Consultation Mechanisms

Urban innovation provides the impetus for cities and local governments to improve the quality of life of its citizens.  It lies at the heart of finding new ways and means to meet the social, economic, environmental and governance challenges that face cities today.

For this reason the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), Association of Major Metropolises (Metropolis) and the City of Guangzhou established on 28 March 2012 the Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (abbreviated as the Guangzhou Award).

Following the success of the 1st Guangzhou Award in 2012, the 2nd Guangzhou Award has received 209 initiatives from 159 cities and local governments. To promote the innovation and learning agenda of UCLG, the Executive Bureau, during its meeting in Liverpool in June, decided on the establishment of a Community of Practice on Urban Innovation. The Community serves to enhance international exchange and cooperation in urban innovation, facilitate relevant research and development, provide suggestions for policy and decision-making, and ensure the continued involvement of the Award’s finalists in the future work of UCLG.

Objectives and Activities of the UCLG Community on Urban Innovation:

The Main activities of the Community include:

1.     Networking of Members and Partners. The Community will serve as a platform to share ideas and practices on urban innovation, by establish a network of members consisting of cities and local governments, as well as partners in academia, specialized institutions, professional associations, international organizations and the media.

2.     Field Studies. To fulfil commitments made at the conclusion of the 2012 Guangzhou Award, the Community, together with the Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation, has conducted field studies on all of the 15 shortlisted cities. Participants include city managers, experts, scholars, and partners from the media. The Community has been studying findings of the field research, which will contribute to improved city-to-city cooperation strategies and practices. Further field studies have been scheduled in the future for all members and partners of the Community.

3.     Report Compilation. In order to provide cities and local governments with practical suggestions for urban innovation, the Community, in cooperation with the Guangzhou Institute for Urban, conducts in-depth analysis of short-listed initiatives of the 1st Guangzhou Award in various manners, including field studies, literature review, data analysis, comparative studies and logical deduction. Reports on selected initiatives have been compiled and published. It is the Community’s agenda to set report compilation as a routine task for a considerable long period of time, which will contribute to broader learning and exchange of successful innovative practices.

Transport plays a central role in the development of towns and cities; the challenges associated with it, as well as rapid technological advances, put the issue of mobility at a crossroads in this day and age. Regional contrasts according to the economic situation, history and the urban morphology of the territories are very important. However, in general, transport systems are not focused enough on the basic right of every citizen to affordable, varied and sustainable access to transport in a “smart” and compact urban environment that is less dependent on the use of private vehicles.

This has resulted in an exponential growth of personal cars (according to the World Bank, the number of individual vehicles in circulation could double by 2035 to 1.4 billion units), related to a significant increase in pollution (without intervention emissions from transport could reach 1.2 Gt of CO2 by 2050) and significant economic and competitiveness losses. Similarly, deaths due to road accidents continue to increase (annually, 1.2 million people are killed in road accidents). All of these factors are correlated with levels of development and social inclusion, as well as the capacity of urban areas to implement effective long-term strategic plans.

Urban transport is therefore both a vital issue for the sustainable development of cities and a key element in the fight against climate change.

UCLG, through its “Community of Practice on Mobility”, can contribute to linking the main global agendas (NUA, 2030 Agenda, Paris Agreement) by strengthening decentralized cooperation around mobility to disseminate best practices, anticipate the technological leaps in progress in this area towards greater equity and fluidity, support peer learning, and build the capacities of local institutional decision-makers (planning, lobbying before national authorities, access to funding, including via public-private partnerships or public service contracts).

UCLG aims to build an effective platform to strengthen global advocacy for sustainable mobility and to promote the key factors for medium- and long-term improvement, for the benefit of its members.

Chair:

• Oh Se-hoon, Mayor of Seoul

Technical Secretariat: Laurence Kwark (GSEF): [email protected] and Ahn Kyungmo (Seoul): [email protected]

Web : https://opengov.uclg.org/en

Co-chairs :

• To be determined

Technical Secretariat : FEMP: [email protected]

Web: http://www.uclg-digitalcities.org/

Chair:

• Juan Mari Aburto, Mayor of Bilbao

Technical Secretariat: Bilbao International: [email protected]

Co-chairs:

• to be determined

Technical Secretariat: Amanda Fléty: [email protected]

Co-chairs:

• To be determined

Technical Secretariat: Fátima Fernandez: [email protected]

Co-chairs:

• Peter Knip, Director of VNG International
• A representative from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)

Technical Secretariat: Jessie Post and Stan Abma (VNG International): [email protected]

Web: http://www.cib-uclg.org/

Presidency: City of Geneva
Vice-presidency: Union of Turkish Municipalities
Contact: Simoné Giovetti 
Secretariat: Cités Unies France;
Founding Members: CUF, UMT, VNG, FMC, Métropolis, UCLG MEWA and UCLG ASPAC

Background Information

Debate and support the preparation of UCLG policies in the field of local government disaster management Local government disaster management policy is not new to UCLG. Due to the Tsunami in South East Asia in 2004 were put forward in governing bodies of UCLG.

