On 25 September 2015, the world saw a global effort to end poverty, foster peace, safeguard the rights and dignity of all people and to protect the planet. During the United Nations General Assembly that year, the Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development resolution was adopted. This historic document lays out the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 169 targets and over 230 indicators to be achieved globally by 2030. Eight years later, a draft report by the UN Independent Group of Scientists looks at where we stand now. Although the final document will only be released later this year at the UN SDG Summit, some key messages can already be outlined as the world reaches the halfway point to the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs.

Sounding the alarm halfway to 2030

At the halfway mark, sufficient progress towards the achievement of the SDGs has not been made.

Besides the SDG Summit in September, preparations for the 2023 UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in July are underway. In both occasions, decision-makers and high-level stakeholders will assess progress on the 2030 Agenda, but the bottom line is clear: we are off track. At the halfway mark to 2030 only about 12% of SDG targets seem to have made sufficient progress, reads the Advance Unedited version of the special edition of the report of the Secretary-General from last April. “[This] makes for grim reading” stated @David_McNair, Executive Director Global Policy at One.org. in a series of Tweeter posts on 27 April. As McNair reminds us, 575 million people will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030 and “hunger is back at 2005 levels”.

This report also finds that many of the SDGs, though showing progress, are moderately to severely off track and some 30% have either seen no movement or regressed below the 2015 baseline. Although grim, the document also calls out for intensified efforts and policy solutions to steer forces of accelerated, sustained and transformative action. It urges world leaders to come together at the SDG Summit to deliver a Rescue Plan for People and Planet centered around three major breakthroughs:

1. Equipping governance and institutions for sustainable and inclusive transformation.
2. Prioritising policies and investments that have multiplier effects across the goals.
3. Securing a surge in SDG financing and an enabling global environment for developing countries.

Limited evidence of transformative impact

Since 2015, there is evidence of governments, business, the private sector and the general public embracing the SDGs. Overall, however, there is only limited evidence of transformative impact.

On a positive note, the 2022 article recognises that the SDGs are the “most comprehensive and detailed attempt by the UN to advance sustainable development”. Likewise, an interesting critique of the letter highlights that the scientists propose no concrete measures or credible alternative to such a framework. It concludes that “The SDGs provide an indispensable roadmap: without it, nobody would know where to go. Are we seriously going to ditch this, the only global roadmap on which the world has managed to agree? […] Yet this is a transnational issue — climate disasters know no borders — and the only way to deal with it is with increased international cooperation, not less”.

There are some other bright spots. The paper does find that “some evidence suggests that sub-national authorities, and especially cities, are often more pioneering and progressive than their central governments in building coalitions for implementing the SDGs”. As António Guterres once pointed out earlier this year, “cities are critical battlegrounds. They generate 70% of global emissions. They house half of humanity. And by 2050, over two billion more people will call them home”. The UN Secretary-General’s blueprint for action, Our Common Agenda, and the theme paper on multilateralism for the UN-Habitat Assembly call for a reinvigorated and more inclusive multilateralism, recognising the pivotal role cities and other local authorities play, in addressing the challenges ahead.

An opportunity to accelerate action

Marking the halfway point in the implementation of the SDGs, 2023 offers a window of opportunity to steer forces of change.

The political process in the lead-up to the SDG Summit can help to deliver progress for people and our planet and a momentum to advance the contribution of cities and regions to the SDGs. Throughout the event, global leaders and high-level stakeholder will carry out a comprehensive review of the state of the SDGs, respond to the impact of multiple and interlocking crises facing the world, and provide high-level political guidance on transformative and accelerated actions leading up to the 2030 deadline for achieving the SDGs. The outcome will be a negotiated political declaration.

The summit will be co-facilitated by the UN’s Permanent Representatives of Ireland and Qatar who, following an initial round of consultations with Member States as well as with major groups and other stakeholders on a draft elements paper, have issued a ‘Zero Draft’ of the Political Declaration. On 7 June 2023, a virtual informal stakeholder dialogue was hosted to solicit concrete inputs and suggestions to improve the SDG Summit Zero Draft Political Declaration.  

Furthermore, in May 2023, the Eurostat (the statistical office of the European Union) together with the European Semester Spring Package issued the publication Sustainable development in the European Union — monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context, 2023 edition, which provides a statistical overview of progress in the EU. The report shows that there has progress towards many socio-economic goals over the most recent five-year period of available data, while trends in the environmental domain have been less favourable. In particular three objective show a backslide in progress: climate action (SDG 13), life on land (SDG 15) and partnerships for the goals (SDG 17).

While the Sustainable Development Report 2023, which was quite literally published yesterday, states that "all of the SDGs are seriously off track". Even if the top 20 countries on the 2023 SDG Index ranking are all European, none of them are on track to achieve the goals of the Agenda by 2030, making the partnership for goals (SDG 17) and other forms of collaboration more important than ever. The previous edition of the report, the Europe Sustainable Development Report 2022, sheds some light as to where things might have gone wrong:  “SDG progress in Europe has stalled since 2020”.

