Community participation in parks development: Two examples from Berlin

Posted on: 11 December 2014
By: mackene
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This blog highlights two recent, acclaimed park projects in Berlin which offer different but equally striking stories of public involvement in the development process.

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The competitiveness of global-port cities

Posted on: 9 December 2014
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Ports and cities are historically strongly linked, but the link between port and city growth has become weaker. Economic benefits often spill over to other regions, whereas negative impacts are localised in the port-city. How can ports regain their role as drivers of urban economic growth and how can negative port impacts be mitigated? Those are the questions that this report aims to answer.

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The new urban: Towards progressive secondary cities

Posted on: 8 December 2014
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A key component of Oxfam’s urban framework is the generation and sharing of knowledge that can support its urban programming and feed advocacy and capacity-strengthening initiatives. An Asia Development Dialogue (ADD) platform was started in 2012 to promote multidisciplinary analysis and debate regarding a limited number of prioritized and cross-cutting issues that have longer-term implications for social and economic development in Asia. It is a joint collaboration among Oxfam Great Britain, Chulalongkorn University (Thailand) and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (Singapore), with support from the Rockefeller Foundation. Embracing the importance of collective thinking, multidisciplinary analysis and joint solutions in tackling the critical challenges confronting Asia today, the project leverages the expertise and networks of each consortium member to gather diverse stakeholders from government, the private sector, academia, media and civil society onto the same platforms. The topics included in this publication emerged during various ADD meetings that took place in 2013 focusing on the challenges and opportunities of secondary cities. The publication is not intended to be a report or a collection of in-depth analytical papers but rather an exploration of questions that the ADD discussions brought to the surface. This collection both highlights emerging issues and provides different perspectives on persistent issues.

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World Council on City Data

Posted on: 8 December 2014
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The World Council on City Data (WCCD) coordinates all efforts on open city data to ensure a consistent and comprehensive platform for standardized urban metrics. As a global leader on standardized indicators, the WCCD is also leading the efforts on global implementation of ISO 37120 Sustainable Development of Communities: Indicators for City Services and Quality of Life, the new international standard for cities, created by cities. The WCCD has created the first ever certification system and Global City Registry for ISO 37120.

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Is there a Brazilian model of development? Are there lessons for countries in Africa?

Posted on: 8 December 2014
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Brazil’s recent growth has been intensely pro-poor, and both poverty and inequality have declined significantly in the last decade. It has been suggested that Brazil’s unexpected successes are the outcome of a new model of development. The paper argues that Brazil’s unique combination of economic and social policies is at the root of its inclusive growth, but it is poorly understood. An assessment as to whether this combination constitutes a model is perhaps premature, but it is worth considering whether there are any lessons from Brazil’s development policies for Sub-Saharan African countries.

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3 climate adaptation lessons from Brazil’s cities

Posted on: 4 December 2014
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As part of a new stream of work under the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, a team visited three Brazilian state capitals: Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre and Brasília. These cities are already exploring how they can build communities that are resilient to flooding, drought, and other climate impacts. Discussions with officials underscored three adaptation policy and planning needs in Brazil: mobilizing networks and resources, leveraging governance and people, and harnessing data and tools.

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Implementing a low-carbon resilient development agenda: lessons from Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Rwanda

Posted on: 3 December 2014
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Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Rwanda are at the forefront of developing national plans that address elements of both climate change mitigation and adaptation with a low carbon resilient development (LCRD) agenda. This briefing explores the experience of LCRD planning in each country using interviews, analysis of policy documents and surveys to draw lessons for other countries seeking to integrate mitigation and adaptation into their national plans. Establishing a national consensus on what is understood by LCRD is shown to be important in building stakeholder support for any proposed LCRD agenda, as is clearly defining which co-benefits are being targeted. It is also clear that LCRD planning will need better access to high quality information on climate change planning and new policy approaches.

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Towards an urban agenda on climate-related loss and damage

Posted on: 3 December 2014
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The impacts of climate change in cities are already being felt as loss and damage, due to the lack of capacity of many cities to implement the necessary adaptive and disaster risk reduction (DRR) measures, and the vulnerability of large proportions of urban residents, particularly in developing countries. This paper represents a first attempt to raise some of the issues associated with climate-related loss and damage in urban areas in the global south. It reviews some of the key drivers that will shape the nature and extent of loss and damage in urban areas, explores some of the economic and non-economic approaches to loss and damage that might be taken, discusses some of the key communication challenges around the topic, and identifies some of the information and data gaps and next steps that need to be taken.

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Compact cities policies: Korea

Posted on: 3 December 2014
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This report examines Korea’s urban policies and offers customised policy recommendations based on the OECD publication, Compact City Policies (2012). This volume aims to provide “food for thought” for national, sub-national and municipal governments in Korea seeking to address urban challenges through improving urban spatial structure, and to find how compact city strategy could contribute to enhancing urban policy.

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Low carbon design aims high

Posted on: 3 December 2014
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This blog argues that smart buildings and a fresh approach to urban planning could herald a brighter future for the world’s fastest-growing cities. It examines the recently completed H2 low carbon building in Tianjin, China, It is a mixed-use development which includes offices, shops, restaurants and exhibition spaces and is one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the country.

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