Admin

The Committee collaborates with the Uraía Platform in the organization of its first capacity-building workshop in Oslo

The Committee has being an active partner of the Uraía platform since it was launched in 2014 during the workshop "SMART Technologies for municipal sustainability" held in Santander.

On June 29th and 30th 2015, the Uraía Platform organized its first capacity building activity in Oslo, Norway, on "Public-Private Partnerships Negotiation for SMART City Management".

More than 35 representatives from local governments and their associations, private sector, research centers, civil society and international organizations from Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia, participated in the first Capacity-building Workshop of the Uraía Platform on Public-Private Partnerships Negotiation for SMART City Management in Oslo on June 29 and 30 organized in partnership between FMDV and UN-Habitat with the support of the UCLG Committee of Digital and Knowledge-based Cities.

During the two-day Workshop - including a field visit to Oslo´s SMART City initiatives, panel discussions, round tables and informal discussions -, the participants shared their experiences and knowledge on negotiating and implementing Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the field of SMART technologies for improving public services. The representative from the City of Porto Alegre (Brazil), for example, shared its Open Data policy called "Data PoA". The representative from the Municipality of Kinondoni, Tanzania, shared its program to collect taxes through a mobile phone application. The City of Johannesburg, South Africa, spoke about its experience of establishing a PPP contract in public lightning. Representatives from the private sector as Veolia or Change Tomorrow presented their work with local governments. Representatives from institutions such as Nomadéis, OCDE or Instituto Superiore Mario Boella, gave specific recommendations on how local governments should implement PPPs for SMART management. Some of these recommendations are: the careful evaluation of the local government´s capacities; a balanced distribution of risks and potential benefits between city administrations, the private stakeholder and citizens; the careful examination of the business partner, and the adaptation of PPP frameworks to technological innovations in fast-changing contexts.
The Workshop highlighted common concerns and shared difficulties, the need for fostering experience exchange and dialogue between the private and public sector as well as among cities that often face similar problems and challenges in the negotiation of PPPs and in the provision of public services. The informal, participatory and inclusive format of the Workshop allowed for engaging discussions and an in-depth analysis of the needs of local governments in the process of establishing and implementing PPPs involving SMART technologies.

The discussions of the Workshop will inform a set of Guidelines aiming at supporting local governments in their negotiation of contracts with the private sector for the implementation of SMART technologies applied to municipal management. It should establish a roadmap with main steps to prepare and negotiate a PPP contract, keys elements of success, main risks and difficulties encountered and mistakes to avoid.

For more information: www.uraia.org/activities/service/capacity-building-activities

by Admin

The Committee met in Porto Alegre on June 12th to define the work plan for 2015

The UCLG Committee of Digital and Knowledge-based cities organized on the occasion of the UCLG Executive Bureau in Porto Alegre, a working meeting with the committee members on the 12th of June 2015.

The meeting was chaired by the City of Bilbao, Chair of the Committee and the National Confederation of Municipalities of Brazil (CNM), Vice-chair of the Committee for Latin-America. The meeting was attended by more than 20 representatives of cities and international organizations.

During the meeting, the Committee reported on the activities developed in 2014 and the first semester 2015. The Committee also informed on the scheduled activities for the second half of 2015.

The meeting also had as main objective, to work on the preparation of the next committee activity, the seminar on "Modernization of the Municipal Management" scheduled to take place on 30 September and 1-2 October 2015 in São Paulo State, Brazil.

The meeting was quite interactive, since the attendants expressed their questions and their interest in taking a more active role in the committee activities.

See meeting pictures

by Admin

First capacity building activity of the URAÍA Platform

In 2014 the Committee began a relation of collaboration with the Local government and decentralization Unit of UN-HABITAT in diverse issues related to the use new technologies for achieving local sustainable development.

As part of this collaboration, the Committee Secretariat took part in the workshop "SMART Technologies for municipal sustainability" held in June 2014 in Santander and that gave as a result the launch of the "Uraía" Platform.

The Uraía Platform was created as a space for exchange between local governments and their partners about the possibilities offered today with the introduction of SMART technologies in local public management. Uraía facilitates peer-to-peer learning, fosters transfer and adaptation of SMART solutions, and encourages experimentation. Since its launch, the Committee has been an active partner of Uraía.

