Uraía Platform – Citizenship, Ciudadanía, Citoyenneté
Uraía (Swahili word for Citizenship) Ciudadanía, Ciudadanía f. Cualidad y derecho de ciudadano. Real Academia de la Lengua Española. Citoyenneté, Situation positive créée par la pleine reconnaissance aux personnes de leur statut de citoyen. Le citoyen dispose, dans une communauté politique donnée, de tous ses droits civils et politiques. Dictionnaire Larousse. Citizenship, The qualities that a person is expected to have as a responsible member of a community. Merriam-Webster dictionary
The Uraía Platform responds to three facts happening in the world today: 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