Caser

Ursula Sabine

Caser

Validated Lead Expert

Generic Skills

B.1. Understanding of integrated and sustainable urban development:

Originally I am a Geographer (Diploma from the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München/Germany/1989), working from 1994 on the one hand on Local Agenda 21 Processes and on the other in the field of Environmental Consulting with a focus on Urban Development. In 1998 I integrated the Research Center for Sustainable Villages and Cities (Centro de Estudos sobre Cidades e Vilas Sustentáveis) at the New University of Lisbon (Portugal). Many of our action-research projects showed that the application of sustainable development principles is not free of conflicts and that competence and expertise in the field of conflict management is urgently needed. In order to guarantee sound and professional interventions I decided then to take a relevant Master’s Degree which I finalized successfully in 2000 (European Master in Mediation; Institute Universitaire Kurt Bösch – Sion/Switzerland). Since 2000 I collaborate intensely with transnational, national, regional and local projects of sustainable urban (and rural) development. My expertise covers specifically the development, design and conduction of participative processes and collaborative decision making actions as well as the consensus oriented elaboration of governance models. Target stakeholders include national, regional and local governments, businesses and industry, research associations, all kinds of NGOs and CSOs as well as the civil society as a whole.

B.2. Understanding of exchange and learning processes at transnational level:

Exchange and learning experiences happen everywhere: any participative process promotes enlargement of knowledge and understanding amongst all participants; the very core of mediation is mutual education and joint learning experiences. In this sense each project that I accompany - as consultant or external expert (and many of them at a transnational level) - is an exchange and learning opportunity for the involved organizations and individuals (myself included). Besides, many intentionally created exchange and learning activities have given me the opportunity to apply and build on my knowledge and experience on the ground: - City networking / value creation through stakeholder synergy: I participate regularly as consultant or trainer in events and courses on methods and techniques of planning for the sustainable city - Evaluations of projects / events: consistent and professional feed-back is paramount for exchange, mutual learning and improvement of strategies and their implementation. All projects, events and courses I conduct are evaluated. Additionally I evaluate as an external expert project deliverables (e. g. Engage2020) and proposals to FP7 and Horizon2020 (EU) - Training: I design and conduct regularly (~300h/year) tailor-made conceptual and methodological trainings around Europe, many of them in international settings (e.g. TRANSPORT LEARNING; URBACT II (NTS-Portugal), UNEP/UNESCO/BMUB International Postgraduate Courses, etc.)

B.3. Proficiency in English:

English is one of my main working languages (along with Portuguese and German) in different vectors of my professional activities: - Partner or subcontractor in transnational projects: I communicate with consortium or project leaders mainly in English. This refers to e-mails, calls, conferences, meetings, concrete project work life facilitation of workshops, etc.) Furthermore I write regularly English project reports and evaluations (e. g. European Projects: PRACTICE, PACITA, ENGAGE2020) - Independent Facilitator/Mediator: I facilitate and mediate on demand (worldwide) in English - Speaker or participant in transnational congresses: I participate regularly in international speaking congresses where I often present posters and papers. - Scientist/researcher: 27 out of my 88 scientific publications are in English - Trainer/teacher: my regular interventions in several international courses are in English (e. g. Masters of Science in Transportation Systems/TU Munich-D; UNEP/UNESCO/BMUB International Postgraduate Courses on Environmental Management for Developing and Emerging Countries/TU Dresden-D). I intervene also as a trainer in transnational projects (e. g. TRANSPORT LEARNING) - Delegate to international bodies and organizations (EMNI – European Mediation Network Initiative; Member of the OSCE International Mediation Specialist Rooster) - Activist and member of international associations (CEDR; IMI, Transparency International)

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:

