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Badenhorst

Wessel

Badenhorst

Validated Lead Expert

Generic Skills

B.1. Understanding of integrated and sustainable urban development: 
My focus of work for the past 14 years in Ireland has been to facilitate integrated and sustainable urban development. I have worked in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council as the Community & Enterprise Development Officer and later as the Economic Development Officer to coordinate and develop long-term (10 year) strategy for the social, economic and cultural development of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown – the south-eastern administrative area in the Dublin City Region. The two cross-cutting issues were inclusion and sustainability. My work output was to drive integrated development processes through coordinating inter-agency cooperation, community consultation and monitoring of action implementation. My educational qualifications include an Honours degree major in Psychology and a Masters degree in Business Administration. My conviction is that learning exchanges between people from different places help develop expertise and confidence. I have engaged in several European projects (Interreg and URBACT funded) and study tours to USA to examine good practice in development work. My experience in South Africa (before emigrating to Ireland in 2000) is influenced by voluntary work in a Cape Town-based NGO - the Development Action Group where I served as a director for 4 years with a focus to address issues caused by apartheid planning and housing policies. I am a consultant with a strong interest in urban innovation that results in revitalised centres, streets and communities
B.2. Understanding of exchange and learning processes at transnational level: 
I have had the privilege to engage in following EC funded learning exchanges at transnational level: • Learning participant: SPAN Project (Interreg IIIB NWE) investigating Territorial Strategic Planning and Multi-level Governance (2004–07) • Project manager: BRAND Project (Ireland-Wales Interreg IVA www.brand-project.eu) – developing a placebranding toolkit to address poor reputation of cities (2009–13) • Project advisor as the Council’s EU Officer: SURE Project (URBACT II www.urbact.eu/sure) – developing integrated socio-economic regeneration strategies in disadvantaged areas (2009–12) • Project Manager: Outdoor Tourism Project (Ireland-Wales Interreg IVA www.outdoortourism.org) – developing work programmes to support the outdoor tourism industry in partner areas (2011–14) • Project support: Placemaking 4 Cities Project (URBACT II www.urbact.eu/placemaking-cities) – transferring good practice in the Placemaking method (2013–15) I gained practical knowledge on study visits to USA in 2007, 2008 and 2011 through engagement with US companies, NGOs and fellow economic development practitioners. In each of these projects and visits I witnessed learning processes which will not have been possible if participants were not exposed to different environments, cultures and approaches while trying to address similar issues. I have played an active role in facilitating work sessions, developing presentations, organising conferences and co-producing plans and position papers.
B.3. Proficiency in English: 
I conduct all my work in English. This includes: • daily communication via e-mail, meetings and phone conversations • presentations to clients and at seminars and workshops • writing of reports, plans and discussion papers • use of social media – including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogging • facilitation of group discussions, problem analysis and idea generation • participation in committees and decision-making processes I am comfortable to communicate in English with speakers who use English as a second and/or business language. My mother tongue is Afrikaans, a language closely related to Dutch and Flemish. As such I am aware that words can sound awkward and misplaced to native English speakers when non-natives directly translate from their home language or use words in the wrong syntax. Fortunately language is a means to gain understanding and insight and not always about appearances and correctness. I also taught communication skills in South Africa to students. I worked in a third level educational institution for 10 years (Peninsula Technikon) where most students were from rural areas with limited exposure to English and who had to improve their language skills to meet academic standards. My work as Student Development Officer included managing a writing centre and conducting training and leadership programmes where students developed their writing, research and presentation skills in English.

Expertise for the design and delivery of transnational exchange and learning activities:

Summary Expertise for the design and delivery of transnational exchange and learning activities: 
In my roles as a strategic planner and economic development officer in a local authority and now as a consultant, I regularly produced consultation papers and drafts to capture issues and ideas raised by participants. To write concise reports comes with practice and experience. It requires an ability to identify and word the key aspects from deliberations and inputs that are often varied, contradictory and not logical. The key is to assist participants and policy makers to work through draft reports; clarifying issues and meanings; and finally be inclusive through referencing, project examples, quotes and photographs. In my experience facilitating transnational exchanges and creating opportunities for learning always require good preparation and the nurturing of working relationships (i.e. communication, respect and project focus!). A mix of physical site visits, walk-abouts, thematic presentations, small group discussions, meeting with locals and use of planning and analytical tools will make study visits a success. A successful project also require regular communication via e-mail, on-line video meetings and through social media before and after study visits. The aim of projects should be legacies of partnership learning well beyond project expiry dates. This is not merely aspirational but will be real with good use of social media and other platforms for sharing good practice experienced in each partner city and by collectively promoting activities of partner cities.