On June 29 ant 30th of 2015 the Uraía Platform organizes in Oslo, Norway its first capacity building activity on "Public-Private Partnerships Negotiations for SMART City Management"

The final objective of this Workshop is to produce a set of Guidelines addressed to support local governments to negotiate contracts with the private sector in the implementation of SMART technologies applied to municipal management.

The guidelines will look at different case studies presented during the workshop, looking for lessons learnt and common mistakes to be avoided during the negotiation and implementation of PPPs.

If you are interest in taking part in the workshop and presenting your experience, please fill in the "Questionnaire to present experience" and send it back to info@uraia.org

The workshop is open to representatives of local and national governments and private companies involved in the provision of public services. There will be available translation to French, English and Spanish.

Please click on the links below to access the following documents:

• Brochure Uraía
• Concept note Oslo Workshop
• Questionnaire to present experience

by Admin

Pioneering cities from across the globe approve new action plan to harness culture in sustainable development

Local leaders launch "Culture 21: Actions" and call for international community to follow suit and fully integrate culture into Post-2015 Agenda

Representatives of more than fifty cities from every continent came together in Bilbao from 18-20 March for the first ever United Cities and Local Governments Culture Summit. Over the three days of this landmark event, local leaders and practitioners demonstrated how they are taking the lead in recognizing, not just the potential of culture, but its absolute necessity for sustainable development.

The UCLG Culture Summit was held at a decisive moment in the international negotiations on the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda, which will be signed off in September this year by UN Member States. It provided a platform for local and national governments, civil society organizations, and international organizations such as UNESCO, to assess the current position of culture in the Agenda and to share experiences and innovations from cities across the world.

Mayors, councillors and cultural practitioners at the Summit warned that the Post-2015 Agenda risks being rendered irrelevant if the international community fails to keep pace with the lessons learned about the relationship between culture and sustainable development at local level. The work of local and regional governments on the ground has proven that the sustainable development goals related to poverty, gender equality, health, education, climate change, and peace and security, cannot be achieved without taking into account and working with the distinct identities, values and practices of local cultures.

These insights will feed into the ongoing advocacy work of international government networks in the Post-2015 and Habitat III negotiations, particularly the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments, which has been pushing for a ´localized´ Agenda that takes into account of local realities, including culture, on the ground. The Global Taskforce will take particular note of the strong calls in the session on ´The place of culture in the sustainable development goals´ for robust indicators for targets related to culture and of the value of collaboration between local government and civil society networks on shared issues of concern.

The diverse range of successful cultural policies and programmes presented by cities over the course of the three day event in Bilbao are all based on a common understanding of the mutual interdependence between the economic, social, environmental and cultural pillars of sustainability.

Few cities better exemplify the transformative potential of culture than Bilbao itself, which became a touchstone and international example in this area after its culturally-based regeneration in the late 90s. Mayor of Bilbao, Ibon Areso, underlined his city´s ongoing commitment to investing in culture, saying that, today, "It is more necessary than ever to stop and reflect on the role of culture in all its dimensions."

These principles are reflected in "Culture 21: Actions", approved by the UCLG Committee on Culture at the Summit on Thursday and published the following day in English, French, Spanish and Basque. This new tool provides adaptable guidelines to enable cities committed to culture and sustainable development to assess and improve their work in these areas, and to exchange experiences and good practices with one another. Over the next two years, UCLG will establish a work programme to facilitate peer-to-peer learning related to "Culture 21: Actions" between cities from different continents.

Surce: www.uclg-culturesummit2015.org

by Admin

La reunión de la Comisión sobre “Smart Local Governance” se celebra con éxito

Los días 6 y 7 de noviembre se celebró en Bilbao la reunión internacional "SMART LOCAL GOVERNANCE: El reto de la buena gobernanza en la administración local.

La reunión organizada por la Ciudad de Bilbao que preside la Comisión de Ciudades Digitales y del Conocimiento de CGLU, la mayor red de ciudades y autoridades locales a nivel mundial ha contado con la colaboración de UN-Habitat, la Comisión de Descentralización y Autonomía Local de CGLU presidida por la Diputación de Barcelona, el Programa de Ciudades de la LSE y EUDEL.

