Geolocation
POINT (23.881275 55.169438)
  • RU:RBAN

    LEAD PARTNER : Rome - Italy
    • Caen - France
    • Coruna - Spain
    • Krakow - Poland
    • Loures - Portugal
    • Thessaloniki - Greece
    • Vilnius - Lithuania

    Summary

    Timeline

    • Kick-off meeting

     

    • Transnational Meetings in Rome, Caen, Vilnius and Loures
    • Thessaloniki Transnational Meeting and Mid Term Reflection
       
    • Krakow Online Transnational Meeting
    • Bi-lateral online meetings between Rome and all Project Partners

     

     

     


     

     

    This Transfer network builds upon the "Management model of Urban gardens in Rome" Good Practice, in order to transfer to EU cities geographically distant from each other to ensure sharing of experiences to enhance the capacities of local governance. Transfer efforts will be given to 3 distinct, interlinked, thematic components/elements that the Good Practice is divided into: Capacity building in organizing urban gardens, Inspiring and training people to manage urban gardens (Gardeners) and urban gardens governance & regulations.

    RU:RBAN Transfer Network logo
    Urban agriculture for resilient cities
    Ref nid
    12133
  • Playful Paradigm

    Timeline

    Kick-off meeting

    1st TN Meeting in Esplugues de Llobregat | 2nd TNM in Udine | 1st Customized Activity in Udine: Ludobus and Social Transformation | 2nd Customized Activity, Paris, Toy Libraries Study Visit | 3rd TNM in Klaipeda

    4th TNM Viana do Castelo | TNM Online (Parts 1+2+3) | Webinar "Network Management for Tackling the COVID Crisis" | Webinar "Public Procurement" | Webinar "Manifesto of Playful Cities" | Playful Paradigm to re-think cities (virtual session @ EURegionsWeek)

    Sharing Period | Final Event 20-21 April

    Municipality of Athienou
    2, Archbishop Makarios III Ave.
    7600 Athienou Cyprus

    CONTACT US

    Municipality of Santiago de Compostela

    CONTACT US

    Municipality of Udine (Italy)

    CONTACT US

    Cities offer unique opportunities for addressing the challenges of urbanization, ageing, climate change, social exclusion, only if enabling, enjoyable places are co-created. This Transfer network aims to replicate the “playful paradigm” based on gamification as an innovative concept for promoting social inclusion, healthy lifestyles & energy awareness, intergenerational & cultural mediation, place-making & economic prosperity. Games offer new strategies for engaging city stakeholders in urban development.

    Games for inclusive, healthy and sustainable cities
    Ref nid
    12137
  • Thriving Streets

    Summary

    Lead Partner : Parma - Italy
    • Antwerp - Belgium
    • Igoumenitsa - Greece
    • EDC Debrecen - Hungary
    • Klaipèda - Lithuania
    • Nova Gorica - Slovenia
    • Oradea - Romania
    • Radom - Poland
    • Santo Tirso - Portugal
    • London Borough of Southwark

    Timeline

     

     

    • October 1: Kick-Off Meeting Phase I, Parma









       

     

    • June 9-10: Kick-off meeting Phase II
    • June 25: Online coordination meeting
    • September 11: Online coordination meeting
    • October 26, 28: Online coordination meeting
    • November 25: Thematic learning event “Active mobility vs car dependency”
    • November 26: Transnational meeting, Antwerp
    • December 15: Thematic learning event “Co-creating Thriving Streets”
    • February 26: Thematic learning event “Thriving local economy”
    • April 14-15: Transnational meeting, Nova Gorica
    • May 7: Thematic learning event “Places for people”
    • June 21-22: Transnational meeting, Santo Tirso
    • July 20: Masterclass “Placemaking for recovery”
    • July 22: Thematic learning event “Streets for all”
    • September 30-October 1: Transnational meeting, Southwark
    • December 10: IAP Peer review meeting
       

     

    • March 30: Thriving Communities, digital learning event
    • April 26-28:Transnational meeting in Santo Tirso (Portugal) and study visit in Pontevedra (Spain)
    • May 24, 25: Transnational meeting in Nova Gorica and study visit in Ljubljana (Slovenia)
    • June 14-16: URBACT City Festival, Pantin / Greater Paris (France)
    • July 5-8: Walk and Roll Cities Final Event, Barcelona (Spain)
    • July 14: Masterclasses on Urban Freight and Parking Management

    Outputs

    Integrated Action Plan

    Integrated Action Plan for sustainable mobility in Oltretorrente

    Read more here !

