ICLEI is convening a circular economy workshop to bring stakeholders and experts from African cities together. Through a combination of short presentations and interactive sessions, the workshop will (1) build shared understanding of the concepts of circular development, resource nexus and urban metabolism, as well as their application in urban African contexts; (2) familiarise participants with useful tools and portals for analysing city resource performance; (3) show evidence of these principles in action in Accra; (4) identify city needs related to urban resource management, and (5) collectively chart a way forward for building communities of practice around sustainable urban resource management in African cities.

ICLEI‘s is leading this network under its thematic community on renewables. This network serves as the entry point for local & regional governments to participate in the Global 100% RE Platform.
Cities, towns and regions, who have a 100% RE target in at least one sector or committed to explore a 100% RE pathway or commit to sharing of information, knowledge exchange and are interested in international cooperation, are invited to join this network.
ICLEI's 100% RE network and the 100% RE global platform, provides knowledge exchange, engagement and policy dialogue with other leading cities and experts on a global scale. This is inclusive and free of charge.
Cities, towns and regions can join the network based on their needs, challenges and level of development. They benefit from learning and cooperation opportunities with other leading cities, access to experts on renewables and energy efficiency, opportunities to globally promote local solutions and service providers, worldwide recognition of the progress achieved, visibility to champion local and regional leaders at global level

The solutions and actions developed in CityLoops range from instruments for predicting future excavated CDW and soil production, to awareness-raising campaigns, circularity decision making support tool, simulation of impacts 3D visualisation tools and procurement guidelines for OW products. A total of ten demonstration actions will be implemented, testing over 30 new tools and processes.
A sector-wide circularity assessment and an urban circularity assessment will be carried out in each of the cities. The former will help to optimise the demonstration activities, whereas the latter will enable cities to effectively integrate circularity into planning and decision making. Another key aspect of CityLoops is circular procurement: the seven demonstrator cities will explore how public sector purchases can create markets for innovative circular economy products and solutions – from more circular design and increasing the use of recycled content in products, to ensuring reparability, reuse and appropriate recycling of products and materials, and promoting servicisation models. The active involvement of key stakeholders in every stage of the project will be also of crucial importance.

The Big Buyers Initiative presents an opportunity for public authorities to engage with other authorities across Europe and to shape new innovative solutions to their procurement needs. ICLEI and EUROCITIES are currently running the initiative on behalf of the European Commission, DG Internal Market, Industry Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW). The initiative works together with existing networks and organisations active in this area. To put these goals into action, three working groups have been established, with over 40 participating cities, which meet regularly to work on relevant procurement topics. The first group focusses on electric vehicle procurement, the second on circular construction procurement, and the third on zero emission construction vehicles. The groups meet regularly and ICLEI together with EUROCITIES provides faciliation and organises market engagement for the groups to achieve their goals.

Public buyers are supported in the identification of their needs and, once ready, connected with SMEs and start-ups able to develop innovative solutions responding to their requirements. A total of five regional procurement of innovation broker schemes will be piloted in the Upper Austria Region, Denmark, North Rhine Westfalia (Germany), Ireland and Andalusia (Spain), then scaled up to a European level. We test innovation procurement brokerage approaches at regional and European level, we support and carry out assessments of public authority needs and we engage with start-ups and SMEs across Europe to find innovative solutions to needs.

ICLEI connects like-minded cities to exchange experiences and lessons learned on the way towards the circular economy, advocates the necessity of closing-the-loop thinking, identifies cities’ circular good practices, shares the latest knowledge and provides suggestions on mainstreaming the circular development in urban strategic planning and policies.
ICLEI raises the attention on the circular development in cities and encourages multi-stakeholders dialogues by facilitating peer-learning and exchange. ICLEI pairs up like-minded cities and supports organizing on-site visits, workshops and offline meetings (whenever resources available), and distributes newsletters to feature good practices, innovation, and latest reports.
Through the Coalition, local governments from Europe and East Asia are increasingly recognizing the circular development concept as a potential approach to achieve mutual-benefits, and are gradually shifting their mindsets from the end-of-pipe treatment of waste towards closed-loop thinking. This mindset change can have a positive influence on local governments’ actions to achieve zero-carbon society and the SDGs. Cities can further review, synergize and optimize existing policies and strategies via the lenses of circularity and life-cycle management.

This proposal outlines a mechanism that could offer comprehensive support and a replicable approach that could be applied globally to assist local and regional governments to develop robust and transformative projects, and to help them to navigate in the complex world of technical and financial options, meet in person potential partners, and so contributing to close the above described gap between supply and demand.

ICLEI works in collaboration with FAO, ICLEI, RUAF and C40 to collectively promote and support subnational take-up and engagement regarding food policy and action in African cities, in line with global targets and ambitions articulated in SDG 2 and through initiatives such as the Milan Food Pact. This collaboration is also intended to build on the existing ICLEI-RUAF CITYFOOD Network and related initiatives of all the partners in Africa.

Local and regional governments can have a tremendous impact on city-region food systems, yet many decision makers are unaware of the leverage subnational governents have over their food systems. ICLEI highlights the role local and regional governments can play in improving sustainable and resilient food systems to raise awareness among key stakeholders and partners. ICLEI develops knowledge materials to advance understanding of, and to advocate for, sustainable food systems while promoting local government’s actions on this field.

ICLEI South America’s “First steps for local action” GHG emissions inventories online training addresses the initial phases for cities to start acting on climate. It offers local authorities introductory concepts of the challenges cities are facing with climate change and guides them through practical guidelines to tackle the problem, based on the GreenClimateCities (GCC) methodology. To support autonomy and leadership in cities, the training also highlighted the technologies available to support GHG emissions evaluation and analysis, through Clearpath and CLIMAS platforms, and showcased testimonies from cities who have already started or succeed in the process.

These online trainings have been held since 2016, but in 2018 it was the first time it was available in a new and dynamic format online.The training was offered to the local staff of all South American ICLEI members during a period of 5-weeks course, comprised of informative videos, supplemental reading resources, live webinars with specialists, quizzes and remote support.

As a result of the training, local government representatives have a better understanding of the challenge they have ahead of them and will be able to conduct the GCC methodology in an independent way, with ICLEI’s support.