
Green innovation: A biohacking lab opens doors in Skopje
Originally published by UNDP Eurasia. Edited by Karen Cirillo, Digital Communications Specialist, UNDP IRH. Biowaste. It’s not just your average trash. Biowaste – anything from egg shells […]
Cities are confronting unprecedented challenges and traditional linear approaches are no longer sufficient to address overlapping, interconnected issues efficiently. But there is an effective way to navigate these complexities and foster positive transformations – involving communities in various ways, to be able to take part in decision-making processes. As this people-powered approach gains momentum and yields promising outcomes, the Innovation Team at UNDP Europe and Central Asia, in collaboration with the Agirre Lehendakaria Center, has been working to develop a toolkit to share tools and processes that help municipalities and other stakeholders engage better with the community to enable holistic engagement and transformation. This new publication titled Co-creating Urban Transformation: A Guide to Community Listening and Engagement for Future-fit Cities is for anybody looking to adopt community-oriented practices and methodologies.
Originally developed as a resource for local authorities taking part in the Mayors for Economic Growth network, a programme jointly funded by the EU and UNDP, and inspired by listening experiences from the City Experiment Fund, the guide’s tools, exercises, and insights are adaptable to different urban contexts and are appropriate for a range of partners driving transformative change at the local level. At its core, the new approach revolves around co-creating urban transformation portfolios through iterative community listening processes. This serves to fortify social cohesion and resilience, particularly during times of crisis and uncertainty. The guide emphasizes that trust is cultivated through direct public engagement, while listening in a meaningful way can galvanize a cultural shift that clears a path for positive change.
The practical adaptation guide is composed of six sections that span the theory of change behind community listening to the development of portfolios. It also delves into the components that facilitate community listening and sensemaking, including how to use ecosystem mapping, data collection matrices, and collective interpretation. The guide also provides step-by-step instructions to equip municipalities and other actors with the tools, templates, and exercises necessary to integrate community listening and engagement seamlessly into their daily operations.
Download the full toolkit for more in-depth explanations and real-life field experience examples.
RELATED POSTS
Originally published by UNDP Eurasia. Edited by Karen Cirillo, Digital Communications Specialist, UNDP IRH. Biowaste. It’s not just your average trash. Biowaste – anything from egg shells […]
Edited for brevity by Arianna Friedman and Svetla Baeva. See full article on the UNDP Kazakhstan website. 99% of the global population is exposed to […]
Children leading co-design for revolutionizing urban spaces in Prishtinë/Priština, Kosovo* Do children in Prishtinë/Priština a have access to public spaces to interact, play, socialize? What kind of […]