Peter
Ramsden
Validated Lead Expert
Generic Skills
B.1. Understanding of integrated and sustainable urban development:
Peter Ramsden Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Peter Ramsden is an expert in social innovation, urban and regional development and employment policy based in London UK. He has worked extensively on the operation of the EU cohesion policy (both for the Commission and in Regional Development Agencies) and has advocated new approaches based on social innovation and inclusive entrepreneurship.
He managed the economic development pole for URBACT – an EU exchange, learning programme which works on the implementation of social innovations and urban good practices among 500 cities working within the EU’s cohesion policy. For URBACT he has written extensively on how cities can address problems in deprived areas, improve metropolitan governance and promote active inclusion and smart growth.
He has advised the European Social Fund on inclusive entrepreneurship, transnationality and social innovation and worked with the first Community of Practice on Inclusive Entrepreneurship. He has carried out assignments for OECD, the World Bank the European Commission, national governments and cities across Europe. He also worked on the 2008 China dialogue on EU cohesion policy and participated in the Shanghai Expo in 2010 Better city, Better life.
He is the co-author of the EU guide to social innovation in cohesion policy and two guides on Community Led Local development in the European Structural and Investment Funds. In 2013 he directed the widely acclaimed EU 50 cases.
B.2. Understanding of exchange and learning processes at transnational level:
Helped to develop URBACT method with Urbact secretariat (member of task force and subsequently two terms as Thematic Pole Manager for URBACT.
Main contributor to first version of toolkit for Urbact Local Support Groups to local action planning. Contributor to second version of toolkit. Author of guideline documents for Round 1 of URBACT 2 including that for local action planning.
Author and lead editor of methodological guide for ESF learning networks 2012
Attendee at training for experts given by Etienne Wenger in Zeuthen Berlin 2008 organised by DG Employment
B.3. Proficiency in English:
English native with easy to understand pronunciation and clear syntax. Extensive conference speaking and moderation engagements in English including Urban development Network, OECD, World Bank/IMF, European Commission. Author of guides, handbooks and articles written in an easy approachable style (see CV) incuding guide to Community led Local Development. Able to explain complex concepts in simple terms to a lay audience both verbally and in writing.
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 been desiging transnational meetings, and specifically exchange and learning activities for nearly 20 years including for both ERDF and ESF and most recently for the newly established Urban Development Network.
I like to make meeting active learning environments in which the pace and style varies
throughout the meeting.
I was involved in the design and execution of the two URBACT summer Universities (Krakow and Warsaw). I also designed a series of OECD capacity building workshops for an audience that came from different parts of Europe and had different levels of experience. (for example the 2012 Trento workshops that I both designed and delivered).
An increasing problem is to go beyond providing participants with an inspiring and active experience towards supporting them on a longer term basis in their learning trajectory. No one has cracked the code on this one yet.
Thematic expertise:
Theme / Policy:
Integrated Urban Renewal
Summary Thematic expertise:
Peter Ramsden has extensive experience in the field of urban regeneration starting with his work as a community organiser in the early 1980s on four social housing estates in Hackney East London. Since then he has worked on this topic in a variety of capacities. These have included being on the Programme Monitoring Committee for the Objective 1 programme in Merseyside (1995-96) which included the ground-breaking Pathways to Integration priority , negotiating first generation URBAN programmes (in Liverpool, Manchester, and Shoreditch), developing the concept of Community Economic Development in the UK's Objective 2 programmes and specifically in Greater Manchester Lancashire and Cheshire, South Yorkshire and East London and the Lea Valley.
He sat on the board of the East Midlands Development Agency for 6 years with a specific brief for Sustainable Communities and chaired the Large Project Committee and the ERDF Innovation sub committee of the Programme.
He has worked extensively on urban regeneration while associated with URBACT, he was pole manager responsible for the deprived neighbourhoods and active inclusion themes. He has published on this topic including the Urban Development in the EU: 50 Urban good practice Cases and more recently Urban Regeneration before and after the crisis.
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 :
Main contributor for first version of URBACT toolkit, and contributor to second. Wide and practical knowledge of moderation, facilitation and participative techniques.
Exponent of participatory methods through work as a community organiser for four years on the Lea View House estate (and three nearby estates) in Hackney. Lea View was the first estate in the UK to have a community architecture approach to its regeneration. This was largely driven by the tenants who employed me. We used a range of techniques including community surveys, focus groups and a steering group including the main stakeholders.
When at the European Commission I championed participative approaches and this led to the development of Community Economic Development measures in the 1994-99 UK Structural Fund programmes which targeted resources on poorest neighbourhoods.
I worked at NEF in the early 2000s where some of the early ideas about Coproduction were being thrashed out.
