German planning standards, as presented by the German expert team, initiated a critical review of the planning standards currently used in Amman. During the five-day program, the participants discussed intensively and learned from each other during their field trips. At the end of the expert mission, concrete recommendations and joint solutions emerged.

Although Africa is contributing little to global greenhouse gas emissions, the continent is the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Africa's cities are facing increasing losses that come with systemic risks and threaten to undo Africa's development gains. Learn more about how GIZ's two programs are working together to address these development challenges in Southern Africa.

Wiem Al-Amri from the municipality of Bizerte in Tunisia speaks about how she has benefited from exchanges with other experts at the events and workshops organized by Connective Cities. The municipality was able to improve its own projects in the areas of digitalization, energy efficiency and the introduction of a geodatabase.

The representatives of the Abasan Al-Kabira community in Palestine act as ambassadors of Connective Cities in Palestine. They organized several workshops for communities in Gaza, and promote the regional network's activities in topics such as crisis management, response to the Covid-19 pandemic, circular economy, local economic development, and renewable energy.

This video shows Connective Cities' learning process II conducted in May 2021 - June 2022 to support municipalities in fine-tuning their project ideas in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable energy and developing them further towards bankable project proposals.

Through the collaboration of different stakeholders and the creation of strategic partnerships, the Jordanian municipality of Jerash succeeded in developing new concepts and ideas for effective waste management, moving towards a circular economy. As a result, the municipality is coming closer to its vision for a green, sustainable and healthy city.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Straseni municipality wanted to support local medical facilities with a fundraising campaign to reduce the number of patients with severe courses of disease. As approximately 25% of the Moldovan population lives abroad, the city decided to actively involve them. The fundraising goal was quickly achieved. In addition, new links and synergies were created between the diaspora and the domestic communities. 

In Plovdiv municipality, hundreds face social exclusion, either because they are homeless or live under precarious conditions. In 2020, the municipality started the implementation of the project "Building social housing in the city of Plovdiv", co-financed by EU funds. The project is linked to the expectation that future residents will be integrated into the urban society by having access to the main services.

In Kotor, tourism as well as the agricultural sector suffered severe financial losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Many local businesses were on the verge of closure due to the imposed restrictions. The municipality of Kotor developed targeted support measures through good coordination and dialogue mechanisms, saving businesses and jobs. 

India's resilient cities of the future are to be built around a good quality of life and an efficient infrastructure that serve the needs of the community. India has opted to leverage real-time data exchange through the open, neutral and secure India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX) platform in developing solutions for this vision and deriving value for all members of the Indian society. 

The Lebanese town of Menjez is considered a good example for how a recently established small municipality is working to protect nature and biodiversity, improve infrastructure, and move towards implementing the 2030 Agenda. In our Connective Cities interview, Mayor Dr. Georges Youssef explains why preserving the local ecosystem is a priority for his community.

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in cooperation with the Service Agency Communities in One World (SKEW) and GIZ is hosting an online exchange for decision-makers from politics, administration, civil society and science. In the run-up to the next UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), the event aims to share good municipal practices in the field of climate adaptation and mitigation and to highlight promising cooperative approaches.

Around the world, cities and citizens are facing the climate crisis. Municipalities need to take action by developing their own solution-oriented approaches to address the climate emergency. For these ideas, Daring Cities - hosted by ICLEI and the City of Bonn - will provide a virtual, action-oriented forum from October 3 to 7, 2022.