Recent happenings, and especially the current international crisis caused by the spread of the Covid-19 virus created new, unexpected challenges on the European political agenda. The contemporary occurrence of many different adversities (financial, social, environmental, migratory), raised new doubts and uncertainties about the availability of efficient instruments and appropriate knowledge for prompt reaction of European institutions and national governments.
The unexpected magnitude of the international crisis clearly showed the lack of measures for effective decision-making to respond to crises and to contemporarily ensure economic sustainability in the long term and the safety and well-being of people.
Thus, how to ensure the adaptability of regions and their resiliency in order to thrive despite adversity and crises?
The Erasmus+ project ReFace – Regions facing shocks: building resilient community will try to achieve this aim through the creation of effective tools to build resilient regions. Within this context, the term “resilience” is used to define the ability of regions to cope, adapt and recover from shocks, while reducing their overall vulnerability to similar events in the long term. Resilience also means transforming past occurrences in a lesson to improve their reaction in the future[1].
After EU enlargement, it became necessary to strengthen the preparation of countries and regions to face moments of crisis with the use of innovative measures. Through an international partnership (Slovakia, Italy, France, Spain), the project ReFace aims to enhance key regional stakeholders’ knowledge and skills, and to raise awareness about how regional actions shape the response to major economic, social and environmental challenges. It will be done through:
- European Report on resilient regions preparation;
- Syllabus for the MOOC “Regions facing shocks: building resilient community”;
- MOOC “Regions facing shocks: building resilient community”;
- The road map “Supporting a Resilient Region – a tool for the Sustainable Communities”
Over two years, ReFace partnership will conduct researches, organise workshops and involve many different actors: public and local administrations, decision-makers and policymakers on regional and community level, NGOs, HEI students. Started in November 2020, the project will analyse four European regions with different characteristics, but linked together by the willingness to contribute to the creation of efficient instruments and governance measures to respond to adversities.
Would you like to take part in the creation of resilient regions?
If you are a representative of public administrations or a member of an NGO active in regional development, we would kindly invite you to share your experience with us.
About the project
ReFace – Regions facing shocks: building resilient community is a two-years project co-financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of European Union under Key Action 2 – Strategic Partnership in the field of Vocational Education and Training.
Partners
- Obcianske zdruzenie MAS LEV, o.z. (LAG) (Slovakia, coordinator)
- ASTRA – ZDRUZENIE PRE INOVACIE A ROZVOJ (Slovakia)
- ENTRE, s.r.o. (Slovakia)
- CESIE (Italy)
- Université Côte d’Azur (France)
- FONDO FORMACION EUSKADI SLL (Spain)
For further information
See the project website and read more about ReFace.
Contact Simona Sglavo: simona.sglavo@cesie.org.
[1] United Nations University: https://i.unu.edu/media/cpr.unu.edu/attachment/2232/Assessing-Fragility-Risk-and-Resilience-Frameworks.pdf
