DD Foundation tells about the added value of We make transition! project.
We make transition! project involves 11 partner organisations. One of them is Foundation for Science and Liberal Arts Domus Dorpatensis in Estonia. The project team at DD Foundation describes below how We make transition! project has benefited their region.
Describe the project challenge?
One of the main challenges of the whole project really, was how to make sure that all 12 local transition arena processes would find the right balance between following the guidelines that we prepared in collaboration, but also adapting their plans to their local issues, networks and opportunities. For this, we collaborated with the lead partner to create a process that would tackle this challenge. We prepared a simple check-list of questions and organized one-on-one meetings with all our partners, to make sure there is a good understanding of the guidelines and that the best opportunities were being used in the local context.
What have you done in Estonia to solve this challenge ?
In Estonia, we’ve made a big effort to find the angles for both of our partner municipalities, that would stimulate enthusiasm both from the municipal government and the actual local actors. In both of the municipalities it meant going back and forward many times with the potential angles and changing them until we found the ones that really matched these criteria – circular economy in Tartumaa and sustainable education in Lääne-Harju. In both cases we’ve found existing planning activities to which our transition arena process could be attached to, so we can be sure that what we do with the Interreg project will definitely be giving input to the local governments officially, but at the same time, we can expand the processes with the transition management approach and the transition arena methods.
What have been the greatest highlights of the project so far?
So far, I think the Baltic Sea Region wide vision for a sustainable future came out quite inspiring, but also grounded in reality and real experiences of our change agents. We’ve already seen in the context of Tartumaa for example, that the ambitions of the BSR vision are ahead of what the municipalities generally think and already saw that this braver vision can be used to inspire both discussion and more ambitious goals.
What will be the most important transnational added value we will get from the project?
This is a cliche, but I think it has been immensely valuable that such a large group (both partners, associated partners and BSR change agents) of sustainability front-runners now see much better what are the regional similarities and differences. The similar problems give hope of joint solutions and the differences can often be viewed as potential good practices to learn from and adapt to their own contexts. We’ve seen this so many times, that while planning the transition arena process of one area, the best ideas come from the other partners at the partner meetings or other discussions.
What have you got personally so far from the project?
For the DD Foundation, this is our first Interreg project and for us, it has opened up the world of regional collaboration on sustainability issues. Following from the last question – we are one of those partners who now sees better with whom we could work regionally, to advance the causes we work for in Estonia. As an impact strategy consultant myself, I’ve also learned a lot about how to work with impact processes (such as the transition arena processes) within different cultural-political contexts.
