To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. These Better Stories cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.

This Better Story was collected by María López Belloso and Elena Ghidoni

Building a spirit of solidarity

Led by the cooperative Options, the campaign was launched during the pandemic crisis to promote solidarity and inclusivity. Its primary focus was to support vulnerable groups while also advocating for local and ecological agriculture, responsible consumption, and social enterprises.

Celebrating sustainable choices

The organization’s goals were:

• Practical Guidance: The campaign aimed to provide practical information and resources, offering people clear alternatives and insights into responsible consumption.
• Economic Benefits: Through partnerships and collaborations, the campaign aimed to offer economic advantages to participants.
• Smooth Transitions: Recognizing that change can be challenging, the organization worked to simplify the process. It provided assistance and arrangements to make adopting responsible consumption practices easy and hassle-free.

Image by aleksandarlittlewolf from Freepik

Find out more about the initiative

To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. The initiatives currently cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.

This Better Story was collected by Aart Kerremans.

15-minute cities: Creating complete, connected neighbourhoods

The City of Paris is carrying out far-reaching measures to become a ’15-minute city’, meaning that inhabitants should be able to reach whatever facilities they need within a 15-minute walk from their home. During the pandemic, it was touted as a way to sustainably reinvigorate life in an urban setting, as it should provide for the creation of more (green) public space, promote healthy lifestyles, and strengthen community networks. Implementation of a number of measures has already started, with prominent squares in Paris having been upgraded with more green (primarily trees) and more room having been kept free for pedestrians. Certain areas have been repaved with new bicycle lanes, so-called ‘coronapistes’, to improve the cycling experience across Paris during the pandemic and beyond. New community facilities have also been built and school grounds were reopened outside of school hours as green ‘oasis yards’, containing newly-planted trees and other amenities.

Context 

The ‘15-minute city’ concept has been around for longer, but Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo first proposed it for her city during her 2020 re-election campaign and started implementing initial renewals and upgrades during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Impact of the initiative

The project has helped pedestrianize and ‘green’ certain areas of the city, but it is far from being fully implemented in the entire city. For now, places like the Champs-Élysées have been refurbished, but millions of residents throughout the city have not yet seen significant changes in their neighbourhoods.

Illustration: Micael

To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. These Better Stories currently cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.

This initiative has been collected by Aart Kerremans and Dag Balkmar.

In Essen, Germany, the municipal authorities have set as their long-term objective the connection of green spaces and  waterways  throughout  the  perimeter  of  the  city.  It  primarily  connects  the  Ruhr  River  and  the  Emscher  River  through a network of green routes.

Since the ‘New Ways to the Water’ project started in 2005, an abundance of green routes has been created totalling 150 kilometres, with the objective of ensuring that every inhabitant lives less than 500 metres from one of these routes.

The project was implemented by the City of Essen concurrently with another project aimed at cleaning up the Emscher River, which has had to bear the brunt of a long his-tory of coal mining in the region.

The project also has an important socioeconomic dimension, given that it is connected to an employment scheme providing long-term unemployed people with jobs and training. A lot of the sub-projects that make up ‘New Ways to the Water’ are concentrated in former coal mining neighbourhoods with high unemployment rates as well.

‘New Ways to the Water’ is expected to end in  2022,  but  other projects will continue to improve the liveability of  the  city  and  the  city  authorities  have  plans  in  the  works for future green projects.

Find out more about the project