CONTEXT and OBJECTive:
Since September 2022, the Geneva Agglomeration has launched an ambitious approach for the cross-border territory: Greater Geneva in Transition. To accelerate the ecological transition in all aspects of this vast territory: nature, environment, landscape, urbanization, mobility, etc. This initiative is supported by the partners of the Greater Geneva: The Metropolitan Pole of the French Geneva area, the Nyon Region and the Canton of Geneva).
The objective is to feed the 2050 cross-border territorial vision and the various plans and roadmaps of the institutions (public policies and spatial planning). But to feed this vision, it is necessary to integrate the vision of those who live and work in the Greater Geneva area. And by the same token, to create a synergy to give local actors the desire to make a lasting commitment to the ecological transition. It is on this aspect that we are accompanying Grand Geneva (end of phase 1 and all of phase 2).
MODALITIES OF THE MISSION
In partnership with the teams of the Canton of Geneva, the district of Nyon and the French Genevan Metropolitan Pole, Missions Publiques pilots the following different stages of the project.
- Online survey
This first step allowed us to mobilize the public and to understand the individual brakes and levers for the transition. Results of the survey.
- 8 open forums
8 open forums, organized simultaneously on October 1st, made it possible to present the process to the inhabitants of the territory. They collectively defined the priority topics and avenues of reflection for the ecological transition of the territory. The particularity of this stage is that it took place in 8 municipalities of the agglomeration in France and Switzerland, in cities and in rural areas. Read more about the forums.
- The transition booklets
In parallel to the citizen consultations, questionnaires “the transition notebooks” were conceptualized and materialized by our team. The challenge is that local actors (associations, citizens’ groups), in direct contact with the users of the territory, can contribute and/or initiate on their side a dynamic of participation. These questionnaires can be filled in for the organisation (and thus serve as a tool for the animation of the team of volunteers, employees…) or for individuals. For an easy usage, we have also designed consultations and communication kits.
Transition booklets.
- 9 citizen workshops
The citizen workshops in November are a further step in the process. They took place between 22 and 29 November 2022. To get to the bottom of the territorial diagnosis, the inhabitants have discussed the obstacles and tensions regarding the ecological transition in order to feed the work of experts working on the cross-border vision for the Greater Geneva. The workshops took place in 9 different places to get closer to the inhabitants. Link to the booklets + workshops.
For further information on participation criteria and modalities
- The actors’ workshop
On 24 November 2022, local actors (actors working or interacting closely with inhabitants) gathered to reflect on Great Geneva’s transition, using the same method as the citizens’ workshops.
- The follow-up groups
The follow-up group, composed of both citizens and actors involved in the process, was mobilized in December 2022 to finalize the synthesis of the citizens’ workshops and the transition booklets. This synthesis has been presented to the institutional partners of Greater Geneva who work, on the basis of this material, on the elaboration of the preliminary version of a cross-border territorial vision. The material produced by the citizens and the actors of the territory can also be mobilized by other institutional actors in the development of different master plans and public policies. 10 ambassadors have been selected within this follow-up group to participate to the technical workshops in January 2023.
- The technical workshops
During a series of workshops that took place from 16 to 24 January 2023, multidisciplinary teams working at the scale of the four territories composing Greater Geneva and making proposals for the development of the agglomeration by 2050 met. For one day on each territory, they worked on the elaboration of a common vision. At the end of these workshops, the teams delivered concrete orientations which will then be studied and tested through territorial focus. This process is also fed by various thematic studies (mobility, demographic dynamics, environment, etc.). The ambassadors of the follow-up group were able to attend and participate in these meetings to ensure the voice of the citizens of Greater Geneva was included into the discussions. Our team accompanied them in this exercise.
In figures
ADDED VALUE OF THE APPROACH
The Great Geneva in transition approach is played out on a particular scale: it relies on local levers of action to accelerate the ecological transition, but it has the specificity of being located in a cross-border region with different life realities. The desire not to centralize the approach, but to go as close as possible to where people live (the organization of forums and workshops is in different places) allows us to capture a wide range of realities that make up this extended life basin. The approach will thus make it possible to feed the technical urban planning document that is the cross-border territorial vision with sensitive data, life experiences and the wishes of the inhabitants and users for their territory.
One of the specificities of the process is also the desire not to gather the views of citizens in silos, so the partners of The Great Geneva also include the views of associations and private actors.