Innovation in the Public Sector

Our programme Co-design for Sustainable, Resilient and Inclusive Public Spaces and Services (CIPSS) is running in three countries; North Macedonia, Turkey and Indonesia.

In order to increase interaction and motivation, we decided to organise North Macedonia’s and Turkey’s midterm workshops together and host North Macedonian participants in Turkey. The geographical closeness and bettered Covid situation in both countries made this possible. Macedonian participants flew to Izmir/Çeşme where most Turkish participants are homebased. In that way, Turkish participants were able to reach the seminar venue after a short travel. This was cost and time wise an attractive solution, and we minimised the carbon footprint of the seminar.

We also invited some of the former participants to update their work and share their experiences. Gülay Günlük Şenesen, a professor from Istabul University and Human Rights City expert, also presented the practical application of the concept of ‘gender-budgeting in local governments’.

Furthermore, the three days long seminar was visited by the Vice Mayor of Karşıyaka, one of the participant municipalities in Turkey and she gave a speech on their system of collecting data and analyse in use of their climate change action plan.

“The seminar has been proven a good opportunity to build up network, exchange experiences, develop new ideas and possibly new projects between different municipalities. We were also very happy to see that former participants and their municipalities have been continuing to work with their ‘change projects’ in many ways and taken steps to make their cities more sustainable, resilient, human rights based and equal”, says mentor Ilhami Alkan Olsson, from the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.

The seminar ended with a speech by Johanna Alkan Olsson, CIPSS coordinator from the Centre for Environmental and Climate Science at Lund University, where she outlined the coming steps for the participants.

Municipality of Tetovo team’s impression of the Çeşme workshop
“In a short time, the workshop gave us even more awareness of Agenda2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. Also of urban development, including rights-based urban planning, gender budgeting and climate change action plans. We will now reflect on everything that was discussed and start making changes in Tetovo Municipality.

We concluded that incorporating sustainability concepts and methods works as a catalyst that strengthens the capacity building in the planning and Co-design process for Sustainable, Resilient and Inclusive Public Spaces and Services.

Meeting all participants was very valuable for our future networking. We also had the chance to exchange experiences and expertise with alumni, which gave a lot. All in all, it was an amazing workshop with excellent professional support and lots of nice and friendly meetings”, says the Tetovo team.