City-to-city cooperation

Issue

Overview

A city learns and evolves for multiply reasons: like a learning system fueled by many supports, it gave varying results. This learning system is encouraged by local governments who do not act alone but in partnership with other actors, in particular their citizens, the private sector and academic institutions. Methods of exchange and support through city networks, and between cities, is developing and opening new opportunities for learning. These opportunities can go beyond or complement traditional methodologies of training courses and workshops.

In times of reduced budgets for co-operation, the need to reinforce collaborative efforts between individuals, cities, local governments associations and networks is greater than ever and it is crucial to extract useful lessons for members and partners in peer learning.

Documents

Key content

The role of UCLG in knowledge sharing and peer learning

Decentralized co-operation has been a key focus of UCLG since its inception, and the organization is endowed with active members and committees working in this field. To date, UCLG members have invested significant effort in producing and circulating knowledge about local governments, and lobbying for greater recognition of the important role and impacts of decentralized co-operation.

The role of the UCLG World secretariat is twofold: communicator and facilitator. UCLG events are dedicated spaces in which local authorities can meet each other or potential partners. In a more proactive way, UCLG could go beyond the dissemination of practices, data and knowledge, towards encouraging new ways of learning and sharing knowledge for local governments and particularly elected representatives, collecting evidence of new challenges and approaches, and being able to anticipate and position future needs.

UCLG needs to foremost support the requests and, where possible, contribute to the analysis of the needs of Southern local and regional authorities. As far as existing specific projects allow, the World Secretariat could adopt a role as catalyst to support South-South learning and mentoring in order to build coherence with the agenda of members and other partners on certain issues and in certain regions.

The UCLG World Secretariat will also contribute to the exchange of knowledge and clarification as to how experience is used. This will include focusing on the sustainability of learning and servicing knowledge management.

Taking stock of peer learning methodologies

Experiences in global learning events and reviews show that, despite their differences, methodologies can nurture each other. Many elements are often shared and cross learning can be useful tool.

Learning for practitioners and for leaders means learning for change, with measurable impact(s) on their territory and communities.
It is especially interesting and useful to observe the peer learning methodologies against their cultural and political context and to understand and evaluate these against the background of learning.

The Peer learning approach: beyond knowledge into action

knowledge and best practices

This diagram demonstrates that learning is dynamic and involves growing existing knowledge within the organization.

Various approaches to peer learning can be taken – these can be extracted from existing practices and used consecutively or independently. It is important to be flexible in the choice and responsive to the specific momentum to keep the UCLG agenda interesting, dynamic and action-oriented.

1. Learning exchanges: events around topics to share practices and processes from local contexts, get to know practitioners and possible peers.

2. Peer reviews: establish peer groups of equals (for example managers of public services, mayors among others) to review tasks, respond to orientation of work, possibly in relation to a benchmark or to assess demands for improvement and change.

3. Mentoring: peers commit to support a process in order to achieve a strategic agreed outcome, usually a managerial task, for example strategic planning, visioning, performance system.

4. Policy development: build recommendations based on comparative analysis of practices or tasks –for example locally: precise task description work on new challenges; nationally: competences, investment; or globally: to development partners and private sector.

The final aim of knowledge sharing is to implement and apply lessons and practices. Action learning is to support the leaders and city management tasks. Its main assets are the openness and experiences of the members – the peers and partners involved as they are in the heart of the city and it is to them that UCLG is directing its endeavors.

Peer exchanges at an international realm

Peer exchanges at the World Urban Forum

Maputo Peer Learning event focuses on Urban informality in cities

UCLG, Maputo City, UCLG Committee of Urban Strategic Planning, eThekwini municipality through MILE, Durban NGO Asiye Etafuleni, Brazilian cities and the ILO, organized and are currently holding a peer learning event on "the conditions of informal vendors in the city".

This event brought together invited Mozambican cities, international networks, organizations, NGO´s and government institutions to debate on the current situation of the informal economic sector in Maputo and how to improve it in terms of health and social vulnerability. The ILO is presenting a recent study on this topic and the other cities will provide recommendations based on their experience and take home the solutions and proposals to consider implementation in their own situation.

Additionally to intensive information sharing, the cities will be involved in active peer learning with formal and informal vendors in the markets to provide hands-on advice to apply practices. Finally, a roadmap for south-south mentoring will be designed and possibly implemented through the UCLG partnerships and EU project recently approved for funding and to be executed in the upcoming 28 months.

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City-to-city cooperation

Issue

Peer exchanges at the World Urban Forum