Uraía Platform – Citizenship, Ciudadanía, Citoyenneté
THE PLATFORM
The Uraía Platform responds to three facts happening in the world today: I. II. III.
The recognition of local governments as key actors for sustainable development The call for increased transparency and accountability from citizens The impact of SMART technologies in public management
Uraía Platform 1.0
I. The recognition of local governments as key actors for sustainable development They have the proximity, scale and legitimacy of being directly elected by the citizens; becoming the first gate for people´s participation in public affairs and first respondents to their need for basic services. The urbanization process is increasing pressure on cities and their governing institutions. To better serve their citizens, local government require financial sustainability and access to information to make informed decisions on the cost and accessibility of present and future basic services. Due to the political difficulties of fiscal decentralization, municipalities need to focus in the generation of endogenous resources and tackling informality while protecting the urban poor. II. The call for increased transparency and accountability from citizens Moving out of the informal economy towards local taxation is conditioned by stronger accountability and transparency of local leaders and local administration. People need to believe that the municipality will use the revenue in a transparent way and that collected taxes will have a direct and visible impact in their own neighbour. They will also be more inclined to pay for formal service provision if the cost is cheaper and services safer than informal provision. Smart technologies can be instrumental to this process by shortening implementation, geo-localizing expenditure, giving access to costs, and fighting corruption through open data policies. III. The impact of SMART technologies in public management The explosion of technologies is introducing new challenges and opportunities for local governments to deliver on their mandate. Applications via mobile phones, sensors or smart cards are a chance to develop connected inclusive and more efficient territories for municipalities, economic stakeholders and citizens. Mobile internet access has become increasingly cheap and accessible worldwide. In some developing cities, the role of smartphones has become crucial beyond expectation: citizens can now obtain vital information, access banking services without having a formal residence address and they are also able to become visible and able to participate in public life. People are more prone to invest in mobile phone credit that in any other basic good.
In this sense, smartphones are becoming instrumental to achieve active citizenship The use of Apps is changing the day-to-day lives of people in both industrialized and developing countries; they can also be a source of innovation for public management and local transformation. There is an opportunity to bridge the gap between local governments and technology providers and there is a need to structure existing knowledge so that cities can learn from each other´s and inform policy.
Uraía Platform – Citizenship, Ciudadanía, Citoyenneté – September 2014
Uraía Platform 1.0 OBJECTIVE: To support local governments in the adaptation to the new opportunities offered by SMART technologies Expected results
Ways and means
Expansion of local government resource base
Increased sustainability at local level through the sustainability of municipal finance
Tackling informality of jobs, basic services and economy in the city
Reducing cost of services, energy consumption and environmental impact
Improved transparency and cost-effectiveness in urban services provision
Strengthened interaction between local governments and their local stakeholders
Participation of local stakeholders in local budgets
Public supervision over public expenditure
Facilitating access to citizenship creating accessible channels of communication and participation
Bridging the communication gap between cities and company providers
Support to local governments in making the best choice amongst the existing
Cooperation between cities and with technology providers
products in the market
Creation of local capacities on procurement and contracts of new technologies
Marketplace for institutions willing to find operational solutions
Application of new technologies to the future management of services and
Innovation in public management
infrastructures
Identification of enabling legislation and normative frameworks at local and national level
The Uraía Platform wants to contribute to the innovation of public management, proving better opportunities for active citizenship.
