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Video Title
Global Urban Lectures, Fernando Murillo - A Compass for Cities

In this lecture Fernando Murillo from University of Buenos Aires discusses the “Compass” of cities – a participatory methodology for policy making . It consists of different indicators represented graphically as a “Compass”, combining four fundamental dimensions dealing with the progressive fulfilment of human rights.

SYNOPSIS

Issues which the lecture addresses
This lecture addresses city planning challenges in urban planning practice, in relation to the implementation of the New Urban Agenda:

a) Progressive fulfilment of human rights with focus on informal settlements – shifting from eviction and massive regularisation to city-wide informal settlement upgrading and prevention;

b) Participation – moving away from public participation towards community self organization and engagement;

c) Public works – reacting to social, environmental and economic needs for more proactive and problem preventive approaches focused on infrastructure and

d) Regulatory frameworks – changing from land use and density rigid zoning towards  pro-poor land market regulations using different land tenure systems.

Why a “Compass”?: Taking into account the challenges presented above, the lecture advocates for the need to reconcile the formal and informal city planning process, carried out by local governments and communities. The lecture discusses application cases in different scales where the participatory planning methodology was applied.

a) Informal settlement upgrade in a metropolitan area of Buenos Aires;

b) City-wide upgrade prevention in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Cochabamba, Bolivia and Suacha, at the outskirt of Bogotá, Colombia;

c) National habitat strategy, the case of high concentration of displaced populations in Kigali, Rwanda;

d) Post conflict planning, designing re-housing projects in Khan Younis, the Gaza Strip, Autonomous Palestinian Territories.

Short analysis of the above issues
Some lessons learnt from the experience highlight the relevance of community self-organization to implement the new urban agenda; the critical importance of linking community and governmental planning exercises to support a progressive fulfilment of their basic human rights; the need for acting simultaneously in multiple scales with a participatory, preventive and resilient approach.

The “Compass” contribute a methodology for participatory planning whose application in different contexts has served to review public policies. So far, results have been encouraging and motivate innovative planning approaches at municipal level, to enable low income neighbours adopting a community approach to address social and environmental problems. Linkages between these process with local authorities have lead to the development of new urban planning regulatory frameworks and public works with successful results indicating the potential of community participation and self-organization overcoming difficulties hard to address by traditional planning approaches dominated by governmental interventions.

Community involvement in public plans results in a very pro-active and preventive urban agenda of recovering public spaces by the people; upgrading slums and recovering social housing by associating public resources and self-organized groups, as well as early recovery strategies carried out by refugees designing their own habitat according to their specific needs.

Propositions for addressing the issue
The “Compass” of cities is a participatory methodology for policy making seeking progressive fulfilment of human rights. It consists of different indicators represented graphically as a “Compass”, combining four fundamental dimensions: Human rights fulfilment, community organization, public works and regulatory frameworks. Each of these dimension measures the same basic habitat needs for land tenure and housing, infrastructure (wat-san), social services (education-health), mobility (public transport) and sustainability (income generation opportunities, disaster risk reduction, etc).

The graph of the compass summarizes the status of human rights in a certain area, resulting of their social organization, public works and regulatory framework success. This contributes to build up a vision for slum upgrading and prevention through participation of their inhabitants, local governments and private sector. It facilitates quick collection of essential and update information for planning purposes through key informants facilitating the understanding and agreement on the most convenient way forward to tackle down informal settlements problems and creation trends.

So far, the instrument has been applied to 25 municipalities from different countries in Latin America, guiding discussion and actions towards negotiated interventions. A coordination team receives periodic reports from teams applying the method in other cities, providing online guidance. This lecture presents comparative research, identifying lessons learnt obtained by the experience applying the methodology in different cities, contexts and scales.

BIOGRAPHY

Fernando Murillo is an architect with a master degree and a Phd in architecture and urban planning. His professional career combines academic activities as lecturer and director of a research program at the University of Buenos Aires with international projects in the field of urban planning, housing and settlement upgrading.

His work contributes to different governments and UN agencies, mostly UN Habitat, in Sudan and South Sudan, building public housing with environmentally friendly technologies and strategic urban planning; UNHCR, building 15,000 shelters for returnees and displaced populations, UNRWA, 12000 housing units for refugees in Gaza Strip and UNDP, developing local government plans in Colombia, Nicaragua, and schools in El Salvador. With World Bank in Zambia he prepares a local integration plan for former refugees eligible for citizenship.

With his interdisciplinary team he developed multiple participatory territorial planning tools to help local governments and communities to work out an integrated and inclusive urbanization strategy with a focus on progressive human rights fulfillment and sustainable development, such as the “Compass” disseminated internationally.

Recently, he founded an international network to analyze the impact of migrant corridors on the phenomena of rapid urbanization, called “Migraplan”.

Source: UN-Habitat

This article is culled from daily press coverage from around the world. It is posted on the Urban Gateway by way of keeping all users informed about matters of interest. The opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and in no way reflects the opinion of UN-Habitat. 

China 2017 - Towards Humane Cities

Published on 29 Jun 2017

http://www.weforum.org/
Explore with architect John Lin how design and architecture can help make rapid urbanization a more humane process.

Speaker:
- John Lin, Associate Professor, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR

Moderated by:
- Javeria Masood, Founder and Design Strategy Go-To, The Urban Practice, Pakistan

Source: Youtube

This article is culled from daily press coverage from around the world. It is posted on the Urban Gateway by way of keeping all users informed about matters of interest. The opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and in no way reflects the opinion of UN-Habitat.  

