Information available to urban planners – such as applicable legal frameworks and relevant policies – are useful to citizens, providing them with a better insight into the planning process and local government decision making. ICLEI is exploring how to use social media and other ICT solutions for better public participation and urban co-creation, and develop new applications together with 3 major European cities. ICLEI will give citizens access to data about their city in an easy to understand way, enabling them to better support the decision-making process.

ICLEI develops procurement guidance including criteria and verfication schemes that consider social responsibility throughout the whole supply-chain of ICT products. Additionally, ICLEI is pilot testing procurement criteria with public authorities and consulting with manufacturers and suppliers of ICT through the Market Engagement series. ICLEI’s ‘Meet the Buyer’ event series brings buyers and suppliers of ICT together to discuss public procurement’s needs for fair labour conditions along ICT hardware supply chains and how suppliers can respond to this demand.

The PROMISE Tool has helped strengthen capacity of local government for integrated, participatory, inclusive and sustainable development and efficient resource mobilisation and utilisation to enhance service delivery, increase community participation and promote diversity in the urban system. Local authorities have been supported to create, enable and institutionalize equitable and inclusive governance mechanism and facilitate the development of smart and sustainable growth in cities through the project. Cities identified the projects that are most desirable and needed by the community. Local governments have recognized the need and importance of citizen engagement.

The aim of the project is to develop an innovative, collaborative and circular systemic approach for regeneration and adaptive reuse of historic city centers. This will be implemented by implementing a repertoire of successful heritage-led regeneration initiatives. The project tests the replicability of the spatial approach and of successful models addressing the specific needs of historic city centres. ROCK delivers new ways to access and experience Cultural Heritage, ensuring environmentally-sound solutions, city branding, bottom-up participation via living labs, while increasing liveability and safety in the involved areas. Sensors and tools support the concrete application of ROCK principles and the platform will enable new ways to collect and exchange data to facilitate networking and synergies.

Through the Reflecting Cities project, ICLEI aims to provide African cities with spaces for reflection to assist them in engaging with the complex urban planning challenges they have identified. The project facilitates a number of exchanges to support urban planners (including representatives from national and local governments) in learning from the experiences of other cities, supported by experts. The project cities have each identified a case study of a complex planning topic with which they are currently wrestling The topics being explored include waste management, greening and traffic management. Based on the technical skills required for each case study, the project provides opportunities to engage with and learn from experts in relevant fields while benefiting from inter-city learning.

To assist SI-CAT in its efforts, ICLEI is compiling the best practices in urban resilience and adaptation programs/projects taking place outside of Japan. In 2017-18, ICLEI conducted a set of interviews with local governments worldwide, analyzing those practices and submitted reports which will be used to help researchers and local government officials to further develop understanding of urban resilience and thus contributing to the development of adaptation plans at local level. In 2019, ICLEI will research and compile examples of how local governments are utilizing and systematically managing scientific data in its resilience planning and in its adaptation programs/projects.

ICLEI East Asia and UNDRR co-hosted two workshops for two Chinese cities – Ningbo and Chengdu – to raise awareness of urban resilience with specific focuses on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction among local officials.
The workshops were structured in sessions of concept and tools introduction, and presentations of international and domestic cases on resilience and adaptation. Assessments of local resilience were also conducted via group exercises followed by suggestions on improvements.
ICLEI East Asia and UNDRR will continue to work to support 2 more local governments in China in implementing the Sendai Framework and other urban resilience objectives via workshops. It is expected that local disaster risk reduction planning will be better risk-informed when cities are equipped with skills to assess their respective risks, identify gaps, and ultimately lead to projects to address those gaps. A learning publication will be produced as the final output of the series, to share lessons learned on improving urban resilience in the context of global warming with other cities.

Through the Supporting African Cities Development of Climate Action Plans (CAPs) project, ICLEI Africa supported Moroni (Comoros) and Nacala (Mozambique) in becoming leading Africa cities in terms of climate mitigation and adaptation action planning as well as supporting these cities with continued compliancy to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM) initiative. Specifically, ICLEI is supported the cities in the development of Emissions Reduction Target Setting Reports and Climate Change Mitigation Action Plans under the GCoM mitigation reporting pathway; and co-developing Risk and Vulnerability Assessments and Climate Change Adaptation Action Plans under the GCoM adaptation reporting pathway for both cities.

ICLEI supports the island cities by providing streamlined processes for assessing their risks and challenges and developing achievable action plans. It works side-by-side with the cities and assists them to find partners for action. ICLEI has been working with Honiara since 2016 to assist the City to undertake a disaster risk self assessment and action, using the Sendai Framework and scorecards, building capacity and supporting city leaders and staff to attend international events for peer-to-peer exchange and learning. There is now a strong understanding of disaster risk reduction among City staff and elected councilors, and an understanding of how disasters and climate change impact all the city development challenges. The ongoing project has led to strong partnerships between ICLEI, UNISDR, UN Habitat and academic professionals and institutions.

ICLEI worked with Toronto Public Health to carry out research on strategies being used in other jurisdictions to manage extreme heat in older apartment buildings that don’t have air conditioning. The research included both a literature review and interviews with cities in North America and Europe. Eight key strategies were identified for managing extreme heat in Toronto apartment buildings, including active cooling, weatherization and insulation, increasing air circulation, reducing solar gain through windows, increasing natural ventilation, cooling/green/reflective external surfaces, minimizing internal heat generation and cooling on-site within the building.