After several years at I2UD, first as a Northeastern co-op student and then as a research associate, Carolina Morgan is currently pursuing a dual masters degree in urban planning and real estate development at MIT. This summer, Carolina embarked upon an internship with one of the largest developers-Conservatorio- in Casco Antiguo, the historic district of Panama City, Panama. Below, she reflects on the experience and shares insights on the role of the private sector in promoting social inclusion:

As a UNESCO World Heritage Site undergoing major restoration, Casco attracts both Panamanians and foreigners to its part of town which stands in stark contrast to the daunting concrete and glass high-rise buildings and extensive highways that makes up the rest of the city. Investors have recognized Casco as a tourist attraction and are positioning themselves to take advantage of this renewed demand for the old town.

It has been fascinating to work within the neighborhood during its period of transition. Half of the buildings have been restored to preserve their historic blend of Caribbean, Spanish and French colonial styles. Below the high-end apartments with their decorated balconies are world-class restaurants, art galleries, and souvenir shops. The other half are still in ruins. They are mostly shells with only pieces of the facades still standing and covered in vines, or extremely fragile structures held up by makeshift beams. Many local families live in those, surrounded by unkempt abandoned ones, and sustained by a constant flow of illegally dumped trash.

Nearly a decade ago, Casco was still a precarious city with a prevalence of crime and a strong gang presence. As redevelopment forces currently take hold, many residents are pleased by the alleviation of these pervasive social problems; while others worry about the impact that gentrification will have on the families that have lived in Casco for generations. My I2UD training prepared me to actively participate in these community discussions about holistic, sustainable redevelopment that prioritizes the long-term health of the neighborhood, seeking to maintain the mix of incomes, uses, and to preserve cultural vitality.

Moreover, in addition to a range of social programs and affordable housing projects, Conservatorio focuses on fostering small local businesses by renting to them at subsidized prices in viable locations. I witnessed firsthand various small businesses including restaurants located inside buildings pre-renovation. The shells, with their stone walls and columns but no ceiling, make for great open-air yet intimate dining. This allows the local community to participate in the economic growth of the area, while at the same time keeps the neighborhood diverse and lively.

The tensions between the investment opportunities and the risk of excluding the local community will only intensify as redevelopment progresses. I am optimistic about the role that the developers leading the change can have in ensuring inclusive growth. Having spent the summer embedded in those efforts, I am confident that this place will generate new ideas about neighborhood revitalization, supported by people committed to implementing them. I look forward to returning to Casco to survey its progress and to partake in continuing and future development projects.

The conference will take place on Wednesday, October 8th, 2014 at the Metcalf Trustee Center on the Boston University campus. The conference will also feature a moderated discussion between Thomas Menino, former mayor of Boston, and Sheila Dikshit, Governor of Kerala, and former First Minister of Dehli.

The conference is co-sponsored by Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, the Initiative on Cities, and the Center for the study of Asia in collaboration with the Global Programs India Initiatives, and the Metropolitan College City Planning program.

For more information, visit the conference website.

Warren with Research Assistant Sheelah Gobar

The Institute for International Urban Development was the greatest influence on my education and career in the field of international development. Although I was very interested in the field as a freshman at Northeastern University, it was not until my co-op at I2UD that I was able to see how to translate my classroom learning into a career set of skills through urban planning.

My first assignment as a co-op (aside from brewing the daily coffee) was to assist in the research for the State of the Arab Cities 2012. It was January 2011, and no sooner had research begun than the upheaval and regime change across the region began. It was fascinating to see how cities were at the center of the protests, and indeed how the demographic, economic, social, and environmental trends that were being profiled in the State of the Arab Cities report were the drivers of unrest. I was also given a real look into how the aid industry – and it truly is an industry – works, built not so much on competition between the most-able and proven service providers but on personal contacts and political considerations. I admired the work ethic of I2UD’s professionals as they worked for content, not billable hours.

The experience as a co-op changed which classes I chose for the rest of my studies, as I chose  more pragmatic courses such as land-use planning and ArcGIS. I felt very lucky to come back to I2UD after graduating. I was excited to be a part of the team at a small office, knowing that my contributions truly made a difference to operations and quality of work. I learned too much to summarize, but suffice it to say that I2UD gave me the best introduction and formation in the urban planning profession I could have hoped for. The multi-disciplinary nature of the work meant that for any given project, I’d be working on research, graphics, map-making, and report writing. I had the opportunity to work with professionals from around the world: some days we worked on projects on four different continents. Throughout, I was inspired by the direction Frank, Mona, and John took us: rather than producing formulaic work, we responded to the needs and conditions of the urban poor and vulnerable. Our work was always adapting to realities on the ground. For instance, we recognized that climate change and its associated extreme weather patterns is already affecting the lives of people in environmentally sensitive areas, with the greatest burden falling on the poor. We began to ensure that our projects and research included a climate component – not with an isolated paragraph or two, but by really weaving climate-conscious thinking into how we approach problems.

I was surrounded by an amazing breadth and depth of knowledge and experience at I2UD: from understanding the dynamics of politics and urbanization in the Middle East; to knowing how to incorporate social inclusion into planning from Belize to the Balkans; to facilitating change and consensus through smart map design; to ensuring that a project meets the needs of men and women alike. I learned how complex even the simplest-seeming problems in urban planning can be. However, it is in addressing this complexity that a truly useful, transformative project can take root, without simultaneously sowing the seeds for future problems.

GOLD III highlights the critical role of basic services (water, sanitation, energy, transportation and solid waste management) in poverty reduction, economic development, and climate change adaptation. The report finds that the responsibility for the provision of basic services often falls to local and regional governments, and that “improvements to basic services are positively correlated with local government involvement in their provision.”