Even if every European Commission’s work programme has put the SDGs at the heart of EU policymaking since 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic and other international crises have led to reversals in progress in many European countries, notably on no poverty (SDG 1), good health and well-being (SDG 3) and decent work and economic growth (SDG  8). The EU has achieved, or is on the road to achieve, around 66% of the SDG targets included in the Europe Sustainable Development Report. Yet, progress has been limited on 20% of the indicators and is heading in the wrong direction on 13%.  To tackle this, five priority actions to accelerate the SDGs in the EU and internationally are put forward in the Europe Sustainable Development Report. These are jointly directed at the European Commission and Council leadership, the European Parliament and Member States:

1. Ensure that the 2023 EU voluntary review includes three important elements: (1) internal priorities, (2) international spillovers, and (3) international partnerships and diplomacy for the SDGs.
2. Release, by July 2023, a joint political statement from the three pillars of EU governance.
3. Prepare a communication, to be issued by the European Commission, clarifying how the EU aims to achieve the SDGs in Europe.
4. Implement and reinforce recent global commitments.
5. Develop a new mechanism or renew the mandate of the multi-stakeholder platform.

The 2022 Europe Sustainable Development Report’s findings and recommendations echo messages called for by other European organisations and stakeholders, such as the Committee of the Regions in its Opinions on Delivering and Progress in the implementation of SDGs, the EESC in its Contribution to the EU-level Voluntary Review (VR) of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, or the European Parliament’s own-initiative to boost EU efforts to meet the 2030 targets. This report also serves in preparation for the European Parliament’s delegation, which will attend the UN High-Level Political Forum in July 2023.

A pivotal year for the EU

As a matter of fact, not only the Parliament will be represented during such events, but the EU will also present its first Voluntary Review report at the High-Level Political Forum and the SDGs Summit, with nine Member States piloting Voluntary National Reviews.

At the halfway mark of the SDGs implementation, the Europe Sustainable Development Report’s also calls for strong European leadership to achieve the goals. Significant action is required to revitalise efforts. Suggested actions include: increasing the visibility of SDGs in EU policies, the creation of a permanent engagement platform for civil society organisations to be involved in the SDG implementation process and enhanced Eurostat data on relevant indicators. In addition, the Agenda 2030 promotes an important paradigmatic shift towards a more participatory model of multi-stakeholder governance for sustainable development.

A Multi-Stakeholder Platform was set up by the Commission in May 2017 to support and advise the European Commission on the implementation of the SDGs at EU level and provide a forum for exchange of experience and best practice on the implementation of the SDGs across sectors and at local, regional, national and EU level.  Unfortunately, its mandate came to an end by 2019 and it was never renewed. As today, the European Parliament’s members are urging for a platform or a forum on the SDGs should to be re-launched.

Such action would foster a structured engagement with civil society, youth organisations, businesses, trade unions and scientists in SDG-related policy development and monitoring. Highlighting the views from local communities, after all, successful implementation of the SDGs ultimately relies on local actors. This process should examine best practices from other relevant multi-stakeholder forums (such as the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform) and lead the way forward. We can also highlight here a broader need for structured and meaningful engagement of civil society.

This year, the first Voluntary Review of the European Union on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development takes stock of EU’s internal and external progress to SDGs, detailing how the EU is adding value to the achievement of the goals and also recognising the need to take urgent actions to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs. A process that follow up on the 2016 communication on the Next steps for a sustainable European future - European action for sustainability and the 2019 Reflection Paper towards a Sustainable Europe by 2030.

Moreover, in the Political Guidelines of the Commission 2019-2024, President von der Leyen attributes a central role to the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs, making sustainable development the keystone of European policies so that Europe can lead the Green and Digital transitions. The role of SDGs at the core of EU policy, legislation and funding is also highlighted with the ‘whole of government’ approach in the 2020 Commission Staff Working Document Delivering on the UN's SDGs - A comprehensive approach. Or even the Joint Declaration of the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission on EU legislative priorities for 2023 and 2024 includes a commitment to accelerate implementation of this framework.

Since 2020, Ghent has published annual reviews on the achievement status of the 2030 SDGs. The 2020 Voluntary Local Review monitored the situation across all 17 SDGs, aiming to end this cycle in 2024-2025.  Between the starting and final report, the city highlights annually one of the pillars of sustainable development, by means of ten inspiring initiatives, with roots in Ghent. In the years 2021 to 2023, qualitative reports are prepared for each pillar of sustainable development - People in 2021, Prosperity in 2022 and Planet in 2023. The pillars Peace (SDG 16) and Partnership (SDG 17) are covered in each report. To draw up these reports, the city departments enter into dialogue with platforms and consultative bodies in the city. In the context of international exchange and learning, Ghent translates its sustainability reports and presents them as Voluntary Local Review (VLR).