15 years of intense experience as a facilitator and mediator of multi-stakeholder collaborative planning processes provided me with a strong knowledge and a wide practice of tools and methods to be implemented and used in exchange and learning processes on all levels (transnational, national, local) focusing on a variety of issues. Based on real-life experiences in many projects I provide highly interactive trainings using illustrative case studies and exercises in Portugal and internationally in 5 languages. Have a glance at www.uc-mediation.eu and https://www.facebook.com/mediatedomain?fref=ts My intense coaching, consulting and assessment/evaluation activities to process design, methodologies and course-syllabus development may be considered as a practice based “spin of”: Lighthouse projects for these development of my competence and expertise in this field (e. g.) Local Agenda 21 Processes (from 2000); CRITICAL URBAN AREAS PROGRAM – Cova da Moura (2006); GAPS (2010); iMediar - Mediation in Intercultural and Immigration Contexts (from 2010); MARGov - Governância Colaborativa de Áreas Marinhas Protegidas (2011-2012); Tagus River Basin Management Plan (2012); TRANSPORT LEARNING (2012-2013); PRACTICE (2012); Frunze35- Urban Development in central Kiev (2013); URBACT II (2013) - National Training for Local Support Groups; TUM-UNDEP Land Use Planning Tool (2014); OPERAs (from 2014); OSCE Mediators’ Meeting (from 2014); CIMULACT (from 2015)

Thematic expertise:

Theme / Policy:

Active Inclusion of Target Groups

Summary Thematic expertise:

Drawing on over 15 years of experience related to the active inclusion of target groups in all type of urban and rural development projects on different spatial levels, I am known for my insight and creativity, skillful approaches to participative processes, excellent communication skills, and outstanding teaching abilities. I worked for over 100 different clients designing and implementing inclusive processes, based on a model of genuine participation of all target groups in consensus oriented planning and decision making processes. Lighthouse projects in this sense were e. g. Local Agenda 21 Processes (from 2000); GAPS (2010); iMediar - Mediation in Intercultural and Immigration Contexts (from 2010); PRACTICE (2012); MARGov - Governância Colaborativa de Áreas Marinhas Protegidas (2011-2012); Frunze35- Urban Development in central Kiev (2013); OPERAs (from 2014); CIMULACT (from 2015) Projects where the operational coordination of participation, engaging with stakeholders and effective inclusion of target groups was of my responsibility were awarded with: - CAP - Communication Awards 2013; Category: ‘Communication to Stakeholders’ - European Commission DG Agriculture and Rural Development - Project: ‘Dissemination of best practices for biodiversity; - Galardão Gulbenkian/Oceanário 2008 - Category: Sustainable Governance of Oceans Project: MarGov –GCAMP - Eco-social dialogue used for capacity building of change agents

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 :

Co-production and implementation of local policies have been the core targets of many of my projects (e.g.): GAPS (2010); iMediar - Mediation in Intercultural and Immigration Contexts (from 2010); PRACTICE (2012); MARGov - Governância Colaborativa de Áreas Marinhas Protegidas (2011-2012); Frunze35- Urban Development in central Kiev (2013); OPERAs – Ecosystem Science for Policy and Practice (from 2014); CIMULACT (from 2015). In all those projects I have been (or will be) head-coordinator of the operationalization in loco, and as such entirely responsible (and accountable) for the design and delivery of participatory methods and tools. All those project consisted of different interventions (events) in different moments and time-scales. As there is no such thing as an applicable methodological recipe but only tailor made process design with adaptive management I used a set of methods and tools for each project, always adapted to momentum and project dynamic. Among the used tools were (e.g.) Active Listening / Collective Interactive Brainstorming / Community Constellation / Collaborative Construction of Prospective Scenarios / Dominance Evaluation / Fishbowl / Focus Group / Force Field Analysis / Future Factory / Interactive Digital Mapping (GIS) / Interactive Listing / Mediation / Mental Maps / Mind Maps / NLP / NVC / Open Space / Participatory SWOT / Problem Tree Analysis / Scenario Workshops / Roll-Plays / Visioning / Visual Polls / Visual Simulations / World Café

E.2. Knowledge on integrated approach for the design, delivering, monitoring and evaluation of urban strategies/policies:

As an independent mediator and facilitator, usually I am more involved in the collaborative design of monitoring tools, timelines and activities than in the implementation of concrete monitoring activities. My role in many projects is therefore to create an arena for empowering stakeholders and project partners to develop consensual monitoring strategies and implementation. In this sense I challenge participants on the one hand to consider existing approaches ( e.g. in Europe: European Green Capital Award, Reference Framework for Sustainable Cities, Urban Ecosystem Europe) and on the other hand to develop specific result-based accountability approaches to support effective monitoring in their local or regional context implementing specific monitoring tools adapted to the projects’ necessities and requirements (e.g.): Web-based interactive GIS to encourage data sharing between the various involved stakeholders (used in: MARGov; PGRH Tejo); Small or large scale urban observatories that – based on specifically designed indicators - allow data analysis and the assessment of the development and progress of urban systems over time. Furthermore those observatories may support the involvement of people in collaborative consensus oriented decision-making. (used in: FRUNZE35); Citizen-to-citizen exchanges to promote active contribution to planning and collaborative governance models (used in: MARGov, CRITICAL URBAN AREAS PROGRAM – Cova da Moura)

