Tag: Import-COVID-11-06-2025 EN

Municipal Policy Award of the Carl and Anneliese Goerdeler Foundation 2023

Posted on by erik

Municipalities make an important contribution to climate protection – in Germany and worldwide. They not only work directly on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, but have often additionally committed themselves to further climate protection. Municipalities also face similar challenges worldwide and can therefore benefit from close cooperation and lively exchange. This is especially true for cross-border cooperation projects, which require particularly high motivation, courage and, last but not least, organisational and assertiveness skills during the ongoing pandemic.

In 2023, the Carl and Anneliese Goerdeler Foundation’s Municipal Policy Award will honour cross-border municipal cooperation projects on participatory municipal climate protection and adaptation measures with prize money of 2,000 euros. Outstanding cooperations of municipalities or municipal alliances with the participation of a German municipality or municipal alliance are sought.

All important information about the award and your application can be found in the competition announcement: pdf-Download  [in German]

Deadline extension: The deadline for applications is Monday, 31 October 2022.

The prize is awarded in memory of the communal political work of Carl Goerdeler as Mayor of the City of Leipzig and his resistance activities against Nazi rule. The award is intended to serve the peaceful cooperation of municipalities and municipal alliances that unites people and to promote mutual learning for the benefit of the residents.

Contact:

Ricarda Meissner
ricarda.meissner@giz.de 
Phone: +49 (0)228 4460 1138

Klaudia Sonntag
klaudia.Sonntag@giz.de 
Phone: +49 (0) 228 4460 1587

Urban Safety for Women and Girls

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Celebrating International Women’s Day on March 8th 2022, Connective Cities was seeking the opportunity to address the issue of safer public spaces for women and girls in cities. The Insight Session “Urban Safety for Women and Girls – Strategies for safer public spaces in Cities” featured three speakers on the topic of participatory planning with women and girls as well as design and policy strategies.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of public spaces as places for recreation and community life has noticeably increased. Raising awareness for the voices of women and girls that were often unheard in urban planning in the past, is crucial to ensure public spaces are safe for them to play, meet, walk and work. Urban public spaces as well as public transport were mostly designed by and to accommodate the needs of men. A lot of them are not fit for women’s needs or pose a threat to women’s safety, their design complicates everyday lives and reduces possibilities to engage in community life. Therefore, if possible, a lot of times these urban areas are avoided by women. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated these existing gender inequalities in various aspects. At the same time, this crisis can be an opportunity to make urban planning more equitable and sustainable. Participatory approaches provide great opportunities to include voices and their ideas in urban planning that might have been unheard in the past. A rich community life and democratic urban societies can only thrive if public spaces are safe and functional for all citizens to meet and engage. 

The three speakers of the event introduced valuable insights on gender sensitive urban planning tools and shared practical experiences from Latin America, Europe and the MENA Region.

Sara Ortiz Escalante, Barcelona is a sociologist and urban planner. As part of the feminist planning collective Col·lectiu Punt 6 in Barcelona, Spain she has a wide range of experience in gender sensitive urban planning methodology and tools. In her Keynote, she introduced the audience to a feminist perspective on urban safety. She introduced the 6 principles of Women’s safety that were introduced by Anne Michaud in Montreal in the 1980s, yet are still of utmost importance today. In order to create safer public spaces, participatory planning is key. Ortiz Escalante introduced the tools of explanatory walks and safety audits. Her presentation features the examples of Cali, Colombia and Tétouan, Morocco. 

The Her City Toolbox was presented by Tove Andréasson Derner, Stockholm. Her City is a joint initative of Global Utmaning, a Swedish Think Tank and UN Habitat that provides municipalities as well as civil activists with a toolbox for participatory planning with Women and Girls. The Toolbox follows a process of 9 blocks that guide the user from Stakeholder Engagement to Implementation of specific projects. The design phase of the toolbox uses the Minecraft Tool which is accessible and fun for both kids and adults. The platform Her Cities – #HerCity (unhabitat.org) is open to the public and free of charge. So far, 315 cities are undertaking the process.  