At the 11th World Urban Forum in Katowice (PL), on 26-30 June 2022, representatives from the URBACT Global Goals for Cities network, presented some of their results. At the closing of the panel discussion participants were asked what they brought home in one word. And the first one that came up was "hope". So, let’s keep our hopes up!

Learn about all the tools and processes the Global Goals for Cities network have used to localise the SDGs in European cities in the URBACT Knowledge Hub!

Experimentation is key to drive change and that's the reason why URBACT has introduced a new instrument to the action-planning process. Understand the positive impact of pilots from the past round of Action Planning Networks and read below some of the findings from URBACT’s latest study on the role of these testing actions - also known as Small Scale Actions.

It's no surprise that cities involved in an Action Planning Network are expected to develop their own local strategies and set of actions, in response to an urban challenge of their choice. To do so, the partner cities are strongly encouraged to follow a participatory approach, which means bringing together different people to collaborate at local-level. Known as the URBACT Local Group, this multi-stakeholder group gathers a diverse range of people – such as local authorities, community organisations, NGOs, other public institutions as universities, not to mention businesses, and citizens. Alongside the transnational exchanges between partner cities coming from different countries and the Lead Expert support, each URBACT Local Group has the right ingredients to co-create the Action Planning Networks' holy grail: the Integrated Action Plan. 

Since 2019 a new element has been added to this mix: the opportunity of running testing actions, through what was called at the time as "Small Scale Actions". But what we understand by it? Well, a Small Scale Action is an idea or a concept, perhaps something that was already tried out in another city or anything brand-new, which now can be put into test. With this experience, the URBACT Local Group can check the relevance, feasibility and added value of its potential implementation in different local contexts. In short, it’s a kind of "proof of concept" to verify if an idea, a hypothesis, is coherent and realistic. If successful, the action can be considered in future city plans and the Integrated Action Plan. To conduct Small Scale Actions, cities from previous URBACT Networks counted with a budget of 10 000 EUR per partner.

This was a first for the URBACT Programme, so it was uncertain whether or not cities would seize this opportunity, or even see the added-value of conducting such experimentations. To evaluate the successes and pitfalls from these testing activities, a study was commissioned in late 2022. Read on to learn about its main take-aways.

Small Scale what?

To better reply to this question, representatives from 23 Action Planning Networks (2019 - 2022) were interviewed. The very first question that was asked to networks was whether or not, the concept of Small Scale Action was easily understood by the city partners. The answers were rather diverse. On one side, cities who had past experience of experimentation-based projects were quite comfortable and understood the concept right away, while for many other cities the concept remained quite fuzzy. This was partially due to the very guidance that was provided by URBACT. Since there was no precise guideline to explain what was (and what was not) a Small Scale Action, cities came up with their own versions and interpretations. "How do you define ‘Small’ in Small Scale Action? It’s not so easy!", commented a Lead Partner. 

There was no past experience on record, no article, no video or no particular about them in large scale capacity-building events. This means that most networks had to find some clarity by themselves, often relying on URBACT Experts to do so. The exchanges between Lead Experts from different Action Planning Networks has proven to be very fruitful. It allowed discussions on how to better introduce Small Scale Actions. The flexibility and room for expression is precisely what made the overall experience so interesting, rich and diverse across all networks. Once cities understood the principle of these testing activities, one question still stood out: will they try anything? It's worth noting that the Small Scale Actions were not a compulsory product, but rather an optional way to pilot ideas to further develop the Integrated Action Plans. 

Small actions, big impact

Did cities seize the opportunity of Small Scale Actions? Without doubt, yes. The study found that all 23 Action Planning Networks used the opportunity to conduct activities, with a total of 236 Small Scale Actions registered across all networks. Nearly all cities made at least one attempt at it, and quite a couple of them carried out three, four or even five actions. "Our partner cities got so excited by Small Scale Actions that they dedicated a lot of time and energy making some. At some point, we had to remind them that the key output of the process was not the testing activities, but their Integrated Action Plan", said one of the Lead Partners during an interview.

Unsurprisingly, cities were very enthusiastic. The activities were shaped depending on the specific thematic focus, the existing capabilities and skills of involved people, as well the existence of any other actions already in place. Even though it might be difficult to categorise the Small Scale Actions in strict types, we can say that most commonly documented forms of activities include workshops and events, followed by prototype of product-service systems, and surveys or interviews. Among all of them, many experiences were meant to gather public opinions.