E.3. Awareness of the main policy and funding schemes for sustainable urban development at EU and national level:

Consulting regularly interesting sites / newsletters (e.g.) www.ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/index_en.cfm www.urbact.eu / www.futurecities.catapult.org.uk / www.citiesnext.com / www.eu-smartcities.eu / www.dcdc-udm.org / www.ec.europa.eu/energy/ / www.ec.europa.eu/transport/index_en.htm Following relevant groups and Institutions on social media (e.g) www.facebook.com/groups/opengovgroup ; www.facebook.com/groups/Urban.Riga; www.facebook.com/CEDOS.org.ua; www.facebook.com/pages/How-to-build-inclusive-societies/163258693691576; www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=4457101; www.facebook.com/nansendialoguenetwork; www.facebook.com/FuturoDasCidades Screening current urban development funding opportunities (e.g.) International and regional programs like www.ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/funding; www.ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/ / www.eib.org/products/blending/jessica/index.htm / www.unhabitat.org/urban-initiatives; www.portugal2020.pt/Portal2020/programas-operacionais-portugal-2020-2 / https://www.fct.pt/apoios/projectos/concursos/ / http://www.gulbenkian.pt/inst/pt/Fundacao/ProgramasGulbenkian crowdfunding sites like www.spacehive.com / www.citizinvestor.com / www.ioby.org ; …and of course reading a lot scientific and non-scientific publications, attending relevant conferences (+ presenting papers) whenever I can …and – most important (pro)active networking with colleagues all over the world.

E.4. Ability to understand specific local situations and adapt tools and content to different local realities:

Each local environment is specific and has its own culture, rules and conventions. That is why effective participatory strategies and policies have to fit perfectly with the local framework conditions. As a head-coordinator for participation strategies and collaborative conflict management I have to cope with this challenge in all my projects To assure excellence, I seek to broaden constantly my knowledge and expertise on methods, tools and techniques. My long experience and intense intervention in hundreds of projects, contracted by more than hundred different clients gives me a sound understanding of what can be done, what is appropriate/promising and how to adapt process design, tools and contents to make them fit exactly to the local situation. The same applies to training programs, those must be adapted as well to local conditions to be effective. Projects where I was responsible/accountable for the successful tools’, methods’ and content choice and adaption. are e. g.: CRITICAL URBAN AREAS PROGRAM – Cova da Moura (2006); GAPS (2010); iMediar (from 2010); PRACTICE (2012); MARGov (2011-2012); TRANSPORT LEARNING (2012-2013); Frunze35- Urban Development in central Kiev (2013); PRACTICE (2012); Frunze35- Urban Development in central Kiev (2013); URBACT II (2013) - National Training for Local Support Groups; TUM-UNDEP Land Use Planning Tool (2014); OPERAs – Ecosystem Science for Policy and Practice (from 2014); CIMULACT (from 2015).

Summary Expertise:

I accompanied the coming into force of the Aarhus Convention in 1998, that established for the first time a number of rights of individuals and their associations (access to information and justice; right to participate in environmental decision-making). During years I contributed in many concrete projects successfully to the implementation of those rights introducing participation on all levels (e.g.) GAPS (2010); iMediar (from 2010); PRACTICE (2012); MARGov (2011-2012); Frunze35- Urban Development in central Kiev (2013); OPERAs – Ecosystem Science for Policy and Practice (from 2014); CIMULACT (from 2015). In all those projects I have been head-coordinator of the operationalization in loco, and as such entirely responsible (and accountable) for the design and delivery of participatory methods and tools. Of course I experienced also deadlocks, bad decisions and unfavorable circumstances. Therefore I know that some see participative processes with critical eyes. But I know also how to overcome these challenges, how to bring politicians, entrepreneurs, technicians, scientists and the civil society to a process, how to involve them efficiently and how to create arenas that permit a genuine plurilogue among all. From 15 years diversified national and transnational experience I have built considerable competence to provide expertise and support to Local Authorities and other Stakeholders in designing and delivering integrated and participatory policies.