    Parma - Italy
    Igoumenitsa Integrated Action Plan

    Read more here !

    Igoumenitsa - Greece
    Klaipèda Integrated Action Plan

    Read more here !

    Klaipèda - Lithuania
    Oradea Integrated Action Plan

    Read more here !

    Oradea - Romania
    Southwark Integrated Action Plan

    Read more here !

    London Borough of Southwark - United Kingdom
    Toward live and attractive Solkan’s historical core

    Read more here !

    Nova Gorica - Slovenia
    Towards a dynamic center for Deurne

    Read more here

    Antwerp - Belgium
    Debrecen Integrated Action Plan

    Read more here

    Debrecen - Hungary
    Increase attractivity and decrease car-dependency in Santo Tirso

    Read more here !

    Santo Tirso - Portugal

    Transforming streets to create people-friendly places. The ambition of Thriving Streets is to improve sustainable mobility in urban areas from an economic and social perspective. The premise of the Thriving Streets network is that break-troughs in sustainable urban mobility can be established when mobility is no longer framed as just going from A to B but rather as a means for social-economic development of the city. The key question Thriving Streets network intends to answer is the following: “How can mobility become a motor for urban health, inclusivity, economy and social cohesion?”

    Thriving Streets
    Designing mobility for attractive cities
    Ref nid
    13423
  • Genderedlandscape

    Summary

    LEAD PARTNER : Umea - Sweden
    • Trikala - Greece
    • Barcelona - Spain
    • Panevėžys - Lithuania
    • La Rochelle - France
    • Celje - Slovenia

     

    Contact information for Lead partner: www.umea.se/jamstalldhet

    Timeline

    Start of phase 1

    Closure of phase 1

    Start of phase 2

    Final Conference: The Gendered Landscape of European Cities
    Closure of network

    Integrated Action Plans

    Integrated Action Plan JZ SOCIO Celje

    Read more here !

    Celje - Slovenia
    Integrated Action Plan Umeå

    Read more here !

    Umeå - Sweden
    Integrated Action Plan Trikala

    Read more here !

    Trikala - Greece
    Integrated Action Plan Panevėžys City

    Read more here

    Panevėžys - Lithuania
    Integrated Action Plan La Rochelle

    Read more here !

    La Rochelle - France
    Integrated Action Plan Barcelona

    Read more here

    Barcelona - Spain

     

    Gender equality is a fundamental goal of EU policy. Unfortunately, many urban policies, services, and physical developments still do not take gender into account, despite the fact that men and women use the city and its structures differently. Genderedlandscape is the Action Planning network that sought to create an understanding of the city as a place where gendered power structures are always present and develop locally contextualised tools and approaches to work towards gender equality in urban policies, planning, and services.

    Genderedlandscape APN logo
    Gender + Equal + Cities
    Ref nid
    13427
  • Tourism Friendly Cities

    Summary

    Lead Partner : Genoa - Italy
    • Braga - Portugal
    • Cáceres - Spain
    • Druskininkai - Lithuania
    • Dubrovnik - Croatia
    • Dún Laoghaire Rathdown - Ireland
    • Krakow - Poland
    • Rovaniemi - Finland
    • Venice - Italy

    Municipality of Genoa - International Affairs Department

    CONTACT US

    Watch all the Tourism Friendly videos here.

