PPP for Energy Efficiency in Favelas: A Success Story from Brazil
Access to energy is considered a key factor in development and progress. Especially in informal settlements, provision of energy can be challenging. Alessandro Galimberti outlines how Public Private Partnerships that include local CSOs have been key to solving this problem in many of Brazil's favelas.
Transforming Cities for Inclusion
Inclusion of all citizens is a challenge to rapidly urbanising societies. Federico Batista Poitier outlines how the Global Compact on Inclusive and Accessible Cities is an important tool in this regard, providing local governments with a framework that allows them to measure inclusion in their municipalities.
Municipalities Are Learning Sustainability
Across Germany, municipal governments are increasingly engaged in sustainable development. Thus, they are playing a key role in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, which will be assessed at the High-level Political Forum 2019. Robert Böhnke from the German Council for Sustainable Development outlines the learning processes that led and lead to municipalities' increased engagement.
Why Cities Matter: Integrated Implementation of the 2030 Agenda
As international actors gather for the 2019 High Level Political Forum, cities have to be understood to be key players in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, writes Lennard Kehl, advisor in the GIZ Sector Project "Integrated Implementation of the 2030 Agenda in Cities and City-Regions".
Urban Design and Child Road Safety
Walking to school is a life-threatening endeavour to many African children, where road safety measures – if existent at all – fail to recognise the special needs of children. Ayikai Poswayo, Programme Director at Amend, outlines what urban engineering needs to focus on to make cities safer for children.
Mumbai’s Young People Stake Their Claim to Play
Mumbai, as many other Indian cities, has failed to provide its children and youth with open spaces for playing. But there is a growing movement that demands its right to play – with considerable success, as Doel Jaikishen from Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA) writes.
Looking at Subnational Governments from a Global Perspective: The New and Unique Findings of the World Observatory on Subnational Government Finance and Investment (SNG-WOFI)
The SNG-WOFI initiative collects comparable data on national, subnational, regional, and municipal government finance flows in order to enable informed and targeted policy-making. Following are the latest key findings of the Observatory as presented at its international conference on June 17, 2019 in Paris, France, summarised for URBANET by Isabelle Chatry, Senior Policy Analyst at the OECD.
Real World Civic Tech Implications of South Africa’s Grassroot Platform
Enabling participatory democracy is the goal of South Africa's online platform Grassroot, where community members get together to change their municipalities for the better – with considerable success, as Katlego Mohlabane, outreach and campaigns coordinator at Grassroot, illustrates with examples from Mnandini and Mzondi.
Boosting Urban Development in Africa Through New Mechanisms of Financing
With the sectors for development and finance closely intertwined, a municipality's financing mechanism of choice significantly influences its development path. Khady Sarr, Programme Director of the Dakar Municipal Finance Programme, outlines several models and explains the advantages of bond loans – for municipalities and investors alike.