The Minecraft Tool was also used for the design of Al-Gwheirieh Neighbourhood Park in Zarqa, Jordan. Like many other municipalities in Jordan, Zarqa is home to a lot of Syrian refugees. The city is one of the densest cities in the world. Therefore, the establishment of parks was an enormous challenge, yet became even more important regarding the COVID 19 pandemic. Mohammad Zawahreh, former head of the local development unit of the city of Zarqa, shared his experiences on establishing neighbourhood parks in inclusive planning processes in the city. Women and Men of different backgrounds were working together and established functional, safe, and green public spaces.

The presentations were followed by a Q&A Session that addressed common challenges and solutions in urban planning with women and girls worldwide. The speakers noted, that women and girls all over the world were putting an emphasis not only on safe but also green public spaces. Therefore, gender sensitive urban planning often leads to the establishment of sustainable green spaces. Another point of discussion was the inclusion of men in feminist urban planning. Depending on the cultural context, different approaches have proven to be most effective. While the set- up of female only exclusive groups proved to be an important factor in designing gender sensitive urban spaces, it is important to encourage the male population to support the inclusion of women and girls in urban design.  Because, safer public spaces for women and girls are safer public spaces for everyone.

Videos

Her City Toolbox – From Botkyrka to Johannesburg – YouTube

Rehabilitation of Jana Park : Zarqa/Jordan with AVSI Jordan – YouTube

Presentations

Urban Safety from a feminist perspective, Sara Ortiz Escalante, Collectiu Punt 6, Barcelona

Her City Toolbox, Tove Andréasson Derner, Her City, Stockholm

Al-Ghweirieh National Park – Designing an inclusive public space using the Minecraft tool, Mohammad Zawahreh, Zarqa

The recording of the event can be found here: Insight Session: Urban Safety for Women and Girls – Strategies for safer public spaces in Cities | Connective Cities Network (connective-cities.net)

Towards a gender sensitive urban development

Posted on by erik

Why do we need a gender sensitive approach in urban planning?

Existing urban public spaces as well as public transport were mostly designed by and to accommodate the needs of men. A lot of them are not fit for women’s needs – some even pose a threat to women’s safety, they complicate their everyday lives and reduce their possibilities to engage in community life. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated existing gender inequalities in various aspects.

At the same time, this crisis can be an opportunity to make urban planning more gendersensitive, equitable and sustainable. There are a lot of gender sensitive practices already existing. The task is to implement these practices and help municipal actors achieve sustainable, inclusive and (gender) equitable development in the (post-)COVID era.

This was the aim of the two Connective Cities Working Groups on:

  1. Gender sensitive urban planning
  2. Gender responsive urban mobility

Connecting municipalities in their efforts towards a gender sensitive city

The participants of the working groups joined us from the municipalities of Nabeul and Sfax in Tunisia, Mexico City and Guadalaja in Mexico, Tena in Ecuador, Nairobi in Kenya as well as Uruguay and the Municipality of Gaza, Palestine.

In bringing municipal representatives and urban practitioners together to present and discuss their challenges and good practices they were supported to develop new project ideas through peer-learning and exchange. In this they were inspired by regional and international experts who shared their insights in gender sensitive planning approaches.

The first kick-off meeting was aiming to sensitize for the various risks of widening gender inequalities in urban development and to identify the roles cities administrations can play in this context.

Annika Dalén, Strategic development and gender equality officer, Municipality of Umeå, Sweden presented the efforts of the Swedish city of Umeå as a model city for gender sensitive urban planning and mobility. Until today, reliable data on how women move in cities is missing in a lot of countries. Therefore, to redesign cities and their transport systems to effectively respond to women’s needs, it is the first essential step to collect gender-specific data at the municipal and national levels.

Due to curfews and social restrictions, the pandemic put women at a higher risk to suffer from domestic violence. Katja Schülke, Gender equality officer, City of Bonn, Germany and Conny Schulte, General manager, Arbeitskreis Opferschutz Bonn/Rhein-Sieg presented their approaches for combating domestic violence of the City of Bonn.

A third keynote by Giada Cicognola, programme analyst, Cities Alliance introduced the participants to the programme Femmedina in Tunis, Tunisia. The programme’s goal is the rehabilitation of public spaces for women in the historic centre of Tunis, the Medina, through participatory decision-making.