    Timeline

    • Kick-Off Meeting - Genoa - Phase I
    • TNS Meeting - Braga - Phase I
    • Online Kick-Off Meeting - Phase II
    • e-Dubrovnik meeting - Phase II
    • Online Meeting - Phase II
    • e-Druskininkai meeting - Phase II
    • TNS Meeting - Dun Laoghaire - Phase II
    • TNS Metting - Rovaniemi - Phase II
    • TNS Meeting - Krakow - Phase II
    • Final Meeting - Venice - Phase II

    Integrated Action Plans

    Dun Laoghaire Integrated Action Plan

    Read more here !

    Dun Laoghaire - Ireland
    Druskininkai Integrated Action Plan

    Read more here

    Druskininkai - Lithuania
    Integrated Action Plan for Sustainable Tourism – Cáceres

    Read more here

    Cáceres - Spain
    Braga Integrated Action Plan

    Read more here !

    Braga - Portugal
    Krakow Integrated Action Plan

    Read more here !

    Krakow - Poland
    Integrated Action Plan for Dubrovnik as a Sustainable Tourism Destination

    Read more here !

    Dubrovnik - Croatia
    Enhancing sustainable tourism in Venice

    Read more here !

    Venice - Italy
    LOCAL COMMUNITY AND TOURISTS TOGETHER FOR URBAN SUSTAINABILITY

    Read more here !

    Rovaniemi - Finland
    Integrated Action Plan for Sustainable Tourism

    Read more here !

    Genoa - Italy

    TOURISM-FRIENDLY CITIES is an Action Planning Network aimed at exploring how tourism can be made sustainable in medium-sized cities, reducing the negative impact on neighbourhoods and areas interested by different types of tourism and its related aspects through integrated and inclusive strategies keeping a balance between the needs of the local community, in terms of quality of life and of services available, and the promotion of sustainable urban development at environmental, social and economic level.

    Local community & tourists together for urban sustainability
    Ref nid
    13465
  • Space4People

    Lead Partner : Bielefeld - Germany
    • Arad - Romania
    • Badalona - Spain
    • Guía de Isora - Spain
    • Nazaré - Portugal
    • Panevėžys - Lithuania
    • Saint-Germain-en-Laye - France
    • Serres - Greece
    • Turku - Finland
    • Valga - Estonia

     

    City of Bielefeld - Head of Transport Department

    CONTACT US

    Timeline

    • Kick-Off Meeting Phase 1
    • Final Meeting Phase 1
    • Web-Kick-Off Phase 2
    • Web Meeting June 2020
    • Transnational Meeting October 2020
    • Webinar Dealing with sceptical business communities September 2021
    • Webinar Vision and measure selection September 2021
    • Webinar Dealing with a lack of support from decision makers September 2021
    • Webinar on Car-free livability programme Oslo and Spaces for People Scotland October 2021
    • Webinar Parking Management December 2021
    • Webinar Tactical Urbanism December 2021
    • Webinar Alternative Road Use January 2022
    • IAP Peer Review Session March 2022
    • Webinar Use of indicators and objectives in IAP March 2022
    • Webinar Tools and Methods to measure public space use April 2022
    • Site Visit to Saint-Germain-en-Laye June 2022
    • Final Event Barcelona with RiConnect and Thriving Streets July 2022

    Integrated Action Plan

    Bielefeld Integrated Action Plan

    Read more here !

    Bielefeld - Germany
    Serres: walkable, sustainable, inclusive and accessible city for all

    Read more here !

    Sérres - Greece
    INTEGRATED ACTION PLAN (IAP) FOR THE VILLAGE OF NAZARÉ

    Read more here !

    Nazaré - Portugal
    City of Turku's developement programme for pedestrian and leisure areas 2029

    Read more here !

    Turku - Finland
    Valga Integrated Action Plan

    Read more here !

    Valga - Estonia
    Saint-Germain-en-Laye Integrated Action Plan

    Read more here !

    Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
    Panevėžys City Integrated Action Plan

    Read more here !

    Panevėžys - Lithuania
    Integrated Action Plan for the enhancement of public space

    Read more here !

    Guía de Isora - Spain
    Municipality of Arad Integrated Action Plan

    Read more here !

