Connecting Nature Deliverable 4: Report on outcomes of meetings, consultations, webinars and workshops leading to the publication of a 'Co-creation for cities' guidebook and infographics

Co-creation and co-production have been recognised as a novel collaborative mode of urban governance, which allows for deep participation to leverage and weave together local, expert and tacit knowledge and ultimately advance urban sustainability and resilience. Co-creation and co-production promote collaborations and partnerships among diverse actors – including civil servants, citizens, planners, entrepreneurs, architects, scientists, and engineers – in the design, implementation, and eventually stewarding of nature-based solutions (NBS). In this way, they can support the generation of new and more integrated knowledge that leads to the design of multifunctional NBS (pertaining not only to their mere technical design but also to their financing, business models, and social innovations) addressing local needs and mobilising local opportunities. In addition, the collaborative nature of co-creation and co-production generates novel and shared problem framings and visions, spurs new relationships between actors (for example between local government and citizens, across city departments) and triggers the (re-)definition of roles and responsibilities and empowerment of actors to become engaged in NBS advocating and stewarding.

This report presents the work-in-progress on how in Connecting Nature we have developed the frameworks and guidebooks for co-production of NBS and reflexive monitoring via an iterative co-production process between the scientific partners and cities – so far together with the Connecting Nature frontrunner cities Genk (Belgium), Glasgow (United Kingdom) and Poznań (Poland). Next to supporting the co-production processes on the ground, the framework also integrates insights on how different cities design co-production processes in practice, including the starting considerations/objectives, when and how (not) to connect to which types of actors, the tools used and opportunities and challenges encountered. The frameworks allow to systematise knowledge from the experiences with co-production and reflexive monitoring from cities back to the conceptual level of the design principles and to thus develop conceptually grounded and practice-proven guidebooks with empirical examples and lessons.

Setting up high-quality, viable and effective co-production requires good process designs, knowledge about the right tools and methods, as well as enabling conditions that provide the basis for co-production.

In summary, the framework encompasses the following building blocks:

• Co-production design principles provide a heuristic to design and evaluate knowledge co-production processes. Next to facilitating the design and implementation of co-production processes, the principles allow for the outcomes and impacts of co-production to be mapped and measured, for example, whether knowledge-based outputs inform strategic urban agendas.

• Co-production tools and methods can be used in specific co-production activities and settings so as to facilitate discussions, interactions, and knowledge exchanges between actors in line with a specific objective (e.g. vision development, problem framing).

• Reflexive monitoring framework that includes a set of tools and methods to continuously learn about how the co-production process proceeds and identify follow-up actions and consequently adapt the process of NBS implementation on the go.

  We have worked with the cities in Connecting Nature to co-produce and apply the frameworks of co-production and reflexive monitoring. In this way, we could advance and apply the frameworks and methods as reported here, as well as learn from the cities’ experiences to derive conclusions for co-production and reflexive monitoring of NBS implementation. Both frameworks have proven valuable in both cities to support the co-production of NBS and to identify and navigate critical conditions, opportunities, and barriers for co-production. Specifically, the insights help to characterise co-production journeys and patterns in cities and to derive lessons learned. From the insight on needs, barriers, opportunities, and lessons for co-production, we can further expand the co-production framework by identifying co-production capacities that embody the conditions that need to be in place to enable and facilitate co-production.

  This work has resulted in two draft guidebooks on co-production (Appendix A) and reflexive monitoring (Appendix B), which combine the theoretical review and practical experiences and examples and will be further enriched as the project moves along. The guidebooks are conceived as methodological guidance and rich cookbooks based on the theoretical review and practical experiences and examples with co-production and reflexive monitoring that are presented here.