Our Activities

Rapid IUWM aims to build the capacity of urban local bodies to understand interlinkages between water, wastewater and storm water; and adopt an integrated urban water management planning and implementation approach through multi stakeholder involvement. Two local urban bodies in Rajasthan (Kishangargh and Ajmer) developed an IUWM based vision for their cities and developed an action plan to achieve the IUWM vision. Both the cities implemented a pilot project based on prioritized strategy selected through stakeholder consultations. The project also builds the capacity of local authorities to create, enable, institutionalize and promote inclusive governance mechanisms undertaking water sector reforms for closing the urban water loop and conservation of water bodies within the cities.

Through the Reflecting Cities project, ICLEI aims to provide African cities with spaces for reflection to assist them in engaging with the complex urban planning challenges they have identified. The project facilitates a number of exchanges to support urban planners (including representatives from national and local governments) in learning from the experiences of other cities, supported by experts. The project cities have each identified a case study of a complex planning topic with which they are currently wrestling The topics being explored include waste management, greening and traffic management. Based on the technical skills required for each case study, the project provides opportunities to engage with and learn from experts in relevant fields while benefiting from inter-city learning.

ICLEI coordinates the work on a comprehensive Outreach, Communication and Training Strategy for the ROBUST project. The strategy comprises training material for decision-makers in policy and the public sector. The specific objectives are:
To facilitate an effective communication and exchange with ROBUST’s principle target groups: 1) regional rural and urban policymakers, interest groups, and practitioners; 2) European and national policymakers, interest groups, and the general public; and 3) the research and scientific community.
To strengthen the communication and dissemination components of all WPs through common principles and a professional planning and implementation of all related activities.
To support all outreach, communication and dissemination through an interactive project website with Live Case Studies and a publication library.
To ensure a high quality of all project results and support related communications, as well as produce training modules for widespread dissemination and exploitation of ROBUST’s findings.

The SDGs Workshops for Medical Experts and Future Leaders Series was conducted by ICLEI, the Urban Diversity and Mobility Institute (UDM), Dr. Jing-Yin Lin, the Zhongshan Medical University, Chaiyi City Government, the National Federation of Medical Physicians, and the Taiwan Student Union, ICLEI customized and designed workshop materials, and facilitated group discussions for medical students and future leaders to explore sustainable visions, challenges and solutions.

ICLEI conducted Municipal Solid Waste Management Exposure Workshops for more than 100 urban local bodies and strengthened their institutional capacities towards collection, treatment, disposal and efficient management of various types and categories of waste. The project also developed training modules, identified external experts and facilitated site visits for participants from local governments. Five 3-day workshops were conducted at different locations as suggested by the National Institute of Urban Affairs. The workshops and site visits will help the municipal officials to develop an understanding of the commonly faced issues, challenges and constraints of managing municipal solid waste. The capacities of the municipal staff will be built to effectively execute municipal solid waste projects and plans as per the mandate of the revised Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.

The SPIPA program supports our efforts within Australia and seeks to explore alignment and synergies with other national and subnational programs and offer a unified climate action methodology and reporting structure. The SPIPA Initiative provides a final report that may be used as a pathway for partnership describing the various roles of stakeholders and the possible role they could take in governance, leadership, program development, support, advocacy, funding and technical capacity related to the Global Covenant of Mayors. ICLEI Oceania has completed the consultation and development of strategic reports for direction setting. This has provided the pathway

The Adaptation Changemakers Project is training and building agents of change for climate adaptation in communicates across Canada. The Changemakers Project is harnessing many stakeholders and decision-makers (municipal, provincial, and federal governments, private sector specialists, industry associations, planners, health professionals) to identify local climate impacts and the actions that each can take to reduce vulnerability to climate change impacts locally. Centered around building capacity to engage stakeholders, assess vulnerability and risk, and develop an implementation-ready local adaptation plan, the project will result in adaptation being integrated across both the municipality and wider community. With technical guidance from ICLEI and regional experts, participants are initiating their adaptation effort with local stakeholders, assessing their risks, and developing a local action plan.

This project will support regional governments with existing GHG reduction targets to achieve their targets, and for the ones without targets, the project will help governments to set and achieve them through the improved capacity to track GHG emission levels in detail – as well as the impacts of mitigation actions. ICLEI is supporting in the development of multi- governance policy and strategy dialogues. By supporting state and regional MRV systems and aligning them with their national counterparts, this project will promote the uptake of the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (and their 2019 refinement) across states and regions globally with several subsequent benefits such as the increased consistency between different levels of governments, enhanced links between regional data sup- pliers and national data compilers and further identification of large and additional emission reduction opportunities.

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.

Urban Natural Assets for Africa (UNA), implemented from 2014 to present, in eight cities and six countries, seeks to improve human well-being, contribute to poverty alleviation and build climate resilience through integrating nature-based solutions into land use planning. UNA has three flagship projects; Urban Natural Assets for Africa (UNA Africa), Urban Natural Assets for Africa: Rivers for Life (UNA Rivers) and Urban Natural Assets for Africa: Coasts for Life (UNA Coasts). UNA Coasts cities in Mozambique receive support with improved knowledge and understanding of challenges and opportunities within urban coastal zones; using natural assets to offset these challenges and maximise opportunities; the development of a tailor-made coastal natural asset management plan; and identifying opportunities to enhance sustainable livelihoods. UNA Rivers supports cities to mainstream biodiversity and nature-based solutions into land use planning and decision-making processes; increase awareness of ecosystem services; improve co-ordination between key stakeholders; connect with local communities to encourage appreciation of nature and enhance human well-being; and implement community-based projects for restoration and revitalisation along urban rivers.

The Urban Transition Alliance connects industrial legacy cities from Europe, USA and China committed to accelerate ambitious and inclusive transitions, as well as showcasing their sustainability leadership. Alliance cities share their own transition experiences, knowledge and good practices based on social, economic and environmental challenges within their unique industrial legacy context. Through a tailored exchange platform hosted by ICLEI, the Alliance helps cities to identify and leverage expertise to co-create implementation strategies for sustainability-related projects.

During the current project phase, the ICLEI further encourages the Alliance member cities to include an equity-based approach in their transition projects, not only to achieve climate and environmental targets, but also to provide opportunities to vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. Alliance cities receive support on key equity-focused sustainability issues through two challenge cycles in 2020 and 2021 with 4-5 challenge topics selected per round. The outcomes of these challenge support cycles will shape a blueprint of lessons and good practices for cities worldwide on how social equity and climate action can reinforce each other.

This workshop will provide an overview of global trends in environmental disclosure and reporting in 2019 in light of the recent announcement of CDP and ICLEI’s joint unified reporting system. Workshop participants will gain expanded knowledge of global city climate policy and new trends in reporting and measuring environmental impact, an overview of CDP and ICLEI’s unified reporting system, and a comprehensive briefing on the technical changes and guidance on the current questionnaires.

ICLEI provides workshops that educate municipal governments on how to improve sustainable and resilient mechanisms under the UN frameworks, how to ensure the life quality in order to achieve sustainable development from social, environmental and financial perspectives, and how to enhance and introduce new technology in resilience to start a new business model in the related industry.