Coproduction was an essential element of the EQUAL programme which I worked on unti l its final conference in Lisbon in 2008.
Since then I have been working on these user centric methods both in URBACT and in the wider social innovation community. I codirect Social Innovation Europe
I have written extensively on participatory approaches for the EU (see Urban Development in the EU 50 cases study) and for URBACT (see forthcoming ebook)
We are still working on implementation and I hope to join the URBACT task force.
E.2. Knowledge on integrated approach for the design, delivering, monitoring and evaluation of urban strategies/policies:
I have worked on the the integrated approach since the early 1990s when I was researching and writing about the problems of unbalanced approaches being deployed by the Urban Development Corporations.
In DG REGIO I worked extensively on integrating the Structural Funds as in those days we had integrated priorities combining soft and hard measures in the mainstream programmes and in 14 of the Community Initiatives.
On delivery I was 6 years on the Board of one of the UK's most successful Regional Development Agencies and the Board member with responsiblity for sustainable communities and for the sub regional partnerships which spent 55% of the agencies budget.
Since working with URBACT I have focused on the design of integrated strategies and helped URBACT to develop its current Action Planning approach using a stakeholder based approach
I am an experienced evaluator and have worked in this field for nearly 20 years. Evaluations that I have carried out personally include the Phoenix Development Fund 2005 (interim and final reports), the evaluation of South Tyrone Empowerment Programme in 2013, the Evaluation of the European Microfinance Network for four years up until 2011. In all of these I have had to work with developing realistic indicator and operationalising them.
I was a core member of the negotiating team for developing the URBACT 3 programme and wrote many of the background papers on the RESULTS orientation in cohesion policy.
I was also a board member for East Midlands Development Agency responsible for initiating the idea of an Evaluation Framework for the agency ( a contract subsequently delivered by Ecotec). As a board member I had shared oversight of financial, output and impact performance of the agency.
I have been on steering committees to supervise the ex-ante evaluation of the URBACT 3 programme (delivered by Ecorys), and also exploratory studies on how to measure learning in URBACT networks (delivered by EKOS) and on what goes on inside local support groups (carried out by AEIDL).
I also sat on many Programme Monitoring Committees in the 1990s attending over 20 meetings - mostly in Merseyside, Yorkshire, Manchester and London for both mainstream programmes and Community Initiatives including the first URBAN programme
E.3. Awareness of the main policy and funding schemes for sustainable urban development at EU and national level:
I am a selected expert working for the European Commission in support of their new URBAN development network (UDN).
I have deep knowledge of the regulations for the ERDF and ESF through attending in excess of 30 programme monitoring committee meetings in the 1990s. I cowrote (with Paul Soto) the two guides for Community Led Local Development for both Managing Authorities and for local actors
I have written extensively on EU funding for regeneration in the 50 urban cases study and more recently in the Ebook with Ivan Tosics. The latter includes a historical chapter reviewing how EU and national approaches to urban regeneration have developed over the past 25 years.
E.4. Ability to understand specific local situations and adapt tools and content to different local realities:
for URBACT smart cities I visited all ten cities. The situation in Gualdo Tadino (IT) with only 10000 inhabitants and Mizil (RO) meant that the content had to be adapted to local conditions compared to the other eight medium sized cities in the network. There was limited capacity in the administrations and a lack of understanding about what benefits membership of a network such as URBACT could bring. I had meetings with the nascent local support groups at which I explained the main nuts and bolts of an URBACT network and what was expected of them as potential city members. I was able to have private meetings with mayors and deputy mayors to discuss some of the issues that arose from being such small urban areas within a network dominated by larger players. They in turn assured me that they would guarantee the maximum feasible participation of their limited staffs.
Summary Expertise:
Peter Ramsden is an acknowledge expert in the field of designing and delivering integrated and participative urban policies. He has worked extensively on the topic including -
April 2012- October 2015 URBACT Thematic Pole manager for Economic Development and Innovation
April 2008-2011 URBACT thematic pole manager for inclusion and governance
- Co author of the Guide to Community Led Local Development for DG Regio 2013 and for beneficiaries in 2014
- Co author with Laura Colini of the final report 50 Urban Practices for DG Regio. In 2013
- URBACT 2 pole manager for Social Inclusion and Governance (2007-2011).
- Author of URBACT Local Action Toolkit 2009. Author of guideline documents for transnational networks in URBACT methodology (preparing baseline studies, doing local action plans, case studies, managing authorities).
- Author of 3 chapters on disadvantaged neighbourhoods, metropolitan governance and active inclusion for URBACT Results Dec 2011.
-
Informations
Residence location:
United Kingdom
Languages:
English - Mother tongue
Foreign Languages level:
Foreign languages:
Email:
peterramsden2@gmail.com