Thinking impulses from Southeast Europe and inspiration for tackling urban challenges on the topics of

• Digitalisation of public services
• Crisis management
• Municipal environmental rehabilitation
• Renewable energy

Impressions, event recordings and further resources. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed and exacerbated existing gender inequalities. At the same time, the crisis can be an opportunity to make urban planning more gender-sensitive, equitable and sustainable. Our working groups developed guidelines for gender-sensitive urban mobility and urban development.

The main environmental challenges in the MENA region are water scarcity, desertification, air pollution and climate change. Our working group with members from Jordan, Lebanon, Algeria and Palestine have analysed their common challenges and developed innovative cooperation mechanisms to protect biodiversity and ecosystems in their cities.

More than 21 municipalities in the MENA region participated in a fruitful exchange about their challenges and opportunities in digitalisation. They were introduced to Geographic Information Systems and were informed about the possibilities and potentials it offers for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of administrative processes and service delivery.

In Manizales, a city of 450.000 inhabitants in Colombia, almost one third of the population is directly related to universities or other educational institutions. For the development of an integrated strategy to better promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the city, two activities were elaborated: the "SDG Days" and "Citizen Laboratories". In 2022, the city aims to publish its first Voluntary Local Review. 

Both the frequency and intensity of forest fires are increasing worldwide as a result of climate change. If they get out of control, they can put human lives at risk and cause long-term damage to the ecosystem. To minimise this danger, the Lower Saxony State Forests have introduced an innovative system for the early detection of forest fires.

Many social entrepreneurs have innovative ideas for solving societal problems. However, they lack expertise in project planning, financing and marketing. Based at Kiel University, the project yooweedoo supports social start-ups in planning and implementing their innovative business ideas and motivates young people to get involved as social entrepreneurs.

When the pandemic broke out in the Brazilian City of Belo Horizonte, waste pickers and sorters, 80% of whom were women, were at high risk of being infected with the virus. Following a participatory waste and citizens' forum, the municipality managed to introduce effective safety measures so that only 1% of all workers in the waste sector caught Covid-19 while working.

Digital transformation in the Madaba Municipality in Jordan has not only improved service delivery, but also led to cost savings, higher investment returns and increased citizen engagement. This paves the way for the realisation of Madaba's goals to recover sustainably, and also economically, from the pandemic.

Reducing waste management costs, recovering the value of waste and mitigating the health and environmental impacts of waste mismanagement – the introductions of an interactive and playful app leads to significant improvements in waste separation in the Lebanese municipality of Bikfaya. 

Have you ever heard of tactical urbanism? During the pandemic, many cities set up temporary low-budget solutions such as pop-up bike lanes, turned pavement into plazas and used better block initiatives to adapt urban space to the new requirements. In our Insight Session, experts in tactical urbanism share good practices from their work and explain how your city can benefit from this experimental low-budget approach.

The Service Agency Communities in One World (SKEW) promotes municipal climate partnerships between German municipalities and municipalities from the Global South. Participation is open to German cities and their partner cities from African or Latin American countries or German cities that want to establish a new cooperation. A virtual workshop will take place from 22 to 23 February 2022. 

The Connective Cities Cluster “Green Urban Development” invites to an online workshop to reflect on success criteria for promoting bottom-up approaches to climate neutral urban development. Participating cities present their efforts and their way of learning. 

To celebrate an intensive and successful Covid-19 programme in the MENA region, this event will showcase the results and highlights of the programme, such as findings from the Sustainable Waste Management Working Group. It will also provide an opportunity for municipalities to engage with donors and learn about their funding strategies for 2022.