Towards an international Peer learning hub on Sustainability Governance
“Building the ship while sailing it” – some key takeaways from Urban Future in Stuttgart
Learn about what we mean by Sustainability Governance here.
Getting started
On 21 March we presented our plans for 2023 for the first time, in an online webinar attended by a dedicated group of 25 cities and potential peer learning partners. The presentation included the key “phases” for developing the Peer learning hub, from Exploration to Activation and Consolidation. Our overall aim is to arrive at a concrete plan for cooperation with interested partners by the end of 2023, when the European Green Capital status will be handed over to Valencia, Spain.
During the Exploration phase, we confirmed the strong interest and need to improve governance in cities in order to close the action gap between ambitions we set, and how we achieve them. To mention a few, we had fruitful exchanges with Eurocities members of the SDG Taskforce, the think tanks PS4SD and Demos Helsinki, Stockholm Environment Institute, TalTech, ICLEI, the European Energy Cities network, and Nordregio – all of whom seem very aligned with our ambitions.
Building the Peer learning hub around three key goals
We are now launching our initiative as an international Peer learning hub that will work closely with existing networks and partners to achieve our main goals of the Peer learning hub, namely to:
- provide a space for collective sense-making and knowledge exchange around work done by various networks and organisations on the topic of sustainability governance;
- co-create new knowledge that will help cities to close the “action gap” between their ambitions and how to achieve sustainability goals, such as the SDGs, and;
- feed into policy dialogue about the important role of cities in achieving the 2030 agenda and the European Green Deal.
The Peer learning hub will be supported by the Tallinn’s Sustainability Governance Competence Centre, led by the city of Tallinn in partnership with some key knowledge partners, supporting cities outside of the EU with expertise on green transition.
Connecting to the “bigger picture”
In our Exploration phase, we mapped existing governance bodies, networks, umbrella organisations and EU programmes promoting peer learning and knowledge exchange around sustainability governance. The purpose of this mapping was to understand the bigger picture around the Peer learning hub and how it could provide a platform for cities to learn together around key topics, without creating redundance and overlap.
This is all work in progress!
We are happy to receive any feedback and ideas through the contact details at the bottom of the page.
What’s next?
We understood from our exploration phase that many cities are interested in sustainability governance, and want to continue exploring the SDGs as a framework for holistic sustainability work. This often goes hand-in-hand with efforts to reach carbon neutrality or implementing Local Green Deals.
At the same time, organisational development, as well as multilevel- and multi-actor governance, seem to be topics that many cities are grappling with, which we hope to contribute to advancing together through our peer learning activities.
- On 22 June, the Peer learning hub was launched in Stuttgart during the Urban Future conference, where we will highlight how the SDGs can help to build strong leadership and consensus towards shared goals. Find out more on the conference web page and get in touch if you want to get involved!
- 6-7 September, Open Government Partnership summit, Tallinn, Estonia. We participated in the Open Government summit taking place in Tallinn this year. On this occasion, we organised a side event in the lead-up to the SDG summit 18-19 September.
- On 27-28 September we hosted a peer review organised by the Interreg Policy Learning platform, where 2-3 other cities and experts joined us in Tallinn to review our progress made on the Sustainability Governance framework and discuss its application.
Other events, seminars and peer learning sessions are already in the pipeline for 2023.
If you are interested, sign up for our regular updates by sending an email to the contact below!
Triin Sakermaa
Sustainability Governance Advisor, framework and partnerships
Triin.Sakermaa@tallinnlv.ee
Stina Heikkilä
Sustainability Governance Advisor, network and peer learning
Stina.heikkilä@tallinnlv.ee