Partner cities have employed a range of methods to engage with their communities, such as organising a photo expedition with teenagers from popular neighbourhoods to explore and document these areas, while and evaluating them, like it was the case from Dinslaken (DE), partner from the Active Citizens Network. Other examples included inviting people with disabilities to conduct a user assessment of the city to grasp the disability-friendliness of urban infrastructures, like in Druskininkai (LT), partner from the Tourism Friendly Cities Network.

The testing actions have also been effective in co-generating ideas. For example, the city of Modena (IT) from Zero Carbon Cities organised a hackathon as part of the international Climathon initiative, bringing together university students, so they could come up with innovative ideas and spin-off projects for a planned regeneration of the industrial site Torrazzi. When it comes to prototyping new services and processes, the Lead Partner of SibDev, Heerlen (NL) has piloted a "loneliness prescription". The goal was to use social therapy as medicine to address loneliness among ageing people and, thus, develop "neighbourhood connectors" to support patients and spark meetings and social gatherings.

Furthermore, these experimentations have been seized to test new products and spaces, such as setting up a temporary shop in the centre of Coimbra (PT), to promote regional products in line with its Food Corridors Network.  Or even closing a street in the city centre of Turku (FI) to test different spatial arrangements that are more people-centred, as this was one of the core objectives from the Healthy Cities Network.

Testing matters

Overall, the study shows that Small Scale Actions were considered as a very valuable instrument for cities to push for actions and to test ideas for real. Whatever you call it -- Small Scale Actions, pilot action, prototype -- testing activities have proven to be beneficial not only to validate or not actions to feed into the Integrated Action Plan, but also as a great tool to foster engagement and participation among the URBACT Local Group members and other concerned people in the city. "Everyone jumped in and enjoyed this opportunity. With our URBACT Local Group, we developed dozens of ideas for Small Scale Actions! We even let our URBACT Local Group carry on some Small Scale Actions by themselves, since they were so eager to make extra ones", said a Lead Partner.

By pushing partners to carry on testing activities at local-level, URBACT enabled cities to be more flexible, more agile and more creative. All that is, more than ever, needed to tackle the ever-growing number of issues cities have to face now and in the future.  "Most of the Small Scale Actions that were done in our network became long-term activities of the cities’ Integrated Action Plans", commented a Lead Expert, "this was a clear objective for us, to try something before incorporating it to an Integrated Action Plan". Whether in the framework of an Action Planning Network or not, one thing is clear: yes, testing matters.

SMALL SCALE ACTIONS CATALOGUE

This article was co-authored by Elisa Saturno, Liat Rogel, Selam Mebrahtu and Christophe Gouache

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Testing actions are now part of the journey of current URBACT Action Planning Networks 2023-2025. Find out here who they are! 

Using the global goals at local level involves designing actions that contribute to the individual objectives, while monitoring progress accordingly. Used as a policy-making tool, the SDGs can help cities to develop better and more coherent policies and plans for an integrated urban development. Very much in line with URBACT, the SDGs offer a common language for working across policy silos and with different local stakeholders, often strengthening the social dimension of sustainability work and gaining a strong momentum.

Interested in finding out more about it? Go to URBACT's Knowledge Hub!

PROCESS & TOOLS

During the past days urban practitioners, decision-makers and institutions’ representatives across Europe have been on the road to Torino (IT). After three eventful years, the CITIES FORUM is finally back in its 5th edition. Organised by the European Commission, the event will mark the official launch of the European Urban Initiative and expectations could not be higher among all participants. What some might not be aware though is that Torino has an emblematic journey as to EU territorial cooperation, with an URBACT Action Planning Network as a turning point for the city.

With the current open call for URBACT Networks, the most recent results from the Integrated Action Plans’ study and the CITIES FORUM taking place, there’s no time like the present to remember Torino’s successful story.

First things first, what’s an Integrated Action Plan?

Co-designed with local residents, interested groups and other concerned stakeholders, an Integrated Action Plan is a local long-term strategy, a mandatory product to all project partners that are involved in an Action Planning Network – municipalities, development agencies and metropolitan authorities, among others. It’s an effective way to experiment solutions, turn ideas into concrete actions and, most importantly, give a voice to a diverse of people and get different municipal departments to work together.

Following many rounds of URBACT III Networks (2014 - 2021), roughly 400 Integrated Action Plans were developed throughout the years. A study was commissioned in 2022 to provide useful intelligence on both content and methods used in the plans: identifying trends, pitfalls and good examples, as well as insights into the sustainability and implementation of these documents. This also included how they will be used and resourced and how they link to broader local and regional strategies.

The findings from this study feed the framework of future Action Planning Networks (2023 - 2025), while also shedding light to outstanding cases, as the Torino’s Integrated Action Plan from BoostInno (2015 - 2018) – a network that aimed at boosting social innovation. Read on to see some of the headlines from the study and Torino’s journey.