Thematic expertise:

Theme / Policy: 
Local Economic Development
Summary Thematic expertise: 
In over 15 years of working in the field of strategic planning and economic development I have acquired expertise in the following areas related to local economic development: • Strategy development: My outputs included producing position papers on specific issues; preparing and facilitating workshops with local stakeholders such as Council, agency service providers, businesses and communities; developing draft/discussion documents; getting-buy-in to proposed objectives and actions; and producing a final strategy. • Business environment development: My outputs included supporting local business groups in place analysis and identification of business development objectives; incentivising actions with schemes such as business area promotion grants; supporting business input to physical planning processes; assist stakeholders with developing marketing strategies and materials; and facilitating opportunities for innovation that will make business environments more attractive using new technologies for streetscapes and communication. • Retail and tourism: My outputs included research and analysis of product and offer, customer touch points and footfall patterns; facilitating collaboration and cross-referencing between individual providers/competitors in the interest of a ‘rising tide’; developing actions to build on place strengths and selling points; and commissioning research on customer preferences and satisfaction.
Theme / Policy: 
Integrated Urban Renewal
Summary Thematic expertise: 
In my work as economic development officer and European Officer in the local authority, I have encountered a number of approaches to integrated urban renewal. I am interested in revitalisation and regeneration of existing urban centres and developed expertise in three areas related to urban development: • Place branding: In my MBA ideas of applying brand theory as part of integrated marketing of places became an interest. The BRAND Project was an opportunity to explore the approach that ‘users’ own the place brand therefore people’s connection and interaction with a place are critical. The place reputation influences others to visit, invest, work or live there. The challenge is to examine activities, determine changes and facilitate community-led action to improve place reputation with activity ranging from new events to place maintenance to marketing material to social media engagement. • Placemaking: During the Louvain La Neuve study visit (SURE Project) I engaged with the placemaking method. I then went for training to PPS in New York and since then have organised projects, training and conferences on placemaking. Placemaking is community-led engagement with public spaces with the aim to improve design and uses and revive pride of place. • Urban centre revitalisation: Currently I work with business groups and local authorities to analyse and plan strategies to revitalise urban centres with limited physical regeneration and emphasis on uses and local activities.

Expertise support to local authorities and other stakeholders in designing & delivering integrated and participatory policies

