The FOSTER conference brought together experts and local leaders to work together on creating strong, prepared communities across Europe, focusing on practical ideas and new ways to make policies
The Public Conference “Managing the Future” took place on the 9th of October at 11.00am in Brussels at the Flagey conference venue. The event was organised by CEMR- COuncil of European Municipalities and Regions and ALDA- European Association for Local Democracy within the FOSTER – Future oriented Solutions Toward Environmental Resilience, a two years project funded by the CERV – Citizens Equality Rights and Values program of the European Union.
The Public conference gathered almost 100 participants, coming from a wide range of European countries, organisations and backgrounds. Indeed, the Conference welcomed representatives of several national associations of local and regional governments (Denmark, Latvia or Portugal) as CEMR members, representatives of think tanks and research institutes such as EPD, but also officers from the Brussels municipality, and representatives from the EU institutions (European Parliament, European Commission).
On the following days, 10-11 October, the Training of Trainers took place at CEMR headquarter.
The ToT was addressed to partners only, with the scope to:
- build a common understanding and language on foresight and participatory democracy.
- build and\or improve partners’ capacities and knowledge around the two main project pillars (participatory democracy and strategic foresight)
- set the basis for the local cascade training (WP3) and the local path (WP6-8-10-12)
The ToT lasted 1 day and a half (total of 8h) and was structured in 4 modules:
- Participatory democracy
- Foresight and scenario planning
- Inclusive communication
- Gender and anti discrimination policy
The training was conducted by ALDA and IRS as partner experts respectively on Module 1, 3, 4 and Module 2.
In the first training day (10 October), ALDA opened the morning session bringing partners into the Module 1 – Participatory democracy
The afternoon session was dedicated to Module 2 – Foresight and scenario planning, conducted by the IRS.
The second training day was conducted by ALDA who introduced the Module 3 and 4, and partners took the occasion to meet in presence and hold a SC meeting, to review the project workflow, clarify some tasks, discuss and plan the next steps.
The overall event, conference and training, were an opportunity for the participants, and for the FOSTER project’s partners, to hear from other experts in the field of strategic foresight, from theoretical and practical point of views, with different layers and levels of understanding.
Moreover, the event was the occasion for all the partners to meet for the first time. This meeting helped with the building of a common understanding around the initiative, and made the partners get a sense of consortium and partnership around the FOSTER project.
About the project
FOSTER aims to contribute to the development of governance frameworks that can effectively and inclusively address future environmental challenges at local level, by fostering strategic foresight and preventative local management of climate change-related phenomena. Started in September 2024, during the project, participants build capacity for foreseeing and analysing future socio-economic needs as consequences of climate change at local level; as well as, co- designing potential solutions bringing together all relevant stakeholders and community representatives at public and private level. Finally, international online networks are created to share best practices, materials and widely raise the debate on future oriented environmental governance.