In May 2007, the Member States of the European Union adopted the Leipzig Charter and thus made a major political commitment in favour of the “sustainable European city”. The Leipzig Charter aims to support an integrated approach to urban development through a focus on deprived neighbourhoods. In order to implement this charter in with real actions, in November 2008, the Member States decided to develop a Reference Framework for Sustainable European Cities. This project, proposed under the French presidency of the European Union Council, saw to the formation of working groups composed of representatives from Member States, European institutions and European networks of local authorities (MS/I group). Their goal is to develop a panel of tools to help local authorities and decision-makers to make strategic decisions. In order to ensure a correlation between these tools and local needs, it was also decided that a working group be formed composed of cities that could test in-field implementation of sustainable and integrated urban development that takes into account local, regional, national and European points of view. This is how the URBACT LC-FACIL project saw the day in September 2009.

Main Results

In order to complete the MS/I Group approach, the six partner cities in the LC-FACIL project worked on four topics based on an analysis of the current situation, good practices that were already in place, and on Local Support Groups created during the project:

• Monitoring and evaluation of integrated sustainable development, with the main goal of finding ways to evaluate and analyse the current level of sustainable development at all territorial levels.
• The development of effective finance and cooperation strategies within local and regional administrations.
• Strategy and implementation, with the goal of identifying already-existing instruments, promoting better continuity in the implementation of actions, and involving all the appropriate stakeholders.
• Review and re-assessment of the measures being implemented, particularly on the basis of past lessons learned and current development trends.

For each topic, the LC-FACIL project developed a number of conclusions and recommendation:

• Monitoring and evaluating integrated sustainable development:

Setting up a monitoring and evaluation system is key for sustainable and effective governance. It enables quick access to information and early detection of potential problems. It also facilitates the evaluation of existing activities and the adaptation of strategies based on changes in needs and on what has been learned from prior experience. An integrated, cross-sector system facilitates a shared and comprehensive vision.

There are many benefits to having a monitoring and evaluation system: analysis of all aspects of the current situation (social, economic, ecological, architectural, etc.); assessing the viability of city projects and policies along with the impact of public sector intervention; monitoring performance in view of local and national objectives.

The lack of data is a major obstacle for a number of reasons. Some aspects of society are more difficult than others to evaluate, notably culture. One should also note that there is a lack of comparable indicators among cities and countries, and it is often difficult to obtain information at the local level. Long time intervals between surveys make it difficult to interpret the date. And finally, redefining indicators over time and changes in urban spatial zones add to the difficulty of monitoring and analysing.

The monitoring system should be anchored in policy. This is essential for the results to lead to the adoption of appropriate policies. Convincing others requires that one move beyond Excel tables to communicate data. Ideally, indicators and criteria should also be defined in collaboration with all the stakeholders. National indicators could also be useful.

• The development of effective finance and cooperation strategies within local and regional administrations:

Finance

European and national funds are the primary sources of financing for integrated, sustainable urban development projects. However, the direction taken by policy makers and institutional representatives to build our cities according to the principles of sustainable urban development require the current financial system to be revised and modernised, as it appears obsolete for a number of reasons:

-European funds are often organized by sectors and for a short-term. Taking into account a single aspect of development (such as transport, industry or the environment), does not enable a holistic approach.
-Administrative and auditing processes are more focussed on the process than the results.
-Financial instruments such as JESSICA, JEREMIE, JASMINE and JASPER are new for European cities, and their administrative procedures and legislative obstacles make them difficult to use in the framework of local projects.
-It is necessary to give cities a larger role in developing structural fund programmes.
-We also need to establish greater coordination and cooperation between the national, regional and local levels.
-New needs are emerging in terms of financial tools, such ad renewable funds.

While the economic crisis is obliging cities to find external funding, it is becoming crucial to develop public-private partnerships. This system presents the advantage of promoting participative solutions, where the various actors focus on a shared objective. Yet, the impact of the results of public-private partnerships sometimes fails to create long-term structural changes. This is why it is necessary to find sources of and support for long-term funding.

Cooperation

In the case of social cohesion projects, all the LC-FACIL partner cities approved of the importance to get a large panel of social players involved, outside of institutional representatives.

The private sector, non-profit associations, universities, social players and citizens should be actively involved during all the steps of the projects that aim to improve social cohesion and the quality of urban zones.

The effective management of this participative process is very complex and time-consuming. The diversity and the large number of players, along with their level of representativeness, demands that one raise the question of whether or not the participative process is really representative of the society’s needs.

• Strategy and implementation

The diversity of projects and initiatives that are abusively called “strategy” requires that this overused term be clarifies. It may be true that all the projects need a strategic framework, yet it is not useful to refer to everything as a strategy. From this point of view, it could be useful to establish clear definitions that are shared by everyone.

The conclusions drawn from good practices:
-High-visibility installations, even in small zones, have a strong impact due to word-of-mouth.
-A strategy, no matter how good, has little chance of reaching its goal if it has not first garnered support.
-Policy makers and partners need to see the advantages they can garner from this strategy before it can take form.
-An innovative element mobilises volunteers, but specific actions need to be undertaken to maintain their motivation (education trips, training, valorising actions).
-Clear, consistent and continuous communication is essential to maintain trust, notably within interdisciplinary and cross-sector working groups.

• Review and re-evaluation of measuring throughout implementation

Before rolling out an evaluation tool, the system needs to have been accepted by the governance and the citizens, and it should have political support. Stakeholders can only be convinced by honest information.

Re-evaluation of measures during the process should be done with an open perspective that promotes identification of errors and successes.

Self-evaluation and external evaluation will be more productive if they are integrated into a process and allow for continuous readjustment.

Cities should be aware that implementation of a monitoring system requires major internal human resources along with support and methodological contributions from external experts, which implies additional costs.

In practice, funding for evaluation tools comes, for the most part, from financing programmes that already exist on local, national and European levels.

The key factors of success are: consistent implementation, transparency of the process, a trust-based partnership, and the help of outside consultants.


Sustainable urban development must be monitored and evaluated

LC-FACIL project partner cities consider that the future of the Reference Framework for Sustainable Cities is a useful tool for guiding cities towards sustainability and that, as a result, it is a major and ambitious initiative. This instrument is an opportunity for cities working together to share best practices. It will facilitate self-evaluation by cities in the area of integrated urban development and could be used as part of discussion groups to build a common approach. This framework should not be perceived to be a scoring tool, but as a source of encouragement and motivation.

Prospects

The work done by the MS/I Group and LC-FACIL contributed to the Reference Framework for Sustainable European Cities, which is being tested in around sixty European cities since March 2011. This final version of this free digital tool that sets out to help cities implement the Leipzig Charter will be presented at the end of 2011.

Read more:

• LC-FACIL mini-site - URBACT website
• Zoom on Goteborg - URBACT website
• Final report: Implementing the Leipzig Charter – a Cities' Perspective - PDF