E.1. Knowledge on participatory methods and tools for co-production and implementation of local polices : 
In the past 14 years I worked in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council as a development officer and strategic planner with a principal focus to coordinate inter-departmental and inter-agency cooperation and to assist with community and other stakeholder consultations. To work in this way required a break from the conventional methods of implementation of schemes once approved by Council, i.e. it is not sufficient just to implement what is 'in the budget'. It is more complicated and takes time to first consult with other stakeholders or to encourage a co-production approach where some aspects of implementation is 'given away' to other role players. In my experience the first step is to get role players to participate in joint planning processes and to agree commitments and joint monitoring of implementation. This is one of the advantages of getting role players involved in a Local Support Group in an URBACT project. A few pointers on my approach/methods. In the planning sessions I ensure that there is a mix of service providers and 'beneficiaries' present and that issues get discussed in well facilitated small groups and reported as a group to the plenary. I use meta planning methods where ideas and issues are written on post-its and grouped and re-arranged on the venue walls by participants themselves. I then capture the grouped ideas and develop a concise report for further inputs/corrections at follow-up meetings where I arrange presentations on identified themes.
E.2. Knowledge on integrated approach for the design, delivering, monitoring and evaluation of urban strategies/policies: 
My work with the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Development Board involved the development and the periodic review and evaluation of the implementation of the ten-year development strategy for the County. The County Development Board was a statutory body consisting of Council, local development companies, state agencies and business and community representatives. My role was to coordinate actions that will impact across economic, social and cultural development strategy focus areas. The county is an urban area and part of the Dublin City Region. The purpose of the Board - and hence my role - was to minimise the silo effects and to facilitate inter-agency cooperation. As Economic Development Officer I managed Council’s relationships with other government agencies, business groups and internal departmental service providers to develop and implement local economic development strategies for the county. Local economic development is successful if there is a shared vision for the development of the area and clear understanding of roles of stakeholders and service providers. Through collaboration we successfully implemented a ten year strategy through which we created a strong pro-business environment in the county. I also worked closely with counterparts in the other Dublin local authorities to develop and implement a regional economic development plan (2009–14) and a tourism strategy (2014–20). I managed a process to appoint consultants for a new Economic Plan (2016-20).
E.3. Awareness of the main policy and funding schemes for sustainable urban development at EU and national level: 
I was appointed the European Officer for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in 2008 when I took responsibility for the economic development function in the Council. One of my main roles was to communicate possible funding opportunities internally. A very useful tool was the monthly bulletin issued by the Irish Regions Office in Brussels. With the new EU budget and the changes to the various EC Programmes, I organised a half day seminar attended by senior officials of all departments. The speaker I organised from the UK managed to cover all programmes and requirements in a concise and understandable way. I attended the national days organised by European Programmes such as Horizon2020 and URBACT. In my experience there are key agents and officials in a local authority that needs to have a positive disposition towards EU funding - in other words who see value despite what they hear about the administrative burden associated with some European Programmes . These are the Head of Finance and one or two 'champions' at senior management level. I saw my role as actively lobbying and communicating to these individuals the value of EU projects. In my time in this role we managed to get our Council participating as a partner in 4 projects. I am also proud to say that through the networks built with these projects officials in the Council continue to pursue new projects and is especially active in URBACT (one of only 4 out of 32 local authorities in Ireland).
E.4. Ability to understand specific local situations and adapt tools and content to different local realities: 
Local authorities are required more and more to engage with local stakeholders and specifically the business communities to improve and maintain commercial centres so as to retain businesses and customer spend. In my experience local communities and business groups have a strong interest to improve their areas and places because they acknowledge the competitive dynamic between places. They tend to want to benchmark themselves against similar towns/cities and places as well as stretch themselves to ‘match’ what they perceive as good practice and welcoming new developments. To facilitate learning in such a local dynamic often means to move beyond the single bricks-and-mortar solution (e.g. a shopping centre, a cinema, a playground) to a shared understanding of what attributes local people value of their place; what challenges they and their place will face including major external issues such as climate change; and the re-affirmation of their collective knowledge and resources to drive change. In a discussion paper I prepared for the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council steering group tasked with leading the development of a new Local Economic and Community Plan, I advocated a place-led development framework. I argued the need and usefulness of local actors actively engage in inter-city learning to examine good practice and implementation methods. The Council has gone further and created incentive schemes to support business groups actively improving their areas.
Summary Expertise: 
For more than 10 years I worked in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council as a development officer and strategic planner with a principal focus to coordinate inter-departmental and inter-agency cooperation and to assist with community and other stakeholder consultations. This experience gave me a very good understanding of how to engage with local authorities and how to manage and coordinate working relationships between local authorities and other stakeholders. In particular the roles of political representatives, community activists, functionaries and service providers can become entangled resulting in tensions and sometimes paralysis. A skilled coordinator finds ways to facilitate discussions in a constructive environment even if that means several bi-lateral discussions with individual participants before and after meetings. In my experience local authorities benefit from participating in European projects because the frameworks and methods allow authorities to engage with local stakeholders and ensure that issues are not viewed in isolation but evaluated through transnational learning exchanges. As a consultant I see my role in helping local authorities to identify appropriate projects and partners where issues that require a collaborative approach can be analysed and progressed in a structured process. I believe my success in persuading my previous employer to participate in several European projects will stand me in good stead working with other local authorities.

Informations

Residence location:
Ireland
Languages:
English - Mother tongue
Email:
badenhorst.wessel@gmail.com

Area of expertise