When Integrated Action Plans trigger real change on the ground

Four years since the delivery and endorsement of its Integrated Action Plan, with the end of BoostInno in 2018, the municipality of Torino had the time to carefully implement a great number of its 37 original actions. The plan was focused on how to harness the potential of social innovation in the city to benefit sustainable urban development, using five key entry points: tools for social innovation; collective actions; engagement and capacity building’ actions; civic technologies; and finance and impact assessment. The city estimates that it has put into place around 80% of actions so far thanks to successfully attracting both national and European funding.

For example, Torino received € 1.5 million from the European Social Fund (ESF) to deliver the ‘Torino Social Factory’ designed to develop the capacity of local social enterprises. A further € 50.000 of ESF was also attracted to deliver the ‘Civic Crowdfunding Academy’, which aimed to support innovative services and projects with high social impact. Such investments ensured the fulfilment of many topics, as capacity-building and collective actions.

Still, impacts need to be understood as a part of a longer process

As in any URBACT Network, cities do not develop or implement their respective Integrated Action Plans “in a vacuum”. Their plans must always – and necessarily – build on existing strategies, activities and available or prospective funding. Some planned activities may be totally new. However, other actions may be modifications or evolutions of existing activities or approaches. Some Integrated Action Plans may be mostly about changing existing approaches to a topic or challenge. For instance, several of the points that were raised during Torino’s experience with BoostInno were also planned under the existing PON Metro Torino programme 2014-2020, which is co-financed by European Structural Funds.

Torino was also successful with an application for an Urban Innovative Action (UIA) project called Co-City which received € 4.1 million of ERDF money to work on new forms of active citizen participation in the collaborative management of urban commons to counteract poverty and socio-spatial polarisation. It is included as one of the actions of the integrated approach presented in the IAP even though the project launched in March 2017 – in parallel with the development of the Integrated Action Plan. Its impact may, therefore, be better understood in terms of the ability to use EU Funds most strategically for long term implementation (up to 10 years), rather than in terms of the amount of funding and budget that is mobilised.

Implementation success is not limited to the Integrated Action Plan’s activities

The implementation of the actions is a complex process that cannot be reduced to a linear exercise of checking whether exact plans have been put into action ‘to the letter’. The study confirmed that Integrated Action Plans should not typically be understood or assessed as investment-ready plans or project management tools. They are, instead, living documents that can feed into the development of new activities which were not explicitly foreseen at the time of concluding the plan.

Following the endorsement of its Integrated Action Plan on social innovation, Torino successfully developed a yet second Urban Innovative Action – this time called To-Nite on the topic of community-based urban security. This project fits within the overall vision of the BoostInno Integrated Action Plan and links to the action to stimulate collective actions and the “installation of networks of sensors colleting environmental variables and developing public solutions in the field of mobility and safety”.

Some partners of ToNite have been active URBACT Local Group members – the co-authors of the Integrated Action Plan. However, it goes much further than the initial plans of the original plan, with strengthened community co-definition of solutions. The € 4.6 million of the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) mobilised for this project is therefore not about direct implementation of a planned action, but is nevertheless directly related to the impact of the approach and vision defined by the local people who were involved with BoostInno.

If we limit the Integrated Action Plans to the words written at the conclusion of the URBACT Network, then such activities could not be counted as implementation success. However, if we understand it as a living document that continue to evolve, then it seems quite reasonable to understand that these actions are also part of the Action Planning Network’s overall impact.

Action Planning Networks, an open door to countless opportunities

The experience from Torino bears witness of what can be done when an enabling environment and political support are put in place. The design and validation of the Integrated Action Plan was a catalyst element in this process. Besides other URBACT achievements, including participation in different networks, the award of two Good Practices label – one of which, the Innova-TO competition that was envisioned in the plan, and which later became the InnovaTO-r Transfer Network – its first experience with the Urban Innovative Actions, Co-City, has turned into an URBACT pilot: the CO4CITIES Transfer Mechanism, an attempt to share Torino’s secret recipe with three other cities.

Clearly, the journey from this city is far from over and we look forward to see what comes next. The open call for Action Planning Networks could be the beginning of a new chapter for Torino, but also a starting point for your own city.

Are you in the #CitiesForum? Be sure to visit our team in the URBACT stand! If you could not come to Torino this time around, you can still follow the live-streamed sessions. Otherwise, you can always read the studies and content on the Integrated Action Plans.

WHAT

This training aims to build the capacities of city-practitioners and policy-makers to understand the main concepts and challenges associated with digital transitions in a few key policy areas. The goal is to help them feel more comfortable in considering digital tools and new technologies as a way of delivering against policy goals. 
 

WHO

Target Audience: the training isn’t for seasoned ‘techies’. Rather, it targets people who might self-define as tech ‘newbies’ and/or people from smaller and medium sized cities. This is because these are the places which have most to gain from understanding and embracing digital transition. The training has been developed by the TechPlace community, which is an online place for city practitioners and policy makers wanting to make a positive difference using tech. We’re building a community of interest and a safe place to exchange, learn and ask stupid questions. We welcome practitioners from across all URBACT cities and beyond. 

