Stina
Heikkilä
Validated Lead Expert
Generic Skills
B.1. Understanding of integrated and sustainable urban development:
With an Erasmus Mundus Joint master's degree in Sustainable Territorial Development (STeDe), preceded by a bachelor's degree in Land Economy from the University of Cambridge, UK, I have worked with integrated and sustainable development in various capacities. First and foremost, I have worked in different international organisations (e.g. the UN, OECD), performing policy analysis and programme design aimed at promoting sustainable development in cities, regions as well as in rural areas. I have also designed and led initiatives at grassroots level, promoting participatory approaches to integrated urban development bottom-up.
As Policy Analyst at the OECD, I have contributed to in-depth reviews of cities and regions’ work on localising the SDGs through a territorial approach, in other words looking at both vertical integration (through multilevel governance) and horizontal integration (across policy fields), while analysing functional geographic areas to help foster territorial cooperation beyond administrative borders, as well as multi-stakehodler engagement.
As co-founder of a local NGO in Rome, Italy, I helped to promote sustainable urban development at neighbourhood scale, including through educational activities promoting social inclusion and participation.
B.2. Understanding of exchange and learning processes at transnational level:
My competences in promoting transnational exchange and learning processes have been honed and developed through various expereinces. As Policy Analyst at the OECD, I took active part in organising peer-learning activities under the OECD Programme on a Territorial Approach to the SDGs. For instance, I helped organising fact-finding missions to pilot regions and cities participating in the programme, where peer reviewers from other pilots participated. During these missions, multi-stakeholder workshops were further an essential part. In this role, I also contributed to the organisation of the first OECD Roundtable on Cities and Regions for the SDGs to promote high-level exchanges, and participated in events to spead knowledge about the findings of the prgramme to other cities and regions.
In my role as international consultant at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), I led the organisation of workshops for participants from regional and country offices, exchanging experiences on policy themes like family farming and territorial approaches to food security and rural poverty reduction.
As co-founder of an NGO in Rome, Italy, I led the organisation of Erasmus+ activties related to urban sustainability, involving five EU and non-EU partner countries.
Since 2019, I have been working as a certified facilitator of Platform Design, organising and facilitating workshops and Bootcamps with worldwide participation to teach the methodology.
B.3. Proficiency in English:
I have completed a bachelor’s degree fully taught in English at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom with first class marks, and a master’s degree taught in English and French at the University of Padova, KU Leuven and Sorbonne-Paris I. Moreover, I have completed the International Baccalaureate at high-school level, with a bilingual diploma (Swedish-English) awarded.
Recent samples that directly demonstrate my English writing skills can be found through my Medium profile, where I contribute to different publications: https://medium.com/@stina.heikkila
This recorded presentation from a recent research project I coordinated provide good evidence of my speaking skills:
https://youtu.be/SFbNOy6IZsQ
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:
Throughout my career I have had ample opportunities to design and deliver transnational exchange and learning activities in a wide range of contexts. While working as a Policy Analyst for the OECD Programme on a Territorial Approach to the SDGs, I supported peer review activities using tools like surveys, presentation templates and agenda-setting for peer review sessions. I also produced briefing documents to help capture learnings from peers on SDG localisation. In addition, I have direct experience from designing transnational exchange and learning activities for an Erasmus+ project, where I developed training-of-trainer materials. In my role as certified facilitator of the platform design toolkit methodology (https://platformdesigntoolkit.com/toolkit/), I often handle diverse groups and interests, both in client workshops and in public trainings. I am often using visual tools like canvases, drawings and PowerPoint presentations in my work to generate shared understanding and adapting learning activities to different needs. I have produced a range of formats to capture knowledge from transnational exchange activities, such as issue notes, highlights documents, blog posts and reports. Finally, having lived in six different countries in the past 15 years, learning three languages in addition to my mother tongue, I have developed advanced inter-cultural skills and tacit knowledge for overcoming both cultural and language barriers.
