Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa face many challenges - including limited financial resources and a lack of adequate governance structures for sustainable urban development. These are just two issues that members of the Connective Cities Sub-Saharan Africa network aim to address. The network intends to provide a vibrant platform for discussion, exchange and peer to peer learning.

Over 80 participants from Germany, Lebanon, Georgia, South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories shared their experiences at the launch event of our new exchange series. Two of the main conclusions from the discussion: Municipal innovation and digitalization processes must be inclusive, participatory and transparent. And evidence-based and responsive municipal crisis management is key to resilient urban development.

At the final session of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) presentation series, a representative from Kutaisi, Georgia, presented their SUMP development progress to core group members and offered participants the opportunity to take a closer look at this unique approach to project design.

• Municipal response to COVID-19: Driving smart city development
• Municipal response to COVID-19 in the health sector
• Municipal response to COVID-19 in the governance sector
• Municipal response to COVID-19: Crisis management

The municipality of Bizerte in Tunisia has set an ambitious vision to become a smart city administration by 2050. The municipal plan integrates smart components into the development of future projects, in the areas of mobility management, energy, construction and housing, public services and integrated administration.

Starting with the systematic implementation of sustainable energy solutions, Lviv has developed a concept for energy-efficient districts in the Sykhiv and Ryasne neighborhoods. Now Lviv is moving towards climate neutrality with the Positive Energy District concept within a SPARCS project.

The Serbian city of Kruševac has an ambitious goal: a city accessible to all, regardless of age, gender, income, physical and mental abilities. The focus is on sustainable and safe traffic management that motivates 80% of citizens to travel on foot, by bicycle or by public transport.

The municipality of Karak in Jordan is taking action to ensure a sustainable urban future. To achieve this goal, the city has developed a Sustainable Energy & Climate Action Plan (SECAP). The plan includes renewable energy projects, reducing energy consumption through energy efficiency, and improving existing infrastructure.

Soo-Jin Kim calls for locally adapted solutions - now and for the future after the pandemic. If cities systematically share their experiences, they inspire each other, learn from each other and develop suitable strategies for recovery. The Connective Cities peer-to-peer dialogue, she said, is a particularly promising tool for building back better after the crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a major challenge for German health departments. Many responded quickly at the start of the pandemic and reorganized their workflows, but a lack of staff and poor digital infrastructure made the process more difficult.

Building.Back.Better! We encourage representatives from local governments and administrations, from the private sector, civil society and academia to participate in our new COVID-19 programme. Together we aim to develop strategies and project ideas for a sustainable urban future after the pandemic.

The event series "Insight Sessions: Post-COVID Urban Futures" is part of this year's Connective Cities' COVID-19 programme and facilitates a regular, open exchange on relevant topics for the post-COVID-19 era. We would like to invite you to join our discussions in August:

• "Digital literacy and digital municipal service design in Post-COVID-19 Cities" on Wednesday, 18 August 2021, 10:00 - 11:30 CEST.
• "The importance of disaster preparedness in cities and municipalities: experiences and lessons learned" on Wednesday, 25 August 2021, 10:00 - 11:30 CEST

Within the framework of our expert exchange, representatives from the Brazilian city of Niteroi and the municipality of Quinchía in Colombia have developed project ideas, which were jointly elaborated in a virtual project planning workshop in June 2020. Virtual expert assignments are planned as a next step for the development of both projects.