Más de 80 representantes de ciudades, asociaciones de ciudades, organizaciones internacionales y el mundo académico de todo el mundo asistieron a la reunión.

Los días 6 y 7 de noviembre se celebró en ilbao la reunión internacional "SMART LOCAL GOVERNANCE: El reto de la buena gobernanza en la administración local de la Comisión de Ciudades Digitales y del Conocimiento de CGLU.

La Ciudad de Bilbao preside la Comisión de Ciudades Digitales y del Conocimiento, la cual tiene como principal objetivo impulsar el intercambio de conocimiento y colaboración entre ciudades. La Comisión publicó en 2013 el "Smart Cities Study: Estudio internacional sobre la situación de las TIC, la innovación y el Conocimiento en las ciudades" en el cuál se identificaron 6 ejes de actuación para el desarrollo sostenible de las ciudades: economía, gobernanza, ciudadanía, movilidad, medio ambiente y calidad de vida.

Ésta reunión de trabajo ha estado centrada en el eje "Smart Local Governance". Los gobiernos locales de todo el mundo están trabajando para mejorar su eficiencia y eficacia y, por lo tanto, recuperar la confianza de la ciudadanía en su gestión. La cada vez más creciente exigencia de la ciudadanía, obliga a los gobiernos locales a afrontar el reto ineludible de aumentar su capacidad de ofrecer soluciones eficaces a los problemas colectivos y de generar y ofrecer aceptación, complicidad y cercanía a su ciudadanía adoptando soluciones innovadoras en sus procesos e instrumentos de gestión y en la formulación de sus políticas.

Una nueva cultura organizativa con un importante componente relacional, cuyo objetivo último es lograr una gobernanza más innovadora, en la que el rigor económico, la calidad y mejora continua, la transparencia, la pluralidad, la participación y la cohesión social sirvan como elementos para alcanzar unos territorios más creativos, emprendedores, competitivos, inteligentes y sostenibles. La Smart Local Governance comprende los aspectos de la participación política y activa, servicios para la ciudadanía, así como el funcionamiento inteligente de la administración.

Todo ello con el apoyo de las Nuevas Tecnologías, las cuales permiten el establecimiento de una nueva forma de relación entre la Administración Local y la ciudadanía; en particular, el establecimiento de servicios públicos en línea y el aprovechamiento de las Nuevas Tecnologías para mejorar la participación la ciudadanía en las decisiones públicas.

La reunión ha representado una oportunidad única para el intercambio de conocimiento y el debate sobre algunos de los principales desafíos y retos a los que se enfrentan los gobiernos locales para la buena gobernanza como son: la gestión pública local estratégica; la Transparencia y Participación ciudadana; la Inteligencia de ciudad: Big data + open data; y la modernización de la Administración y Servicios Públicos On-line.

Durante la jornada se ha podido conocer la visión de personas expertas en los temas, provenientes de organizaciones internacionales y del mundo académico como la Nord-Trøndelag University College (HiNT) de Noruega, la George Washington University, el Instituto Europeo de Administración Pública (EIPA), Transparency International, la OECD y Microsoft, entre otros.

La reunión ha permitido también conocer las experiencias llevadas a cabo por ciudades como Bilbao, Mannheim, Tampere, Barcelona, Trondheim, Maputo, la Diputación de Barcelona y Asociaciones y Redes de Ciudades y Municipios como EUDEL, FLACMA y Citynet.

Además, se han podido conocer los proyectos que se están llevando a cabo como el "Estudio sobre el Futuro de la Gobernanza Urbana", impulsado Programa de Ciudades de la LSE, UN-Habitat y la Comisión de Descentralización y Autonomía Local de CGLU y el Proyecto "Plataforma Uraía" de UN-Habitat,.

