Diepenbrock

Elja

Diepenbrock

Validated Lead Expert

Generic Skills

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

My educational background consists of a Master Study on Political Science (University of Amsterdam, later homologated by the Spanish Ministry of Education), in which I focused mainly on local policies in the fields of gender equality, environmental awareness and citizen participation. Already during my studies I started to work on environmental and sustainable housing for the City of Amsterdam. I continued with responsibilities on urbanism and socio-economic affairs, coordinating the Urban II program for Amsterdam, being directly accountable to the Alderman of Greater City Policy. This was a highly instructive period, because it showed to me the importance of sustainable and integrated urban planning, which only was to be successful if all departments and city districts were committed to collaborate horizontally and vertically, and, last but not least, citizen participation in the local neighbourhoods of Amsterdam was ensured. In that time I was also in charge of a Perception Study on a possible participation of Amsterdam in URBACT (outcome: support for a possible transnational cooperation on Creative Industry as well as Urban Safety). Furthermore I then coordinated cooperations with London, Genua, Helsinki, Kent,Vienna, Marseille, Stockholm. I decided to move to Valencia – later to Barcelona and Málaga –, where I established as a European expert executing EU projects in the social (e.g. young migrant & gender empowerment, education) and creative (culture and arts) field.

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

Since the nineties I have been participating in European projects. In 1995 I started to train and learn through PHARE cooperations with the Eastern European countries, later I coordinated/participated in EU projects, e.g. in the frame of INTERREG, EQUAL, LEONARDO, SOCRATES, DAPHNE, CREATIVE EUROPE. Actually, I had the pleasure to enjoy learning and sharing in too many transnational projects to summarize here, but some of them are: -Posseidon project on Quartermanagement: Interreg IIIC project of 6 EU cities. For the Dutch partner, Amsterdam, I coordinated the local learning group in which the knowledge obtained from the other cities was used. -HAS-project: cooperation between Helsinki, Amsterdam and Stockholm on policy measures on construction & housing. I was the chair of a conference between the directors of the development corporations of the 3 cities. -Porcospini: Daphne III-empowerment project focusing on vulnerable groups in Italian, British, Dutch, Slovak and Spanish cities, particularly in schools. I functioned as the scientific teamleader of 1 of the partner organisations. -Practical organisation of study visits for delegations: for city departments and housing corporations from abroad I organised study visits to Marseille/Valencia/Barcelona. Furthermore could be mentioned: UNESCO-fora,meetings Eurocities, lectures and workshops in Macedonia/Malta/Spain, feasibility visits of Morocco/Panamá/China, seminars & conferences in a variety of EU (candidate) countries.

B.3. Proficiency in English:

My reading, speaking and writing skills in English are on a C2 level.

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:

Since 1995 I have been involved in transnational cooperations. My roles as expert, chair, consultant, researcher, advisor, coordinator… were always complementary. With this I mean to say, that the title is not important, but it´s important that a project is well-prepared, implemented, and evaluated. Also the follow-up must be ensured, and, let´s be honest, this is sometimes easily forgotten.I have always felt responsible to get the very best results. I have been actively using new means of communication for 11 years now. This started with an EU project (with Train the Trainer-elements) showing me many innovative workshop leading methods. Later on I coordinated more self-assessments/peer visits, e.g. in European trainings, workshops, learning circles, intranet pages, and on studyvisits of policymakers to cities like Valencia, Helsinki, Barcelona, Stockholm,Marseille, London. I work like an actor too, so I know how to activate a group. From my trips in Europe I have knowledge of EU cities, and have always advocated that they should learn more from eachother.Already in 2004 a colleagu

Thematic expertise:

Theme / Policy:

Active Inclusion of Target Groups

Summary Thematic expertise:

