Category: Public Health & Public Services

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.

How ‘school streets’ could create safer, healthier cities

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Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, communities living in cities need cleaner air to breathe and outdoor public space to be social yet physically distanced.

Recognition of these issues has led public health experts, architects and urban planners to discuss how to design cities to respond to the pandemic.

One idea put forward has been the establishment of “school streets”: closing roads outside schools to motor traffic during school drop-offs and pick-ups.

School streets often involve other local action, too. This includes promoting active travel, such as walking and cycling, to get to school, getting local people involved in citizen science projects to monitor air quality and putting on events to celebrate the road closure.

Our research focuses on public health and air pollution. We recently worked with Holt House Infant and Carterknowle Junior schools in Sheffield, as well as with Sheffield City Council, to pilot the first school street in the city. The Sheffield pilot provides an excellent example of the valuable role that school streets could play in our cities, especially during a pandemic.

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Call for participants: Municipal services in the pandemic

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This event is part of our series International exchange of experiences: lessons learned in the Covid-19 crisis, and brings German municipal experts together with international actors to discuss how municipal administration and municipal companies can act to improve the response to the current crisis. Among other issues, this dialog will discuss good practices of response to the challenge of providing municipal services of water and waste management in the pandemic. Practical examples will be presented by experts from Rostock-Germany and abroad on the topics of waste management and water provision. The overall aim of the event is to achieve a joint exchange of experiences and to develop ideas for cooperation.

Event Registration

If you have any queries about the event and the participation process, we encourage you to contact:

Alexander Wagner
alexander.wagner@engagement-global.de
Telefon +49 (0)228-20717-455

Thiago Garcia
thiago.garcia(@)engagement-global.de
Telefon +49 (0)228-20717-633

Municipal expert exchange to COVID-19- compact

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Topics: Public Health & Crisis Management / Economy, Housing & Education / Digitalisation & Communication / Innovation

Time: 23 November – 3 December 2020

Cities worldwide are severely affected by the impacts of COVID-19. Unlike national governments, municipalities are in close contact with their citizens and are responsible for the implementation of measures decided by governments to reduce the spread of Corona infections.

Cities worldwide also have collected important experiences, which will be of immense relevance in the global fight against the virus. The crisis has shown how important the resilience of municipalities is: this directly applies to local crisis management and disaster preparedness as well as to the need for constantly adaptive urban planning. The current crisis has shown and proven once again that resilience is an essential capacity of municipalities.

To continue tackling the challenges of the pandemic in the future and to find suitable solutions to minimise its negative impact, it is now necessary to learn from and share experiences that will support the joint development of further measures. In the framework of its COVID-19 Municipal response dialogue, Connective Cities is organising a virtual global exchange series on “Municipal Response to COVID-19” from 23 November to 3 December 2020 and kindly invites you to be part of this series of events. This international exchange effort takes place in cooperation with engaged urban practitioners, municipal experts as well as local experts from academia, civil society and business.

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Call for solutions until 9 November: #SolutionsForCities

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Worldwide cities face similar challenges. This has become even more visible through the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic situation has generated inspiring creativity and solidarity. How can we transfer innovative solutions from the pandemic to the future? How can we promote sustainable urban development for the common good? To tackle these questions, the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community initiated the international, digital ideas competition #SolutionsForCities.

In a two-day virtual Challenge Lab, current challenges of cities were identified together with German Smart City model projects and with partner cities of the International Smart Cities Network (ISCN). These challenges will be published on the platform www.solutionsforcities.de with the Call for Solutions from October 28th.

Call for Solutions from October 28th to November 9th 2020

The Call for Solutions is a global call for the submission of digital solutions for the common good. It is aimed at international companies and start-ups, as well as local authorities, research institutions and projects, and civil society. The Call for Solutions opens on October 28th 2020 during the Smart City Day at the Smart Country Convention 2020! Until November 9th 2020, digital solutions can be submitted on the platform www.solutionsforcities.de as response to the published urban challenges.

Scalathon from November 23rd – 25th 2020

After the Call for Solutions, the participating cities or municipalities select the most suitable solutions for their challenges and compete in the Scalathon as a team with the respective solution providers.

The Scalathon is the core of the ideas competition and will take place from November 23rd – 25th 2020. During the three-day virtual workshop, selected solution providers will work closely together with the respective city or municipality, further develop the digital solutions and adapt them to the concrete local challenges.

Digitalisation of Municipal Services in Southeast Europe (SEE) and Caucasus

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Approximately 50 participants from more than 23 municipalalities from Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Albania (11 coutries) participated in the first virtual event of the knowledge-exchange series on Municipal Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The event focused on the process of the digital transformation of cities as a response to the COVID -19 outbreak. From the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, municipalities around the world experienced a strong push to digitalise not only their existing services but also create new protocols to tackle various crisis-induced demands. The aim of the event was to showcase good practices and new digital modalities that are already helping us imagine a greener and more equitable recovery from both the pandemic and ongoing climate crises.

The virtual event provided the space for an interactive exchange of experiences and all participants have engaged in a lively discussion bringing their local expertise to their peers.

Program

In this virtual event, Ms Yulia Besplemennova from “service & system designer” discussed as a keynote speaker Service Design issues for more efficient digital transformation at municipal level. Furthermore, three good practices were shared from Tirana (Albania), Tbilisi (Georgia) and Essen (Germany). The moderated plenary session provided an opportunity for discussion between the presenters and the participants. The participants were then encouraged to continue with the exchange on the virtual platform Connective Cities where other resources were shared in addition to the session outputs. Overall, the following set of questions were addressed by the presenters:

  1. What have been the core challenges for municipal authorities in their role of supporting citizens during the pandemic?
  2. What measures, innovative and digital solutions have municipal authorities put in place?
  3. How do the municipal authorities deal with vulnerable groups which were most affected by the pandemic?
  4. Are municipal authorities planning to set different development-or service-related priorities in the aftermath of the pandemic?
  5. What are the lessons learned from the perspective of municipal authorities?

