From 17th-19th September 2018, the fourth PERFECT partner meeting was hosted in Graz, Austria by the Provincial Government of Styria. Each of the eight PERFECT partners attended and sent stakeholders including politicians, managing authorities and delivery partners from within municipalities and externally.
The regular partners meetings are a key part of the project, learning from each other on good practice and exchange of experience, and building the capacity of staff and stakeholders. As well as undertaking a programme of learning activities, the partners receive an update on progress reporting and financial management of the project, and hear from the lead partner on latest developments at a programme level.
During the three-day meeting, partners and their stakeholders took part in a number of activities:
- Presentations giving updates on the progress of the project so far. Each partner also gave an individual update on their activities and goals for the project which emphasised the importance of interregional learning;
- Eva Benedikt, who is a Senior Expert in the planning department of the City of Graz, gave an expert presentation on the future development of the City of Graz;
- A workshop, designed and facilitated by the TCPA, where participants had to produce a master plan for a small district council in the UK to ensure that it is resilient to climate change as well as accommodating additional homes, making the most of the multiple benefits of green infrastructure interventions.
- Individual partner presentations by the Municipality of Ferrara on their guidebook for participatory planning; by Amsterdam on their Rainproof work for climate resilience; and by the stakeholder of the Provincial Government of Styria on adoption of the Stockholm System for tree planting and flood water management in Graz.
- Study visits to a new city development in the western areas of Graz, green developments in nearby Leibnitz (including presentations on the green development and climate change adaptation), and a walking presentation around the Green Net of Graz. The study visits involved discussion sessions about what partners had learnt from the visits, and how the lessons could be applied to their work.
- The meeting culminated in the peer-to-peer working session, where partners discussed in their peer groups what they would like to achieve through their action plans, and how they can learn from each other to maximise their effectiveness.
Each partner completes learning logs from the event to show what they have found most useful from the meeting and what has helped their development to contribute to influencing their policy instrument.
The action plans have to be finalised by the end of 2019 and will outline how each partner will use the learning from the project to influence their policy instrument from 2020-2021. These are the most important output of the project and will be the method for transferring the learning from the project into tangible policy change across Europe.