During the following working group meetings, the participating municipalities identified one gender related challenge in their cities. They are exemplary for the issues women face in many places around the globe:

  1. Enhancing the integration of women in decision making processes in Tunis, Tunisia
  2. Improving the situation of commuting women from rural areas in urban environments in Tena, Ecuador
  3. Incorporating the needs of women in the implementation of e-mobility projects and addressing sexual and gender-based violence in the e-mobility space in Nairobi, Kenya
  4. Promoting cycling for women in Mexico City and Guadalaja, Mexico

Connective Cities working groups promote the idea of Peer-to-Peer Consulting so that the participating municipalities can benefit from each other’s experiences and good practices. If you are interested to learn more about this approach, you may find more information here. As an outcome of lively discussions, the groups developed Guidelines that can also help other municipal actors to get going. their guidelines for:

Guidelines:Towards a gender-sensitive urban development [pdf, 307 kb, 7 pp.]

Guidelines: Towards a gender responsive urban mobility [pdf, 337 kb, 8 pp.]

Without a gender sensitive approach to urban development, the pandemic could have far-reaching effects including the risk of widening gender inequalities in various areas. At the same time gender mainstreaming tools and good practices of gender-sensitive recovery strategies already exist, which, if used effectively, can mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-19 and contribute to an increased gender equality.

Find more useful resources on gender sensitive urban planning:

Gender Responsive Urban Planning and Design | UN-Habitat (unhabitat.org)

How Vienna designed a city for women (apolitical.co)

How to Design a City for Women – Bloomberg

Gender in Mainstreaming Urban Development (berlin.de)

Harsh-realities-Marginalized-women-in-cities-of-the-developing-world-en.pdf (unwomen.org)

Across eastern Europe, rethinking urban planning, infrastructure and safety bring changes in women’s lives | UN Women

A safe city for women and girls in El Alto, Bolivia | UN Women

Goal 11 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs (un.org)

Brief: COVID-19 and ensuring safe cities and safe public spaces for women and girls | Digital library: Publications | UN Women – Europe and Central Asia

Brief-Recommendations-COVID-19-Safe-Cities-and-Safe-Public-Spaces-en.pdf (unwomen.org)

TUMI’s 5 Principles to Empower Women in Transport

First Response Mechanisms, Fake News and Crisis Communication

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Working group of crisis management, consisting of urban practitioners from 14 municipalities across 9 countries: Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine, commenced its work on 20th September 2021 with Kick-off meeting.

Considering that this initiative comes as part of Connective Cities COVID-19 Programme and its objective is to support cities’ resilience during and after COVID-19, working group had embarked on a journey of rigorous analysis and discussions on matters and issues most relevant to their realities, worsened due to pandemic.

Process of work for the group consisted of homework being prepared for each session, depicting various scenarios of crises, disasters, their solution schemes as well as plans that could have been internalized by institutions for future preparedness.

During the session’s topics of Disaster Risk Reduction, First Response Mechanisms, Fake News and Crisis Communication were featured as important structures and knowledge basis for participants to take into account in their everyday works.

As work in the sessions continued, group members had jointly worked on the list of challenges, they considered important, such as lack of resources invested in piloting of appropriate technologies, contingency plans or in support of most vulnerable groups or even establishments such as SMEs. After compiling a comprehensive catalogue of challenges, participants were asked to focus on coming up with initiatives that would come as interventions dealing with issues indexed before. Participants were later using S.M.A.R.T. scheme for assessment of initiatives and solutions they have come forward with.

As a consequence of this series of workshops on guided peer-to-peer exchange, involved urban practitioners gained, tremendous experience in coming up with action plans, they learned methods and outlets of effective crisis communications, while also gaining some theoretical practice in potential risk and loss assessment.

Sessions in Retrospect

Working Group has met on four occasions, allowing members to present their initiatives, projects and thoughts on establishing elaborate crisis response mechanisms in their respective municipalities.

