Vrabie

Anamaria

Vrabie

Validated Lead Expert

Generic Skills

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

I am a local development professional, with a background in urban economics and international development (MA at The New School New York as a Fulbright Scholar). I have been working in the context of urban planning and policy since 2007, starting with program design on urban revitalization for Sibiu Capital of Culture. Between 2010 and 2012, I studied, lived and worked in New York City, Mumbai and Sao Paulo, mainly focusing on urban regeneration and slum redevelopment projects. Since 2012 I have been working extensively in my native Romania, mostly in the logic of bringing more knowledge and capacity around what sustainable urban development entails. I have directly worked with central and local governments in Romania in drafting their local sustainable local development plans, as well as designing and facilitation of extensive participatory processes for cross-sectoral stakeholders. Since 2014 I co-founded an urban regeneration advisory specifically tailored for transitional cities (http://mkbt.ro). In 2013-2015 I have been teaching courses on Urban Economics at the "Ion Mincu" University of Architecture and Urbanism in Bucharest. As co-founder of Urban Insights Center ( http://urbaninc.ro/en/) since 2010, I have been initiating and organizing a series of conferences, exhibitions, as well as professional workshops, research projects and development programs, focusing on urban regeneration and social innovation.

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

As a local development professional (sometimes called social entrepreneur), I have designed several exchange and learning activities at transnational level, focusing on two main aspects: (1) learning is a two way street, and the “expert syndrome” should be strongly avoided (and it’s a bit of paradox the Urbact “expert” designation); (2) failures and trial and error are part of the process and space and time should be dully dedicated for exploring them. Specifically, I designed in 2017 the transnational learning event between Cluj-Napoca and Boston municipality on municipal innovation and how to enable risk taking initiatives in the public sector for better public service provision ( http://www.cccluj.ro/fondul-de-inovare-culturala-anunta-un-pact-pentru-mobilitate-si-trei-experimente-in-cartiere/) . Also I designed and facilitated in 2017 the capitalization/harvesting meeting of the MitOst’s European Forum Diversity and Cooperation, which reunited 30 public administration and social entrepreneurs from the EU and its neighbouring countries (http://www.mitost.org/aktive-buergerschaft/european-forum-active-citizenship/diversity-cooperation.html).

B.3. Proficiency in English:

Provide evidence of your capacity to communicate fluently in English (oral and written). Max 1500 characters I have been working in high level professional and policy development at international level (World Economic Forum- the Global Shaper network, UN-Habitat) in English for the past 10 years. I have graduated my Master of Arts in English at The New School New York. I also have a Certificate for English Proficiency from Cambridge University, TOEFL and GRE certificates.

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:

I have curated (designed and implemented) several learning processes for both NGOs and public administrations in the EU and US for enabling understanding of different narratives around several policy issues. Methods that I have used extensively are reflection talks, case studies, participatory analysis, world café, outcome mapping and design-thinking. The results of these processes have recently included outreach events within UN-Habitat’s World Urban Forum 6 and 7, the new 10 years’ strategy for community foundations in Romania, Bucharest candidacy for the competition of European Capital of Culture, the 2017/2018 European Forum of the MitOst Foundation, the Cluj-Napoca- Boston exchange on municipal innovation units.

Thematic expertise:

Theme / Policy:

Local Governance

Summary Thematic expertise:

My work and academic experience in the US, India, Brazil and Romania gave me several insights on the changing ways of urban governance, from an increased pressure on municipal budgets for optimizing public service delivery to the unprecedented amounts of data and available new technologies, and a growing mistrust of citizens in international organizations. I worked closely with both shrinking and growing cities, especially in less developed regions of the EU, diving and initiating many grassroots processes of participatory planning processes, sometimes for stakeholders which no previous exposure to such practice. Other themes I work on are spatial and integrated urban development strategies and use of community-led-local development (CLLD) for deprived neighborhood strategies and local economic development of rural areas. Please see http://mkbt.ro/?lang=en. My main current focus builds on this strong thematic knowledge on urban governance and local development and aims to address questions of governance in an innovative way: providing space for prototypes co-designed with the municipality, academia, businesses and citizen groups for better public service delivery or public works (see Cluj Innovation Fund). Currently, in 2017-2019 the prototypes are under the theme urban mobility and use also the matrix of behavioral-change policy interventions.

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 :

For the development of the integrated urban development strategy for 2014-2020 for the municipality of Fagaras (RO) my role was to co-design the process, deliver topical input, write several chapters and facilitate several meetings part of stakeholder engagement process we designed. The tools that I used were: (1) interviews with stakeholders in order to confirm and expand the date from my desk research, (2) organizing a first working group meeting with the municipality and relevant stakeholders from local schools, businesses, NGOs, other institutions to give general conclusions from the interviews and desk research (the topics I was responsible for were metropolitan governance, tourism and culture, build environment and investment preparedness), followed by small group topical work using the problem tree method and action plan, (3) follow-up communication with the working group on items agreed on the action plan (this included providing additional data, past references to local initiatives, brief of future tentative projects), (4) second working meeting on ideation about the vision of development for the local community, (5) third working meeting dedicated to prioritizing key objectives, interventions and budget using an adapted version of participatory budgeting method and (6) final event of the process, connecting all the session of the working groups and presenting final draft subject to further contributions for the next month.

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

As co-author of the report on Romania - Strategic assessement of integrated development plans for growth poles (English). Romania regional development program, conducted by the World Bank Group for the Romanian Ministry of Regional Development, I performed a Formative evaluation as part of the monitoring tools envisioned for the policy instrument of the growth poles. Methods used included questionare, in person or phone interview and assessment of current stage of implementation of performance indicators.

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

I am subscribed to the Urban Development Network and occasionally attend their events, mainly in Brussels. I am also subscribed to newsletter and alerts of major urban programs and platform such as the Urban Agenda for the EU, Urbact, INTERREG, Horizon2020, Urban Innovative Action, JPI Urban Europe. I am also in direct contact and also receive dissemination material from my national level contact points on regional development funds and policies related to urban development. Also, through peer-to-peer exchanges and sharing information on social media with fellow urban innovators.

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

In 2015 I was involved as facilitator for conducting the focus groups and writing the applied research report on “Financialisation and wellbeing- Romania: country report” within FESSUD - Financialisation, Economy, Society and Sustainable Development project (FP7 Theme: SSH-2010-1.2-1). The methodology for the focus groups had been developed by the consortium partners and then local NGOs from each participating country were tasked on adapting the method. Following a partners meeting in Brussels in February 2015 where all local NGOs from all consortium countries method to understand the principles of the methodology, I developed the Romanian version of the research tools. Specifically, I adapted the guiding questions for the focus group and also developed a set of recommendations on how to better take into account the local context. Specifically, taliking openly about money and financial situation is still taboo in Romania, so I adapted the questions and guided the talk more on purchasing power of money and how to secure a stable future.

Summary Expertise:

I am strongly committed, as a practioner, in bridging gaps of seemingly different challenges that our cities face today in order to increase a sense of ownership and home of our actions. My exposure to working in many local processes of strategic urban development and community engagement and in contexts with limited local and central capacity has given me both experience and motivation to cultivate trust and a shared language among different stakeholders in order for them to find ways of working together. My continuous engagement in research and international professional networks, both EU-related and internationally, are enabling me of keeping to up-to-date with policy elements and local tactics which could also work in a different local context.