Approximately 50 participants from Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Armenia, Jordan, Sweden and Germany (12 countries) participated in the virtual launching event of the regional practitioners’ network development.

The event focused on

• Presenting the Roadmap for the Southeast Europe and Caucasus Regional Network among the existing and potential new members;
• Co-creating the Regional Network Charter;
• Reaching a consensus on the thematic groups of the regional network;
• Providing information about the follow-up survey.

At the end of the workshop all new participants were invited to join the network; next steps of the network were jointly agreed upon and defined.

Program

This virtual event was opened by the brief discussion of Connective Cities Network lead by the Moderator, Mr. Lasha Nakashidze with elaborations made by Dr. Irakli Samkharadze, GIZ Connective Cities Regional Coordinator. This was followed by a presentation of the Network Roadmap held by Urban and Regional Planner Elke Schimmel. Thereafter Keynote speaker, Ms. Stella Haun, Consultant on Sustainable Urban Planning & Co-founder of GovShare, presented about “Mainstreaming climate resilience throughout urban development and reducing the ecological footprint of development”. Following the presentations working groups lead by the moderators Dr. Kristian Kampfer, Prof. Olav Götz, Ms. Elke Schimmel and Dr. Irakli Samkharadze were introduced for the purpose of a joint co-creation of the Network Charter. The working groups were focused on four main pillars to be further elaborated by active participation of the attendees.

The four main topics were:

• The network’s purpose and goals;
• The network’s principles & the way the network members are collaborating;
• The network’s core topics;
• The benefits of the network for its members;

 The results of the group work were later presented by the moderators, highlighting core outcomes and findings in relation to the previously mentioned topics. The participants were then encouraged to continue with the exchange on the virtual platform of Connective Cities where other resources were shared in addition to the session outputs.

Presentations

Presentation of the Roadmap
Ms Elke Schimmel, Urban and Regional Planner

Keynote Presentation "Mainstreaming climate resilience throughout urban development and reducing the ecological footprint of development"
Ms. Stella Haun, Individual Consultant on Sustainable Urban Planning & Co-founder at GovShare

Results

During this virtual exchange representatives from many different municipalities exchanged their experiences and insights of being part of the network as well as their expectations towards the future of Connective Cities Network and its further ventures.

More Information

Southeast Europe and Caucasus Regional Network (registration required)

Impressions