Good practice:

REFORM: Fostering regional cooperation and capacity building for SUMPs

The practice was built based on the recognized need of the city authorities to increase their capacities regarding SUMPs.
The practice was implemented through the delivery of two capacity building and exchange of experience sessions, one for the staff members of the region (“training for the trainers” ) and one for the staff members of regions' cities. The “training for the trainers” targeted a small number of representatives from the Region of RCM, who would, afterwards, maximize the value of the training delivery to the Municipalities. A “hierarchy of training” approach was applied, in order to prepare the future trainers to deliver the SUMP training to others in the most effective way.
The participatory element was considered essential for the delivery of the sessions. Common mapping and data were used, taking the participants through the whole SUMP process. Presentations material included reference to good practices, while exercises/ worksheets included various tools/approaches according to the section delivered. A mixture of plans, figures, data, info cards for proposed measures, flipchart paper sheets, photographs, brought the element of ‘reality’ to the case study, simulating real co-planning processes. Role playing was applied, as the trainees formed two groups: region representatives and city representatives, reflecting potential different views on priorities of transport planning.

Material production and delivery of the “training for the trainers” in 4 Regions is estimated to acquire approximately 6 PM of expert human resources. Human resources for the delivery of the training to the cities’ representatives are estimated to 2 PM, covering only adaptation of existing material.

Knowledge and understanding of the SUMP process increased the – identified low – regional and municipal capacity.
Municipal representatives overcame their knowledge gaps in SUMP processes, but also interacted with each other for tackling severe administrative issued in SUMP procurements. Within the period following the capacity building seminars, eight (8) Municipalities procured their SUMPs and five (5) of them are currently under SUMP development.

Some difficulty in reaching the technicians (going beyond the political delegates), engaging the right persons and persuading them to act as leverages (permanent staff) for the promotion of sustainable mobility to the upper levels of chartered policy makers

The practice is easy to transfer to any region, but is mostly recommended for “soft” governance models of metropolitan regions, where mostly informal cooperation takes place and the Regional Unit does not have a mandate to coordinate or supervise the local SUMPs.
Joining forces between experts in SUMP development and marketing experts for stakeholders’ engagement is a prerequisite for the success of the practice. The Region should play the role of initiator and should lead the integration of the regional policies into the training context.