In order to improve visibility and enhance recognition of, and mobilize support for its action and network, ICLEI enhances dialogue, collaboration and engagement in the UN system, with a specific focus on those related to its fields of its expertise such as the secretariat of the other multilateral environmental agreements, the UN Environment Management Group, Local2030 and UN SDG Knowledge Development Center, as well as regional and global processes outside the UN such as G7/G20, OBOR, BRICS or other regional initiatives.

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.

In order to ensure that the work of the UN fits the mission of the new sustainable development agenda and align with the spirit of enhanced collaboration with all levels of governments, ICLEI provides active contributions to the work of the UN Secretary General in the UN development system reform and 2019 UN Climate Summit, including development of customized strategies at the national level.

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.

We engage in the Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative (TUMI) to advance sustainable urban mobility in developing countries and emerging economies with a special focus on cities in Africa by city-to-city exchange, business to government dialogues, webinar and workshops.

ICLEI Oceania has posted a ‘science communications toolkit’ on the website, a collation of useful resources for sustainability students. Through the Young Writers Network students and graduates are empowered to become engaging communicators. Sharing evidence-based knowledge in credible and persuasive ways is paramount to the health of a mindful and engaged society, and is a prerequisite for sustainable development policies at all levels of government, especially local and regional governments, who interface most closely with communities. Through capacity building, and offering online resources and social networking events in partnership with other sustainability organisations in Melbourne, Australia, ICLEI is assisting academic researchers in translating their sustainability research into practice. ICLEI is assisting researchers and students in translating their sustainability research into practice.

The African Capital Cities Sustainability Forum (ACCSF) draws together mayors and technical officers from the continent’s most prominent cities to provide a guiding light for how African cities must think about the future and lead sustainability efforts. It facilitates the exchange of knowledge and learning and provides a platform for exploring how to develop truly African solutions to African problems. The event marshals the collective power of capital cities to contribute to, and influence, the pan-African and global discourse on sustainability.

ICLEI, as the co-convener of the ACCSF, is responsible for the
content development and program design of the ACCSF. By hosting the annual event, which brings together mayors and city managers of African capital cities, ICLEI facilitates the exchange knowledge and information on potential interventions, opportunities and threats that influence the potential for economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection.

Building Resilience and Adaptation Capacity (BRACE) bridges the gap between tools and information and their successful application in meaningful and influential decision making processes. ICLEI held a series of workshops throughout Manitoba on barriers and opportunities to advance climate adaptation action throughout the Province. These high impact consultation and engagement workshops targeted decision makers and stakeholders in four key sectors: 1) Indigenous and northern communities, organizations, 2) Business sector organizations, 3) Municipal communities or regions and watershed planning organizations, and 4) Infrastructure decision makers and organizations.

ICLEI supports the leading national sustainable cities initiative in Japan. The initiative started as Environmental Model City Initiative in 2008, evolved into FutureCIty Initiative in 2011, and matured as SDGs FutureCity Initiative in 2018. ICLEI and member cities have been actively involved in the Initiative from the beginning; and recently contributed to The 7th International Forum focused on the localization of SDGs.

This research will take place over five semi-concurrent phases:
1. Literature analysis undertaken by researchers to understand existing and previous research topics and approaches.
2. Initial engagement & interviews in each city using narrative collection and documentation, and photographic expression to explore food production, processing, and distribution systems.
3. Co-production around food and social infrastructures will be undertaken at a workshop in which narratives will be presented, and stakeholders will be invited to co-produce theory about their food systems based on these findings and their experience.
4. Visualising socio-technical infrastructures using photographic expression.
5. The second workshop will expand the co-production of theory from food to other infrastructure systems, based on the outcomes of phase 2, the continued research of phase 1, and phase 3’s community-produced expressions, and express how this theory supports future development imaginaries and planning.

ICLEI provides capacity building to target cities in implementing low emission development strategies as well as mainstreaming science-based disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in local development processes.

The project utilizes the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) Process toolkit, the Global Protocol for Community-scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories (GPC) in formulating the cities’ climate action and management plans, and USAID Clean Energy Emission Reduction (CLEER) Tool in assessing the cities’ vulnerabilities, risks, and emissions. Through these analyses, target cities will be able to mainstream climate change adaptation and mitigation principles in their local development plans.

•Conduct Sustainability Assessment of Existing Programs
•Develop Sustainability Baseline Assessment and Gaps
•Set Sustainability Goals
•Develop the Sustainability Plan
•Implement the Plan and Monitor Program
•Develop Sustainability Work Program Document
•Engage the Public, City Council, and Other Stakeholders

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.

Climate Action and Adaptation Plan Training: ICLEI provided in-person training for Los Angeles City staff on Climate Action Planning. The training focused on the following topics:
•Climate equity and community driven processes;
•5 Milestone Process: Data Driven Planning;
•Inventory: what sectors are usually measured, what it can tell you, determining trends; emissions forecasting and emissions reduction planning;
•Vulnerability assessment: criteria to consider, sectors, ranking; ensuring relevance by including the correct stakeholders (e.g., community members); place-based, model-informed, expert-driven, transparent;
•Best practices in the process and structure; and
•Action monitoring and report.

The project ‘Urban-Rural Assembly’ (URA) aims to build a better understanding of the urban-rural constellation and interdependencies that are emerging along China’s vast urbanisation corridors, and which can no longer be described through traditional binaries of ‘urban’ and ‘rural’. The region Huangyan-Taizhou, part of the Chinese ‘prefectural-level city‘ Taizhou, will be examined as an exemplary case study and learning context: a rapidly urbanising region where diverse and seemingly contradictory transformation processes take place simultaneously in close proximity, producing multiple dimensions of urban-rural interrelations. URA combines leading partners in the field of sustainable urban and regional transformation in Germany and China. ICLEI supports the research project in creating an interface between the research partners and policy makers, both within the case region as well as nationally in China and internationally. Through the development of transferable strategic instruments, enabling tools and guidelines, the project seeks to foster knowledge dissemination and transfer across the coastal urbanisation corridor – contributing to the urgent need for creative approaches towards localisation and implementation of the SDGs and the New Urban Agenda in China and beyond.