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.

Some of these virtual meetings will have a specific regional focus, while others will have a global approach and will be open to participation across the world regions.

The thematic areas of the event series are:

• Containing the pandemic: Local authorities as stakeholders in public health care;
• Resilient communities in the pandemic: ensuring the provision of municipal services and the further work of the local administration;
• Lockdown management: organizational planning, crisis management teams, ensuring local supply facilities for the resident population, safety, culture;
• Digitalisation of processes and services as a crisis mitigation strategy;
• Economic development in times of crisis; protecting and supporting small businesses, reconstruction, green recovery;
• Supporting and collaborating with schools, daycare centers, and other educational facilities during the pandemic: digital learning possibilities, childcare alternatives, digital gap in education;
• Solidarity and equality: how do we protect the weakest? Mass housing, urban poverty, informal settlements;
• Resilience for the future: learning from experiences for tomorrow's urban development.

The working language of the event series is English. Interpretation into another language will be provided if required and depending on the regional focus.

If you would like to participate in one of the virtual exchange formats or share your experiences, we look forward to hearing from you.

If you are interested or have any questions, please contact us:

Contact for German participants

Alice Balbo, alice.balbo(at)staedtetag.de, +49 (0)221 37 71 573
Alexander Wagner, alexander.wagner(at)engagement-global.de, +49 (0)228-20717-455
Thiago Garcia, thiago.garcia(at)engagement-global.de,    +49 (0)228-20717-633    

Contact for international participants:
Fatina Toukan, Fatina.Toukan(at)giz.de
Paulina Koschmieder, paulina.koschmieder(at)giz.de

Please find below the current schedule of events which will be updated regularly:

25.08.2020 - Civil society initiatives for pandemic response
Target group: municipalities from Germany and the MENA region

26.08.2020 - Crisis Management "Work in crisis teams and operational planning"
1pm-4pm CEST, Languages: English and German
Target group: German and international municipalities

27.08.2020 - Pandemic response in refugee hosting cities
1:30-3pm CEST, Languages: Arabic and English
Target group: municipalities from Germany and the MENA region

28.09.2020 - Experiences with contact tracing and outbreak management, part 1
Target group: German and international municipalities

07.10.2020 - Digitization of municipal services
Target group: German municipalities and municipalities from the Southeast European region

14.10.2020 - Prevention of infections through awareness, distance and support of the informal sector, part 1
Target group: German municipalities and municipalities from the Latin American region

14.10.2020 - The role of innovation in mitigating the effects of the pandemic
Target group: German municipalities and municipalities from the MENA region

27.10.2020 - Municipal services in the pandemic period: water and waste management, part 1
Target group: German municipalities and municipalities from the sub-Saharan Africa region

28.10.2020 - COVID-19 Response Dialogues: Communication in the crisis
Target group: German and international municipalities

29.10.2020 - Municipal services in the pandemic period: water and waste management, part 2
Target group: German municipalities and municipalities from the sub-Saharan Africa region

04.11.2020 - Municipal services in the pandemic period
Target group: German and international municipalities

05.11.2020 - Prevention of infections through awareness, distance and support of the informal sector, part 2
Target group: German municipalities and communities from the Latin American region

10.11.2020 - Economic Impact and Economic Recovery, part 1
Target group: German municipalities and communities from the sub-Saharan Africa region

11.11.2020 - Economic development in times of crisis
Target group: German and international municipalities

12.11.2020 - Economic Impact and Economic Recovery, part 2
Target group: German municipalities and communities from the sub-Saharan Africa region

17.11.2020 - Municipal Crisis Management and Green Recovery in Southeast Europe (SEE) and Caucasus
Target group: German municipalities and communities from the region of Southeast Europe

23.11. - 03.12.2020 - Municipal Response to COVID-19
Connective Cities Virtual Global Exchange: 8 topics, 12 events, 30 expert contributions, many Good Practices

09.12.2020 - Final Event: Experiences from the COVID-19 Response Dialogue Series
An overview of the experiences and lessons learned over the past five months in the event series.
Target group: German and international municipalities

Interested? Have a look also at the reviews of past events!