European cities have signalled their strong need on consolidating knowledge and practice on multilevel governance and cooperation for supporting sustainable urban development.
This was one of the emerging takeaways of the 2024 Forward-looking survey conducted by the European Urban Initiative on Portico. And while multilevel governance is not an “one-size-fits all” topic, there are already valuable lessons learned on how other European cities built strong and resilient multistakeholder and multilevel governance systems.
An abundance of such peer experiences originates from the initial cohort of cities that were awarded grants through the European Commission's Urban Innovative Actions programme between 2014 and 2020. The knowledge on how these cities tackled complex urban issues such as climate adaptation, digital transition, housing or poverty using an integrated approach is captured in this 2022 report. With a dedicated chapter on multistakeholder and multilevel governance, the study highlights concrete examples on how cities managed to build and run extensive alliances around local governments, ranging from national and regional authorities to a variety of local stakeholders.
But let’s begin with a “tasting menu” of the practices and insights you can find about multistakeholder and multilevel governance already tested by innovative cities around Europe.
The starting point of multistakeholder and multilevel governance
This was one of the emerging takeaways of the 2024 Forward-looking survey conducted by the European Urban Initiative on Portico. And while multilevel governance is not an “one-size-fits all” topic, there are already valuable lessons learned on how other European cities built strong and resilient multistakeholder and multilevel governance systems.
An abundance of such peer experiences originates from the initial cohort of cities that were awarded grants through the European Commission's Urban Innovative Actions programme between 2014 and 2020. The knowledge on how these cities tackled complex urban issues such as climate adaptation, digital transition, housing or poverty using an integrated approach is captured in this 2022 report. With a dedicated chapter on multistakeholder and multilevel governance, the study highlights concrete examples on how cities managed to build and run extensive alliances around local governments, ranging from national and regional authorities to a variety of local stakeholders.
But let’s begin with a “tasting menu” of the practices and insights you can find about multistakeholder and multilevel governance already tested by innovative cities around Europe.
How to make it work on the long run?
Plan for flexible structures and tools that can support continuous engagement of your stakeholders. Tailormade structures that can allow public and private sector organisations as well as knowledge institutions and civil society actors to cooperate in a horizontal and vertical way have been instrumental for successful multilevel governance frameworks. Most of these structures act as intermediary and umbrella organisations.
Steps ahead: the essential role of leadership and knowledge
Urban practitioners now have access to an expanding repository of resources, including the European Urban Initiative's (EUI) Portico platform and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre's Handbook of Sustainable Urban Development Strategies. These sources provide a myriad of emerging good practices on multi-level governance. But the common ingredient stemming from all the available knowledge, is that leadership is crucial, starting from the initiatives of civil servants and various municipal departments and culminating with the strong advocacy by political leaders. So, change makers, unite!
