PIMA was established five years ago with the ambition of encouraging its members, and others who share concerns about how ALE and LLL can make the world a better place, to think ‘outside-the-box’ (OTB). The Bulletin is a vehicle for doing this.

Greetings from CityNet Secretariat. It has been over two months since the WHO declared COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. Accordingly, many of our member cities have initiated total lockdown and taken a forceful pause on overall economic activities. It led many of those cities under lockdown to struggle with keeping a balance between following social distancing and keeping the nationwide economy afloat.

The second stimulus paper for the PASCAL EcCoWell 2 Community Recovery Program is now available. This is on “Mental health and well-being”, featured below.

Increases in elderly populations and population declines expected in the next decade and longer will cause rural areas and small towns, especially, to lose many essential long-standing businesses such as grocery stores, restaurants, etc. Retirements of elderly long-time owners, loss of young families to larger centers, and other issues will make it difficult to transition these businesses to new owners. At the same time, the businesses are critical to maintaining a high quality of life and viability of the communities.