Workshop I: identification of crisis management, resilience and Covid-19 response challenges

Workshop II: analysis and definition of the challenges based on experiences, knowledge transfer and international discussion

Workshop III Crisis Management Southeast Europe (SEE): Prioritisation and solutions scan

Workshop IV Crisis Management in Southeast Europe (SEE): Identification of cities’ future initiative

Call for Participation: Join the Connective CitiesCity Lab

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A open and flexible online program for local municipal employees and urban practitioners around the world.

Municipalities around the world are affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, Connective Cities is organising a series of virtual formats to discuss and develop measures, challenges, and solutions to overcome the pandemic and support the municipal recovery.

By joining the Connective Cities Lab, you get full access to international experts and urban practitioners from other cities, who will support you to develop solutions and prototypes to the challenges you are working on in your local community.

Call for participation: The post-COVID City – towards greener cities

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Connective Cities and its partners invite you to the sixth Insight Session, which will be held under the title “The post-COVID City – bringing together urban practitioners to work towards greener cities” virtualy on 18 October, 10:00-11:30 CEST.

The Insight Session will address the question “The city after Corona? When urban planners, climate scientists and health experts work together, the result can only be green”. The session is part of the so-called Urban October. During the month of October, UN-Habitat and partner organisations organise activities and discussions on sustainable urbanisation. The Insight Session will focus on the challenges and lessons learned in designing cities to better resist the spread of disease and redesigning urban planning to adapt to the risks of health crises.

Further information:  Insight Session: The post-COVID City – bringing together urban practitioners to work towards greener cities | Connective Cities Network

Event Language: English

The Insight Session will be moderated by Franziska Loibl, Ute Maas and Tino Bosire. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us:

Franziska Loibl (franziska.loibl@giz.de)
Ute Maas (ute.maas@giz.de)
Tino Bosire (tino.bosire@giz.de)

Call for Participants – Covid-19 and municipal waste management

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Connective Cities and its partners invite municipal practitioners to a two-day Covid-19 Response Dialogue on Covid-19 and municipal waste management to be held virtually on 9 and 11 November 2021.

The event brings together municipal experts from Germany with international urban practitioners to discuss municipal waste management during and after the pandemic.

Two main aspects of waste management and Covid-19 will be covered during the event:

  1. The importance of a more circular economy, including a more sustainable approach to (re-)use of resources, recycling and the creation of jobs and
  2. the adaptation of operation practices due to the pandemic and its experiences.

Both aspects can be better dealt with if gender-sensitive strategies are considered. Therefore, the exchange will give special attention to the gender perspective.

More information: Call for participants [pdf, 3 Seiten, 339 kb]

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us:

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

Alice Balbo
Alice.Balbo@staedtetag.de
Phone: 49 (0)221-3771-573

Towards a gender-sensitive city – first group meetings

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On 24 September, the launch event “Towards a gender-sensitive city” with about 45 participants from 8 countries laid the foundation for the formation of various working groups.

Professionals, including those who could not attend this event, are now cordially invited: Join the working groups and benefit from collegial advice, international good practices from Vienna, Barcelona and other cities, international consultation, work on your project idea/challenge and participate in at least 4 meetings with international peers. Starting on 30 September 2021 with workshops on the following topics:

Gender-sensitive urban planning and development, 16:00 – 17:00 Uhr MESZ

Urban approaches combating domestic violence, 16:00 – 17:00 Uhr MESZ

Gender responsive urban mobility, 17:30 – 18:00 Uhr MESZ

To the overview, further information and registration on the Connective Cites Community Platform.

More information, latest news and good practices on the topic: Gender sensitivity in the pandemic

Building mental health resilience during times of COVID-19

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Since the outbreak of the global pandemic, municipalities have faced a multitude of challenges. Following prolonged lockdowns, travel restrictions, financial losses and job cuts, mental health problems have been on the rise.

Municipalities have been key players in fighting the spread of the virus and in managing the overall situation. As a result of these complex responsibilities, mental health issues, including burn out, have been observed among municipal employees, social workers, teachers, and civil society activists. Citizens have also been psychologically affected by the pandemic and are in need of support.

Connective Cities cordially invites you to participate in the virtual Public Health Cluster kick-off on “Building Mental Health Resilience during times of COVID-19” on  29 September 2021, from 15:30 to 17:30 CEST (Berlin Time).

