Author: erik

Climate just and climate proof urban development

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As a prelude to the new learning process of Connective Cities in Latin America, the dialogue event “Climate just and climate proof urban development” took place in Niterói, Brazil, from 26-28 November 2019. Cooperation partners of the event were the city of Niterói and UCLG Learning.

The 32 participants in the event, mainly local practitioners, came from 17 cities in six countries: Brazil, Germany, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina and Mexico. All participants work in their cities or projects on the topic of climate resilience/climate adaptation in the context of sustainable urban development. The aim of the event was to exchange experience and knowledge among local practitioners on the subject, to get to know good practices and to give mutual advice to colleagues, as well as to develop project ideas for further processing in subsequent events.

During an excursion, the group first got to know some of the current and completed projects of the Niterói Municipality in situ, and then gained further insights during a meeting with the Mayor Rodrigo Neves.

15 Pathways to localise the Sustainable Development Goals

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This publication illustrates how the 15 pathways of the Basque Declaration can be used by towns and cities to localise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In this publication, the 15 pathways of the Basque Declaration are illustrated with stories taken from the Transformative Action database of the Sustainable Cities Platform. Each of these stories are former applications to the Transformative Action Award 2017-2019 and have been reviewed by a jury of experts, which includes representatives from the European Committee of the Regions, the European Investment Bank, UNESCO Etxea, the City of Aalborg (Denmark) and ICLEI Europe.

The purpose of these stories is to provide local governments and other local stakeholders with inspiration for action, rather than the formulation of yet another action plan. The examples also give insight into how to implement the goals using an integrated approach across sectors and departments. For each story, the most relevant pathway and SDGs are indicated, based on an independent assessment by ICLEI Europe. They show the diversity of approaches across topics, geographical locations and local cultures.

The Power of Cities

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“The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified urbanization as one of the key challenges for public health in the 21st century. It is typically discussed in negative terms, including infectious outbreaks, unhealthy lifestyles and environmental threats. Yet cities offer significant opportunities to improve public health through health-enhancing policies and actions. […] City leaders are key allies in delivering national public health objectives among large parts of the population. City leaders have the means, opportunity and obligation to protect the health and well-being of their people by defining priorities, uniting stakeholders around common goals, and ensuring accountability for outcomes. City leaders’ commitment is important not just for the health of cities, but for global health as a whole. […] Cities are the main implementation sites for national health policies and programmes – without their support, global targets are unlikely to be achieved. This report is a call for city leaders to rise to the challenge and show the world how local action can help solve global health problems.”

Resilient cities, thriving cities: The evolution of urban resilience

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“This report uses the decade-long experience of the Resilient Cities Congress series as a proxy to track the evolution of the global resilience debate over the last ten years, creating a solid base to build the next decade of bold action.
It explores a variety of resilience approaches; for example, how multi-stakeholder planning has contributed to finance and boosted local resilience, or how leveraging nature-based solutions has enabled cities’ adaptation to climate change and improved people’s quality of life. The report also provides successful examples of social cohesion benefitting physical resilience, especially in informal settlements.”

Understanding Infrastructure Interdependencies in Cities

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“Modern urban infrastructure and their systems of operation are highly interdependent. They are formed of multiple connections, feedback and feedforward paths, and intricate branching where services or information are transferred across city sectors. This means that if one system fails, it can have cascading impacts on other systems. Climate change can compound these impacts significantly. Some systems may be directly affected by climate change events – such as roads during flooding. Other systems may be affected indirectly, such as the health sector and the financial sector if there are power outages. The interdependencies of city systems combined with climate impacts can lead to a ripple effect of disruptions. Understanding infrastructure interdependencies and critical failure points is therefore vital to achieving long- term climate resilience across a whole city.”

Urban Girls Catalogue

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The Urban Girls Catalogue is a guide in inclusive urban planning, a deep dive into the process behind#UrbanGirlsMovement and an encyclopedia of good examples that showcase how feminist and participatory urban planning can lead to improved living conditions for society at large.
These are the results from #UrbanGirlsMovement, where we have composed a catalogue featuring: Global good practices of feminist urban development (part II); the results from the pilot case #UrbanGirlsMovement Botkyrka (part III); lessons learned from the entire initiative (part IV), as well as guidelines and policy recommendations for implementing parties and local, regional, national and global policy-makers (part V). The aim of this catalogue is for you, the reader, to find the necessary arguments for challenging set norms in your specific urban development context.

Towards a Financing Mechanism for Slum Upgrading at Scale in Nairobi

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In 2017, the County Government of Nairobi declared Mukuru to be a Special Planning Area (SPA), paving the way for the preparation of an integrated Local Physical Development Plan (LPDP) for this large informal settlement in collaboration with its residents and partner organizations.
The SPA covers Mukuru Kwa Njenga, Mukuru Kwa Reuben and Viwandani which together accommodate around 300,000 low-income residents, many of them living in extreme income poverty.
Implementing this ambitious integrated plan will require finance for a wide range of infrastructure services and affordable housing as well as complementary financial interventions to support micro- and small enterprises.
This publication sets out a financing mechanism for the envisaged upgrading investments in informal settlements in Nairobi, pejoratively called “slums”. Mobilizing the vast amounts of capital required will face critical challenges, with affordability and land tenure at the forefront.
An important aspect of this report is how the upgrading of Mukuru and other informal settlements in Nairobi could be linked to these institutional innovations which seek to deliver infrastructure services and affordable housing at scale.
International experience on slum upgrading finance is examined early in the report in order to draw out general trends that provide a useful backdrop for Nairobi. The cases of India, Morocco and Egypt are set out and a general approach to slum upgrading finance presented.

Network event for municipal experts

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On the 7th and 8th of October 2019, the international community of practice Connective Cities organised a networking event for municipal experts from its pool of experts at the headquarters of the German Association of Cities in Berlin. The aim of the event was to look back on Connective Cities’ past activities and to present the developed methods to new experts, as well as to offer a networking forum with actors who have already gained insight into the project’s activities. 

The Future of Asian & Pacific Cities

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A sustainable future occurs when planning lays a foundation; resilience guards against future risk; smart cities deploy the best technology for the job; and financing tools help pay for it all.

The report focuses on four essentials that cities must get right. Urban and territorial planning, strengthening resilience to future risks, supporting the effective interplay between people and technology, and financing tools, all of which are essential to deliver sustainable smart cities in our region. With three to five future policy pathways per chapter, the report offers ways to seize these opportunities and realize sustainable urban development by 2030. Regional cooperation and strong partnerships among all interested parties will be essential to pool expertise, accelerate progress and deliver the integrated approach needed.

Cities leading the way

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Cities are already leading the way with ambitious plans to accelerate action on climate change. With more political will, community support and collaboration, cities can make an even greater contribution to securing a climate safe future.
The seven cities showcased here report that the planning process is an opportunity to engage internal and external stakeholders on the level of ambition needed and the roles different players can take. Co-creating the vision for the city and collaborating on the development of solutions ensures stakeholders have ownership of the process, support the long-term vision and take action themselves.
While each city has taken a different approach to the style and structure of their climate action plan/s, all of them demonstrate ambition and accelerated delivery as core objectives. The approaches highlighted in this report are intended to inspire other cities across the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and beyond to follow suit and play their part in delivering the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
Rather than attempt to summarise each city’s plan, the case studies presented in this report highlight a particular aspect that could be of interest to other cities.