In April 2008, the “Local Action for Disaster Risk Reduction” Programme was launched by UCLG in partnership with ICLEI, Metropolis and CITYNET and with the technical support of the Earthquakes and Megacities Initiative (EMI). This initiative was created with the approval of the United Nations Secretariat for the implementation of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR). The objective of the Programme, which has been running since, is to promote the adoption by local and regional governments of risk reduction policies and to promote their participation in the United Nations Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, which was launched in 2007.

When disasters strike, local governments are the first line of response, often with wide ranging responsibilities but insufficient capacities to deal with them. Local governments are equally on the front line when it comes to anticipating, managing and reducing disaster risk, setting up or acting on early warning systems. International disaster response efforts often lack a local governance dimension addressing specific needs of local governments.

Members of United Cities and Local Governments have historically launched solidarity missions to crisis areas. They are convinced that this area of work should be developed under UCLG flag and in cooperation with strategic international partners. In order to improve the position and the action of local governments in the face of disaster and those dealing with the consequences of disaster, it has been proposed that a Task Force on local government disaster response is to be created under DCCD (Development Cooperation and City Diplomacy Committee). Initially made up of representatives of VNG, FCM, CUF and UMT, the city of Istanbul and UCLG MEWA, this body will help to stimulate debate, legitimize joint initiatives and engage new actors.

The Taskforce will provide a platform for local governments, to exchange knowledge and expertise on disaster management. It will improve and increase the availability of local governments expertise to disaster-affected municipalities and it will highlight and develop the role of local governments on the international disaster management, resilience and response.

The UCLG Taskforce for prevention and territorial management of crisiswill incorporate the following aspects:

• Debate and support the preparation of UCLG policies in the field of local government disaster management;
• Discuss and validate quality standards and other collective approaches that are being prepared as part of joint Programs;
• Maintain / increase the capacity of UCLG members to technically mobilize for a disaster.
• Discuss / prepare opinions in relation to decision making / initiatives of UN agencies in the field;
• Share approaches, tools, methodologies and knowledge on program development (for example: approaches, proposal templates, guiding principles, criteria for identification and selection of new program areas, etc.);
• Discuss new programming opportunities and exchange on strategies to assess and seize these opportunities.

The UCLG Forum on Intermediary Cities is a consultation and policy development process that culminates in an event every two years.

Chair : Mohamed Sefiani, Mayor of Chefchaouen

Technical Secretariat : Firdaous Oussidhoum : [email protected]

Web: https://intermediarycities.uclg.org/en

The Forum on Peripherical Cities Presidency is the City of Nanterre
Chair: Patrick Jarry, Mayor of Nanterre, France
Contact: Djamel Sandid, Relations et Coopérations avec le monde. Nanterre, France.

Peripheral cities have common characteristics

The cities in the periphery are complex, varied and changing realities. Although situations across the world vary, these peripheral cities share common characteristics. They are at the core of basic questions such as relations between the centre and the periphery for the governance of metropolitan areas, infrastructure, living environment, the spatial dimension of activities, regional planning, social and territorial segregation, social integration, the relationships between urgent immediate needs and long-term projections of space, democracy and the role of the citizen.

Peripheral cities exchanging experiences and practices

The UCLG Forum on Peripheral Cities, chaired by Jaime Zea Usca, Mayor of Villa El Salvador, Peru, aims to facilitate the exchange of experience and practices, and develop a common approach by peripheral cities. In March 2006, a Forum of Peripheral Cities took place where members looked at three main themes: Democratic governance of metropolises, a metropolis for all and the sustainable metropolis.

Rethinking the notion of centrality

The Forum brings together the members of the worldwide network ’Cities in the periphery & participatory democracy’. It shows the need for recognition of the social and political situations of peripheral cities within their conurbations and within the world of cities. This does not mean opposition to the ’capital city’, but rather that it is necessary to question and rethink the notion of ’centrality’ in these urban zones.

Co-chairs:

• Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)
• Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG)
• Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities (VVSG)

Technical Secretariat: Elena Pierce (FCM): [email protected], Jessie Post (VNG): [email protected], and Bert Janssens (VVSG): [email protected]