    Arad - Romania

    Space4People dealt with public space use in its cities and worked with its main use function: transport. Our focus was on walkability, quality of stay, mix of functions to achieve attractive public space for diverse user groups and a sustainable urban mobility scheme supporting such public spaces. Space4People has placed a user-centric approach at the core of its work that to assessed qualities and deficiencies, developed future visions and tested possible solutions to public space in our cities.

    Space4People - mobility solutions for attractive public space
    Ref nid
    13484
  • Kvietimas teikti projektų paraiškas migrantų įtraukties didinimo iniciatyvų įgyvendinimui

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    15/11/2022

    Re-Generation alludes at the challenge to implement urban transformation shifting the attention to existing social and built capital, mobilizing human components and competences able to regenerate urban quality and economies. It suggests the necessary continuity between generations, in terms of knowledge exchange and strategic visioning. Furthermore, it implies the necessary regeneration of policy, management and financial models to make action viable and effective .

    Articles

    Daugiau informacijos rasite Europos Tarybos plėtros banko svetainėje: https://coebank.org/en/tenders/

    Paraiškų pateikimo terminas yra 2022 m. liepos 19 d. 18.00 (CET).

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  • Tech Revolution 2.0

    Lead Partner Barnsley
    • Alytus - Lithuania
    • Roeselare - Belgium
    • Rzeszow - Poland
    • Novska - Croatia

    Timeline

    Kick off meeting

    • TechRevolution meeting in Rzeszow (PL)

      Flexible Workspace 101 - It’s all about the love

      An article by Alison Patridge, TechRevolution Lead Expert.

      URBACT

      See more
    • TechRevolution study visit to Finland

      ‘Communities that play together stay together’

      Some reflections from Alison Patridge, Lead Expert, on the URBACT TechRevolution 2.0. network’s study visit to Helsinki, Espoo and Tampere in Finland.

      URBACT

      See more

    Useful links

    Follow us on Twitter
    Check the Tech Revolution Hub

    Medium-sized post-industrial cities in Europe seek ways to grow & diversify their economies to compete with the pull of larger hubs. This is even more important in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Barnsley has been committed to growing higher value jobs, particularly within its tech and digital sectors. The Good Practice comprises 2 main pillars: - Enterprising Barnsley, an award-winning business support programme - The Digital Media Centre, a landmark hub for tech business in the town centre which has recently expanded into a second building as Barnsley expands The Seam - Barnsley's Digital Campus.

    Working together to maximise the job creation potential of digital
    Ref nid
    16335
  • New urban gardens bringing communities together

    Lithuania
    Vilnius

    Gardening has wider impacts on the city that one would expect

    Ausra Siciuniene
    Project Coordinator
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    589 000

    Summary

    Implementing community gardens can be highly beneficial for a city not only for environmental purpose but also for social ones: to fight social exclusion, and bring neighbours together, at the same time as organisation education activities for children around them. This is what Vilnius has done while transferring the Good Practice of Rome, in ‘sleeping districts’, with training for gardeners and set-up of adequate urban management schemes.

    Solutions offered by the good practice

    Lithuania’s capital is particularly green, with 44% of its territory dedicated to forests, parks and squares. However, while family garden allotments persist from Soviet times, understanding of shared community gardens is still limited.

    The municipality owns various public spaces, including grounds of schools and kindergartens, but most vacant space in Vilnius is privately or state-owned. This has challenged the municipality’s capacity to promote urban agriculture.

    The shared urban garden initiatives that have existed so far have done so without city support. Meanwhile, most community groups lack the funding and permanent staff necessary to commit to gardening projects.

    RU:RBAN gave Vilnius the knowledge to promote urban gardening as a way to fight social exclusion, and bring neighbours - even in high-rise ‘sleeping districts’ - together.

    The ULG focused on a key component of Rome’s practice – a clear set of regulations for communities to know how and where to start an urban garden. It was not a process of copy-paste, but of understanding and adapting.

    Nevertheless, thanks to the efforts of the group, the City Council approved a new set of rules and regulations for urban gardening in March 2021. In addition, the municipality released a guide to urban gardening which gained national media attention as part of a broader environmental awareness drive.

