Thanks to the flexibility and quick response of the donor institution, the Municipality of Barcelona, MedCities was able to channel some of the available funding in supporting the valuable efforts of the Municipality in improving its crisis management unit, in promoting physical distancing for municipal services open to citizens and in supporting vulnerable groups by assuring food security.

 

The Covid 19 pandemic brought the Municipalities in the frontline of the sanitary crisis management and of the short and medium term response to its social and economic effects. On the other hand, some of the technical assistance projects that MedCities was implementing in collaboration with its members were severely affected by the impossibility to implement some of their activities as foreseen. 

This was the case of TerBrand project and its implementation in Zgharta Ehden Municipality. Thanks to the flexibility and quick response of the donor institution, the Municipality of Barcelona, MedCities was able to channel some of the available funding in supporting the valuable efforts of the Municipality in improving its crisis management unit, in promoting physical distancing for municipal services open to citizens and in supporting vulnerable groups by assuring food security.

In concrete, two small scale interventions took place as part of  two larger municipal projects:

  • In the frame of CoDIS project, MedCities supported the implementation of an e-government module to the webiste of the Municipality, currently under development, in order to reduce the physical presence of citizens to the municipal premises and favour the digitalisation of some of its services. This action was reinforced with the installation of separation material in order to improve the physical distancing of the public in the municipal offices. Furthermore, a thorough risk and resource mapping was realised during the pandemic outbreak by the Municipality and with the support of MedCities, it was digitalised and inserted in the Municipal GIS. In that way, the Municipality will be better equipped when dealing with future crisis and disaster management. 
  • In the frame of the «Work for growth, grow for life» project, through which the Municipality is supporting the socio-economic inclusion of vulnerable groups through urban and periurban agriculture, the beneficiaires profited from MedCities support for the acquisition of agricultural entrants and through the organisation of a training on sustainable agriculture in the region of Zgharta.

 

Although such interventions are limited in scale, they contribute to reinforcing the municipal response in dealing with the Covid 19 effects, they support social inclusion in a country devastated by consequent crises and they strengthen the municipal actions towards digitalisation of the public function.