Uraia Platform

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

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Tackling informality of jobs, basic services and economy in the city

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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

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Participation of local stakeholders in local budgets

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Public supervision over public expenditure

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Facilitating access to citizenship creating accessible channels of communication and participation

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Bridging the communication gap between cities and company providers

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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

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Marketplace for institutions willing to find operational solutions

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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