    Sustainable and integrated urban approach

    The practice developed by Vilnius following the experience of Rome is based strongly on environmental protection and awareness by developing urban gardens. Its social aspect is key as these gardens are actually “community” gardens, with all well-known and documented benefits for neighourhoods as groups and as individuals, such as mental health, socialisation, skills development etc. In particular trainings and sharing of seeds can have wider impacts on the local economy.

    Participatory approach

    A new URBACT Local Group (ULG) was set up including gardening enthusiasts, NGOs, schools, the municipality, and the Environment Ministry.

    The members of Vilnius’ ULG benefited collectively and within their own specific fields from the experience and ideas of Rome and the other partner cities. This included gardeners sharing seeds and participating in “Gardenizer” trainings. It also involved “totally fascinated” city planners learning how Rome developed urban farming at a huge scale, right down to the smallest details of their financing model.

    ULG members also gained valuable knowledge about new communication tools, including through trainings in Riga where they learnt to use tools such as ‘vox pops’ and understand the value of their story for others.

    What difference has it made

    The Municipality has also started a new strategic long-term program - CITY+ - aimed at recreating a sense of community in the former soviet districts. One of the important aspects is to create a feeling of ownership by allowing citizens to have their own yard and therefore an opportunity to create their small urban gardens.

    With around 60% of the city’s population living in these buildings, Vilnius’ new urban garden trend looks set to continue.

    Transferring the practice

    Vilnius implemented the practice from Rome by starting with one existing community garden and built from there. Gradually, the number of urban gardens in Vilnius started to grow. Furthermore, the model is now formally included in the city’s urban development policies.

    Another interesting aspect was that they linked the development of community gardens with ecological education and vegetable growing in kindergartens - an activity appreciated by partner cities during their study visit.

    Solving land ownership issues will remain a key challenge for the spread of urban gardening, requiring ongoing dialogue with private and state owners. To free up more land, Vilnius will also start discussions with the National Land Authority to allow communities temporary use of state-owned land for their urban garden initiatives.

    As for its own land, the city will now be proposing the option of including an urban garden whenever it discusses green area renovation plans with communities. The municipality also expects to continue making further improvements to relevant legal procedures to facilitate urban gardens.

    Is a transfer practice
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  • URBACT cities join forces in a quest for global sustainability

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    15/11/2022

    A new URBACT network aims to lead the way in delivering on the UN SDGs in cities. Find out why this matters.

    Articles

    The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all". But implementing the SDGs is a major challenge, requiring new ways of working for governments at all levels.

     

    Cities and municipalities are key actors in this context – not as “mere implementers” of a global agenda set elsewhere, but providing a unique scale at which to tackle global challenges from the bottom up. Their task is to ‘localise’ the SDGs – taking these global objectives and turning them into a local reality.

     

     

     

    But how do you localise the SDGs in practice? This is the key question for Global Goals for Cities – a new pilot network launched by URBACT in collaboration with the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR); with Tallinn (EE) as the Lead Partner.

     

     

    “As cities, we have it within our reach to make our future more resilient and sustainable, and better I believe. It is vital to protect our nature and fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.”
    Mihhail Kõlvart, Mayor of Tallinn (EE)

     

    In this article, I set out why localisation of the SDGs is so important, why an URBACT network of cities is well-adapted to addressing the challenges this poses for cities, and what we hope to achieve over the next year and a half of working together. I encourage you to follow us on our journey!

     

    Localising the SDGs – a complex but potentially rewarding challenge for cities

     

    In 2015, cities were officially placed at the heart of the 2030 Agenda through SDG11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. But beyond this, organisations like the OECD and UCLG commonly point out that around 65% of the SDGs’ 169 targets will not be reached without the active involvement and contribution by local and regional governments. There is thus lots to think about in terms of what local governments need to know about the SDGs.

     

    The important role of cities and local governments in achieving the SDGs was also recently highlighted by Ricardo Rio, European Committee of the Regions (CoR) rapporteur and Mayor of the Global Goals for Cities network partner Braga (PT) – stressing the need to put the SDGs back at the heart of the EU narrative for sustainable recovery and climate action.   

