaviour, waste management utilities to different quantities of waste, and so on and so forth.

As a result, municipalities have been facing huge challenges for months. Many are overstretched, and often lack not just human resources and modern digital equipment, but also points of reference for how they might tackle the problems. On the other hand, since March municipalities have been generating countless ideas on how to cope with the pandemic as best they can. Some are falling back on crisis plans which they drew up years ago for disaster preparedness. Others are pursuing innovative paths, such as the Municipality of Hazmieh in Lebanon, which is relying amongst other things on geographic information systems to contain the pandemic, or Batnah in Algeria, where coronavirus-related medical products are being manufactured using 3D printers.

Sharing lessons learned internationally

To enable these examples to be replicated rather than remaining one-off solutions, from June 2020 onwards, and on behalf of Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Connective Cities gave local actors an opportunity to share their experiences with the pandemic in a simple and flexible way. This led to the ‘Municipal Responses to COVID-19’ series of events.

Just as the pandemic does not stop at borders, the expert dialogue on COVID-19 was designed to be international too. 256 municipalities from eleven countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America took part in 51 online events. All participants wanted to learn from and with each other, and improve their responses to the pandemic and their resilience – entirely in line with the ‘build back better’ principle