Plenary session 3: The EU Urban Agenda and cities’ role in the creation of growth and jobs

URBACT – supporting cities for integrated and sustainable urban development

Pauline Geoghegan, URBACT Thematic Expert

ESPON Open Seminar 2014

“Opportunities and threats for territorial cohesion:

Blue Growth and Urban Poverty”

• Gathers cities (and other institutions, universities etc) in thematic networks

• To exchange and draw up recommendations on practice and policy for European urban areas.

• Each network is supported by a Lead Expert, proficient in the topic and facilitation of the network,

• Thematic Experts bring more specialised knowledge to the exchanges.

Introducing URBACT

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1. Poverty /urban poverty

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2012 : 25% of the European population at risk of poverty or social exclusion

Increased with the crisis, and still increasing

Poverty: an attack on fundamental rights

Not just about income

What poverty?

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• unemployment or having a poor quality job• indebtedness• low levels of education and skills, • gender (women are generally at higher risk of

poverty than men) • disability or ill-health • being a member of minority ethnic groups such as

the Roma and immigrants/undocumented migrants, • or living in a very disadvantaged community where

access to services is worse.

risk factors

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2. Cities responding to the challenge

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What competences?

“Cities are places where both the problems emerge and the solutions are found… However, they are also places where problems such as unemployment, segregation and poverty are concentrated”.

– Johannes Hahn, Member of the European Commission in charge of Regional Policy, Preface to Cities of Tomorrow (European Commission, DG Regional Policy 2011)

Cities responding to the challenge

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From: Cities of Tomorrow – Challenges, visions, ways forward

To: URBACT work stream ‘‘Against divided cities in Europe’ • Cities need to disentangle the processes that lead to the

creation of deprived neighbourhoods and the roles that they play within the city as a whole.

• The solution lies in a careful blend of area-based neighbourhood policies and city-wide, or larger scale people-based policies

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3. URBACT cities tackling urban poverty

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multi dimensional responses to multi dimensional problems that characterise poverty in cities

integrated approach and participatory processes

URBACT methodology = Local Support Groups and Local Action Plans

The URBACT response

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Employment Young people Education and skills Fighting discrimination Health Social housing Demographic change Participation Tackling fuel poverty Governance.

Taking up the challenge

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Unemployment or having a poor quality (i.e. low paid or precarious) job limits access to a decent income and cuts people off from social networks.

Many cities have prioritised youth unemployment

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Employment

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Avilés employment services :• Youth Commission ‘Empléate Joven’ asked to experience the

services and to interview other young people using the services• Main themes and issues identified, e.g. training, language skills, the

relations between private companies and public administration, quality of guidance services, etc.

• Proposals for improving services, e.g. to make guidance more active and include role-play based training for job interview skills, raise the age limits for youth employment programmes, facilitate cost-free language learning exchange, changes to the services’ websites and internet-based functions

• The conclusions of the experience fed into the process of revision of the local training and employment services.

Tackling youth unemployment: an example

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The unprecedented high levels of poverty among children and young people is an urgent issue for the future of urban areas

The URBACT publication ‘Supporting urban youth through social innovation: stronger together’ argues the importance of social innovation … particularly in relation to the challenge of disconnected youth.

The ‘My generation at Work’ network highlighted support mechanisms by which citizens now look for jobs and how they orient to work

Young people

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Low levels of education and skills limit people’s ability to access decent jobs to develop themselves and participate fully in society.

Example

e.g. involving parents in preventing early school leaving. For example the Catania ‘Music at school’ project uses the universal language of music as a social link.

Education and skills

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Being a member of minority ethnic groups such as the Roma and immigrants/undocumented migrants means that they suffer particularly from discrimination and thus have less chance to access employment, often are forced to live in worse physical environments and have poorer access to essential services

Fighting discrimination

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• Roma-Net key messages for cities

• The Reg GOV network addresses the integration of Roma population and other deprived groups into the social, cultural and economic life of their cities

• The MILE network (Managing migration and Integration at local Level) addressed and developed three sub themes : enterprise development, active inclusion in the labour market, and access to services and intercultural dialogue. (e.g.’You are an Ace’ project).

 

Fighting discrimination

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Disability or ill-health limit the ability to access employment and also lead to increased day to day costs. Even if the majority of European cities do not have direct legal competencies related to health, their social and environmental actions interact on a daily basis with the well-being of city dwellers

• “Building healthy communities” : urban factors that have an impact on health and the means to integrate this objective in their urban policies.

 

Health

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Providing adequate and quality housing is a key element in the fight against poverty of inner city populations.

• improving rundown areas in historical city centres without displacing fragile residents (amongst others).

• reviving high rise blocks for cohesive and green neighbourhoods, in particular in ‘new’ member states

Social housing

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LINKS

Ageing, together with outward migration of skilled and motivated young people, are major challenges, resulting in demographic and social structural changes that lead in some degree to social exclusion.

• Op-Act recommendations on dealing with demographic change

• Healthy ageing” network promoting active & healthy ageing and age-friendly environments in cities, for example by improving the age-friendliness of cities

Demographic change

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Involve and engage with people in the development of their town or city rather than just inform them once decisions have been made

The TOGETHER project applied an open approach to helping citizens speak for themselves and identify actions to be taken in each city

The SURE network helps small and medium sized towns build strategies for the social, economic and physical regeneration of their deprived central neighbourhoods, e.g. ‘placemaking’.

participation

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Governance in integrated neighbourhood development to achieve successful and sustainable integrated neighbourhood regeneration

• cooperation and integration at and between different administrative levels for urban neighbourhoods experiencing multiple deprivation

Governance

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4. Where do we go from here?

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“Living in a highly segregated badly perceived neighbourhood adds further deprivations— stigmatisation, negative reinforcement, pessimism, low buying power and a weak local economy. It is obvious that an integrated approach to tackle poverty in a segregated area of the poor would be more successful “(Co-Net final report)

Looking ahead

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• Urban poverty still increasing… the physical and social cores of our cities are under threat, so where next?

• URBACT III “Promoting social inclusion and combating poverty”: a suggested theme?

• ERDF priority for integrated sustainable development

Before it is too late??

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Thank you!

Pauline Geoghegan

URBACT Thematic Expert

paulinegeoghegan@hotmail.com

www.urbact.eu

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