Resilient Cities Catalyst

Resilient Cities Catalyst | 2019

In partnership with a community of urban resilience actors, RCC leverages experience and a pioneering ecosystem of partners and practitioners to apply lessons, insights, and resources to advance this critical work. RCC works with cities to build the local capacities and partnerships needed to understand, prioritise and concretely address each city’s risk and chronic stress as it pursues strategic goals or recovers from a crisis.

Urban Practitioners

RCC is a network of urban practitioners with deep experience in municipal government service design and delivery, public and private funding and financing, and philanthropic partnership development.

“Our resilience approach rests on three pillars – integrated assessment, planning and action, inclusive governance, and a forward-looking risk-based methodology.”

RCC’s resilience approach rests on three pillars – integrated assessment, planning and action, inclusive governance, and a forward-looking risk-based methodology – that build lasting capacity to address the deep-rooted problems that often impede progress at the project, neighbourhood, city and regional scales.

Their professional experiences cover a breadth of technical domains, from economic development to affordable housing to climate change adaptation to urban mobility and beyond. We know the way cities budget, the way cities plan and procure, and how cities operate.

Resilience Experts

RCC is a network of resilience experts who are pioneers in the urban resilience movement. They have collectively partnered with more than 100 cities worldwide to catalyse and support their resilience-building journeys to deliver impact for their communities.

Strategic Conveners

RCC is a group of strategic conveners who understand the importance of bringing uncommon partners and practitioners together. They have built action-oriented communities of practice and networks of diverse actors centred on complex challenges like urban migration, natural infrastructure, seismic resilience, and more.

Gemeentelijk risicomanagement: een empirisch onderzoek

Peter B. Boorsma, Geert A.M. Haisma en Yvonne Moolenaar1 | 2003

Op grond van het Besluit Begroting en Verantwoording provincies en gemeenten van 17 januari 2003 (BBV – dit besluit vervangt vanaf begrotingsjaar 2004 het Besluit comptabiliteitsvoorschriften 1995 (CV95)) zijn gemeenten verplicht om een risicoparagraaf op te stellen en op basis daarvan hun weerstandsvermogen te berekenen. Tevens dienen gemeenten2 aan te geven welk beleid zij voeren ten aanzien van risico’s en het managen ervan. Dat klinkt fraai, maar uit de praktijk blijkt dat veel gemeenten worstelen met de uitvoering van deze verplichtingen. En ook de provinciale toezichthouder heeft haar controlerende taak vaak niet duidelijk omschreven. Lees verder

The secret of risk management

John O’Dea | April 2009

Risk Management is as old as Methuselah. Although there are no records in the book of Genesis that indicate that Adam and Eve carried out a risk assessment, their world and ours might have been a different place had they given it some thought.

John O’Dea

The world might also have been a different place had the developed nations – with their reputedly state of the art management tools – applied them with the base integrity assumed in any formalized risk management process.

Lees verder

Financial strategy in times of transition

Think tank ‘From Global to Local’ 2019

PRIMO Europe | juli 2019

PRIMO is organising the 6th ‘From Global to Local’ Think Tank in The Hague on Friday, 5 April 2019, in close collaboration with BNG Bank and UDITE. The findings, based on a survey of our members, are consistent with national and international reports: we are witnessing a combination of societal transitions. These are taking place simultaneously and genuinely call for reflection and a reassessment of financial strategy in the public sector.

De Denktank 2019. V.l.n.r. Gido ten Dolle (Delft), Tom Schulpen (Noord-Brabant), Henriëtte de Jong (Groningen), Ad Verbakel (Eindhoven), Teun Eikelboom (Ministerie BZK), Johan de Kruijf (Radboud Universiteit), Hans van Lent (Ede), Hans Krul (Delft), Jan Willem Dijk (Assen), Bert Hummel (BNG Bank), Caspar Boendermaker (BNG Bank), Jaap Zwaan (Medemblik) en Jack Kruf (PRIMO).

