Jakarta’s Pandemic Water Stress: Hitting the Economy and the Urban Poor
The Covid-19 pandemic increases the already existing water scarcity in Indonesia's capital, affecting already disadvantaged inhabitants most of all, writes Akash Sahu.
Local Governance in Nigeria: An Unsettling State of Affairs
Local governments in Nigeria have financial autonomy – technically. Idayat Hassan, Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development in Abuja, reveals why they are still severely disempowered and what needs to be done to revive them.
Municipal Financing: The Key to Climate-Neutral Cities (video)
To learn more about the three levels of action required to improve municipal finance and ultimately build climate-neutral cities, take a look at this short explanatory film by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
When Tax Hits Home: Institutional Barriers to Decentralisation in Freetown
A newly proposed tax reform could quintuple Freetown’s budget for the delivery of much-needed urban services. Yet, a political stalemate may endanger the city’s push for more transparency and progress. Braima Koroma, Dr Joseph Macarthy and Yasmina Yusuf from the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre spotlight the country’s current state of decentralisation.
How to be Truly Open: Rethinking Public Spaces in the Post-Covid City
To those not willing – or able – to spend money, many public spaces are not as public as they pretend to be. This has to change, argues Tuna Taşan-Kok, making the case for new coalitions in urban development.
Migrants Hold the Key to Urban Resilience and COVID-19 Recovery
Migrants are critical to the resilience of cities all over the world and simultaneously some of the most vulnerable urban dwellers when disaster strikes. Michele Acuto and Daniel Pejic from Connected Cities Lab explain why addressing urban migrant vulnerability strengthens the resilience of cities and fast-tracks our recovery from COVID-19.
How Can Social and Economic Development Spring from Art? A Case Study from Halle (Saale), Germany
In Halle, a collective of urban planners, teachers, artists, students, and volunteers painted a whole district with street art and graffiti, demonstrating that these techniques can lead to positive social, cultural, and economic impact in shrinking and neglected areas.
COP 25 – What Impact on Cities and Regions?
Delegates at COP25 in Madrid reached an agreement, without the robust language and ambitions that were wished to be seen in the approved texts. This leaves subnational and urban leaders responsible for implementing the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), making local climate activities the messengers of hope.
Why Cities Climate Finance Matters
At the Climate Action Summit, it is widely acknowledged that cities are key in addressing climate change. Yet, sufficient funding for necessary measures is often hard to come by. Barbara Buchner presents some new and promising approaches of mobilising finance for building resilient urban infrastructure.
How Local Governments Can Support Micro-Businesses and Start-Ups
Start-ups and Micro-businesses drive innovation and quality control and provide employment. The intervention of local governments can create conditions where such small businesses can thrive, says Ayodotun Stephen Ibidunni.
A Pulse for Cities: What Makes Open Contracting Essential to Modernizing City Governments
Contracting is an unacknowledged superpower that cities have at their disposal to ensure high-quality service delivery to their citizens. Kathrin Frauscher explains how to go about it.
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.
How to Change the World with Better Financial Awareness & Financial Literacy
Many people around the globe struggle with finance management and debt. Michael Ochieng Nyawino describes why it is important to teach everyone financial literacy skills to tackle the problem.