ICLEI cohosted this side event “Social Innovations and Civic Engagement—City as Living Lab” at the 2019 Smart City Summit and Expo, Taipei. Participants from local governments learned about the smart city model of inclusive, ambitious climate action, mainstreaming public participation development strategies and creating new local leaders. Additionally, the event discussed how to test new ideas and co-create effective solutions in a Living Lab using agile methodologies. From idea identification to conceptualization and from rapid prototyping to testing, combining the Living Lab way of working and citizen engagement in a learning-by-doing approach shows great promise for inclusive city development.

The project aims to improve the NDCs, including increasing ambition, as part of the Paris Agreement NDC update process; In addition to assisting in the accelerated implementation of NDCs, providing knowledge and technical training in the country. CAEP will provide support to countries through existing support programs of its institutional and associate members and through a dedicated Technical Assistance Fund that will use funding where existing support is not sufficient to meet the needs identified by countries. The Technical Assistance Fund is a joint financing mechanism with contributions from various development partners that will allocate resources to institutional members and Associates of the Partnership to respond to requests for updating and implementing the NDC.The World Resources Institute, as host of the Fund, will administer the contract, while the Partnership Support Unit is responsible for programmatic implementation.

>> See also project description.
ICLEI organizes five strategic workshops for the network members on four thematic vision clusters (future proof, 100% renewable, zero waste, human scale) and on the organization of an EGCA laureate year.
Develops a set of well-structured toolkits, combining print and online resources that inspire cities to embark on or further advance local sustainability transitions.
ICLEI also assesses a potential enlargement of membership of the Network of the European Green Capitals as well as provides recommendations for the inclusion of and/ or increased collaboration with other networks.
ICLEI further promotes the European Green Capital Network and highlights the benefits of sharing the inspiration through the dissemination of the latest information on the project developments and the toolkits to at least 150 other ‘target cities’.

ICLEI supports the communications effort of the EIP-SCC Marketplace and will seek to ensure the inclusion of cities and others to strengthen the ‚explore-shape-deal‘ approach of the matchmaking. ICLEI supports the matchmaking events and brings in its sustainable procurement expertise. In particular ICLEI will ensure the EIP SCC Marketplace engages with other European initiatives and experts for input and dissemination. ICLEI also is the expert of the action cluster on Sustainable Urban Mobility.

The 2019 European Mobility Week (EMW) project guides and aggregates volunteer local action for EcoMobility. This campaign in Korea accelerates sustainable mobiliy actions at the local level by voluntarily setting cities’ plan of weekly activities and permanent policy change. ICLEI’s one week campaign helps local governments to raise citizens’ awareness about sustainable mobility and its effects and linkage with climate change and contribution to sustainable development. Activities within the campaign include the creation of regional forums around sustainable mobility, educational programming, and car-free days for public offices. These activities often draw media attention, which can add to the civic awareness and participation.

ICLEI's first role is in the innovation management task to ensure that the project is aligned with the development of the state of the art technologies and the market possibilities. In this task, alongside with the Innovation Manager, we monitor internal and external activities, market developments and European policy with respect to t e-mobility, that is relevant to the project.

The second main task is to coordinate the task that involves the Uptake Cities Group. We have established a group of 10 cities that have expressed their interest in the project. Each city will develop a roadmap on the construction, configuration and location of charging infrastructures designed to promote the use of electric or hybrid rechargeable vehicles, and for the integration of these roadmaps in their respective SUMPs. Study visits to 3 pilots sites and 5 webinars are envisaged for the cities involvement.

ICLEI has also a communication/dissemination role. Finally, we are organising a 150 participant conference in the final year of the project.

Through GrowSmarter ICLEI worked to develop a comprehensive understanding and guide for the replication of smart and sustainable urban solutions. ICLEI also led the communications work of GrowSmarter and has shared the good examples provided by the project.
ICLEI’s work on the replication of smart solutions concluded with the report ‘ROAD TO REPLICATION – GUIDING CITIES ON SMART URBAN DEVELOPMENT’ for stakeholders interested in replicating different smart measures in the future. It provides insights about the importance of integrating Smart City strategies into the core of sustainable energy and climate action planning processes as well as sustainable urban developments. Some of the key aspects that could facilitate replication further include the definition of diverse and cross-sector governance structures that ensure smart technologies to serve as enablers for sustainable urban transformation. It is also important for cities to evaluate the replication potential of smart measures in their urban context, following systematic approaches and management cycles, which mainstream smart and sustainable action.
Other key aspects identified include amongst others the involvement of stakeholders in early stages of planning, the development of internal capacity building processes, the adoption of innovative ways to initiate projects, and the transparent communication to citizens about the goals and measures implemented.

International Smart and Sustainable Transport Workshop was jointly hosted by ICLEI, Intelligent Transportation Society of Taiwan (ITS Taiwan) and the Advanced Public Transportation Research Center at the National Taiwan University (APTRC), in Taipei, 11-13 April 2018.

The three day workshop brought together young professionals in the public service in Asia-Pacific to discuss the challenges commonly faced by cities in the region – sustainable urban mobility, smart public transport, intelligent transport technology, and traffic safety. The workshop was facilitated by transportation experts from the public and private sectors in Chinese Taipei as well as the ICLEI Sustainable Mobility team.

This workshop focused on exploring solutions, technology and applications on building a more resilient and water smart city by a series of indoor lectures, technical visits and group presentations. The target participants include government officials, executives, and research and development personnel responsible for the water management and technical implementation. Experts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, New Zealand, Australia and Netherlands shared their expertise with representatives from fifteen countries.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDDR) has been promoting Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) as well as the ‘Making Cities Resilient’ Campaign (MCR) with the aim of strengthening the capacity of cities and local governments in DRR and the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Action.
ICLEI Africa was appointed to provide technical assistance to 50 local government from Sub-Saharan Africa to carry out self-assessments at the local level in order to support implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.
Beneficiary cities were selected based on specific criteria including level of risks, demand and interest shown, involvement of other partners and the level of institutional capacity to assess and address disaster risks, as well as prior experience and participation in the making Cities Resilient Campaign and other factors. The project targeted issues related to the development and implementation of risk-informed local development plans, with direct relation to increased capacity to deal with the topic and monitoring for improved public services to communities.