Somik Lall, World Bank - Africa’s Cities, Opening Doors to the World
Published on 20 Jun 2017

Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing rapid population growth. Yet their economic growth has not kept pace. Why? One factor might be low capital investment, due in part to Africa’s relative poverty: Other regions have reached similar stages of urbanization at higher per capita GDP. In this lecture Somik Lall from the World Bank discusses a deeper reason: African cities are closed to the world. Compared with other developing cities, cities in Africa produce few goods and services for trade on regional and international markets. To grow economically as they are growing in size, Africa’s cities must open their doors to the world. They need to specialize in manufacturing, along with other regionally and globally tradable goods and services. And to attract global investment in tradables production, cities must develop scale economies, which are associated with successful urban economic development in other regions.

Source: Youtube

This article is culled from daily press coverage from around the world. It is posted on the Urban Gateway by way of keeping all users informed about matters of interest. The opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and in no way reflects the opinion of UN-Habitat.  

The Future of Affordable Housing
Published on 18 Jun 2017

Filmed June 7, 2017, at the Asia Pacific Summit in Singapore.

As the global shortage of affordable housing becomes ever more critical, this session focuses on the drivers and emerging solutions to the issue and the roles cities and the real estate market need to play. Views and experiences are shared by those directly involved in housing, in its funding and delivery, and in its planning, policy, and design.
Speakers:
* Nicholas Brooke of Professional Property Services Group
* Dr. Liu Thai Ker of the Centre for Liveable Cities and RSP Architects Planners & Engineers
* Paige Walker of Mirvac
* Carl Weisbrod of HR&A

Source: Youtube

This article is culled from daily press coverage from around the world. It is posted on the Urban Gateway by way of keeping all users informed about matters of interest. The opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and in no way reflects the opinion of UN-Habitat.  

Resilience, Flexibility and Liveability of Urban Space
Published on 19 Jun 2017

Filmed June 7, 2017, at the ULI Asia Pacific Summit in Singapore.

Enhancing the liveability of cities on the basis of the existing urban environment is a huge challenge on its own. The changing world demands improving the resilience of existing assets and buildings as well as cities as a whole, repurposing of assets, and responding to the changing user patterns of urban space.
Speakers:
* Prof. Greg Clark of Urban Land Institute
* William Lee of Microsoft
* Tony Lombardo of Lendlease
* Marilyn Taylor of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design
* Forth Bagley of KPF

Source: Youtube

This article is culled from daily press coverage from around the world. It is posted on the Urban Gateway by way of keeping all users informed about matters of interest. The opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and in no way reflects the opinion of UN-Habitat.  

The Impact of Smart Cities
Published on 20 Jun 2017

Filmed June 7, 2017, at the ULI Asia Pacific Summit in Singapore.
What realistically could be the impact of the smart city concept on land use and real estate development? How will “smart” affect the way the real estate industry operates, competes, and ultimately creates value for society?
Speakers:
* Trevor Vivian of Benoy
* Dr. Cheong Koon Hean of the Singapore Housing and Development Board
* Sean Chiao of AECOM
* Wong Heang Fine of Surbana Jurong

Source: Youtube

This article is culled from daily press coverage from around the world. It is posted on the Urban Gateway by way of keeping all users informed about matters of interest. The opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and in no way reflects the opinion of UN-Habitat.  

Urban Labs The Film
Published on 21 Jun 2017

In 2016 the Netherlands Creative Industries Fund joined hands with UN Habitat Urban Labs. In 5 countries on 4 continents groups of architects, planners and urbanists analyzed the rapid urbanization and together with local experts they developed plans to tackle this or to streamline it. The design teams developed tailor made plans and created a solid foundation for the implementation of the solutions just for the locations.
MEDIAHQ has ben following the process for over a year, filmed on the locations with the design teams and presented the film at the HABITAT III conference in Quito in October 2016.
It is a perfect showcase of solution oriented Dutch urban planning. 
Research by design to contribute to a safe, just and sustainable world.

Source: Youtube

This article is culled from daily press coverage from around the world. It is posted on the Urban Gateway by way of keeping all users informed about matters of interest. The opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and in no way reflects the opinion of UN-Habitat.  

Cities – The Next Chapter
Published on 19 Jun 2017

Filmed June 7, 2017, at the ULI Asia Pacific Summit in Singapore.

Growing urbanization, the millennial factors, the need for ‘places’: how are global megatrends affecting real estate investors?

Speaker: * William Powell of Brookfield Asia Pacific

Source: Youtube

This article is culled from daily press coverage from around the world. It is posted on the Urban Gateway by way of keeping all users informed about matters of interest. The opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and in no way reflects the opinion of UN-Habitat.  

Meeting the Challenges of Urbanization: Case Studies of Scalable Approaches
Published on 19 Jun 2017

Chair: Andre de Jager, Managing Director Agriculture, SNV

Speakers: Eelco Baan, Senior Advocacy Officer Agriculture, SNV

Rikki Agudah, acting CEO, Society of Crop Agribusiness Advisors of Kenya (SOCAA) Clement Onyango, Director, CUTS ARC

at the IFPRI special event, "Food Security and Nutrition in an Urbanizing World" held Tuesday June 6th, 2017 in Brussels, Belgium. More information at: http://www.ifpri.org/event/food-secur...

Source: Youtube

This article is culled from daily press coverage from around the world. It is posted on the Urban Gateway by way of keeping all users informed about matters of interest. The opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and in no way reflects the opinion of UN-Habitat. 

 
Effects of Urbanization
Published on 16 Jun 2017

Here is the link to the "Typhoid Mary" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE8Hw...

Source: Youtube

This article is culled from daily press coverage from around the world. It is posted on the Urban Gateway by way of keeping all users informed about matters of interest. The opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and in no way reflects the opinion of UN-Habitat.  

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