     

    Lead Partner city Tallinn (EE) aims to be a green and global city. The city has put strong emphasis on building policy coherence into their main strategy Tallinn 2035. Photo credit: Tiina Erik

     

    Localising the SDGs is a demanding task which implies new ways of working for national governments and local authorities alike.

     

    Notably, achieving them is going to require:

    a shared understanding of key challenges and trade-offs between goals and targets when setting the local SDGs agenda;

    significant ambition on the part of both national and local governments, aiming at transformative actions;

    cross-departmental collaboration and alignment across government levels to achieve policy coherence;

    meaningful engagement of multiple stakeholders in the co-creation of a shared vision and local integrated action plans;

    well-informed citizens and an active civil society to hold their local governments accountable and be able to contribute to achieving long-term goals.

     

    In other words, localising the SDGs will mean breaking away from the status quo, making the 2030 Agenda a shared and transformative mission cutting across the political spectrum and sectors of society.

     

    Why an URBACT network on localising the SDGs?

     

    Given the above considerations, addressing the challenges of localising the SDGs fits well with the URBACT Method, which emphasises integrated approaches to sustainable urban development based on local stakeholder engagement and participation. The steps of the action planning process proposed in the URBACT Toolbox can provide a valuable guide here, as well as the (Reference Framework for Sustainable Cities) RFSC online tool proposed by CEMR, which provide step-by-step guidance for analysing the current situation and defining actions to address the SDGs at the local level.

     

    Building capacity for SDG localisation from working across departments to engaging local stakeholders and experimenting with local actions – was the driving idea behind the creation of the URBACT ‘Global Goals for Cities’ network, where 19 cities from 19 European countries will work on translating the global 2030 Agenda and SDGs into their local realities in the run-up to 2030. Launched in March 2021, the network will run until the end of 2022, and is likely to bring lots of new insights to the field of SDG localisation from a highly diverse range of urban partners.

     

    Tim Kurzbach, Lord Mayor of Solingen (DE), talking to a group of protesters from the Fridays for the Future movement.
    Photo credit: Daniela Tobias

     

    When asked about what they would be most interested to learn about with regards to SDGs localisation, the three top themes were: i. stakeholder engagement and awareness-raising; ii. new governance models, and iii. local indicators to monitor progress towards the SDGs. This is not surprising, considering the whole-of-society approach needed to address the 2030 Agenda, while making sure we are on the right track. In the remainder of this article, I briefly touch upon each of those priority areas, to give a teaser for what is coming up over the next months.

     

    New ways to engage with local stakeholders

     

    Stakeholder engagement and awareness raising will be central to mobilising wide support for the SDGs in the partner cities. We want our citizens to talk about the SDGs like they talk about the weather,” said Cllr. David Gilroy, Chairperson of the Meath County Council (IE) when we met virtually during our network 'Roadshow' in May. “That’s how we’ll know we’ve been successful in our efforts to raise awareness and create lasting change in our community.

     

     

    City officials in Trim (IE) raising awareness on the SDGs during the pandemic.
    Photo credit: Alan Owens

    Yet, the pandemic has made this work even more challenging. City officials have had to quickly pivot and learn how to engage with stakeholders online. Examples of both on- and offline initiatives among network partners include online campaigns like “Christmas SDGs” in Trim (IE), the organisation of a youth “SDGs Hackathon” in Klaipeda (LT) and plans to organise a “Transition Night” in Mouscron (BE). In the next network meeting on 28-29 September 2021, these three cities will join forces to lead the network’s peer learning around awareness raising and citizen engagement.

     

    "One of the key challenges is to explain how the SDGs are relevant to people’s everyday lives. Being part of the network will help us learn from other cities on how they approach stakeholder engagement and awareness raising."

    Kamen Dimitrov, local coordinator, Veliki Preslav (BG)

     

    Localising the SDGs as an ‘indivisible whole’ – time to experiment!  