Uraía Platform – Citizenship, Ciudadanía, Citoyenneté – September 2014
Uraía Platform 1.0 PARTICIPANT INSTITUTIONS AFRICA
LOCAL GOVERNMENT NETWORKS
Dakar
Abidjan
Citynet
Johannesburg
Dar es Salam
UCLG Committee on Connected and knowledgebased cities
Addis Abeba
Nouakchott
Spanish Network of Smart Cities - RECI
ASIA PACIFIC
Italian Observatory for Smart Cities – ANCI
Makati
All India Institute for Local Self-Government EUROPE
CENTRAL GOVERNMENTS
Santander
Valencia
India (*)
Turin
Ille-de-France
France (*)
Bruxelles Capital
Barcelona Metropolitan Area
THE AMERICAS
PARTNERS
Belo Horizonte
Porto Alegre
Transparency International
Guarulhos
Moron
Orange Labs
Bogota
Medellin
Telefonica Industrial IoT
Acapulco
Mexico DF
University of Cantabria, Spain
Caracas
Montevideo
Instituto Mario Boella, Italy
Acapulco
Cartago(*)
SAP Urban Matters (*)
Santiago de Chile Metropolitan Area
Montego Bay(*)
Veolia (*)
Montreal MENA
(*) TO BE CONFIRMED
Marrakesh Urban Community
Rabat
Tunis
Casablanca
Istanbul
Nilufer
Bitlis
Mashhad
Uraía Platform – Citizenship, Ciudadanía, Citoyenneté – September 2014
Uraía Platform 1.0 MEMBERSHIP The platform will start-up with a selected number of cities, giving priority to the cities attending the Marketplace: SMART technologies for municipal sustainability that took place in Santander (Spain) in June 2014. The group of participants will progressively expand, scaling-up to be able to provide adequate services to all of its members. National networks of Smart Cities will be given priority for subscribing to the Platform, given their effect of multiplication as well as filtering of request of information. The Spanish Network of Spanish cities and the Italian Observatory of Smart Cities are two examples that have already expressed interest in participating to the Platform. Participation in the Uraía Platform will be free of charge during the start-up phase (2014 – 2015). The Platform is opened for members to become involved in the management of activities and support to the members either financially o through in-kind contributions as human resources, sponsorship of training activities and systematization of best practices. Participation in the URAIA Platform will be free during the launching phase (2014 – 2015), cities and companies wishing to participate during this phase can become members by sending their interest to the Platform Secretariat.
members@uraia.org Governance structure
Uraía will be implemented as a project within the actual structure of the FMDV and jointly managed with UN-Habitat Local Governments and Decentralization Unit. FMDV – Global Fund for the Development of Cities FMDV (Global Fund for Cities Development) was initiated in October 2010 by Metropolis and UCLG in order to become the international organization that gathers local authorities (cities and provinces/federated states) and their networks on the economic and funding solutions for a sustainable urban development. FMDV supports local authorities in empowering their local economic dynamics and in accessing the necessary financial resource, to finance their urban development strategies through technical expertise and financial engineering on their projects. The network promotes a holistic approach on urban economy and urban development funding, both in terms of their traditional tools (bank loan, bond emission, local taxation optimization, public-private or public-public partnerships) and in their endogenous variation (local socioeconomic revitalization, urban productivity and attractiveness, responsible green economy, local resources valorisation and mobilization, and social and solidarity economy. Based in Paris, FMDV has Regional offices for Africa based in Rabat, for Latin America based in Mexico City, for Middle East and West Asia based in Mashhad in Iran, and three national representations in Istanbul for Turkey, Brasilia for Brazil and Washington DC for the US. More info on www.fmdv.net
Uraía Platform – Citizenship, Ciudadanía, Citoyenneté – September 2014
Uraía Platform 1.0
UN-HABITAT, United Nations Human Settlements Program The Local Government and Decentralization Unit sits at the Urban Land, Legislation and Governance Branch of UN-Habitat. The core role of the unit is to stresses the role of local government as a key actor of development, whose relevance has been reinforced by the Rio+20 Declaration "The World we want". The unit supports local governments and their associations, working closely with both central and territorial governments to establish mechanisms of dialogue, to exchange best practices and to support projects for the empowerment of local and regional governments through a fair distribution of responsibilities and resources. We support local governments, working closely with both central and territorial governments to establish mechanisms of institutional dialogue and exchange of best practices to support the empowerment of local and regional governments through a fair distribution of responsibilities and resources. The Unit’s role is to develop normative and operational frameworks, to share experiences and disseminate best practices on local governance, democracy and access to basic services. Focusing on local governments’ needs, the Unit addresses local management challenges through the development of tailored tools, instruments and methodologies to reinforce the capacities of local government. The Unit also promotes city-to-city cooperation and advocates for the essential role of local governments on a global level. www.unhabitat.org
Uraía Platform – Citizenship, Ciudadanía, Citoyenneté – September 2014