SURE Hosted a Networking Event at the World Urban Forum

The networking event is organised by the SURE Facilitation and Synthesis Research together with several SURE collaborative projects which cover different geographical regions. The development of urban areas in emerging and developing countries has faced challenges due to growing dynamism, complexity, and pressure to act. This has led to problems such as deteriorating living and environmental conditions, low resilience or poor controllability by decision-makers and institutions. These circumstances force civil and public actors to offer smart, actionable strategies to improve local conditions, open up economic prospects and equip cities and regions with sustainable processes and systems.

Following the call for new collaborative approaches that put people first in urban-rural developments aligned with the SDGs localisation and the New Urban Agenda, this networking event takes stock of recent attempts to bring new approaches into being and offers participants the opportunity to build lasting relationships and connections around their ongoing initiatives. Discussions will consider the manifold interrelations between scientific and policy orientations around urban and rural space in particular. Examples include the facilitation of collaborative and transdisciplinary planning approaches within living labs, the role of trans-local actor-networks as well as tools for integrated urban planning to put research into practice.

The networking event provides a unique selling point by presenting each inter- and transdisciplinary project through the lens of project partners from academia, public administration, and international organisations. Through a hybrid World Café format, project partners connect worldwide and provide local insights via an open debate on innovative practices and tools for multi-sectoral collaboration to build transformative urban-rural adaptation and resilience for sustainable futures. The projects as well as the public therefore have a unique opportunity to exchange ideas on emerging topics, strengthen partnerships and establish new ones. The aims of the event include creating networks and content-related synergies between the SURE projects and beyond.

To the programme