Presentaciones: Hemos publicado todas las presentaciones en la página web de la Comisión en la sección Intercambio de conocimiento / Experiencias. Pueden acceder a ellas en el siguiente enlace

Informe: castellano / inglés

Fotos:  enlace

Programa definitivo: castellano / inglés

by Admin

UCLG Celebrates Urban October

On the occasion of World Habitat Day 2014, UCLG calls upon its members to participate in the #urbanSDG Selfie Campaign, which will culminate on 31 October with the first #WorldCitiesDay.

For the first time ever, this October, two important milestones in the urban calendar will coincide in the same month. As usual, on the first Monday of each October, which this year falls on 6 October, the world will be celebrating World Habitat Day. This year´s new addition is the celebration of World Cities Day #CitiesDay on the last day of the month, 31 October. The celebrations, events and activities taking place around these two days can be grouped together under the umbrella of Urban October.

Urban October will bring together many of the initiatives on advocacy, outreach and communication on sustainable urban development. Urban October is a month for raising interest in urban challenges, for stimulating debates and moving forward commitments.

With important global agendas in the process of being defined, UCLG calls upon its members and partners to mobilize and raise awareness about the transformative potential of urbanization and the significant role that well-managed cities with strong institutions accountable to citizens can play in a sustainable future for all.

With the first steps of the Habitat III Conference preparations already taken and the negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals well underway, Local and Regional Governments underline that rural‑urban linkages, the engagement of cities and partnerships with citizens will be key for the success of a universal agenda. ​

We encourage local and regional leaders, mayors, presidents and elected representatives to participate by taking a selfie with the hashtags #urbanSDG and #CitiesDay.

It´s easy! Join the campaign!

Show your commitment to contribute to the sustainable development agenda and Habitat III.

#HabitatDay | #CitiesDay | #UrbanSDG

by Admin

Local and regional governments participation #Habitat III Prepcom I

The first Preparatory Committee meeting (Prepcom I) of Habitat III, the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, will be taking place in New York on 17-18 September, including pre-meetings on 15-16 September.

Prepcom I will be the first step towards the definition of a shared vision of the New Urban Agenda an agenda which many expect to define the implementation mechanisms of the 2015 Summit Resolutions and Sustainable Development Goals.

Members and partners of the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments for Post-2015 Development Agenda and towards Habitat III, including members of the UCLG Presidency and Vice-Presidency and political representatives of the networks, will set the expectations of their constituencies on the role to be played in the definition of the agenda and on future governance.

A renewed urban and territorial agenda

Building on membership priorities, expectations and concerns, local and regional leaders and political representatives will pay particular attention to issues surrounding the implementation of Habitat III, the links between the Sustainable Development Goals and Habitat III, the localization of targets and indicators, and the challenges of local and regional authorities for the next two decades.

Activities and events prior to and during Prepcom I

In order to feed the debates of national governments and provide the views of local authorities in the key issues identified, the Global Taskforce will be coordinating events and side events from 15 to 18 September, including:

• 15 September, morning: The technical meeting of the Global Taskforce will finalise the messages of Local and Regional Governments, their networks and partners, and will allow participants to exchange information on the Prepcom I agenda. 
• 15 September, afternoon: The Policy Dialogue of Local and Regional Governments, supported by the Spanish Mission, will discuss the development of the Global Agenda of Local and Regional Governments, building on membership priorities, expectations and concerns. The Dialogue will involve representatives from UN missions, governments and agencies such as UN-Habitat, Cities Alliance, UNDP and other urban partners. 
• 16 September, morning: The Global Taskforce will coordinate the High-Level Event of Local and Regional Governments, which will present views on the implementation of Habitat II, discuss the links between the Sustainable Development Goals and Habitat III and set out their priorities for the Habitat III agenda. High-Level UN officials and political representatives will be present. 
• 18 September, the side event of local and regional authorities will take place from 1:30pm to 2:30pm and will deal with the "Local and regional governments´ contributions to Habitat III: priorities, expectations, and challenges for sustainable cities and territories". 

 Spread the message!

In order to raise awareness on the involvement of local and regional authorities in this process, UCLG and the Global Taskforce will be promoting the use of outreach material through social media.

Enclosed: a toolkit and graphics to be used to promote the messages on Facebook and Twitter. Please feel free to share it on social networks.

Further information: Local and Regional Authorities´ Days

Check the related page in UCLG website.

by Admin