Building Capacity for Better Cities: What have we learned?
Day / Time Tuesday, June 20th / 13:30 - 15:30
Event Description
In Istanbul, 10 years ago we shared experience between some of the major institutions involved in Capacity Building for urban development. Discussion was based round a publication aiming to link experience with more strategic action. This meeting in Vancouver aims to share the approaches tried, and based on this, focus on the most strategic directions to make investment as effective as possible. This session will include inputs on the concepts, barriers to effective use of capacity, experiences showing potential, and strategic ways to progress. Participants will be encouraged to share to their input in the fields of barriers, positive experiences and the most strategic future directions.
Session Language
English
Speakers
Banashree Banerji, IHS Associate, consultant, India
Forbes Davidson, IHS, Caren Levy, DPU, Johnny Astrand, Lund
Raf Tuts, Chief Training and Capacity Building, UN-Habitat
We have opened a blog to allow discussion and sharing of materials before the event. www.urbancapacity.blogspot.com/ You are welcome to comment, or if you want to post materials you can apply to joint or send to urbancapacity@gmail.com
Host Organization
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
Host Organization Description
The Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)is a leading centre focussed on international education, training institutional development and advisory services for the urban sector, particularly in developing and transition countries. Founded in 1958 it is associated with Erasmus University, the Netherlands . UN-habitat's Training and Capacity Building Branch (TCBB) assists local authorities and civil society organizations to build core skills and competencies in strategic areas including leadership, financial management and participatory planning. The Development Planning Unit (DPU), University College, London, is an international centre specialising in academic teaching, practical training, research and consultancy in the field of urban and regional development, planning, and management. Housing Development and Management (HDM), University of Lund, Sweden undertakes research and training in housing from an international perspective: planning, design, creation, use and management, and the connection between a home and its surroundings from neighbourhood to city level.
Website
www.unhabitat.org/programmes/tcbb/
www.urbancapacity.blogspot.com/
Report
|
Title of Event:
|
Building Capacity for Better Cities: What have we learned? Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS); Development Planning Unit (DPU), University College London (UCL); Housing Development and Management, University of Lund, and Training and Capacity Building Branch (TCBB), UNHABITAT. Tuesday 20 June 2006, 13:30-15:30
|
|
Key Highlights
|
|
|
2. What were the core issues identified in your event as they relate to the theme and sub-themes of WUFIII? Capacity Building is a cross cutting function which closely relates to the central WUF III theme of Sustainable Cities. The discussions on strengthening capacity building efforts in the context of sustainable urbanization are of relevance for all sub-themes. |
|
|
3. What were the main points raised by panellists and participants in relation to these different issues? What new ideas have been generated as a result of the discussion? • The development of capacity building strategies (linkages of capacity building with policy shifts; the continuous triangle between capacity building, institutional and organizational development; the importance of political commitment; ensuring local relevance of capacity building needs and delivery; building on city networks in capacity-building efforts; continuous assessment and development of curricula; recognising changes in stakeholders and the importance of delivering training to stakeholders together; and creating synergy between people, programmes on the ground and resources,including on the job training. • Challenges for the supply-side of capacity building (the necessity to go to scale; the importance of long term support for training; attention to staff within institutions, including payment structures; and pleas for creating learning institutions). • Evaluation and impact assessment (the need to give more priority, and identify suitable tools, to monitor and evaluate capacity building efforts to assess impact. |
|
|
4. What process steps have been identified in your event that could help turn ideas into operational reality? The session used as a basis a set of recommendations for capacity building developed in Istanbul 10 years ago. This earlier discussion was based around a publication which aimed to link experience into more strategic action. The discussion held at the networking event in Vancouver updates and, in some cases, revalidates the most strategic directions to take to make investment in this vital field as effective as possible. An updated publication will follow. New areas for operational work include: monitoring and evaluation of capacity building, including identification of tools, setting up of learning institutions and follow-up ("after-service sale"); re-looking at what capacity building means locally; and re-looking at stakeholders and how to train jointly and build on other city processes. Participants were also encouraged to continue discussions on www.urbancapacity.blogspot.com after the event. |
|