Open Data for Better Public Services
To improve public services and increase transparency, the City of Buenos Aires has developed various open data applications.
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.
Saudi Arabia’s Smart Cities Program: Why Local Government is Imperative to Digital Transformation
Cities can only become “smart” if they are responsive to their citizens – therefore, local governments need to take the lead in the digital transformation, says Bilal Saghir.
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.
Islands of Integrity™: Replicating La Paz’s Successful Anti-corruption Experience
How can cities effectively tackle corruption? Through a transformative process that involves those who are part of the problem, argue Ronald MacLean Abaroa and Ana Vasilache, who have developed their own successful anti-corruption methodology.
Leave No One Behind in Cities: How Can Knowledge Gaps About Marginalisation Be Filled?
Street dwellers and the urban poor often don’t have access to their cities’ services. One reason behind this problem is the fact that they are not surveyed and consulted in data collection. How can this gap be filled?
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".
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.
Escalating to Peace: How a Simple Investment Helped Change the Face of Colombia’s Most Dangerous Neighbourhood
Comuna 13, also known as San Javier, used to be the most dangerous part of Medellín, cut off from the rest of the city and a place to avoid by all means. An ambitious infrastructure project has changed that, turning the district in a tourist destination.
Having a Say in What Affects Your Life: Youth Participation in Kumasi, Ghana
In Ghana, several policies and laws aim at including youth in urban planning processes. In reality, however, youth do not take part in city development. Emmanuelle Laurinda Godjo analyses the causes and suggests measures that authorities should take.
The Shape of Economic Growth
With more and more people moving to cities, the question arises how to organise urban expansion in a way that ensures economic growth and quality of life. Nina Harari discusses which urban configurations can best accommodate urban growth and whether a city's shape influences its economic development.
Local Governments, Climate Change and Multi-Level Governance
Transformative local climate action is essential as cities both significantly contribute to climate change and suffer from its consequences. A new study explores how different multi-level climate governance instruments can support the realisation of local climate mitigation and adaptation.
Lagos: The Gaps Between Urban Policy and Urban Reality
In Lagos, Nigeria, Public Private Partnerships (PPP) are common in urban planning projects. But whom do they benefit: people or profit? Dr Taibat Lawanson argues that the city's urban development strategy focusses too much on PPPs and thus favours profit over people – and calls to the state government to shift its focus back to a policy that benefits all citizens.