The event will cover the following issues:

  • What are municipal challenges in the field of mental health, and why is the topic relevant?
  • What are the recommended actions to promote mental health in municipalities, also considering limited financial resources?
  • What can municipalities do to mitigate the mental health impacts of the pandemic?
  • How can different target groups be reached, including those for whom mental health is considered taboo?

The event is aimed at international municipal actors from local governments, civil society, business and academia who wish to share their challenges and good practices in the field of public health.

The aim is to present municipal challenges and practical examples and to develop new solution approaches through a joint exchange. The kick-off event lays the foundation for the formation of working groups that will further develop these solutions through collective consultation and with the support of regional and international experts.

In order to learn more about your experiences and wishes for the workshop, we kindly ask you to fill out this short questionnaire (5-7 min): Survey Mental Health | Connective Cities Network (also available in Arabic, German & Spanish). The results will be presented anonymously during the event.

To register for the workshop and stay updated on the agenda, the announcement of speakers and further details of the session, please visit our Connective Cities Community.

Please also visit our COVID 19 topic pages. Here you will find more event information, videos, good practices and publications, including on public health.

We are looking forward to your participation!

Public Health Cluster kick-off “Building mental health resilient during times of COVID-19”

Date: 29 September 2021

Time: 15:30 – 17:30 CEST (Berlin time)

Event Language: English. Translation into German, Arabic and Spanish (tbc)

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Contact: Paulina.koschmieder@giz.de

Thinking and acting beyond disasters

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The COVID-19 pandemic and the occurrence of natural disasters in many parts of the world have profound implications for human lives, infrastructures, and communities. Municipalities are usually the first to respond to disasters, so adequate crisis management at the local level is urgently needed.

Connective Cities cordially invites you to participate in the virtual Crisis Management Cluster kick-off on “Thinking and Acting beyond Disasters” on 28 September 2021, from 15:30 to 17:30 CEST (Berlin Time).

The event has been designed together with urban practitioners and for the practical work in the municipalities. The following topics have been initially identified in the area of Disaster Management:

  1. Setting up systems for disaster management (measures, roles, structure, use of IT etc.)
  2. Public sensitization and communication
  3. Involvement of volunteers and civil society
  4. Creation of risk culture at the municipal and public level
  5. Disaster management in specific action areas, such as the breakdown of critical infrastructure, floods, or fire.

On this basis, the following questions will be discussed in the kick-off workshop:

  • What are typical challenges on a municipal level concerning disaster management?
  • How to prepare for disasters?
  • How to set up disaster management, even with low (human and financial) resources?

Contents & Speakers:

  • Mr. Henning Schulz, former mayor of the German city of Gütersloh, who will provide an overview of disaster management from a municipal viewpoint and report about his experiences on disaster management during the COVID-19 pandemic and innovative solutions.
  • Mr. Felix Richter, CEO of Kompetus Consulting, who has more than 20 years of project experience in management consulting for the public sector and is a former trainer for the Academy for International Cooperation (AIZ) for experts travelling to fragile countries. He will provide an overview of crises management planning and execution for municipalities – from a practical perspective.

The event is aimed at international municipal actors from local governments, civil society, business and academia who wish to share their challenges and good practices in the field of crisis management.

The aim is to present municipal challenges and practical examples and to develop new solution approaches through a joint exchange. The kick-off event lays the foundation for the formation of working groups that will further develop these solutions through collective consultation and with the support of regional and international experts.

In order to learn more about your experiences and needs concerning disaster management, we kindly ask you to fill out the following short questionnaire (5-7 min):

Disaster Managment Questionnaire (also available in German, Spanish and Arabic). The results will be presented anonymously during the event. 

To register for the workshop and stay updated on the agenda and further details of the session, please visit our Connective Cities Community.

Please also visit our COVID 19 topic pages. Here you will find more event information, videos, good practices and publications, including on crisis management.

We are looking forward to your active participation!

Crisis Management Cluster kick-off “Thinking and acting beyond disasters”

Date: 28 September 2021

Time: 15:30 – 17:30 CEST (Berlin time)

Event language: English. Translation into German, Spanish, Arabic

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Contact: Paulina.koschmieder@giz.de