Seminar upacks local government and the changing urban-rural interplay

Dr Tinashe Chigwata a senior researcher and Dr Michelle Maziwisa a postdoctoral research fellow at the Dullah Omar Institute who did their  secondments in the European Union Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) programme presented at this seminar. The seminar included discussions between the first cohort of 2019, the 2020 cohort and the broader DOI-Multilevel Government community. 

Dr Chigwata shared his experiences at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Spain where he worked on the financing of municipalities and Dr Maziwisa shared her experiences at the Institute of Comparative Federalism, EURAC Research Italy where she worked on intergovernmental relations. 

The EU RISE programme promotes cross-border and cross-sector collaboration through sharing knowledge and ideas from research to market and vice versa within Europe and beyond. It ecognises the changing dynamics between urban and rural local government and considers various challenges such as pollution, housing, and inequality which are key issues for local governments. Often, rural municipalities face different challenges from urban municipalities, and this can have the effect of widening the gap between them. 

The overall aim of the EU-Rise is to ‘provide best-fit practices for local governments to address the changing urban-rural interplay and manage its impacts’. The EU-Rise promotes exchange and learning to build resilient urban and rural local governments regardless of their size, and to maximise opportunities and solutions for future challenges. 

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 823961.