Between 16-18 May in Ust-Kamenogorsk and 19-20 May 2022 in Semey, the project team working on the Green City Action Plans (GCAP) for the two cities organised a series of in-person workshops and meetings. The purpose of the mission, led by a team of EBRD and consultancy representatives, was to gather views from a wide range of stakeholders on the most pressing environmental challenges the two cities are facing.

The stakeholder workshops in Ust-Kamenogorsk united stakeholders from different municipal and regional departments, utility companies, trade unions, academia and civil society organisations. The inputs received from the workshops were then discussed with the City’s technical working group. Some of the challenges brought up by stakeholders included water pollution from sewerage and the local industry, a lack of green spaces in proximity to people’s homes and the need for improved waste recycling.

In Semey, the workshops were attended by more than 100 stakeholders, of which half of the participants were women. Stakeholders noted for example the dust and particulates in the air, increasing car traffic, insecure water supply and poor planting and landscape management within the City.

As a next step, these insights from the workshops will be used to prioritise the most urgent environmental challenges facing the cities. Based on this prioritisation of challenges, the project team will start working on a tailored vision for each city, linked to concrete objectives – on which stakeholders will be able to express their views again. As a final step of the GCAP development, implementable actions will be developed.

Semey and Ust-Kamenogorsk both joined EBRD Green Cities in 2020 are developing their GCAPs in parallel as part of the EBRD Green Cities network.