The Metropolis Initiatives
Facilitate and Promote Sustainable City
Transformation
Through the exchange of knowledge and experiences in Governance,
Urban Innovation, Sustainability and Social Inclusion
The Metropolis Initiatives launched in 2012 are specific projects
and services by and for cities in conjunction with businesses
and institutions interested in themes concerning Governance,
Urban Innovation, Sustainability and Social Inclusion.
With the Initiatives, Metropolis seeks to consolidate network-based
management of its activities, targeted at projects and oriented toward
outcomes, open to partnerships and external funding.
There are many different benefits for the city or partner which leads or
participates in a Metropolis Initiative:
 Exchange information, knowledge, know-how and good practices on
a project or theme of interest
 Learn from other cities that want to implement or are already
running a similar project or service
 Attain higher visibility and a good international positioning of the
project and the city
 Develop international cooperation
 Transform its own practice and encourage the formation of an
institutional culture of exchange and improvement at the internal
level.
For cities and partners, taking part in a Metropolis Initiative represents a
mutual benefit of learning, exchange and international visibility.
In 2013, the Secretariat General (SG) is supporting the cities and partners
that lead and participate in nine Initiatives.
Metropolis adapts to the needs and realities of each Initiative, given that
each has its own and distinct leadership, objectives, duration, need for
support, and funding.
Metropolis’s objective via the Initiatives is to:
FACILITATE and PROMOTE the exchange of knowledge and
experiences among members and partners interested in city
issues concerning Governance, Urban Innovation, Sustainability
and Social Inclusion.
To deliver on this goal, the Metropolis Secretariat General performs
functions of facilitation and collaboration, orientation and
accompaniment, and evaluation.
Facilitation and Collaboration
The SG contributes to ensuring favorable organizational conditions to roll
out Initiative activities.
The goal is for cities and partners to incorporate the benefits of the
exchange of knowledge and experiences into their process and city
management.
The most common activities shared with an Initiative’s leader city are:
 To invite other cities, partners and academics to establish a work
community based around an issue of common interest. To jointly
agree on the conditions needed to carry out the collaboration.
Agreements (MoUs) are drafted that specify the framework of
the work, the goals and coordination mechanisms between the
party responsible for the Initiative and the SG, as well as the
financial backing.
 To organize work sessions (agreeing on schedules, moderating
sessions, recording agreements and informing the group).
 To participate in the funding of Initiative activities and track
expenses incurred.
 To provide the human resources needed for good coordination and
support for the Initiative.
 To launch a call for new initiatives, promoting this activity amongst
all members and partners.
 To organize a meeting of the Initiative’s Panel. The Panel makes
proposals to the Board of Directors on the Initiatives to incorporate
into Metropolis activities.
 To agree on different work forms (individual, group, face-to-face
and remote).
 To define the channels and forms to communicate and interact,
which may be: the Metropolis website, social networks, email,
forum, telephone, chat, face-to-face sessions.
Orientation and Accompaniment
The SG supports and accompanies the work of the party responsible for
the Initiative and they become the sponsors of change, in so far as they
permit innovation through the exchange of persons and experiences.
The following activities are performed to meet this function:
 Incorporation of the three main areas of innovation, i.e.,
complexity, research and use of ICTs, into the Initiative’s work.
 Recommend renowned experts in particular areas, universities and
training institutions, etc.
 Encourage cities to form partnerships with public and/or private
organizations and businesses, academics and civil society to carry
out the Initiatives.
 Make recommendations to aid decision-makers, urban managers
and politicians when it comes to taking decisions.
 Offer case studies, support information, good practices,
methodologies, evaluation, recommendations and lessons learnt on
the website and other means of communication.
 Agree on the way to document and present their experiences.
 Accompany cities interested in the urban issue concerned,
identifying problems and proposing solutions. Face-to-face technical
visits with experts are frequently held, using methodologies such as
peer review.
 The Initiative’s sponsor city can set an example with its own
experience and demonstrate to participants from other cities
experiences that will facilitate changes in both cities.
 The Initiative’s sponsor city can, in the process of its own practice,
foster the formation of an institutional culture of exchange and
improvement at the internal level.
 To motivate the work communities, they can foster an environment
of respect, openness and positive criticism.
 Make participating cities aware of the advantages of incorporating
innovation strategies that impact learning and encourage them to
overcome resistance to change.
 Invite city representatives to assume the commitment of getting
actively involved in the Initiative as an opportunity to improve their
professional practice and that of the city group or department in
which they work.
 Promote a feeling of belonging to a group (work community) among
Initiative participants.
 Continuously invite Initiative participants to work systematically and
on an ongoing basis to reach the objectives agreed on.
 Highlight success stories in the field of the Initiative and share them
with the others.
 Encourage each party responsible for an Initiative within their
community to commit to also becoming the facilitator of another
Initiative to get them involved in the process.
Evaluation
The SG and the party responsible for the Initiative function as promoters
of reflection and assessment of the Initiative’s transformation and
innovation experience.
 Their activities are targeted at promoting the self-evaluation of
progress and achievements, and assessment in pairs aimed at
enriching proposals generated by other cities.
 They bring together Initiative coordinators and learning managers
to meet and facilitate the emergence of exchanges and synergies.
 They send a satisfaction questionnaire to participants for
subsequent evaluation. The results are compiled and shared with
the goal of contributing improvements to the operation of the
Initiatives.
 They prioritize the generation of a dynamic of self-evaluation and
joint evaluation of the Initiative’s cities and partners regarding the
incorporation of new skills learnt.
 They give rise to collective reflection on the experiences presented,
the impact and changes that can be achieved by incorporating new
elements, and the experiences generated among participants in the
Initiative workshops.
 They promote a reflection on the difficulties, limitations, impacts
and benefits produced throughout the life of the Initiative.
In publicizing and promoting the Initiatives
The following communication tools and documents have been drafted and
disseminated:
 The Initiatives approved in 2011 have been included in the 2012-14
Action Plan brochure.
 In 2012, a traveling exhibition of the Initiatives has accompanied
meetings in various cities.
 A 2012 Initiatives report.
 Initiative activities and outcomes have been publicized on the website,
e-newsletter and on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
 A general informational two-page leaflet on the Metropolis Initiatives.
 Videos of the Initiatives.