“The City Prosperity Initiative” presents UN-Habitat’s new global initiative that aims to reinforce local capacities for cities to improve well being and prosperity through a new monitoring tool (city prosperity index) a policy dialogue based on a conceptual framework (the wheel of prosperity) and the creation of action plans with sustainable urban solutions. The lecture presents both the origin of the city prosperity index and its evolution into a global initiative.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQgnyDF2N-A
City Prosperity Initiative - Eduardo Moreno
BIOGRAPHY
Eduardo López Moreno is the Director of Research and Capacity Development at UN-Habitat. He has over 20 years of academic and professional experience in housing and urban development policies, institutional analysis and urban poverty alleviation issues. He has an extensive number of publications: five books on topics related to social housing, land policies and urban development. Dr. López Moreno is the Task Manager and principal author of the State of the World’s Cities Report 2006/7, 2008/9 and 2010/11, one of the UN-Habitat flagship reports.
SYNOPSIS
“The City Prosperity Initiative” presents UN-Habitat’s new global initiative that aims to reinforce local capacities for cities to improve well being and prosperity through a new monitoring tool (city prosperity index) a policy dialogue based on a conceptual framework (the wheel of prosperity) and the creation of action plans with sustainable urban solutions. The lecture presents both the origin of the city prosperity index and its evolution into a global initiative.
The 20th century of urbanization is unsustainable on many grounds: high consumption of land and energy, growing inequalities, distortions in the form and function of the city, environmental damage, etc. This model has resulted from a functionalistic view of the city and a distorted notion of prosperity that is based on a wealth accumulation pattern. In order to respond to this, UN-Habitat has proposed a notion of prosperity that aims to help cities to steer growth towards a more sustainable urban future. This notion translates operationally and conceptually into a new index and a policy dialogue based on the six dimensions of prosperity: productivity, infrastructure, quality of life, equity, governance and laws, and environmental sustainability.
Eduardo L. Moreno explains how the city index was created based on city surveys and policy research. He then introduces the main characteristics of this index and the initial grouping of cities across the world that go from solid, moderate and weak factors of prosperity. Each one of these groups have specific features that reflect the stage of development of cities and their technical and institutional capacities, which impact differently over the six dimensions of prosperity. Moreno presents the objectives of the global initiative, indicating the technical support that UN-Habitat offers in various areas, such as institutional analysis, strategic thinking, training and capacity development, urban futures analysis, and policy simulations — all designed to help cities to advance on the prosperity path in a more sustainable manner.
The lecture concludes with a presentation of the benefits that the global initiative brings to cities that are part of it, which include:
- In-depth and customized estimation of the City Prosperity Index
- Diagnostic and action plan with policy recommendations to advance prosperity
- Best and emerging practices to advance practical solutions and strategies
- Local monitoring mechanism to transfer the method of the CPI to the city
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
City Prosperity Initiative information
State of the World’s Cities Report 2012/13: The Prosperity of Cities.