D9.5: Policy Report – Joint Manifesto
Work Package 9, led by Crowd Helix, support the engagement and outreach activities between the VARCITIES Consortium and stakeholders, with the objective of accelerating the impact of VARCITIES solutions and uptake by key target audiences through effective communication and dissemination strategies and activities.
Specifically, within Task 9.5 led by TSI, Deliverable 9.5 is a Policy Report developped with our Sister Projects (financed under the same H2020 call): IN-HABIT, GO GREEN ROUTES, euPOLIS. The Policy Report, in the form of a Manifesto, calls on European cities to launch initiatives that offer visionary and integrated solutions at the intersection of social, cultural, digital, and nature-based solutions to increase health and well-being.
Key messages
- The manifesto underscores the importance of a holistic approach, integrating nature-based solutions, health, culture, gender, and digital innovation, providing a comprehensive framework for sustainable urban development.
- Emphasizing an inclusive re-naturing strategy, the document advocates for health-related and nature-based interventions that empower communities, fostering social sustainability, a replicable model for inclusive urban development.
- By highlighting culture, arts, and heritage as undervalued but crucial resources, the manifesto promotes policies leveraging cultural diversity for sustainable living.
- The document calls for a sustained commitment to address the gender gap, empower women, and promote their active participation in the digital economy.
- Acknowledging the importance of transparency, the manifesto advocates for openly accessible platforms providing data on social dimensions. The call to support the digital transformation of MSMEs reflects a commitment to scalable practices, offering potential replication in diverse urban contexts.
Executive Summary
The Deliverable is a joint manifesto from four sister projects which calls on European cities to launch initiatives that offer visionary and integrated solutions at the intersection of social, cultural, digital and nature-based solutions (NbS) to increase the health and well-being of citizens. We are funded under the call SC5-14-2019 to address the challenge in an ambitious way and we commenced our innovation actions in September 2020 running for between 4 and 5 years.
IN-HABIT, VARCITIES, euPOLIS and GoGreenRoutes, are committed to achieving a series of bespoke visionary solutions to promote health and well-being in urban conurbations, by establishing sustainable and inclusive models for increasing the health and well-being of citizens exposed to different climatic conditions and societal challenges. Our projects working across almost two dozen urban conurbations in Europe with links to urban centres beyond work with a total of nearly five million citizens.
This is a public deliverable, you can download it below.