Thematic expertise:
Theme / Policy:
Urban Strategic Planning
Summary Thematic expertise:
Working for the OECD programme on a Territorial Approach to the SDGs, I supported local teams in cities and regions in their development of strategies, policies and action plans to localise the SDGs in their context. My wide range of experience from different sectors, like education, social entrepreneurship and innovation, helps me balance holistic thinking with how deep sectorial knowledge fits into the bigger picture of the 2030 Agenda. I contributed to five city and region-specific reports on SDG localisation, where I drafted sections on strategic planning using the SDGs, multi-level governance and stakeholder engagement. I also reviewed and provided inputs into the data analysis sections, with specific focus on integrating local data and experiences with SDG indicators at sub-national levels. In addition to the reports, I developed other knowledge products capturing key insights, for example from the first OECD Roundtable on Cities and Regions for the SDGs, and issue notes to summarise the pilot cities and regions’ work on the SDGs. I also conducted in depth literature reviews on specific topics related to the SDGs, which fed into policy dialogue and recommendations of the reports.
Theme / Policy:
Local Governance
Summary Thematic expertise:
During my Erasmus Mundus Joint master’s degree in Sustainable Territorial Development (STeDe), as well as during my bachelor’s degree in Land Economy from the University of Cambridge, UK, urban planning and participatory methods for local governance were key features. Course work included practical methods for consulting stakeholder in for example renewable energy projects or applying the ladder of citizen participation to practical case studies. In the policy analysis work I carried out for the OECD Programme on a Territorial Approach to the SDGs, multi-level governance and stakeholder engagement are key features analysed across the full set of case studies from the pilot cities and regions of the programme. I have also given presentations on these topics to cities and regions outside the programme, such as at the Baltic 2030 Capacity Building Programme in Riga, April, 2019 and to the Oslo Region European Office in Brussels in May, 2019. Finally, I have designed and led initiatives at grassroots level, promoting participatory approaches to integrated urban development bottom-up, such as in my role as co-founder of a local NGO working on urban mobility in Rome, Italy. I have thus experienced the challenges of civil society and its role in the local governance of a city neighbourhood first hand.
Theme / Policy:
Research, Innovation and Knowledge Economy
Summary Thematic expertise:
Since June 2019, I have been actively contributing to a research and training activities related to the platform economy, for the company behind the Platform Design Toolkit (https://platformdesigntoolkit.com/toolkit/). Through this role, I have trained both companies, public institutions and non-profits in the use of the methodology and the meaning of the platforms in the context of the knowledge economy. I also co-authored a white paper on platform-ecosystem thinking, with the key contribution of placing the platform economy within the context of environmental and social risk landscape (see Chapter 2 in: Simone Cicero och Stina Heikkilä, (2020), New Foundations of Platform-Ecosystem Thinking - Designing Products and Organizations for a changing world, Boundaryless 2020 whitepaper. https://platformdesigntoolkit.com/ DOWNLOAD-NF). This role has also given me the opportunity to work with formats like live-streamed webinars, podcasts, blog posts and social media to widely disseminate research findings.
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 :
As Policy Analyst for the OECD Programme on a Territorial Approach to the SDGs, I participated in multi-stakeholder workshops organised by the local teams in each pilot city and region. In the preparations for these workshops, I supported the host cities or regions to define the agenda and actively engaged in group discussions with a wide range of stakeholders. We encouraged using smaller group discussions on different topics to enable maximum participation, with each group reporting back to plenary. My key role was to analyse the group work and identify strengths and weaknesses, to further refine these in the policy recommendations of the draft reports.
In 2014, I co-led a project called Sharitories, where we developed a “collaborative territories toolkit”, helping local authorities better understand and develop strategies for the sharing economy. The project combined a capacity building and co-design approach, where the participants had a guide outlining key examples from the sharing economy, which they could map onto existing strengths and challenges in the city. I facilitated a workshop with over 100 local authorities during the Bologna Smart City exhibition in 2014. The visual canvas used helped to create a shared dialogue.
