Transformative solutions (such as nature-based solutions) can provide an environmental, social and economic boost to cities and its citizens, and help build resilience. But classic monitoring and evaluation won’t cut it when you start implementing these solutions. To help you get there, we’ve written his free, practical guidebook introducing you to Reflexive Monitoring.
An urban garden in a local preschool, by and for the community. Or a disused river valley that is redeveloped together with nearby neighborhoods & local businesses. These are nature-based solutions which help cities with the complex challenges they face today, like climate change, pollution, and (mental) health issues.
But planning, implementing and stewarding these solutions is hard to achieve using conventional governance strategies, as it requires city makers to navigate unpredictable and non-linear realities. Classic monitoring and evaluation, for example, isn’t suitable for the complexities of working on large-scale nature-based solutions, involving co-production of various actors and a rapidly-changing context.
We wouldn’t bring up this challenge if we hadn’t also found a solution. As part of the Connecting Nature project, we have created a practical handbook for Reflexive monitoring. This is a method for city-makers to monitor and evaluate transformative solutions throughout their lifecycle, based on transition theory.
The guidebook introduces you to this shared learning process, which is reflexive. Reflexivity allows city-makers to to identify and reflect on the challenges and opportunities they encounter throughout a project or campaign. By identifying barriers and opportunities in real-time, practitioners can better navigate them as well as react to how they change over time.
“Reflexive Monitoring has helped in a whole range of ways: to break siloes in the city council, to deliver our Growchapel Community Garden project and to nail down the issues which we were facing.”
Sean Kelly, Glasgow City Council
The guidebook takes you through how to apply reflexive monitoring to your context in 6 steps, featuring visuals, ready-to-use tools, and concrete examples from city-makers across Europe. It’s written specifically to support urban planners and policymakers, in a style that we hope to be clear and inviting, rather than overly academic or intimidating. It should also prove interesting for others interested in urban co-production processes to do with nature-based solutions (like NGOs).
