New webinar series to guide city leaders in building resilience amid and beyond COVID-19
Published: 28 May 2020
Daily life for local government officials has changed severely. Some are being redeployed to support response operations. Those able to continue with pre-COVID-19 deliverables are doing so with limited access to their offices or from home. This restricts face-to-face meetings and engagements. Those supporting cities and their residents, like national government, the private sector, development agencies and civil society are facing the same restrictions.
Building resilience in African cities is more critical than ever as we move forward during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. These challenging and uncertain times are forcing us to discover and implement new and innovative ways of working, as good practices emerge and signify a new normal.
In order to support cities, ICLEI Africa, in partnership with CoM SSA, is introducing a webinar series where city leaders share their experiences, learn from each other, share knowledge and good practices, and inspire new ways of building resilience at the local level in Africa, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Building sustainable African cities during a global health pandemic will feature a new webinar every two weeks and everyone is invited to attend.
The objective of the webinar series is to provide guidance to local governments across Africa on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing climate change, health, sanitation, waste, energy, transport and other sectors relevant to African cities.
The webinar series will provide a platform for local governments to share their experiences, best practices and advice on how to prepare for and build resilience before, during and post-crises, such as the one being experienced at present. This webinar series is specifically tailored to help our cities access information that is both reputable and applicable to African cities. It also aims to reach all cities and will be accessible in multiple languages.
The following topics will be covered in partnership with CoM SSA:
- Effective communication
- How to plan for climate change with lessons learnt from health crises
- Access to electricity: planning and solutions during Covid-19 and beyond
- Show me the money: from crisis to recovery funding
- Why Reflection is important & learning how to learn
- How to mobilise private sector to help – webinar of finance and what is out there and how to access – aimed at our cities
In order to address issues beyond energy, finance and climate, ICLEI Africa will also present additional webinars with other partners to cover the following topics:
- Food systems and security
- How to use Zoom and other communications platforms effectively
- Gender, urban planning and development
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Nature-based Solutions
- People-centered development
CoM SSA signatories are welcome to attend any of the webinars. For more information, and for regular updates on the schedule and themes, click here.