Svensk partner: Umeå kommun

Region Västerbotten, Umeå Municipality and Kisumu County, Kenya

Project: Partnership and Governance for Health and Resilience in relation to Climate Change and Environment in Kenyan Counties alongside Lake Victoria

The project will establish a partnership between The County of Västerbotten and Kenyan counties in the Lake Victoria Basin area. The partnership will be governed by Center for Rural Medicine/Region Västerbotten, Umeå Municipality and Kisumu County.
The main goal of the project is to produce an agreement between Kisumu County and other Kenyan counties in the Lake Victoria Basin area that include a framework on, and priorities for, what the counties need to and can do, to jointly, effectively and democratically promote health and resilience, taking the climate crisis and man-made environmental degradation into account.

Umeå and Kajiado, Kenya

Project: Service Design in Libraries

The county organization in Kajiado, Kenya is planning for the first public library. The library will be a centre point for literature, information and much more. The library will be located in an area with a high number of non-reading population. Kajiado lacks capacity for governance, management and coordination of Library services design and there are no plans or policies developed. Therefore, the project aims to produce a comprehensive strategic plan for Library Service and Design in Kajiado County. Stakeholder involvement and dialogue will be an important aspect of the project especially in the planning phase.

The library organization in the city of Umeå has many years of experiences in working with library plans, strategic learning, e-learning, information to the community and much more. The city of Umeå has also established several new libraries, both the new culture house which is a meeting point in the centre of Umeå and the combined school and public libraries. On a strategic level the libraries in Umeå also work with library plans which can be useful to use in this project.

Umeå and Cau Giay, Vietnam

Project: Educators – Agents for Sustainable Development

The main goal of the project is to establish better understanding among selected teachers in the pre-school and primary school on the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and on ESD which contributes to behavioural change, readiness and capacity to act for sustainable development. This project is also aimed at behavioural change, readiness and capacity to act for sustainable development among pupil. Results that the partners work to achieve are the same for both partners.

Intermediate objectives:

To develop a functional and agreed action- and work-plan for the teachers.
To increase understanding among the teachers involved in this project on ESD-program effectiveness in relation the 2030 agenda, as well as on how pre-schools and schools need and can work for personal and social well-being and sustainability.
To improve systems and routines for follow-up and learning among the team of teachers involved in this project, in collaboration with and support from managers for pre-schools and schools. In order for this improvement to take place both projects need to communicate and learn on potential methods, systems and routines for follow-up on ESD-programs.
All subjects in the selected schools on the primary and secondary level will address the 2030 agenda. (reference schools). This objective demand support by the managers of the schools and collaboration among teachers and staff.
To increase collaboration with parents and external actors in the City of Umeå and Cau Giay district.

Umeå and Cau Giay, Vietnam

Project: Managers – Agents for Sustainable Development

The main goal of the project is to increase the capacity among a selection of managers of school areas, schools and pre-schools to support education for sustainable development (ESD) which contributes to behavioural change, readiness and capacity to act for change based on the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Results that the partners work to achieve are the same for both partners.

Intermediate objectives:

To develop a functional and agreed action- and work-plan for the managers
Increased understanding among the managers involved in this project on ESD-program effectiveness in relation the 2030 agenda, as well as on requirements on pre-schools and schools as environments for personal and social well-being and sustainability
To improve the support from the managers involved in this project to teachers and staff in pre-schools and schools for ESD-programs in relation to the 2030 agenda as well as for pre-school and school development for personal and social well-being and sustainability
To improve systems and routines for follow-up and learning among the team of managers involved in this project, in collaboration with teachers and staff at pre-schools and schools in which the members of this project assess the project as well as potential methods and routines for follow-up and learning
To increase collaboration with external actors in the City of Umeå and Cau Giay district

Energy Saving Innovations in Urban Housing

The project energy saving innovation in Urban housing will tackle the joint challenges of raising awareness/knowledge, engagement and participation in the perspective equality and democracy and how that can be a driver regarding energy saving actions and sustainable indoor environment in urban housing.

By gathering project implementers linked to this field and relevant stakeholder we aim to improve the capacity and knowledge on an institutional level in both City of Umeå and Chan-Ba Ecological district regarding above mention challenge/problem. This will in the long-term lead to better buildings for the citizens, lower CO2 emissions from the use of buildings and improve the awareness, inclusion and participation of local citizens in energy saving and indoor environment improvements.

Predicted results for City of Umeå and Chan-Ba are knowledge and experience gaining in how a political organization can use methods and tools to involve building occupants in energy savings in new ways and improved building technical knowledge connected to indoor environment. From the international partner view gaining capacity and knowledge regarding energy savings without impairing the indoor environment and to include the citizens in the work for more sustainable buildings and living is a predicted outcome.

