Tackling the impact of destructions – whether they stem from natural hazards, armed conflict, or acute urban distress – requires responses that consider the needs of all social groups and provides opportunities for social inclusion and economic development, while also acknowledging the specific needs, priorities, and identities of communities.
For this reason, culture – including tangible and intangible cultural heritage and creativity – is essential both as an asset and as a tool for city reconstruction and recovery. Placing culture at the heart of urban reconstruction and recovery strategies and processes is critical to effectively restoring the physical and social fabrics of cities.
Culture – an often overlooked and underestimated framework and value – is the foundation upon which cities are built. Cities are not just a collection of buildings but are people, their stories, and how they interact with each other through their cultural identity and sense of place.
Investing in cultural institutions, spaces, and heritage can help build bridges between sparring communities in post-conflict urban areas and make disaster recovery quick, sustainable, and more effective.
This joint Position Paper of World Bank and UNESCO serves as a guide for urban practitioners, operating on the ground, as well as national and local authorities, to integrate culture, both as an asset and as a tool, in all phases of city reconstruction and recovery.
Category: The social city
What the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C means for Cities
"Climate science must be accessible to urban policymakers, because without them, there will be no limiting global warming to 1.5°C. In cities and urban areas, there are actions that policymakers—along with residents and stakeholders, such as civil society, the academic community, and those in business and finance—can take to help limit warming and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The effects of a city’s actions are not limited to its own borders or region, and, likewise, lessons learned in some cities and urban areas can serve as inspiration and resources for solutions in other urban areas. This Summary for Urban Policymakers is synthesised from SR1.5, the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and relevant supporting research […]. It translates the key scientific
findings and policy observations of the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C for officials and policymakers of the world’s cities and urban areas."
International Evaluation of Public Policies for Electromobility in Urban Fleets
"Transportation electrification is commonly seen as a key measure to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigate climate change. Many urban environments are also grappling with severe air pollution and the resulting threats to public health, and cities are increasingly evaluating and implementing robust policies to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). Governments are also interested in the economic, industrial, and employment benefits from local development and manufacturing of emerging technologies such as EVs and their supporting infrastructure. Research shows that countries that adopt stringent environmental standards and a coordinated strategy for electromobility secure early-mover advantage for their firms, leading to the conditions that allow for industrial competitiveness in international markets."
Festivals as Integrative Sites Valuing Tangible and Intangible Heritage for Sustainable Development
The city is always suspended as a case of ‘heres’ and ‘elsewheres’, connected … and that is why artists may be doing a better job than southern, or northern, theorists in ‘painting’, ‘composing’, ‘dancing’ and ‘writing’ cities into being.
Festivals provide a window onto practices which integrate tangible and intangible heritage in the context of wider sustainable development challenges.
This report presents an anthology of festivals, collated by researchers and practitioners, which reveals the possibilities, promise and pitfalls of planning for culture and sustainable development.
4th Connective Cities Asian Dialogue Event
Road transport accounts for over 80% of the total transport emissions in Asia. If no countermeasures are taken, CO2 emissions resulting from the transport sector are projected to rise by 70% by 2050. At the same time, 64.5% of Asia’s population will be urban by 2050. Therefore, the extremely rapid increase of urban population in Asia and the rising CO2 emissions resulting from the transport sector lead to a high demand for climate-friendly means of urban transport.
The 4th Connective Cities Practitioners’ Workshop, which took place from 27 to 29 September 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand, brought together representatives from China, Georgia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Germany to exchange on the varied and complex tasks of sustainable urban mobility and climate change focusing on climate-friendly means of urban transport to reduce air pollution.
City region food systems and food waste management
Rapid urban growth; growing food and nutrition insecurity; unbalanced food availability, distribution and access; environmental degradation, resource scarcity and climate change; unsustainable production and consumption patterns, including generation of food waste – all of these have important developmental implications for both urban and rural areas alike. It is increasingly recognised that in order to respond to these challenges, integrated territorial development and balanced urban-rural linkages must be pursued for the benefit of both urban and rural populations. City region food systems (CRFS) offer concrete policy and programme opportunities within which these developmental issues can be addressed and through which rural and urban areas and communities in a given city region can be directly linked. These specifically address Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 11a – to support positive economic, social and environmental links between urban, peri-urban and rural areas – and are instrumental in linking SDG 11 with SDG 2 (on sustainable agriculture and food and nutrition security) and SDG 12 (on sustainable production and consumption).
This publication documents thirteen case studies from city regions around the world which are developing CRFS projects, programmes, and policies, including those related to the prevention, reduction and management of food waste. Lessons learned from the case studies for sustainable development of CRFS call for local, city regional, and (sub) national governments to institutionalise city region food systems, providing them an institutional setting and budget, linking them to larger city region development plans, and monitoring their developmental impacts across urban and rural areas.
How to make cities safer
This report presents the key insights, lessons and recommendations of a South African delegation that participated in a study tour on urban safety and violence prevention to Brazil and Colombia in April 2014. The study tour was organised by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), as part of the Inclusive Violence and Crime Prevention Programme (VCP), in partnership with the South African Cities Network (SACN) and the Department of Cooperative Governance (DCoG). The delegation consisted of representatives from the member cities of the SACN as well as selected national government departments (see annexure A for the list of participants).
Operationalizing the Urban NEXUS
This study “features an essential step ahead in putting the NEXUS intopractice for a sustainable urban future by delivering an approach, which encourages new ways of thinking and action in institutions, policy making and society at large.”
“The aim of this publication is to provide a conceptual foundation and hans-on approach that serves to inspire, identify and implement NEXUS solutions for integrated, resource-efficient development in metropolitan regions. It shall thereby spark exchange, debate, and learning across sectors and scales.”
Innovative measures of community-based monitoring as an instrument for inclusive urban development
The GIZ sector projects ‘Program Millennium Goals and Poverty Reduction’ and ‘Policy Advice for Urban Development’ jointly support – on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) – CBM as an instrument for inclusive urban development. The objective is to improve monitoring and impact evaluation of inclusive urban development programs, to enhance decision-making and management processes of municipalities and strengthen the dialogue between them and urban poor groups. The joint measure includes a pilot project in Ethiopia and a survey in Bolivia as well as two studies by the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI). The report at hand summarizes and reviews the findings from the three studies and a review of the CBM pilot project in Ethiopia. It gives tentative recommendations to development cooperation and urban development experts for future application of CBM as an instrument for inclusive urban development, and assesses the potential of CBM as a contribution to urban indicators with regards to the post- 2015 debate and MDG/SDG monitoring.