11 – Sustainable cities and communities
Just, plastic free transition and climate change resilience in Mombasa County
Regional focus: Eastern Africa / the Climate Action Network Time: December 2023-January 2025 Abstract: We explore the democratic and participatory spaces through which grassroots waste pickers in Mombasa engage with county government actors in managing plastic pollution. Drawing on environmental democracy and grassroots innovation frameworks, we interrogate the nature, creation, and effectiveness of participatory spaces—classified as invited,…
Voluntary Local Review – Emboreet village, Manyara, Tanzania
The United Nations Agenda 2030 contains 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 169 targets to address global social, environmental, and economic challenges by 2030, of which many must be implemented at the local level. Voluntary Local Reviews (VLR) have gained prominence as a means for local and regional governments to assess SDG progress and remaining…
Västerås City and Gaborone City Council
Continuing the partnership between Gaborone and Västerås this is a knowledge and experience exchange project within waste management and sustainable consumption. The overall objective is to achieve improved community resilience and a more sustainable environment in Gaborone and in Västerås. This will be achieved by targeting three organisational areas: The project will provide the partners…
Bridging the Accountability Gap: Applying assed-based and citizen-led development in Emfuleni, South Africa
This research project aims to gain an understanding of how to institutionalise the Asset-Based and Citizen-Led Development (ABCD) approach as an innovative means of promoting active citizen engagement along with local-level social accountability in Emfuleni Local Municipality, Gauteng Province in South Africa. Building on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA)’s work in three wards of…
Tactical Urbanism for inclusive transport
Regional focus: East Africa/Kenya Time: July 2023 – January 2024 Abstract: In 2010, Kenya adopted a new constitution that established 47 autonomous counties leading to an accelerated development of urban areas and an increased pressure and demand for inclusive and sustainable interventions to cater for the rising population and motorization rates. Flone Initiative conducted a safety audit…
Call for research proposals: Climate change, vulnerability reduction and local democracy
Terms of Reference Local governments are taking various measures to adapt to climate change. While increased awareness and funding for climate-change response are generating multiple responses from local governments, fixes are often technical. Technical solutions often miss the social and political economic roots of vulnerabilities – the conditions that turn climate stress into crisis. These…
Making Participatory Budgeting work: our money, our voice!
Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a democratic innovation that strengthens local democracy by including citizens in budget decisions. By doing so from formulation to execution, it allows for more responsible, equitable and transparent spending. This policy brief highlights key issues that should be observed for effective implementation. This publication is a result of the Local Democracy…
TRANS-Lighthouses
Regional Focus: Europe Time: 2023-2026 ICLD is part of the consortium of TRANS-Lighthouses – a Horizon Europe research and innovation project supporting inclusive, democratic, and transformative nature-based solutions (NBS). Through a network of pilot sites and assessment cases, TRANS-Lighthouses explores how participatory practices can enhance the design, governance, and impact of NBS. The project adopts…
Lidköping and Lusaka, Zambia
Project:Climate smart and resilient municipalities Lidköping and City of Lusaka Our municipalities have underdeveloped sufficient collaboration within and outside the organizations, effective cross-sectoral working methods need to be developed to mobilize resources for climate action.We will implement initiatives to develop collaboration methods and coordinate actors in our municipalities to prevent and cope with climate change.…
Drainage Politics: Reducing Climate Change Vulnerability in Surabaya, Indonesia
This learning case sets out in a city prone to natural disasters, and explores how policy and political commitments can reduce the consequences. After the introduction, readers are invited to reflect on a dilemma of enforcing a mitigation plan that landed public support, but that compromises the political position from which the plan is enforceable.…