Governance for Integrated Environmental Systems on Waste and Water Management

The city of Umeå and Kajiado County Government have established a collaboration in an inception phase financed by the ICLD.

The project described in this application aims at strengthening the capacity within the Kajiado County Government in the area of integrated environment systems for waste and water management.

The application is based on a thorough stakeholder and problem analysis, describing the vast needs in Kajiado County and for the accountable County Government to work for sustainable needs in the area of waste and water. As for Umeå, the project is a part in the paying attention to the constant need of renovation and improvements of existing waste- and water systems in Umeå. These are common to be taken for granted, both by the public and by decision makers, but demand constant service and investments in order to function well.

The project will last for 3 years. The City of Umeå collaborates with the Kajiado Country Government through its leading politicians and the municipality owned company VAKIN. VAKIN is responsible for waste and water management in Umeå and functions as a competence building resourse in the region as well as internationally.

The project will contribute to build capacity on sustainable waste and water management for all the stakeholders working at the county government level. Local politicians and decision makers will have received information about sustainable waste and water management at the end of this project. Moreover, the project will also establish a foundation for, and deliver formal decisions on a policy for integrated waste and water management for Kajiado County.

Sustainable Management of Waste and Energy

In April 2007, a joint agreement on friendly co-operation between the cities Xi´an in China and Umeå in Sweden was signed. The agreement focuses on three areas: Culture, Biotech and Energy and environmental technologies.

Xi’an is the capital city of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, and the typical features of Xi’an region include relatively high proportion of poor and rural population in comparison to Beijing and Shanghai. It is a region with a growing economic development. Today the basic waste recycling is disordered, and subsequent treatment of the basic waste treatment processes is not good enough.

Taking into account the weakness of the ecological environment in Xi’an and its influence in this region and even China, the sustainable management has to be explored in order to establish a better garbage collection and disposal chain. The city of Umeå has the advanced knowledge and techniques regarding integrated environmental systems, which will help Xi’an to tackle this negative impact on the environment. It will also help Xi’an to improve the life standard of the citizens by gaining more knowledge about methods and techniques.

Expected results:

The objectives of the project will be achieved through study visits, open seminars and public exhibitions.
The results of the project will be disseminated through each city’s network, through regional media cover and through the public exhibitions.
The possibility of future cooperation will be discussed in the end of project.

Sustainable Management of Water

In April 2007 a joint agreement on friendly co-operation between the cities Xi´an in China and Umeå in Sweden was signed. The agreement focuses on three areas: Culture, Biotech and Energy and environmental technologies.

For Xi’an, as the capital city of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, and with a growing economic development, the water pollution from both households and industries is a real challenge that cannot be ignored. The City of Umeå uses advanced knowledge and techniques as to work with “integrated environmental systems”, and through this Umeå can help Xi’an to tackle the serious water pollution issue. At the same time this project will support the improvement of the life standard for citizens and reduce the health risk caused by water pollution.

Expected results:
The objectives of the project will be achieved through study visits, open seminars, a school project and through public exhibitions. The results of the project will be disseminated through each city’s network, through regional media cover and through public exhibitions. Future cooperation between the two cities will be discussed at the end of project.

Sustainable Strategies for Sustainable Education

The vision of this project is to create an outstanding organizational capacity to support ESD in the cities, and to interact with other stakeholders at regional, national and international level.

This means that the partner organizations will improve their organizational learning in order for supporting ESD in the district, cities and other settings. This will also mean that the partner organizations, in the future, want to look back on this project as a catalyst for change in their respective organizations and cities.

The objective of this project is to build capacity in the partner organization in order for making them resilient and sustainable when supporting ESD in the district and cities.

Integrated Management Processes for ESD

The overall vision of this project is to enhance integrative approaches for ESD, i.e collaboration between important political and management levels where every level is of importance for having results in the area of ESD.

Of central importance is that representatives from the schools support the general purpose of the strategic project for ESD. The schools are in this partnership for a wider purpose than improving their own school. An added value of of their collaboration in this project, is that the schools can create an outstanding example of cross-cultural learning on ESD between schools in Umeå and Cau Giay District of Hanoi. This means that theses schools will take the opportunity to support and learn from each other, and to communicate this learning inwards to the schools and outwards to other schools in the cities and other setting.

The objective of this project is to:

enhance collaborative approaches on ESD between important political and management levels;
learn and communicate how ESD is planned, implemented and evaluated in other cultural, political, socio-economic settings.