The City-Business Collaboration Accelerator (CiBiX) is a platform to increase engagement and collaboration between cities and businesses on city-led urban sustainability challenges. Through CiBiX, ICLEI provides a neutral platform that enables local government to take an active role in presenting their challenges to relevant private sector experts. Together they are able to participate in an early-engagement workshop that helps the city to receive new contributions as well as identify potential solutions and partnerships which they can choose to further explore. For businesses, it provides a strong networking opportunity to connect with local governments and learn exactly what their needs are in a particular sector or challenge scenario. The CiBiX Platform encourages cities to frame their urban challenges with a private sector engagement perspective- helping them to take the first step towards exploring potential partnerships relevant for their needs. The first service is a short-form ideation and early engagement workshop to stimulate an open and transparent interactive dialogue between a lead city and well-matched private sector representatives with a sustainability challenge framing.

The Urban Nexus project started out as a bottom-up initiative operating primarily at the city level. GIZ and ICLEI provide customized technical assistance to cities depending on the thematic focus of the cities’ nexus pilot projects. However, national, regional and provincial-level legal, regulatory, and policy frameworks are crucial determinants for local decision-making with regard to the nexus sectors. As such, ICLEI is facilitating national – regional – local dialogues as a means to clarify issues impeding the implementation of proposed nexus pilot projects. National-local dialogues help bridge the gap across levels of government particularly in the areas of water including wastewater, energy, and land use as well as cascading finance to the local level. Iteration and continued follow-ups between the two levels of government further strengthens vertical integration. ICLEI also utilizes its various international events to further promote the nexus approach including cross-sectoral cooperation within local governments and across levels of government.

ICLEI’s main activities in the project include: Taking the lead in transferring and customizing NBS, Co-developing NBS replication roadmap for FE, Co-developing the Urban NBS Plan along with the funding and investment strategies for FE, Co-developing the NBS implementation plan and opportunity-based implementation in FE districts and Launching a CLEVER Exchange Programme by organizing webinars, workshops, study visits etc. to ensure knowledge transfer. ICLEI will also ensure strategic coordination of communication and dissemination activities and Organize dissemination and knowledge brokerage events. These efforts will help to (i) advance the knowledge base on NBS for inclusive urban regeneration, (ii) integrate NBS in urban regeneration and planning processes, and (iii) produce governance, business and financial models for NBS projects.

Water should be a priority in the EU policies due to its importance for the economy, environment, and quality of life of the European citizens. ICLEI has created an alliance with 25 cities to prepare a framework for European cities with the objective of achieving a more coherent and thus more effective representation and visibility for water at the EU level. ICLEI aims to achieve this by supporting the implementation of the European Union water policy and the SDGs through sustainable water management at local level.

Local governments are leading the change to an integrated planning approach, in which protected areas are a fundamental component of both urban and rural landscapes. Innovative solutions at the local level are being applied to integrate local protected areas into municipal planning and territorial development strategies, as well as into local management systems. ICLEI is improving the conditions of local governments to conserve biodiversity through the effective and equitable management of protected areas and other area-based conservation measures. The project combines a multi-scale and programmatic approach, focusing on strengthening local level capacities and governance as well as the role of local governments in the effective management of protected areas and other area-based conservation measures within the four countries’ institutional and legal frameworks. Benefits and challenges are disseminated at the local, subnational, national and international level.

Urban Natural Assets for Africa (UNA), implemented from 2014 to present, in eight cities and six countries, seeks to improve human well-being, contribute to poverty alleviation and build climate resilience through integrating nature-based solutions into land use planning. UNA has three flagship projects; Urban Natural Assets for Africa (UNA Africa), Urban Natural Assets for Africa: Rivers for Life (UNA Rivers) and Urban Natural Assets for Africa: Coasts for Life (UNA Coasts). UNA Coasts cities in Mozambique receive support with improved knowledge and understanding of challenges and opportunities within urban coastal zones; using natural assets to offset these challenges and maximise opportunities; the development of a tailor-made coastal natural asset management plan; and identifying opportunities to enhance sustainable livelihoods. UNA Rivers supports cities to mainstream biodiversity and nature-based solutions into land use planning and decision-making processes; increase awareness of ecosystem services; improve co-ordination between key stakeholders; connect with local communities to encourage appreciation of nature and enhance human well-being; and implement community-based projects for restoration and revitalisation along urban rivers.

ICLEI provides a unique platform enabling local governments to exchange knowledge and good practice, consider emerging challenges and innovations and explore collaborative action towards seeking a paradigm shift for more sustainable, resilient and equitable urban water and sanitation practices in Africa. For this proect, ICLEI’s main aims are to promote knowledge exchange, build capacity, facilitate connections and empower advocacy.

Through the Biodiversity Forum in Ulsan, ICLEI aims to develop and facilitate local driven policy action and raise citizen participation by co-planning, organizing and summarizing results together. Every year, biodiversity activists and NGOs participate and share their problems and solutions on chosen local biodiversity issues. This local Biodiversity Foru is a self-driven biodiversity event that gives local governments and residents a unique experience of raising awareness around the linkage between biodiversity and sustainable development, and biodiversity activities around the country.

Through the LAB: Wetlands South Africa project, ICLEI aimed to protect priority natural wetland resources located in South African municipalities, thus enabling the supply of ecosystem services and promoting resilient communities under a changing climate. The project raised awareness of the value of wetlands, mainstreamed wetlands into land-use planning and initiated pilot wetland projects. The LAB: Wetlands SA Project supported 11 municipalities with improving local government knowledge and understanding of the value of wetlands and how wetlands can support municipalities with achieving their mandates through the provision of ecosystem services; initiating the process of integrating wetlands, climate resilience, and biodiversity management into local government land-use planning and decision making. This to ensure that resilience and natural asset management is considered and factored into development planning; and implemented via small-scale pilot wetland projects with selected participating municipalities.

Using empirical research, ICLEI is developing a framework and tools to assess changes in food-water-energy nexus, their related trade-offs and the building of innovative capabilities in cities for developing innovative solutions to the food, water and energy nexus and manage green and blue infrastructure at the urban level. ICLEI is supporting the development of frameworks and tools that guide urban governance on the food-water-energy nexus, delivering innovative solutions to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss, while advancing development goals from food security to job creation across cities worldwide. The project assesses the changes in trade-offs of food-water-energy nexus (FWEN) in green and blue infrastructure (GBI) and their association with spatial planning and governance in eight cities using empirical cases. This will provide a better understanding of the barriers that hinder innovative and integrated FWEN approaches using GBI at different scales; and look for the common features of diverse interventions.