HOW

The training is broken down into the following 6 modules, each one with a short video, written and video case studies, city use cases plus a range of handouts and some short tasks to help you check your understanding and progress. The modules are designed to be used together or in isolation so you can dip in and out or watch from the beginning to the end. 

How do towns and cities maintain the momentum for collaborative actions and innovation created in their URBACT Local Groups (ULGs)? And what structures can be put in place to continue the ULGs’ role after URBACT projects end? Answers to these questions are crucial to consider with the end of another cycle of Action Planning Networks in the URBACT programme. Anamaria Vrabie, Eileen Crowley and Wessel Badenhorst unpack three possible strategies that each ULG can consider, stemming from their practitioner experience and a ‘fireside chat’ workshop they organised together with the URBACT Secretariat at the 2022 URBACT e-University.

Before we begin, please also consider using these additional resources, complementary to this article:

• Watch the video of our fireside chat during the 2022 URBACT e-University.
• Read the innovative governance models handout we compiled.

And now, let us share with you some of the transformative stories we have generated, witnessed and supported in the cities of Cluj-Napoca (RO), Dublin and Cork (IE). We reference these cities, not as overall good practices of innovative governance models, but rather in an effort to make things as concrete as possible, in order to understand the structure, context for emergence, and expected impact of such innovative models.

Strategy #1: formalise your ULG work into an innovation lab

In the last 15 years, there has been a strong development of innovation labs connected to public administrations. These labs can take a variety of shapes and sizes, depending on their governance model. Some operate at governmental level, some at city level. Some are mandated to specifically improve the delivery of public service, while others are tasked with prototyping solutions for emerging challenges or with the support of emerging technologies. It is useful to think about these labs as a quadruple helix living lab at the intersection with a research and development department specifically linked to a public authority. Each lab can opt to use one or more innovation methodologies, from human design thinking to behavioural insights.

For an overview of some of the most active labs at global level, this survey and this report can be useful places to start as, like ULGs, such labs convene a wide array of city stakeholders.

In Cluj-Napoca, Romania’s second largest city with a population of around 400 000 people, it was actually a failed attempt to win the title of a European Capital of Culture (ECoC) that proved a catalyst for the emergence of their innovation lab. The Cluj-Napoca Urban Innovation Unit (UIU) was a programme proposed in 2017 by Cluj Cultural Centre, an NGO comprising at the time around 60 cultural organisations and public authorities, that had prepared the ECoC strategy.

Designed in partnership with the Cluj-Napoca municipality, UIU would actually have a limited lifecycle of four-five years, in order to test what innovation approaches would be best for Cluj, while building more innovation capacity locally. If successful, the unit would be fully transferred in the local municipality. This aspect is quite relevant for towns and cities facing either a low trust in public sector actors or insufficient capacity. It allows a state or non-state actor to break the vicious circle of questioning how such a complex structure should be governed, by proposing a test-run for a limited period.

Two pilot projects of the Urban Innovation Unit: temporary use of public space in a residential neighbourhood (left) and engaging artists to promote the use of public transportation for youth (right).

So, how can URBACT cities use an innovation lab structure as a vehicle for the governance and implementation of their Integrated Action Plan (IAP)?

Building on the city’s strategic documents, similar to URBACT Integrated Action Plans, the Cluj-Napoca Urban Innovation Unit (UIU) was mandated to develop pilot projects in three thematic areas: future of work, urban resilience and urban mobility. The three themes were chosen as the most relevant for emerging challenges of Cluj as a growing city. In addition, all three topics required collaborative solutions and coordination – a sole city actor such as the public administration, universities, NGOs or businesses, would find them hard to develop alone. This report describes the 15 lessons learned of the unit between 2017-2021, as well as pilot projects in each thematic area.

Early on in the existence of the Cluj-Napoca Urban Innovation Unit, their proposal for future of work, co-produced with the municipality and other key stakeholders, won the Urban Innovative Actions third call for funding, making Cluj-Napoca the first city in Eastern Europe to receive this type of European grant. This brought considerable funding and legitimacy for the lab, but narrowed down the type of pilot projects it could engage in. Nevertheless, reflecting on the emerging legacy of the unit, there are already a few tangible results:

• Concrete solutions found at city level on how to better support cultural and creative industries as an emerging sector of the local economy;
• Supporting academics to make their research usable for evidence-based policy;
• Develop new funding mechanisms that can allow community groups to work with the public administration as peers;
• Strategic partnerships and new sources of funding accessed by the city;
• Consolidated capacity for the public sector to use risk-prone methodologies such as prototyping;
• Successful transfer of tested innovation practices in a newly established department in the municipality starting from May 2022.

