Month: October 2018

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World Urban Forum – Cities for All

The World Urban Forum is a global platform for discussing urban challenges. The United Nations established the Forum to “examine one of the most pressing issues facing the world today: rapid urbanization and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies.” WUF’s goals include raising awareness for sustainable urban development in both the public and private spheres, increasing knowledge on sustainable urbanization, and improving coordination among global actors. With high participation rates and a focus on inclusivity, WUF is the world’s best platform for global environmental discussion.

The most recent WUF forum was held in February 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The forum included 250 speakers, 25,000 participants, and over 500 events. The sessions include high level roundtables, dialogues, networking events, assemblies, and training events. High level roundtables are the most prestigious events, as they feature high profile decision makers. WUF 9’s high level roundtables included discussions about the urban impact on climate change, innovative governance in inclusive cities, and peace and security in sustainable urbanization. Dialogues include debate on policy recommendations regarding the New Urban Agenda. WUF 9’s dialogues included urban conflict and crisis, creating resilient cities, and legislative frameworks. Assemblies provide a platform for various stakeholder groups, allowing each of them to have a voice in the discussion on sustainable urban development. WUF 9’s assemblies provided a special voice for youth, women, businesses, and grassroots organizations. Training events are a different way to approach the advancement of sustainable development, as they build knowledge and develop skills for both participants and international audiences. Training events at WUF 9 included women’s safety in cities, homelessness in cities, and rebuilding cities after natural disasters.

The next WUF (the tenth forum) will be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in 2020. In the next forum, I hope to see more discussions and trainings about sustainable natural resource use. While WUF 9 covered a wide range of topics necessary to developing inclusively sustainable cities, there were not too many sessions about natural resource conservation. As cities hold the largest concentrations of populations in the world, it is important these populations not only use natural resources sustainably, but also have access to resources for generations to come. Promoting sustainable resource use is one of the most important ways we can support a future of environmental inclusion for all, so that every person will always have equal access to the resources they need to survive each and every day.

Resources:

https://unhabitat.org/wuf/

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Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction and Management

One of the major approaches of GP2017 was the creation of regional strategies for implementing the Sendai Framework.  The Sendai Framework itself recognizes the primacy of the state to control their own disaster risk reduction plans, but encourages partnerships in regional and subregional bodies.  I cannot help but wonder what something like this would look like in Europe. Upon a bit of research, it appears that the European Commission is doing the most organization and advocacy for disaster risk reduction strategies in tandem with UNISDR that has organized a European Forum on Disaster RIsk Reduction to be held again in November of this year in Rome, Italy.  Moreover, the Commission published an Action Plan in 2016 in accordance with the Sendai Framework, detailing how it would be achieved in Europe. Continue reading →

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Inclusive Cities, Habitat III and New Urban Agenda

The World Urban Forum is of particular interest to me because of my work with the DIAUD Network through IDPP.  The WUF concept is so interesting to me because of its commitment to inclusivity and emphasis on stakeholder involvement which is where DIAUD comes into play.  DIAUD is a network of stakeholders dedicated to both disability policy and policy concerning sustainable cities. They are established in partnership with UNDESA and IDPP and played a major role in both NUA and WUF9, advocating for language in the document and hosting their own side event. Continue reading →

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Disaster Risk Reduction and Inclusive Practices

The Sendai Framework is one of the most inclusive UN conferences. Adopted at the 3rd global UN Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan, the Sendai Framework outlines four priorities, seven targets, and thirteen guiding principles to adopt a people-centered approach and to recognize disability inclusive in Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR). The Sendai Framework ultimately shifted the focus from disaster management to disaster risk reduction with the primary focus on reducing the risk of both natural and man-made disasters while planning to rebuild cities in a sustainable, inclusive and resilient way. Following the Sendai Framework, the Dhaka Declaration on Disability and Disaster Risk Reduction took place in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2015. Two important points discussed here are the recognition that persons with disabilities are most vulnerable during disasters and how poverty and disability can intersect. Its primary focuses were on ensuring a people-centered approach, engaging meaningfully with persons with disabilities at all levels, strengthening governance and partnerships, integrating gender, age and disability data, and promoting empowerment and protection. What stands out about the Dhaka Declaration is that it reemphasizes the issues raised from the conference, but also provides specific actions that can be taken by the countries involved. This provides clear goals for the future to guide governments and organizations towards inclusive disaster risk reduction that includes persons with disabilities in the decision-making processes.

The Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction of 2017, which took place in Cancun, Mexico, redefined accessibility in the modern age (UNISDR). To ensure that all persons with disability had access and were included in the decision-making processes of the conference, the GP2017 provided International Sign Language translators for support during sessions, offered remote participations at hubs in Bangladesh, Fiji, Belgium, and the United States, and introduced the use of robots to connect these remote hubs to the conference. Although live webcasting does not always give access to discuss topics and ideas further with other attendees, the robots gave more access to those not able to participate in person to virtually engage with the conference.

I am blown away by the use of technology in this way, because of its role in promoting accessibility and inclusivity. Yet, I recognize its limitations because all may not have access to this technology and technology might not always be reliable. With my capstone project on inclusive education in Malaysia, I am intrigued by the idea of using this technology in teacher training programs to promote an exchange of ideas and learning.

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WUF and Diplomatic Events

This week in class we continued our discussion on inclusive and smart cities, with a focus on the World Urban Forum (WUF) and how it relates to inclusive development. The WUF is a global conference on urban issues established in 2001 by UN-Habitat specifically to address rapid urbanization and its far reached impacts. The Forum made a specific effort to be inclusive, gathering participation from diverse groups of people with diverse backgrounds, in order to increase awareness about sustainable urbanization, coordinate between groups, and create ideas to change the world of urbanization. The WUF meets every 2 years, most recently held in February 2018 in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia and boasted 23,000 participants, making it the second largest gathering in history.

 

One question that I had regarding many diplomatic events with high attendance, is whether having a large turn out for an event creates a more or less productive atmosphere? I believe this is something that must be very challenging in many UN meetings and Forums, the balance between being small enough to have compelling and influential discussions, but large enough to create an engaged and powerful dialogue. However, despite the specifics, the thought of having hundreds of people in one space, discussing one issue is powerful. Having 23,000 participants for WUF9 illustrated the popularity and the amount of support that the WUF gained over the decades.

 

Having popularity was very important to the mission as it showed how many governments, interests and stakeholders were interested in the message WUF was working to spread about sustainable urban development and urban issues. The were able to raise awareness of sustainable urbanization among stakeholders and constituencies and plan goals for future meetings. The message that everyone should have equal access to cities resonated across groups and solidified the Kuala-Lumpur Declaration on Cities 2030, ensuring cities and quality of life for all. Additionally, one of the main outcomes of the WUF9 was focused on creating a multidisciplinary conversation with both SDGs and the NUA, which we discussed in class last week. The NUA, being the primary outcome of Habitat III in 2016, was analyzed and discussed at WUF9. The participants viewed NUA as a tool for achieving both Agenda 2030 and the SDGs.

 

The WUF is very impactful to my research as the WUF’s main goal is to raise awareness. In conducting my early research, I have had a difficult time finding specific, tangible examples of how awareness raising can lead to tangible change. However, the WUF and NUA depicts an example of how