The report criticizes the Millennium Development Goal targets for assessing who has ‘improved’ water and sanitation by applying the same definitions to vastly different rural and urban contexts. It also points out that the monitoring of the MDGs at national level hides significant variation in their achievement within countries. GOLD III calls for a seat to be given to sub-national governments at the international negotiating table and for the ‘localization’ of all targets and indicators in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda.

GOLD III is already having a significant political impact through the international advocacy work of local and regional governments.

The report’s findings on the importance of appropriate basic service infrastructure in cities are being used to support UCLG’s campaign for a stand-alone urban sustainable development goal (#UrbanSDG).

UCLG is also using GOLD III to advocate for the localization of all targets and indicators in the post-2015 agenda in order to take account of rural and urban contexts, as well as other sub-national variations in the implementation and monitoring of international development goals. UNDP has invited the Global Task Force of Local and Regional Governments to officially co-lead consultations on the localization of the post-2015 agenda. This is a step forward in the recognition of sub-national governments in UN development negotiations.

A global, local perspective: GOLD III is unique in its international scope, covering basic services in all of the major world regions: Asia Pacific, Africa, Europe, North America, Latin America, Eurasia and the Middle East and West Asia. The report is also unique in its methodology, having been drawn up by leading regional specialists working in close consultation with local elected representatives and local government practitioners with experience on the ground. Heading up this complex process was David Satterthwaite, the report’s Global Coordinator.

A draft Executive Summary of the report is available here.

The full report was published on June the 17^th 2014. Order your copy here.

Since holding the second National Workshop in Belmopan in December 2013, I2UD has been providing trainings and technical assistance to the seven Local Planning Working Groups (LPWGs) to develop Chapters 4 and 5 of their municipal development plans. Training Module 4 was held in January/February 2014 and focused on Infrastructure and Investment Planning, while Module 5 was developed around Implementation and Financing Strategies and took place in February/March.

Module 5 was also an opportunity for the LPWGs to determine and develop Catalyst projects, which address urgent planning needs and demonstrate visibility and impact while creating momementum for the implementation of the wider Municipal Development Plan. Elda Solloso worked with LPWGs to complete their plans over the course of two months in the field. I2UD has also drafted a Guidance Manual to enable LPWGs and municipalities to update their plans in the future. The manual along with the final MDPs are currently under review and will be presented in their final form at the third and final National Workshop in June 2014.

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy hosted a Networking Event at the 7th World Urban Forum in Medellin. The event presented the findings of Lincoln’s research fellows into approaches to dealing with environmental risk in Latin America, including I2UD’s recent work in Nicaragua and Colombia. Lincoln’s research focuses particularly on the ways in which climate change exacerbates the vulnerability of low-income urban dwellers living in precarious locations.

The report, entitled “Building Resilience for Informal Settlements in Latin America,” will be published later in 2014.

If you or your institution are interested in learning more about the project or how to get involved, do not hesitate to get in touch with us through the contact page on our site, Facebook, or Twitter.

Dr Mona Serageldin has participated as moderator and discussant in an Inter-American Development Bank-sponsored event at the 7^th World Urban Forum in Medellin, from 4:30PM – 6:30PM on Wednesday, April 9, in Room 23 of the Red Pavilion.

The discussion is described below:

“Is Densification a Key Factor in Promoting Equity? The Role of Urban Densification in Facilitating Social Inclusion and Counteracting Socio-spatial Divisions.”

“The World Urban Forum 7 will focus on equity as the core topic at stake in cities around the world. In Latin America, Asia, and Africa, inequity takes the form of informal and illegal settlements accommodating up to 80 per cent of the urban population, who is deprived of the most basic urban services, such as water supply, drainage, personal and tenure security. In Europe and North America, changes since the early 1990s have caused mounting social fragmentation in many cities, which is reflected in problematic urban settlements patterns: poor households are often segregated in impoverished city neighborhoods and deprived of access services. Can urban densification (understood as an increasing number of people inhabiting a given urbanized area, with impacts on economics, health, culture, sustainability, and innovation) facilitate social inclusion and counteract socio-spatial divisions? An argument in favor of compact cities is that they are more socially sustainable, as they encourage an urban layout in favor of improved economic opportunities, efficient public transport system, opportunities for social interaction, and improved safety. This networking event will examine strategies to counterbalance the widening socio-spatial gap in cities. Experiences will include the promotion of partnerships, financial mechanism, improved access to services, and better local governance. The discussion will also cover experiences from fully planned to spontaneous initiatives towards densification and how they impact social inclusion. Case studies will come from different continents with a special focus on developing countries. The main outcome of the event will be to count with a series of lines of action and tools to help advise cities on how to address the issue of segregation and socio-spatial division.”

(Photo Courtesy: UN-Habitat)

I2UD recently concluded Social Sustainability Assessments in five cities in southeastern Europe in partnership with Co-PLAN and sponsored by the World Bank. The framework for these audits evaluated the accountability and participation mechanisms provided by government to citizens – especially the vulnerable – in the delivery of services and programs. The Social Audit set out to increase the knowledge and awareness of social accountability among city stakeholders and to strengthen the integrity of public services in: Durrës (Albania), Banja Luka and Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Prishtina (Kosovo) and Skopje (FYROM). City-specific assessments and reports from this project can be found here.

Join the conversation on Social Accountability with GPSA and other Global Partners on Twitter: @GPSAcc with hashtags #GPSA and #SocialAcc