Regarding active inclusion of target groups, happily enough an increasingly important topic in URBACT networks, my experience is broad (difficult to resume all here) but particularly focused on women, young people, minorities: -In my Political Science studies I did research on gender equality. By that time the Gender Effect Evaluation was a new policy instrument in cities. It was extremely interesting to learn the use of these. -I have worked as an empowerment trainer for migrants: http://www.euronet.nl/users/itw/ -In 2013 I was co-author of a study for Rotterdam on the position of migrant women: http://issuu.com/eljadiepenbrock/docs/definitiefrapport_fff_verborgen_vro We did 47 interviews with “hidden women”, policy makers, welfare workers, local council inspectors, etc. It got much attention (tv/radio/press) because of far-reaching recommendations. -Co-organiser Global Conference ECONOMIC CRISIS; THE TURNING POINT FOR WOMEN: https://women2000economiccrisistheturningpoint.wordpress.com/2015/05/10/hello-world/ -I have been active in youth associations: e.g. Europ. Youth Forum, LAKS, OBESSU -Porcospini (2011-2013) was a succesful EU project; I was lucky to be highly involved. For some results: http://issuu.com/eljadiepenbrock/docs/porcospini_erickson_completo__final/1 -I co-executed (2014) a national study in NL on the dimension and characteristics of Forced Marriage, Abandonment and Marital Bondage:http://www.verwey-jonker.nl/publicaties/2014/zo-zijn-we-niet-getrouwd

Theme / Policy:

Arts and Culture

Summary Thematic expertise:

For almost 20 years I have been following the international debate on Arts&Culture, Creative Cities and City Marketing (3 topics, by the way, that are not necessarily the same…).When living in Valencia, Amsterdam,Barcelona, Cagliari and Málaga I faced the good practice and weaker points, and on my study visits to many “old” and “new” EU cities I learned much more on their culture and arts. I have been thrilled by A&C all my life: apart from being a political scientist and urban expert, I’m also an actor, knowing the theatre world. The ability to write on a high level and speak 3 languages fluently (EN, ES, NL) and to understand 3 other European languages (DE, FR, IT) has given me many interesting opportunities to write studies, baseline reports and good practice overviews, e.g.: -Stakeholders Perception Study (2003) on possible participation of A’dam in URBACT. Outcome: support for a possible transn. cooperation on Creative Ind. (this study is not on the web, but I can send the PDF) -2006: part of an internat. team defining recommendations to promote Creative Ind. in Barcelona (www.consorcibesos.cat) -2008: expert in East-NL. I contributed to the new “Plan Performing Arts”, after organizing consultative meetings with the local theatres, art festivals, theatre groups, dancing groups and museums -This space is too limited to extend more, but I’d like to emphasize a) My preparation of a Creative Europe project in 2013 and b) Various capitalization and awareness campaigns.

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 :

My thesis for my Master in Political Science (UvA) was about interactive and participatory methods to create local policies with citizens, which by the time was still a relatively new topic. At least a far-reaching way of policy coproduction was still considered modern. Later on (2003) I for example participated in the EU seminar “Multilevel Governance and Democratic Legitimacy” gathering examples of best practices in citizen participation. In the same year my colleague I. van Hooren and I gave a workshop on interactive policymaking with citizens. This workshop focused on employees of the City of Amsterdam that would like to extend their palette of coproduction methods. Amsterdam has a long tradition with community engagement. E.g. in the neighbourhoods of the Spaarndammerbuurt and the Zeeheldenbuurt we used intensive citizen participation routes (like consultative and brainstorm meetings between citizens & city managers) to coproduce policies. To be honest I can’t say that we used a bottom-up approach in every project (not 1 EU-city can say that, actually), but we did our best. Especially the Spaarndammerbuurt-Houthaven project was interactive, participatory and proactive. My role in these projects was Sustainable housing coordinator, which meant that I tried to motivate citizens to accept environmental measures in their houses and listened to their complaints and ideas. About modern policy coproduction tools (social media, electr. surveys) I learned later in my career.

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

In 1994 the Netherlands started the Greater City Policy (GSB or Grotestedenbeleid, later changed into GSI, with the I for Integration). The idea behind GSB was that the physical, economical and social problems of a city are interconnected, which means that the solutions should also cover this triangle, if we want them to be truly effective. In many other EU countries a similar approach can be seen. The urban policy of DG REGIO has similar characteristics, which I could discover fully when I was coordinating the Urban II program for Amsterdam, with my colleague Jeroen den Uyl and I being directly accountable to the Alderman of GSB. The Alderman of course had to justify to the City Council in which way he spent the 9 million € funding (actually triplicated by Amsterdam + the State: cofinancing) in the period 2000–2006. This intensive coordination process showed the importance of sustainable and integrated urban planning to me, which only was to be successful if all city departments and districts collaborated horizontally and vertically, with participation of citizens. So it was a constant process of wheeling and dealing between interests, but in the end the integration between physical, economical and social elements in projects was succesful. See also the leaflet I wrote: http://issuu.com/eljadiepenbrock/docs/scan_urban_ii-folder_elja We monitored constantly in Urban II: every 4 months we sent a report to the EC/national ministries with the evaluation of the status quo.

