Swedish partner: Jönköpings kommun

Jönköping and Berdychiv, Ukraine

Project: Building better cities together

Jönköping Municipality is partnering with Berdichev Municipality in northern Ukraine to address urban planning challenges, emphasizing transparency, inclusion and modernization. The project focuses on tackling issues such as population growth, outdated cartographic tools, and gaps in housing and social infrastructure. Special attention is directed towards vulnerable groups, including combatants, war invalids, and pensioners.

The objectives in Berdichev are focused around Policy Commitment, Staffing and Cross-Boundary Collaboration as well as Information Sharing on this issue:

  • Objective 1: The organization’s position is maintained and strengthened by enhancing resilience, fostering innovation, and ensuring adaptability to emerging challenges, prioritizing continuous improvement and leadership in its field.
  • Objective 2: Specialists are in place to implement the project, with responsibilities clearly regulated and individually assigned, ensuring accountability and adherence to defined rights and duties.
  • Objective 3: Improved communication and information sharing with certain categories, such as minority groups.

Peer Learning:

The partnership will foster mutual learning, utilizing methods such as work shadowing and collaborative workshops. Jönköping aims to share its expertise in democratic governance, while Berdichev focuses on capacity-building to strengthen local municipal functions.

The partnership is part of ICLD Democratic Resilience Network.

Project Area
Urban planning
Sustainable Development Goals
11 - Sustainable cities and communities17 - Partnerships for the goals
Topic
Digitalisation and e-governance
Swedish partner
Jönköpings kommun
International partner
Berdychiv

Jönköping and Stellenbosch, South Africa

Human Rights 2.0

For over a year, representatives from Jönköping municipality and Stellenbosch have met digitally to get to know each other and discuss the municipalities’ various challenges. Workshops have also been carried out in both Stellenbosch and Jönköping with representatives from the municipalities’ various administrations and operations. In Jönköping, it was about specific areas/places where people do not feel safe for various reasons. In Stellenbosch they started from the value “Women and men should have the same power to shape society as they do their own lives”.

It was pointed out that the main challenges for South Africa are the electricity in the country, where power outages are common, which leads to people not feeling safe. Another part that was addressed was typical gender stereotypes, where women are to a greater extent responsible for the unpaid domestic work. Based on this, the common problem formulation for the project was “Unequal, unsafe and inaccessible public environments”.

During a joint workshop, the project’s problem was reformulated to “safety in public environments”. The issue of safety can be related to the Human Rights from the perspective of the right to freedom of equality and freedom of movement as well as the right to social security. The common problem needs to be addressed from an equality perspective, as men’s violence against women is widespread in both countries and dark places are a threat not least to women.

Through a number of activities, the project will increase awareness among the public, politicians and civil servants about how the occurrence of men’s violence against women affects the psychological and physical space for girls and boys/women and men. The project shall also aim to achieve a common understanding of how organizational/municipal initiatives and priorities can contribute to a wider participation of citizens and civil society organizations and thereby protect human rights.

Project Area
Inclusive leadership and governance
Topic
Gender EqualityHuman Rights
Swedish partner
Jönköpings kommun
International partner
Stellenbosch Local Municipality