Author:

Michael Engel, Jochen Gauly, Sabine Meyer-Zenk, Felix Volgmann

Publisher:

GIZ

Description:

Cities attract creative people and courageous entrepreneurs as much as they attract displaced, suffering people. But what those people have in common is that they are all seeking peace and a place to build a better livelihood. The cities offer them a kaleidoscope of opportunities and in doing so prospects for a better future to many. The city has always been the birthplace of new knowledge and ideas and the places where they were put into practice in economic and social life. If they are to remain the powerhouses of the countries they are part of, it is crucial that we create robust, adaptable, effective and resource-efficient structures that promote sustainable lifestyles and economic activity and facilitate political participation. The aim must be for urban dwellers to see themselves as responsible citizens of their city and the wider world.

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH has been involved in municipal and urban development for over 40 years, together with its partners and commissioning parties such as the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), the European Union, the philanthropic sector and many more. We are currently working on approximately 50 projects in 40 countries to promote sustainable, inclusive, safe and liveable cities, where people have a sense of wellbeing and participate politically and socially. Our work is guided by international agendas, such as Agenda 2030, the Paris Agreement adopted at the Climate Conference in 2015 (COP 21) and the Habitat III process to draft a New Urban Agenda, in which consensus is reached on the diverse tasks that cities have to tackle. We also base our work on the guiding principles set out in national and regional agreements such as the Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities, which has also been the foundation underpinning Germany’s urban development policy since it was adopted in 2007.

In processing the experience gained through our activities and seeing a possibility to help drive the transformation process taking place in cities, we – i.e. the entire team working on urban development issues – have taken the opportunity to present in this brochure the advisory approaches GIZ is taking in the fi eld of sustainable urbanisation and urban development, illustrating their implementation with examples from our project portfolio.

Language:

English

Page count:

83

Source:

GIZ_(2016)_Publication_Sustainable_Urban_Development.pdf

Copyright:

GIZ