Local and regional governments can have a tremendous impact on city-region food systems, yet many decision makers are unaware of the leverage subnational governents have over their food systems. ICLEI highlights the role local and regional governments can play in improving sustainable and resilient food systems to raise awareness among key stakeholders and partners. ICLEI develops knowledge materials to advance understanding of, and to advocate for, sustainable food systems while promoting local government’s actions on this field.

ICLEI, through the AfriAlliance project, aims to support existing networks in identifying and sharing social innovations and technological solutions for key water and climate challenges. Capitalising on existing and emerging knowledge and innovation in Africa and the EU, ICLEI supports this process by contributing to the development of a social innovation database for water and climate solutions covering the following aspects: governance, capacity development, business development and technology. ICLEI also contributes to the development of project outputs such as policy briefs, social innovation factsheets, roadshows and innovation bridge events, as well as MOOCs. We also work on communication and visibility of the project, and building relationships between partners and their networks, raising awareness of the water related challenges, and opportunities related to climate change impacts with proposed adaptation measures.

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.

In order for national and local governments to better appreciate the need for safe walking and cycling facilities, Africa’s urban citizens need to challenge the widely held assumption that they all wish to drive cars by showing their support for walking and cycling. Various local initiatives around the continent (such as car-free days, place making, Open Streets, Critical Mass etc.) are inspiring citizens to reimagine and reinvent their streets to be accessible for all. African Mobility Month aims to celebrate these and other activities to raise the priority of walking and cycling in the continent’s development agenda.

The six cities involved in the project will go through a Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) process. PCP is an innovation procurement tool to stimulate market innovation as it enables the public sector to steer the development of new solutions directly towards its needs. The six cities will define the needs and requirements of the energy and mobility solutions to be developed, and challenge start-ups, SMEs and companies to design innovative solutions applying the use of AI and related enabling digital technologies, such as 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and big data applications.

ICLEI's roll is to review the 25 city GHG inventories for completeness and to provide support, in some cases actually completing the inventory as needed.

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.

ICLEI is responsible for several activities: Disseminate, communicate and exploit project results; Standardisation activities; Establish and maintain a framework to enable co-creation between research partners and city partners; Develop ‘state-of-the-art’ report on mainstreaming gender in building cultural heritage resilience; Review, map and characterise good practices Europe-wide in regard to making historic areas more resilient. This will be achieved by working with the pilot cities Bratislava (Slovakia), Camerino (Italy), Hamburg (Germany), and Valencia (Spain) to develop tools and methodologies that will be combined into a collaborative disaster risk management platform for local authorities and practitioners, the urban population, and (inter)national expert communities. These efforts will ensure project results that are applicable and useful in practice, supporting informed decision-making by local government leaders and technical staff, with a view to better protecting cultural heritage assets from climate impacts and other disasters.

ICLEI is responsible for the sharing, dissemination and valorisation of knowledge and experiences produced within the project. By this ICLEI ensures that the knowledge, experiences and results produced are not only well documented and widely shared but also relevant for local communities and policy-makers in Europe. ICLEI synthesizes results and produces key project deliverables combining established dissemination tools with more innovative, participatory activities. In detail ICLEI:
– disseminates and valorises the knowledge and experiences produced within the project
– synthesises and communicates project results in formats that underline their relevance for local communities and policy-makers in Europe
– advances self-reflective learning and stimulates public debates on social innovation through transition initiatives
– informs future implementation frameworks for sustainability and low-carbon policies on the local, national and EU level

ICLEI supports the Clean Energy Living Laboratories (CELLs) and the Project Management Office, especially on local government engagement. ICLEI works with demonstration cities to mainstream a local energy plan and assists the CELLs in developing a curriculum for an executive education program targeting policymakers and stakeholders and support advocacy activities.

ICLEI facilitates City-to-City Exchange activities, conducting workshops to capacitate selected demonstration cities, and linking the cities to possible funding sources. The workshops are aimed to help the demonstration cities in actualizing their local energy plans. ASEP-CELLs’ emphasis on advocating, educating and supporting evidence-based policies and programs is expected to improve the learning conditions and experiences among stakeholders and champions.