Imagine your municipality in 2040: It’s green, affordable, and people are actively involved in decision making and caring for their neighbourhoods. Your municipality has gone through a metamorphosis. Looking back, the local government’s dedication to collaborative governance and advocacy for equitable sustainability transitions made a world of a difference.
ICLEI Europe, through the Communities for Local Green Deals project, is offering a training for European local governments, which aims to give them the tools and confidence to engage their residents in creating sustainable futures. This training will be paired with, and give access to, the European Conference on Sustainable Cities and Towns (ESCT) in ICLEI Member Aalborg (Denmark).
Participants will have the chance to get to know like minded local government staff from across Europe, learn from each other and from existing methodologies and resources for equitable sustainability transitions. Afterwards, a toolkit with methods and good practices for improving collaboration between local governments and community-led initiatives will be provided.
The training will take place in Aalborg (Denmark) 30 September - 3 October 2024 with one pre- and one post-conference online session.
Staff members in local governments from any EU Member State (Southern and Eastern Europe are especially welcome, who a) are motivated to engage with this topic, and b) have some experience with local environmental governance and/or collaboration with community-led initiatives.
There is no training fee, and ESCT conference fee is paid for you (€560 value). Coffee breaks, lunches, conference materials and conference dinner are also included. ICLEI is unfortunately unable to cover participants’ travel costs, though some minor travel support is available on a case-by-case basis. Participants travelling from Eastern or Southern European countries would receive priority access to this travel fund.
Programme details can be found below:
- Early September: Pre-Aalborg conference online session (60 minutes)
- 30 September, afternoon: Meet and Greet with training participants
- 1 October: Attendance of plenaries, deep dives and workshops linked with just sustainability transitions and a side exchange exclusive to training participants. Topics in focus: Cohesive transition, inclusive food systems, and more
- 2 October: Attendance of plenaries, deep dives and workshops linked with just sustainability transitions and a side exchange exclusive to training participants. Topics in focus: Climate neutral cities, youth empowerment, local government-community collaboration, and more
3 October, until 14:00: Site visit in East Aalborg, where a socially vulnerable neighbourhood won a New European Bauhaus prize in 2023 for its transformation. Followed by lunch. - Mid October: Post-Aalborg conference online session (60 minutes)
Interested in taking part? Complete this form by 21 June: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/localtransitiongovernance
For any questions about this opportunity, contact sophia.silverton@iclei.org and matthew.bach@iclei.org