The EU Response & Renewal Programme is a new component under the Mayors for Economic Growth (M4EG) Facility. The M4EG is a joint EU and UNDP initiative, funded by the EU, to support secondary cities in the Eastern Partnership become active facilitators for sustainable, inclusive economic growth and job creation. The M4EG develops and implements an innovative approach to understanding and managing complexity, systems thinking and portfolio design for local authorities to define their needs and solve complex problems by collaborating with different stakeholders, experimenting and testing different solutions and learning from each other, which falls within the overall frame of “strategic innovation”. More information can be found at https://eum4eg.com