These include transitions in the social sector, the Environment Act, digital transformation (cybersecurity, privacy, artificial intelligence, big data), the energy transition, the circular economy and climate change. They are placing significant pressure on financial resources in terms of maintaining society’s resilience. It appears to be a systemic issue.

The recent letter from Seth Klarman to investors is on the table. Klarman is a hedge fund manager, CEO and portfolio manager of the Baupost Group. To put it mildly, he draws attention to the growing problem of government debt.

Above all, it is clear that there is a great need for innovation in the form of practical and concrete financial instruments. It would appear that sound financial governance and management once again form the foundation of our future. Hence, a 2019 PRIMO think tank that delves into the status quo, scenarios and concrete tools, exploring both administrative ambition and financial realism. Looking in the rear-view mirror and peering under the bonnet are important, but no longer sufficient. Ex post democratic accountability is essential, but ex ante financial architecture – which actually works and can be linked to scenarios – is certainly becoming a critical success factor.

Lees verder

Het sociaal domein vraagt om meervoudige sturing

 

De complete lezing die gemeentesecretaris Jan-Paul Woudstra* op 13 februari 2019 uitsprak op het RiskCongres Lokaal Bestuur op het Provinciehuis Utrecht.

Hij belichtte de decentralisatie in het sociaal domein als opgave, bezien vanuit de positie van gemeentesecretaris. Welke duiding geef je als secretaris aan zo’n opgave en welke rollen pak je daarin? Hij zoomde in op een aantal dilemma’s in de regio Haaglanden, met name op het gebied van inkoop van Jeugdzorg. Hij stipte de aard van de overheidssturing aan. Woudstra: “We leven in een tijd waarin iedereen het heeft over de samenwerkende overheid die responsief omgaat met initiatieven uit de samenleving. In deze tijdgeest van ‘in verbinding zijn’ geven gemeenten invulling aan de decentralisaties in het sociaal domein. Zo ook in Haaglanden.” Lees verder

Is er genoeg financiële kracht om transities het hoofd te bieden?

Johan de Kruijf en Jack Kruf | april 2019

De titel vormde één van de kernvragen in de Denktank From Global to Local van 5 april j.l.  Kijkend naar de voorliggende transities, de toename van risico’s in het publieke domein en het geleidelijk oplopen van achterstanden in beheer en onderhoud, kwam deze vraag nadrukkelijk op tafel. Dus hoe staan we financieel er eigenlijk voor in Nederland? Een eerste verdieping. Minder rooskleurig? Haarscheurtjes? Niet echt hersteld van de kredietcrisis, nu 10 jaar geleden? De serie financiële tegenvallers inzake de transitie van het sociaal domein is nog niet ten einde en trekt diepe sporen. Zijn wij pessimisten? Nee, geenszins, realisten. Niet meer dan dat. De eerste krijtlijnen.

Kengetallen en basiscijfers

Gemeenten en provincies in Nederland hanteren sinds 2016 een set vaste kengetallen om de financiële positie te beoordelen. We belichten solvabiliteit, netto schuldquote ongecorrigeerd en EMU-schuld. Bronnen zijn Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, waarstaatjegemeente.nl en Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving.

Lees verder

Is there sufficient financial capacity to cope with these transitions?

Johan de Kruijf and Jack Kruf | April 2019

The title was one of the key questions raised at the ‘From Global to Local’ think tank on 5 April. Given the transitions currently underway, the rise in risks within the public sector and the gradual accumulation of backlogs in management and maintenance, this question was brought to the fore. So what is the actual financial situation in the Netherlands? An initial exploration. Less rosy? Hairline cracks? Not really recovered from the credit crisis, now 10 years ago? The series of financial setbacks regarding the transition of the social sector is not yet over and is leaving deep scars. Are we pessimists? No, not at all; realists. Nothing more than that. The first outlines.

Key figures and basic statistics

Since 2016, local authorities and provincial councils in the Netherlands have been using a set of fixed key figures to assess their financial position. We highlight solvency, the unadjusted net debt ratio and EMU debt. Sources include Statistics Netherlands, waarstaatjegemeente.nl and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.

Lees verder