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Habitat III – 17 October events

Event type: UT
Date: 17/10/2016

Habitat III events with UT involvement (participant or organizer)

Transforming research into practices and policies – dialogues on implementation and evaluation of the new urban agenda

8.00-9.00, Side event
Room R19, Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, “Benjamín Carrión”

This session will bring together local authorities, community leaders and researchers from Brazil, South Africa and the United Kingdom to address how comparative research findings and methods in the planning process can facilitate the implementation and monitoring of the 2030 urban agenda.

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Safer smarter cities for women and girls

10.00-11.00, Side event
Room R7, Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana “Benjamin Carrion”

Can smart technologies make our cities safer for everyone, or are they too challenging for city authorities attempting to manage complex strategic outcomes? This action-oriented workshop from the City Leadership Initiative and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) explores how digital technologies can give voice to women’s experience and contemplates the role of government in responding effectively. As a starting point the session will present findings from the UNHabitat’s Technical Working Group on Safer Smarter Cities, exploring practical examples of how digital technologies are promoting safety outcomes in cities across the world. WAGGGS will also present data gathered through U-report (a platform designed to aggregate and amplify the voice of young people to speak out on issue that matter to them) on girls’ and young women’s experiences and perspectives. Through our global U-report poll, we will be able to develop a clearer understanding of the challenges girls and young women face in navigating urban space and gain insight into what they consider to be the best solutions. As an interactive session we will allow space for participants to reflect upon and share how they plan to use digital technologies to promote safer cities for women in their own organisations. Participants are also invited to join an on-going community of organisations, governments and institutions who are interested in developing knowledge and action in this area.

Organization
City Leadership Initiative UCL STEaPP; World Association Of Girl Guides And Girl Scouts

Partner organizations
UN-Habitat; Unicef; Liveable Cities; SAP


Reducing relocation risk in urban areas

11.00-12.00, Side event
Room R8, Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana “Benjamin Carrion”

Densely‐populated urban centres are often exposed to multiple climate‐related hazards. Floods, heat waves, cyclones, landslides and other events often have significant impacts on people’s lives and livelihoods, particularly those of the poor. Risks are exacerbated by the changing climate and unplanned urbanisation. If unmanaged, these risks can undermine hard‐won development gains. Many national and local governments are resettling people who live in areas affected by climate‐related disasters. Resettlement can occur as part of national level programmes to move people out high‐risk areas, or as part of a local government development plan. This is often accompanied by the upgrading of vacated areas to reduce risk, change land use, with implications for those left behind or still living in the surrounding area. Relocation and resettlement (R&R) may reduce a region’s future climate‐related disaster risk, but can also increase people’s poverty and vulnerability. The processes for making and implementing decisions on post‐ disaster relocation, pre‐emptive resettlement and on‐site upgrading play a large part in determining whether outcomes are socially just, and whether they actually reduce future risks for individuals, urban regions and society as a whole. While urban resettlement programmes widespread, the social and economic impacts of resettlement and relocation on individuals, society and urban regions are not well understood either by experts or by those enacting them. The research carried out in the last 18 months examines the various social and economic implications of climate‐risk related resettlement and relocation policies in cities across three geographies: India in Asia, Uganda in Africa, and Peru, Mexico and Colombia in Latin America. It seeks to understand the political, economic and institutional contexts in which resettlement takes place; the costs benefits of resettlement from both the government and individual’s perspective; and how resettlement impacts people’s well‐being and resilience over different time frames. The research has compared approaches and attempted to identify climate‐related resettlement policies and practices deliver the most beneficial outcomes. The framing and approach to policy engagement is tailored for each country and informed by a steering committee including relevant government representatives. This event will share the findings from this research and urge the participants to reflect based on their own experiences towards more holistic and sustainable development planning.

Organization
Indian Institute For Human Settlements

Partner organizations
The Bartlett Development Planning Unit (DPU) At UCL, The Latin American Social Science Faculty (Facultad Latinoamericana De Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) and Makerere University


Segregation and expulsion

11.00-12.00, Side event
Room MR6

The twin evils of cities. Presented by Richard Sennett, Saskia Sassen, and Jean-Louis Missika. This session looks at the forces isolating social classes in the city or driving these groups out. The speakers will present both concrete data and analytic models.

Organization
Institute For Public Knowledge NYU

Partner organizations
London School Of Economics And Political Science; MIT


Exploring challenges, partnerships and approaches to reducing inequalities and ensuring inclusive economic growth in cities

12.30-13.30, Side event
Room R12, Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana “Benjamin Carrion”

The side event will explore challenges, partnerships and strategies to support cities in fostering equitable economic growth. The group will share experiences from their unique fields of work in cooperation with national and local governments, organizations of informal workers, non-governmental organisations and academic partners in rapidly urbanising cities. In the discussion with the audience, the side event will collect recommendations that will inform the Joint Work Programme in the context of the New Urban Agenda. The discussion will be facilitated by William Cobbett, Director of the Cities Alliance.

Organization
Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) On Behalf Of The Cities Alliance Joint Work Programme

Partner organizations
The Ford Foundation And The World Bank, UK Department For International Development (DFID), UN-Habitat, United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), Women In Informal Employment: Globalizing And Organizing (WIEGO)