India has embarked on a Smart Cities Mission. But what do “smart” or “digital” cities actually have to deliver if they are to be a new model for sustainable urbanism? Urvashi Aneja analyses opportunities and risks of technological innovation and digital inclusion.
In precarious working environments, cooperatives hold an immense potential to increase social and economic inclusion of marginalized groups. Sonia Dias uses the examples of waste pickers cooperatives to illustrate how the concept of cooperatives helps implement the four pillars of the International Labor Organisation’s Decent Work Agenda—and calls on policy makers to create a favourable environment for this organisational form.
What are the linkages between solid waste management and urban health? And how can city governments improve waste management systems to reduce health risks? On the occasion of World Health Day, URBANET talked to Graham Alabaster, Chief of Sanitation and Waste Management at UN-Habitat.
Tangerang City in Indonesia has made a big leap from polluted to award winning green city. Watch the video and read the report by the Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA) to find out how the city improved its solid waste management.
To what extent can cities be used as ‘anthropogenic material stocks’? How can international cooperation contribute? In the following interview, Professor Liselotte Schebek from Darmstadt’s Technical University and Uwe Becker, who manages a GIZ-run project in India, share their views on these issues.
In recent years there have been great advancements in solid waste management and people are becoming more and more aware of its importance. However especially in developing countries there is still a need for more sustainable solutions. We spoke to Jiao Tang and Luis Marinheiro about the current situation in waste management and what still needs to be done to make it more sustainable and innovative.
