Connective Cities
| Connective Cities
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|---|---|
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| legal form | cooperation |
| founding | 5th December 2013 |
| Seat | Bonn , Germany |
| Branch | Development cooperation |
| Website | connective-cities.net |
Connective Cities - International Cities Platform for Sustainable Development - is an international cooperation initiative. The aim is to network urban actors from administration, politics, business, science and civil society with one another at a high technical level and to initiate a practice-oriented exchange of experiences on sustainable urban development. This should enable new learning experiences as well as deliver implementation-oriented knowledge and results.
Connective Cities was on December 5, 2013, commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) as a cooperation between the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH, Engagement Global gGmbH - in the Service Agency Communities in One World - as well as the Association of Cities Germans established .
During the first phase (2013–2015), the range of services and the entire organizational structure as well as the business model of the International City Platform were set up. Almost 400 practitioners have so far participated in 15 dialogue events and project workshops worldwide. In the second project phase (2016–2018), too, the city platform wants to support municipal practitioners in the development and global dissemination of locally adapted solution options for sustainable urban development.
Services
With its offers, Connective Cities promotes the international exchange of experience among urban practitioners, joint learning, collegial advice and the development of joint projects. In the future, Connective Cities would like to support urban actors even more in the further development and implementation of projects at the city level.
German and international know-how should be mobilized through dialogue and learning opportunities such as workshops, training courses and study trips. The presentation of good practice should enable mutual learning. Current challenges faced by practitioners should be discussed within the framework of collegial advice on possible solutions. At the same time, joint project ideas should form the starting points for the development of innovative solutions.
In this way, the experiences of sustainable urban development gained by urban actors in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe are disseminated and incorporated into international learning processes.
The city platform provides virtual services for networking local practitioners via the web portal. It disseminates information on relevant specialist topics, documents successful good practices and draws attention to important specialist events. An expert database offers access to municipal expertise in terms of advice, project development and implementation.
Thematic cluster
Connective Cities works in the four central thematic clusters “Good Urban Governance”, “Integrated Urban Development”, “Municipal Services” and “Local Economic Development”.
A core element of good urban governance is local self-government, which should be enshrined in law as far as possible. It guarantees the municipalities - with the appropriate financial resources - to regulate their local affairs themselves. Good urban governance is seen as an important contribution to urban sustainability.
Integrated urban development advocates sustainable urban development, innovative mobility structures and the management of urban services for municipal services of general interest. The overarching goal is the design of humane, social and inclusive cities.
As the core tasks of a municipality, municipal services have a strong influence on the performance of a city in the social, economic and environmental areas. Energy, mobility, water supply and waste management are the core elements of the services that municipalities make available to citizens.
Local economic development in the sense of sustainable growth improves the location characteristics of cities, promotes investments and stimulates the efficient use of resources. This avoids environmental pollution, strengthens local economic cycles and indirectly creates jobs. In addition, tax revenues are to be generated to finance urban tasks.
The idea of the city platform was inspired by the great potential of the implemented communal exchange: cities offer diverse opportunities for resource-efficient changes. They are creative space for socio-economic, ecological and political innovations and thus catalysts of development. In addition, the pressing challenges of global urbanization require efficient and innovative solution concepts. As a result, cities are often pioneers of national and international development trends and, in cooperation with committed actors, open up the possibility of making joint contributions to sustainable global development processes.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ GIZ: Press release , accessed on May 8, 2017.
- ↑ GIZ: Press release , accessed on May 8, 2017.
- ↑ CIB-UCLG: Connecting urban practitioners to local project ideas , accessed on May 9, 2017.
- ↑ Connective Cities: Information Brochure
- ^ Connective Cities: Good Urban Governance
- ↑ Connective Cities: Integrated Urban Development
- ^ Connective Cities: Municipal Services
- ↑ Connective Cities: Local Economic Development
- ↑ Weixi Gong, Kanishka R. Rathore, Hui Lyu, Victoria J. Haykin: Cities at a Crossroads: Unlocking the Potential of Industries in Sustainable Urban Development (PDF, 1.88 MB).