Koszalin transfers Preston Good Practice to influence Urban Policy in Poland

From 14 to 16 November 2019, the City of Koszalin participated in the national Congress of Urban Policy in Kielce organized by the Ministry of Investment and Development. This is one of the largest events in Poland devoted to the creation and implementation of urban policies at all the levels of management and with the participation of the widest possible range of people, institutions and communities involved in the issues of sustainable urban development.

The Congress forms a part in the concept of the Observatory of Urban Policy: a long-term research programme created in the Institute for Urban and Regional Development and the National Urban Forum: a platform for permanent dialogue between the national government, local governments, academic and expert circles, as well as non-governmental and business communities. It is supposed to be one of the instruments for developing a new National Urban Policy implementing the provisions of the UN New Urban Agenda from Quito.

In the rich programme of the Urban Policy Congress, among thematic sessions devoted to the most urgent topics such as spatial planning, housing, transport and urban mobility, environment and adaptation to climate change or the creation of smart cities, the Polish URBACT National Contact Point headed by Aldo Vargas-Tetmajer was invited to organize one of the discussion panels.

The URBACT panel presented the most interesting URBACT projects with the participation of Polish cities as examples of changes in the practical approach to city management and possible contribution to the creation of a new National Urban Policy developed owing to effective international and local cooperation without the need to incur any high financial costs.

One of the projects that aroused the greatest interest among the numerous representatives of Polish cities was the "Making Spend Matter" Transfer Network, which was presented by Ms Urszula Miller-Grzybowska, the Director of the Development and Territorial Cooperation Department and the Coordinator of the Local URBACT Group of the City of Koszalin.

Our presentation covered the network and the idea of the Project to perform cyclical analyses of public spend of the city and other public entities in order to increase, using any legal means available, benefits resulting from these for the local economy and community. The City of Koszalin shared the details of the results of its spend analysis in 2018. We also discussed the main barriers and challenges as well as actions that may be undertaken in the difficult and rigidly regulated Polish legal context.

Ms Urszula Miller - Grzybowska emphasized the validity of the Project and its importance to Polish cities. When the possibilities of benefiting from EU structural subsidies decrease and Poland ceases to be an attractive country for direct foreign investments due to increased labour costs, it will be necessary to take a much more careful look at one’s own finances available and think on how to spend these with greater benefit for the city.

The local government officials present during the panel meeting were interested in the presentation and the "Making Spend Matter" Project and, above all, they were surprised by the possibility of such an innovative approach to public procurement. We were asked for details of the methodology of the analyses conducted and enquired what we were intending to do with the knowledge acquired.

We are convinced that the good practice of analysing own expenditures and increasing benefits from these for the city should be disseminated more widely in Poland and used in the process of forming guidelines for the new National Urban Policy.

Main Image - Congress of Urban Policy in Kielce

Inserted Image - Presentation by the City of Koszalin related to the “Making Spend Matter” Project in the URBACT panel