Future Cities of South East Europe: Phase 1

Overview

Future Cities of South East Europe is a regional initiative co-funded by the EU through EIT Climate-KIC. Its cities, Skopje, Maribor, Sarajevo, Križevci, and Niš, set out to make 15 city neighbourhoods inclusive, prosperous, and zero-carbon, and some of the best places in Europe to live, work, and visit by 2025.

In Phase 1 (2019–2020), SmartUp was the lead partner for Skopje. We worked with the City of Skopje to take stock of the city, set shared priorities, and lay the foundations for a new way of working: a mission-driven YES Team, an investment portfolio to finance change, and tools for citizens to take part.

The challenge

Many initiatives, little coordination

Skopje already had many projects on air quality, waste, mobility, and public spaces, but most ran in isolation from one another.

Air pollution and climate pressure

Skopje ranked among the ten most polluted cities in the world in 2016–2018, and heat and flooding were growing risks.

Learning to work together differently

Reaching shared goals meant new models of governance, new forms of collaboration, and new working relationships across the community.

Activities and methods

In Phase 1 we built the foundations for a mission-driven approach in Skopje:

Setting focus areas – we mapped stakeholders and existing projects and, with the City, focused on air pollution, waste, circular economy, public transport, public spaces, and public e-services.
Designing the YES Team – we developed a governance model for an independent team of local actors that could drive the mission, as the operational unit of SkopjeLab.
Taking stock of the city – we compiled strategies, inventories, data sets, and progress across air, waste, water, mobility, energy, nature, and climate, and held a multi-sector workshop in October 2020 to agree priorities.
Making the investment case – together with expert partners we built an economic case for decarbonising Skopje and an experimental impact investment portfolio for the City.
Opening up participation – we created a platform for collective visioning, Zelen Glas, collected citizens' visions for the city, and helped set up a community learning platform.

Impact and learning

Phase 1 produced the tools and shared direction that Phase 2 built on:

A governance model for the YES Team, which became the basis for a lasting local organisation
An experimental impact investment portfolio for the City of Skopje
An economic case for the decarbonisation of Skopje
Zelen Glas and a collection of citizens' visions for Skopje
A summary of achievements, challenges, and priorities for the city's future development, bringing together the City's strategies and the priorities agreed in a multi-sector workshop

Gallery

Outputs

Future Cities of South East Europe: How far we have come

Our summary of what the initiative achieved and what comes next.

View Blog

Future Skopje on Medium

Stories and updates from the Future Cities work in Skopje.