Thus, an innovation lab may provide a useful governance model to monitor the implementation of the URBACT IAP, being tasked to implement pilot projects together with ULG members. These pilot projects are not necessarily the comprehensive actions described in the IAP, but rather Small Scale Actions for each of them. This enables continuous engagement and a refinement of some of the big ideas planned by cities to accomplish their ambitious vision.

Strategy #2: keep a stable relationship among key city stakeholders, even if informally

In Ireland, a partnership model was initiated in the city of Cork with the aim of regenerating the city centre and reinvigorating the city space. Located in the south-west of Ireland, the city of Cork has achieved some success in taking a partnership approach to the revitalisation of its city centre in recent years. The council was rewarded for their innovative governance model in 2021 when they won the Chambers Ireland Excellence in Local Government Awards.

Cork city has a population of about 220 000 people. For a period, the city centre was losing population, and businesses in the area noticed a decline. In 2014, coinciding with a changeover in city management and the appointments of the city’s first female chief executive, a study was commissioned to kick-start transformative actions to revitalise the city centre in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders. The study made two key recommendations: create a cross-sectoral partnership to drive change; and employ a city centre coordinator – someone to act as the human face of the council, to liaise with businesses, broker relationships and facilitate action.

Weekend morning yoga on the board walk in Cork City centre

The city implemented these recommendations and set up two key groups. The first consists of approximately 20 cross-sectoral representatives, including local politicians, business owners and representatives, public transport representatives, members of the Gardaí (police) and some council staff. The second group consists of members of the city council senior management team, with one manager together with an urban planner, responsible for a designated area within the city centre. Action plans and progress reports are revised each year to help realise the aims of these groups.

Change came about slowly in the city, one step at a time. Early years were focused on forming relationships, building trust and some small quick wins. The council focused mainly on showing their support for businesses by trying to animate the public space and attract people into the city centre. This was done through a variety of soft catalyst-type projects such as chalk workshops, street theatre and street art, all proving very popular and helping to animate the space and to build trust between partners.

Over time, seeing the benefits and enjoyment to be gained by public space animation, momentum started to grow with several businesses undertaking their own initiatives in this area. Examples include weekend morning yoga on the boardwalk instigated by a local coffee shop owner and the city’s infamous long table dinner which started in 2017. This was led by 12 restaurants in the city centre, feeding 420 guests in one of the city’s main thoroughfares.

Cork’s long table dinner feeding 420 guests (left) and one of the newly pedestrianised streets in the city, catering for an increase in outdoor dining (right).

Of course, there were stumbling blocks too, and some initiatives met with great resistance. As the famous motivational author Louise Hay says however: “resistance is the first step to change”. The City Council’s attempt to pedestrianise the main street in the city for several hours a day initially met with great opposition. In spite of this, the City Council held firm and increased their commitment to work in partnership with stakeholders to find solutions and support the continued reinvigoration of the city centre. The cross-sectoral stakeholder group met 13 times over the summer of 2019, intent on co-creating solutions to the city’s challenges. In the end, these stumbling blocks proved to bear great fruit, and working together through these challenges served to strengthen and solidify vital relationships across sectors and between stakeholders.

These strong partnerships and cross-sectoral structures in place in the city are what enabled the city to respond dynamically and quickly to the shock circumstances brought about by the pandemic.

Together, city stakeholders worked quickly to develop a response plan and to rapidly roll out activities to ensure the city centre remained an attractive and inviting space for people in the midst of the pandemic. The city quickly set in train the pedestrianisation of 17 streets within the city centre, the development of cycle lanes across the city, increasing cycle parking, creating attractive outdoor spaces with public parklets and street cleaning and supporting the development of streets for outdoor dining.

So, how can an informal partnership structure become a vehicle as a post-project structure for governance and implementation of actions in the IAP?

The post-ULG structure can aim to become a go-to forum for other emerging challenges of the city.

An example of some winter-proofing measures on one of the city quays

For example, in Cork, thanks to the highly effective and innovative governance models in place for the management of the city centre, the city has been hugely successful in accessing national funding for the winter proofing of many of its newly pedestrianised streets, enabling year-round outdoor dining even in the often inclement Irish weather!

From small soft measures in the beginning to a visible increase in momentum, the city today is truly transformed. Cork showcases a city offering that competes on par with some of the most well-known and magnetic cities across Europe. This is the power of partnership and taking a collaborative approach to city development.

This approach is highly replicable and transferable even across varying contexts. Investing in a partnership model can lead to effective and positive transformations of an area, the time and commitment involved does pay off. People, partnerships and leadership are essential. Motivating factors including some soft measures, quicks wins, awards and the showcasing of inspirational good practices can all drive momentum. A clear vision, dedication and commitment however are all vital links to connect a vision to reality. An important lesson we can learn from Cork is that their partnership journey is just as important as the destination. While the city’s physical transformation is impressive, it’s the embedding of this collaborative culture and the institutionalisation of cross-sectoral governance models within the city’s practice that is truly valuable and surely heralds only the beginning of this city’s transformational journey.