     

    One of the core principles of the 2030 Agenda is the interconnectedness and indivisibility of the SDGs. In other words, the goals are not for ‘cherry-picking’ but make up a holistic framework for transformative action.

     

    In their ‘Zero Carbon Territory’ project, there are many considerations to be done to balance the development of the Urban Community of Rochelle (FR) in a sustainable manner. The SDGs help to bring a holistic vision for the territory. 
    Photo credit: Frédéric Le Lan

     

    This is also one of the real virtues of using the SDGs framework, as highlighted in the 2020 Sustainable Development report by La Rochelle, the main municipality of the network partner La Rochelle Urban Community, (FR): “It is precisely one of the virtues of the SDGs: to show these salient points and interconnections between all the goals. They also help to realise the closeness between some of them, and the common direction of our efforts”. That is why, when implementing its ambitious ‘Zero Carbon Territory’ project, La Rochelle Urban Community wishes to use the SDGs to bring the holistic perspective.

     

    In Solingen (DE), another network partner, localising the SDGs has meant a new way of working for the municipality. Since the adoption of its Sustainability Strategy in 2018, all City Council decisions must now “pass the test” on whether and how they contribute to the city’s strategic goals, which are contextually linked to the SDGs.

     

    Planning holistically for 17 goals – and 169 targets (!) – is no small feat. It requires learning and experimenting with new approaches like goals-based planning, mission-oriented policy road mapping, portfolio approaches, as well as understanding planetary boundaries, SDGs interactions and spill-over effects. Looking at how cities can “live within” Kate Raworth’s doughnut model – as presented during the 2021 URBACT Festival – can provide useful ideas on how to tackle this complexity.

     

    Other city networks’ experiences can also bring inspiration to rethinking city governance models, like the Urban Commons topic dealt with by the URBACT networks Civic eState or Co4Cities, or the EIT Climate-KIC Healthy, Clean Cities Deep Demonstrations.

     

    Investing in a systemic approach to the SDGs can indeed provide competitive advantage for cities, as pointed out by Anna Lisa Boni, Secretary General of EUROCITIES, during the 4th OECD Roundtable on Cities and Regions for the SDGs. Madrid is an example of a city that has already started working with the SDGs in a systemic and participatory way, which now helps the city to push for its Covid-19 recovery priorities in alignment with the national government’s recovery plan, as well as with EU agendas and programming.

     

    How will we know if we are on the right track?

     

    Stakeholder engagement and governance models aside, perhaps the most important aspect of SDG localisation is to “walk the talk”.

     

    As Keli Yen, the URBACT Local Group coordinator from Gävle (SE) recently put it: “If we want to confidently claim that we are making good progress on the SDGs, then we need to know both: 1) that we are moving in the right direction; and 2) how much distance remains to reach the goal.”  So how can we do this in practice?

     

    This is a complex issue that has exercised minds in some of the leading knowledge organisations concerned, such as the UN SDSN, the EC Joint Research Centre, the OECD, and UN Habitat. Challenges include how to set relevant and realistic targets for cities – matching the global aspirations of the SDGs – and to find indicators that are measurable at local level. With the support of external ad hoc expertise, the network partners will explore these issues head on as part of the planning process.

     

    When it comes to target setting, this is a both political and scientific matter – and not without some controversy. Key principles to follow include the need to be locally relevant, ambitious enough and – as famously espoused by Greta Thunberg to “listen to the science”. For example, research from the Stockholm Resilience Centre set out the need (in 2018) to halve emissions every decade starting from 2020 – a target which is far being from on track in 2021.

     

    To showcase commitment and progress, a growing number of cities actively working on the SDGs are carrying out so-called Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs), which reports on actions taken to reach the SDGs. In the kick-off survey for the network, 17 out of the 19 cities ranked VLRs amongst their four highest choices for what they want to learn about during the life of the network.

     

    Whether or not we will see any VLRs materialise during the life of the network, the future targets and actions defined by the partners of the Global Goals for Cities network offer a chance to push for an ambitious agenda across government levels… and with less than nine years until 2030, we have no time to waste!

     


    For further information

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