Improve processes, improve urban cooperation
On the 8th and 9th november was held the first Partnership meeting and Interregional workshop in Turin.
Participants included representatives from the stakeholder groups they are involving in order to improve local policies.
The meeting focused on the importance of stakeholder involvement in ensuring sustainable and inclusive development, and promoting collaboration across different sectors.
Participants discussed how involving a diverse range of stakeholders in decision-making processes can lead to better outcomes, by ensuring that a broad range of perspectives and interests are taken into account. They also emphasized the importance of creating opportunities for meaningful participation, including through dialogue, consultation, and engagement activities.
Participants then shared their experiences and perspectives on stakeholder involvement, highlighting the challenges and opportunities they have encountered in their work. They emphasized the importance of building trust between stakeholders, as well as the need for transparency and accountability in decision-making processes. They also discussed strategies for fostering collaboration between different sectors, including through partnership building, knowledge sharing, and capacity building.
One of the key themes that emerged from the meeting was the need for more inclusive and participatory approaches to urban cooperation
Participants stressed the importance of engaging and intracting with national bodies and how establish a relantioship with different government levels.
In this regards, it is crucial to make a very specific choice of stakeholders and identify the right ones.
The importance of stakeholder identification cannot be overstated. If you know who your stakeholders are, you’ll be in a much better position to manage and engage them, and turn them into advocates and supporters.
The metodology developed within UrbanCOOP project for the stakeholders identification is the Fs QCA METHODOLOGY based on ASSESSMENT and ANALYSIS of the activities and characteristics referred to each activities conducted with the stakeholders.
The characteristics the be evaluated are the following:
- PLANNING: refers to the ability and possibility to plan innovative projects with the stakeholders
- EMPOWERMENT: refers to the increase in power thanks to training and knowledge exchange
- ENGAGEMENT: refers to the degree of involvement that stakeholders feel in your organization’s activities
- KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE: refers to how much knowledge can be implemented through knowledge sharing among partners and their readiness to do so
- COMMUNICATION: refers to the degree of transparency and effectiveness of information transferred between partners and stakeholders
- DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: refers to the willingness to embrace innovation and digital transformation hrough public-private-public partnerships
The qualitative information is produced by the partners after interviewing and developing dialogues with their stakeholders on existing and/or potential projects of urban cooperation. The focus of the analysis is on the processes and relationships between UrbanCOOP's partners and their key stakeholders, specifically those who are directly or indirectly associated with municipal practices in
managing and organizing specific activities.
The partners started providing detailed information about the nature of the partnership with different stakeholder groups, a description of the company or organization involved, the country of operation, the timeline and duration of the project, as well as a comprehensive description of the project's objectives, the activities undertaken to achieve them and the activities’ characteristics.
All the qualitative information gathered and provided will be be processed in order to point out the ‘effective recipe’ for urban cooperation and citizens’ involvement based on project partners' experience during the project and replicable to different european contexts.