E.2. Knowledge on integrated approach for the design, delivering, monitoring and evaluation of urban strategies/policies:
As Policy Analyst working for the OECD program on a Territorial Approach to the SDGs, I contributed to the development of the OECD localised indicator framework for the SDGs, where my focus was to gather inputs and analyse how the proposed OECD framework compared to the data used and indicators proposed at local levels by the pilot cities and regions. The final result of the work is an online database and visualization tool, where cities and regions can see how they compare to other OECD cities and regions on various targets of the SDGs (https://www.oecd-local-sdgs.org/about.html).
When working as international consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), I helped to redefine the results framework of the strategic programme to reduce rural poverty, including integrating the SDGs into it. This involved establishing key output and outcome indicators at programme level and supporting decentralised offices in their target setting process based on the new results framework.
As Education Programme Officer at UNICEF Cambodia, I got several training opportunities in programme and project design, including results frameworks and monitoring.
E.3. Awareness of the main policy and funding schemes for sustainable urban development at EU and national level:
To keep abreast with sustainable urban development policies, I find that following key institutions and profiles on social media (mainly Twitter and LinkedIn) help to get the latest updates in the current information landscape. I also read reports that are published by leading institutions and networks active in SDG localisation and urban sustainable development, like UCLG, Eurocities, OECD, JRC, UN Habitat, UN SDSN and others.
Having contributed to a successful Horizon 2020 proposal in 2020, in my role and research coordination lead for the company behind the platform design toolkit, I stay attuned to opportunities in the future programming period and the requirements for such consortiums.
I also listen to podcasts relevant to EU policies and projects, as well as podcasts on sustainable urban development.
E.4. Ability to understand specific local situations and adapt tools and content to different local realities:
In everything I do – whether supporting cities on SDG localisation or helping NGO networks to develop platform strategies - I always work with the mindset that one-size-fits-all approaches do not work. In the context of a knowledge economy and increasingly networked society, tailor-made solutions are expected in almost every domain of society. What is important in this context is to start by developing a clear understanding of where participants are in terms of both knowledge, practices and ambitions to be able to meet their specific needs. In these settings, tools should be seen as facilitating dialogue and co-creation, not as strict blueprints that have to be applied identically by all participants for the sale of the tools. When I facilitate diverse groups, I always seek to have tools that are as simple as possible, but which can be easily extended and elaborated by those who want to “go one step further”.
Summary Expertise:
As Policy Analyst for the OECD Programme on a Territorial Approach to the SDGs, I participated in multi-stakeholder workshops organised by the local teams in each pilot city and region. In the preparations for these workshops, I supported the host cities or regions to define the agenda and identify participants. We encouraged using smaller group discussions to enable maximum participation, with each group reporting back to plenary. My key role was to take notes and analyse the findings reported to plenary, and to identify strengths and weaknesses to further refine in the policy recommendations in the draft reports. I also contributed to the development of the OECD localised indicator framework for the SDGs, where my focus was to gather inputs and analyse how the proposed OECD framework compared to the data used at local levels. The final result of the work is an online database and visualization tool, where cities and regions can see how they compare to other OECD cities and regions on various targets of the SDGs (https://www.oecd-local-sdgs.org/about.html).
When working for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), I helped to redefine the results framework of the strategic programme to reduce rural poverty, including integrating the SDGs. This involved establishing key output and outcome indicators at programme level and supporting decentralised offices in their target setting process based on the new results framework.
Informations
Residence location:
France
Languages:
Swedish - Mother tongue
Foreign Languages level:
Foreign languages:
Foreign Languages level:
Foreign languages:
Foreign Languages level:
Foreign languages:
Email:
stina.heikkila@gmail.com
Unavailable - already performing the role of Lead Expert for an URBACT network