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

After the coordination of Urban II in Amsterdam I have continuously followed EU funding schemes, not only on the urban (DG REGIO) level, but also of other DG´s, following for example programmes (or successors) like INTERREG, EQUAL, LEONARDO, SOCRATES, DAPHNE, CREATIVE EUROPE, LIFE, HORIZON 2020. To focus on the latter: HORIZON 2020 is a programme that now contains really a lot of funding, which can be very interesting for cities with science centers. Concerning the ways to keep myself updated on sustainable and integrated urban policies, trends and funds, some of the activities that I do are: -Checking websites regularly: e.g. the websites of DG REGIO, URBACT, EUKN (European Urban Knowledge Network), Eurocities, Interact, ESPON, Eurotowns, Committee of the Regions -Reading newsletters: e.g. from URBACT, the Interreg MED Programme 2014-2020, Interreg IVC / Interreg Europe, the newsletter from the Joint Managing Authority of the ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme -Reading messages from LinkedIn on new funding possibilities and partnerships -Maintaining contact with other experts in several Member States of the EU -Reading (scientific) articles on urbanism, architecture, social developments, arts and culture, gender equality -Following the policies in the city that I live in (during the last 10 years I have lived in Spanish, Dutch and Italian cities) -Checking info on websites of national ministries, especially ministries in Spain, the UK and The Netherlands

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

I could give several examples of adapting contents and tools to a different local reality. For instance in Spain I organise courses on international negotiations, which have a strong intercultural and locally adapted element (see for more information: www.europresente-formacion.es.tl). When it concerns transnational projects, one of the most clear examples of this far-reaching adaptation was a training that I gave in Skopje and Ohrid (Macedonia/FYROM). This was a civic capacity building training for a local NGO, dealing with the contents: democratic means, civic participation and integrative working methods. Consultation and feed-back of the local organizers of the training made me realize that the prepared modules had to be adapted radically. So I had to adjust all “EU way of thinking” to fit into a situation that locally was very different. This had consequences on the programme of the training, the exercices executed, and the order of the training. But a good training is always based on a constant process of feedback, so it was great to implement these changes and see the training functioning well. However, it was also funny to see that so many problems, ideas and solutions in Europe have a common ground. What I mean to say is that, although there can be considerable disparities between Skopje, Ljubljana, Riga, London, Stockholm and Malaga, in the end the similarities in urban strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are really bigger than we often think.

Summary Expertise:

In 2002 I got very interested in interactive policymaking. In that year I wrote my thesis for my Master in Political Science (UvA) which dealt with interactive and participatory methods to create local policies not for, but WITH citizens. Nowadays we see that coproduction of urban policies with citizens/other stakeholders is almost getting normal and this is great!I am very in favour of a bottom-up approach. Integrative and sustainable city development is however not only about citizen participation, but also about desegregation of “walls” between departments. In Amsterdam I had the opportunity to coordinate (together with my colleague J. den Uyl) the Urban II programme (more info: http://issuu.com/eljadiepenbrock/docs/scan_urban_ii-folder_elja) This intensive coordination process involved with spending 9 million € EU funding showed the importance of integrated urban planning to me, which only was to be successful if all city departments and districts collaborated horizontally and vertically, with the citizens participating. So it was a constant process of wheeling and dealing, but in the end the integration between physical, economical and social elements in projects was succesful. After I left Amsterdam to start-up my company in Spain, I organised many transnational city visits. Apart from this I was involved in EU programmes like INTERREG, EQUAL, LEONARDO, SOCRATES, DAPHNE, CREATIVE EUROPE, LIFE, HORIZON 2020 and kept on touch with EUKN, Eurocities, ESPON, CoR,..