Strategy #3: consider business-led governance structures such as Business Improvement Districts (BIDs)

In countries like Ireland and the UK, legislation was introduced in past decades to enable businesses in a defined commercially zoned area to form a company that will take on aspects of governance and carry out certain actions. The legislation allows for a business community to form a Business Improvement Districts (BID) company after holding a plebiscite in the ‘BID Area’ where more than 50% of businesses voted to form the company on the premise of a proposed five-year strategy. If the vote is positive, then a board of directors is constituted with the representation of the local authority ensconced.

Typically, the BID Company will then set up a few working groups that involve local stakeholders focusing on needs identified in the strategy. The BID Company is funded through levies paid by all businesses in the BID area, i.e. the Business District, which are collected by the local authority and then transferred to the BID Company. This amounts to a ‘tax’ paid by businesses in addition to the annual rates owed to the local authority. It also means that businesses have an interest to secure the best return for their contributions. This drives the dynamic of the BID Company as a place-oriented governance structure.

So, how can a BID Company become a vehicle as a post-project structure for governance and implementation of actions in the IAP?

Key stakeholders involved in a Business Improvement District

The aim of the post-ULG structure can be summarised with the following main features:

1. A structure that coordinates the alignment of stakeholder needs in the designated area;
2. A structure that provides and supports leadership in the designated area;
3. A structure that can facilitate delivery of actions and the measuring of impacts.

In the case of business districts, the stakeholder interests that should drive future development are not only those of landowners or large employers. An interesting case study is the former large industrial estates that have transformed into mixed use business districts, i.e., with new clean manufacturing, office, education, retail and residential uses. One example of how this can work is the Sandyford Business District in Dublin, Ireland.

More than 20 000 people work in Sandyford and 6 000 people live in Sandyford. There are approximately a thousand businesses in the district, ranging from multi-nationals like the Microsoft European HQ to many SMEs. Six years ago, the businesses voted to form a BID Company. Last year, the mandate for the company was renewed with a second plebiscite.

Poster for the Sandyford BID Company

The Sandyford BID Company developed a comprehensive strategy with actions for the next five years covering not only the marketing of the district, but also greening of the district; significantly increasing active transport infrastructure for walking and cycling; increasing permeability and access to the district; and using new technologies to make the district ‘smarter’.

The BID Company’s approach is to work in collaboration with local stakeholders, including the local authority and residents, with the aim to build a sense of place and community.

The statutory BID structure ensures that the BID Company has a steady funding stream for the next five years to implement its strategy. The BID Company has however learnt from the previous five years that it is even more important to build the trust with key stakeholders to create a culture of collaboration. This in turn will ensure synergies in the use of resources and a collective responsibility for the future development of the business district.

There are significant elements from the structure of BID Companies which cities could transfer to their own governance structures for their commercial areas or business districts. The attraction is the certainty of sufficient resources for action implementation together with an approach to build relationships with key stakeholders, thus creating a vehicle for ‘distributed’ place leadership which also involves the business leaders in the city.

And a bonus, #4: let’s keep the conversation open!

We acknowledge that there are numerous other governance models to be considered. Our purpose was to start this conversation and make use of the incredible knowledge resources that exist in the URBACT programme – URBACT cities pioneering new ways of governance, lead experts with core expertise in innovation and governance, decades of work by URBACT Secretariat members to design capacity-building activities to make collaborative work in ULGs and beyond possible, just to mention few examples. Several workshops within the URBACT City Festival in June 2022 highlighted the continuation of ULGs’ work in many Action Planning Network cities. Whether they live on as legally-binding structures, or informal meet-ups, we look forward to watching these local URBACT-sparked connections keep on thriving!

This article was first co-produced by Anamaria Vrabie, Eileen Crowley and Wessel Badenhorst in April 2022.

Anamaria Vrabie is the Lead expert for the URBACT Tourism-Friendly Cities network. She is a behavioural-informed economist and leader of urban innovation practices with over 15 years of international experience. Since 2017 she has co-designed and managed Cluj-Napoca Urban Innovation Unit.

Eileen Crowley is the Lead expert for the URBACT Resourceful Cities network. She is a project designer and planner. Having worked for almost 20 years in local & regional government, as well as the research sector in Ireland on a broad portfolio of EU funded transnational projects she now works in the private sector as a consultant.

Wessel Badenhorst is the Lead expert for the URBACT iPlace network. He previously worked as the Economic Development Officer in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, one of the Dublin local authorities. He also was the interim CEO of the Sandyford BID Company and helped develop its new BID Strategy.