B40 NETWORK LOCAL DEMOCRACY AND MIGRATION WORKING GROUP

After Sofia took the presidency of B40 Balkan Cities Network in the beginning of 2025, Sevdalina Voynova with Sofia Development Association started chairing the Local Democracy and Migration working group on behalf of Sofia Municipality. After a couple of virtual meetings, the city representatives in the working groups came to Sofia for a face-to-face gathering to share experiences and best practices, to work on joint projects to address shared challenges.

Among the good practices shared by Sofia were te grantmaking program of Sofia Municipal Council entitled Europe, which was presented by Ekaterina Yordanova, deputy chairperson of the programme council, and the disaster management department with its training grounds and volunteer unit, presented by its director Krasimir Dimitrov.

Based on Sofia proposal, the B40 member cities decided to establish an annual award for member cities to recognise successful experiences and public policies on citizen participation, community engagement, democratic innovation, public deliberation, and open government. The first edition will be launched in July inviting good practices in 6 categories: Participation of marginalized and vulnerable groups; Urban management and public spaces; Digital citizenship; Civic education; Volunteering and co-creation; Climate adaptation and justice.

The initiative will raise awareness of the value of active citizenship in local democracy and advance access to resources and innovative practices, inspire and raise the profile of B40 cities. It will be a special Sofia legacy for the B40 network.

SOFIA CLIMATE SANDBOX WORKSHOP

Open air co-working space for civil society organizations, heat asylum for the community, community vegetable garden, community rain collectors, seating area with tables and board games, a demonstration site showcasing urban heat islands mitigation measures, yard art residency and environment civic education classroom – these are just some of the co-creation ideas how to transform a neglected municipal yard on 55 Veslets Street, Sofia. This Climate sandbox workshop was organized by Sofia Development Association and Bureau for Integration and Social Innovations in the framework of Be Ready project. It brought together a variety of stakeholders to design together a road map for Sofia pilot project implementation.

The pilot venue is selected to be in area of Lavov most (‘Lion’s Bridge’), one of the major crossroads in Sofia, in Draz mahala, close to the central railway station and central bus station. The pilot implementation, aiming to create a climate refuge from the urban heat islands, will start in July 2025, using the participative approach of its ideation and co-creation of the urban environment.

This project is supported by the Interreg Danube Region Programme co-funded by the European Union.

GENDERED COALITION PROJECT HELD A NATIONAL TRAINING ON DISMANTLING STEREOTYPES AND COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGNS IN PLOVDIV

On April 23, 2025, Plovdiv hosted a national training dedicated to the theme “Dismantling Stereotypes: How to Build Effective Campaigns Against Disinformation?” The event was part of the initiatives under the GenderED Coalition Project and brought together 20 participants from diverse personal and professional backgrounds. It was organized by the Bureau for Integration and Social Innovation and the Sofia Development Association, with the National Alliance for Volunteer Action serving as host.

The seminar opened with welcoming remarks from representatives of the two partner organizations – Denitsa Lozanova and Mina Antonova – who presented the goals of the project and invited participants to engage with the program. The seminar was facilitated by Hermina Emiryán.

The first session featured an interactive exercise in which participants assumed different social roles to explore how stereotypes can influence the perception of individuals in society.

After a short coffee break, the program continued with a presentation by Marina Kissiova de Heus from the “Ekaterina Karavelova” Foundation, focused on building networks and conducting public campaigns. Topics included practical examples and opportunities for inter-organizational cooperation.

In the next exercise, participants explored how communication messages are formed and perceived by society. The final session was led by Asya Velichkova – a digital marketing expert – who presented approaches for creating online campaigns with a focus on reaching the right target groups.

The seminar is part of the GenderED Coalition Project, which is co-funded by the European Union.

BEREADY RECOGNIZED AMONG INTERREG CE AND INTERREG DRP PROJECTS IN THE FIELD OF CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION

A meeting organized jointly by the Interreg Central Europe and Interreg Danube Region Programmes on 11 April 2025 intended to reinforce synergies and partnerships between actions funded by the two programs in the field of climate change adaptation. As one of the ten projects invited to participate, BeReady presented its objectives, solutions and achievements thus far. The project topic – urban heat islands (UHI) and cities’ preparedness and mitigation capacity – is gaining importance due to the global warming and climate change but is yet to take center place in urban adaptation strategies. The approach taken by BeReady combines UHI risk and vulnerability assessment, online assessment tools, city pilots and mutual learning and training to address UHI and protect vulnerable populations. Projects featured in the meeting, for example, Ready4Heat, CICADA4CE, pursue similar objectives to mitigate climate change; we’ll be exploring opportunities for collaboration in the next phase of activities. This September, the BeReady cities from 10 Danube region countries will be hosting peer review visits for evaluation of their UHI mitigation pilots and will gladly welcome representatives of the sister projects. Jointly developing policy inputs and recommendations for improving the strategic planning efforts for climate adaptation in the Danube region is another area for potential collaboration that was identified in the meeting.

As BeReady moves into the second year of implementation, we look forward to strengthening our partnerships and sharing insights with like-minded allies for a greener, climate-resilient Danube area.

This project is supported by the Interreg Danube Region Programme co-funded by the European Union.

THE FIRST YEAR REVIEW OF BEREADY ENDS SUCCESSFULLY

The consortium partners of BeReady reported successful completion of the planned deliverables and reaching key milestones for the first 18 months of implementation. Hosted by JINAG in Brno, partners met on 1-2 April 2025 for intense discussions and progress review, led by the project officer Guzstav Csomor from JS/MA of the Interreg Danube Program.

During the review period, the 19 partners from 12 countries engaged in monthly online meetings, held over 25 dissemination and knowledge sharing events and meetings, signed local coalition pacts with over 131 members, engaged over 230 participants in workshops and capacity building events. The 10 city partners completed comprehensive Urban Heat Islands risk and vulnerability assessments, with some partners carrying out the analysis for the first time for their cities. We are proud to report reaching out to over 95,000 citizens in the partner countries through online and offline communication activities.

Numbers aside, the first project year was critical for placing the UHI topic in the spotlight of local authorities, climate change experts, citizens, the media. Partners have identified important gaps – institutional, technical, scientific, in the cities’ preparedness and capacity to tackle the vulnerabilities and effects of UHI on the urban infrastructure, urban climate, and most importantly, residents and vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly, and people with chronic diseases. To aid city authorities in planning UHI-resilience measures, BeReady has also launched an online platform for UHI risk assessment in four critical areas, i.e., urban climate, exposure of buildings and materials, vulnerable groups, city preparedness and adaptive capacity. The platform is accessible at HERE.

In the following months from July to September partner cities will be launching local pilot projects to address the UHI challenges in their cities, following an urban acupuncture approach; each city will implement a “blue,” “green,” or “white” measure in a selected city zone. City residents and local stakeholders across the partnership are invited to take part in the activities, helping to make their cities more UHI-resilient and ready to adapt to climate changes.

Read more about the project on the website https://be-uhi-ready.net/ and our social media https://www.facebook.com/bereadyprojecteu.

This project is supported by the Interreg Danube Region Programme co-funded by the European Union.