Presentations of good practices

  1. Digitalisation of the Tirana municipal services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Ms. Faola Hodaj, Tirana municipality
  2. Ensuring continuous delivery of municipal services in Tbilisi through web-platform with an integrated hotline.
    Ms. Sophio Barnabishvili; Tbilisi Municipality
  3. Using innovation and technology to improve municipal services during the COVID-19 outbreak in Essen, Germany.
    Mr. Peter Adelskamp, City of Essen

Results

During the event, urban practitioners from more than 20 municipalities discussed the specific cases from South East Europe, Caucasus and Germany, shared their insights on the topic, and laid out the framework for future cooperation. City leaders and urban practitioners discussed together paramount trends, opportunities and challenges emerging along with the process of developing and reinventing municipal responses amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

In order to follow through with the initiatives of the municipalities, Connective Cities provided a practice-oriented exchange between network members on Connective Cities platform where members could share their challenges and interventions in the provision of their municipal responses.

Municipal responses in the COVID-19 crisis: Experiences with contact tracing and outbreak management

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On the 28th of September, Connective Cities held its third virtual Covid-19 Response dialogue. The event focused on “Experiences with contact tracing and outbreak management” and brought together good practices from Berlin, Germany and Hazmieh, Lebanon. Common challenges and cooperation opportunities were identified by the participants in the implementation of municipal measures to contain the pandemic.

The former head of the health department Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf of Berlin gave the first input by presenting tasks and responsibilities of the public health sector in Germany, and how it relates to the municipal response to Covid-19 pandemic.
The second input was given by AccuMapping, a Lebanese technology firm that presented tools for strategic preparedness and planning using GIS in the case of the city of Hazmieh. AccuMapping’s method is explained in this video. 

The two presentations were followed by a session of questions and answers with the practitioners. 

The Connective Cities Team would like to thank all the participants for the interesting exchange of experiences. Please check the Connective Cities website for reference material and more events in the COVID-19 Response Series.   

South-East European Local Governments in Post Covid-19 Socio-Economic Recovery

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South-East European (SEE) local governments (LGs) have been and will certainly remain at the forefront in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic social and economic crisis. In serving and protecting their communities they have been facing unprecedented challenges in multiple dimensions. SEE local governments have been responding to these challenges with a strong spirit of solidarity, putting their citizens lives before everything else and working tirelessly to provide support to the most vulnerable.

The crisis required local governments to take timely measures to shut down selected local services, quickly switch to remote working practices and digitalise administrative services, expand programs for securing citizens healthcare, expand social protection and care for a significantly higher number of vulnerable people, take measures to allow the smooth implementation of online or long-distance learning, etc. In the aftermath of the control or minimisation of the first wave of infection SEE local governments have taken specific ad hoc measures to support the survival of their local communities and economies.

The purpose of this survey is to help improving the understanding over the impact of the COVID-19 crisis at the local government level in South-East Europe, identifying effective and innovative social and economic recovery strategies and ultimately helping formulating concrete policy proposals to inform advocacy efforts of NALAS member Local Government Associations.

C40 Mayors’ Agenda for a Green and Just Recovery

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As the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, mayors’ immediate priority is to face this unprecedented crisis and protect lives. At the same time, the city leaders who together established the Global Mayors COVID-19 Recovery Task Force are leading in taking the first steps towards recovery. They have committed to providing the swiftest and strongest possible rebound for their citizens and reaffirmed commitment to the principles of the Global Green New Deal — to protect our environment, strengthen economies and build a more equitable future – and reach out to other cities, youth, unions, business and civil society to join in this effort.
[…]
By taking a sustainable path at this critical juncture, by respecting science, fostering unity and embracing a spirit of innovation and purpose, cities will secure the best recovery they can and avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Amid the devastation of this global pandemic, mayoral leadership has never been more important.

Nine principles for a green and just recovery are elaborated that can support cities’ recovery efforts.
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Call for participants: International exchange of experiences: lessons learned in the Covid-19 crisis

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August – December 2020

Cities worldwide are still experiencing the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic throughout all their municipal departments. In addition to public health care, municipal services must be maintained during the crisis. Local governments must also ensure their own ability to function properly. Some consequences of the pandemic, such as halting economic development, hit local authorities first. Municipalities are currently having to learn to cope with new situations very fast. But the crisis has also shown how important the resilience of municipalities is: this directly applies to local crisis management and disaster preparedness as well as the need for continually adaptive urban planning and development towards increasing the resilience of cities. The current crisis has shown and proven once again that resilience is an essential capacity of municipalities.

Many cities and municipalities have found solutions to the new challenges and developed new strategies. In order to better address the issues related to the pandemic, it is now necessary to share and possibly develop these solutions and strategies together.  
From August to December 2020, the international community of practice for sustainable urban development Connective Cities is organising a series of virtual exchange formats on measures, challenges, and solutions to overcome the corona crisis in cooperation with engaged urban practitioners (municipal experts as well as local experts from academia, civil society and business).

The series of virtual exchange events targets German and international urban practitioners working on various aspects of municipal strategies to cope with the COVID-19 crisis. Presentations of good practice examples will encourage the participating stakeholders to exchange ideas. Developing customized and practical solutions for relevant affected cities can also be an additional and beneficial outcome of the series in the context of a follow-up cooperation.

More information: Detailed and regular updated schedule of events