Across EU and the entire globe, the pandemic has been threatening cities and communities, endangering not only public health, but also the economy and the fabric of society. In this difficult scenario, cities have been called to stand more than ever on the frontline of innovative responses to the challenges posed by COVID-19.
The Municipality of Milan, Cities4CSR lead partner, located in Lombardy, one of the regions most affected by covid-19, did not wait too long to turn its urban context into an experimental laboratory for the implementation of bottom-up and innovative recovery strategies.
The following extract taken from Milan 2020 – Adaptation Strategy explains clearly the Administrations’ intention regarding its urban strategy:
“Now is a time when we need to focus on both investing and protecting people, before we can bring our economy back into balance. Of course, this doesn't mean that we don't have to pay attention to public spending, but rather that we first need to deploy every available resource today. Important resources are needed to support the city's production system, to provide assistance to services that were previously self-sufficient and that must now be preserved, such as public transport, resources dedicated to those most in need, resources aimed at public investments."
Important resources needed to be deployed in order to face the current state of emergency and the 3 million euros already allocated by the City Council were not enough. This convinced the Mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala to set up a Mutual Aid Fund open to the economic participation of individual citizens, businesses and associations. The fund is aimed at helping, immediately, those who more than others were put in difficulty by the spread of the pandemic and, subsequently, to support the city’s restart after the lockdown, with particular attention to workers, small businesses and economic operators.
The Mutual Aid Fund is considered as a successful example of "Territorial Social Responsibility" collecting Corporate Social Responsibility activities coming from public, citizen and business efforts. In less than 24 hours from its activation, the fund collected more than € 800.000 of donations and payments. Donations reached € 14 million in early May.
This milanese initiative was also included among the best practices listed in the United Nations policy brief entitled “COVID-19 in an Urban World” under the “INNOVATIVE POLICIES AND SOLUTIONS FOR URBAN GREEN RECOVERY AND ECONOMIC SUPPORT” section.
