WORLD URBAN FORUM 6 ROUNDTABLE OF URBAN RESEARCHERS

Transcription

1 WORLD URBAN FORUM 6 ROUNDTABLE OF URBAN RESEARCHERS Research for a Better Urban Future Naples, Wednesday, 05 September 2012, 16:30-19:00 CONCEPT NOTE 1. INTRODUCTION UN-Habitat is mandated by the General Assembly to promote sustainable human settlement development to ensure adequate shelter for all. In our rapidly urbanizing world, a crucial aspect of this mission is to promote sustainable urbanization itself. This entails not only responding to current challenges, but also being able to anticipate the future and putting in place now processes and structures that will lead to the best possible outcomes. Not surprisingly Urban Futures is a key overarching theme of this year s World Urban Forum (WUF VI) Towards an Urban Future - as well as an important component of the third United Nations conference on housing and sustainable urban development (Habitat III) to be held in 2016, which will determine the direction of Habitat s work for the next decades. Achieving thriving, inclusive and sustainable urban future will require concerted and consolidated effort from a wide range of social actors. This is particularly true in the area of research. Data, capable minds and resourceful institutions are the essential ingredients needed to develop an understanding of current urban realities, the key challenges and unfolding trends in order to shed light on the likely future outcomes so that they may be positively influenced. Centres of knowledge generation are therefore important actors in steering the journey towards the sustainable urban future. Thus it is necessary to build partnerships for collaboration and coordination among academic, civil society, government and private research institutions. The contribution of these actors in shaping and strengthening urban practice, cultivating talent and skills for anticipating, preparing for, and altering the urban future is essential and urgent. The Researchers Roundtable at the 6 th session of the World Urban Forum will discuss the creation of a platform to facilitate coordination of diverse research activities, and the wide and timely dissemination of the fruits of such research so that knew knowledge is mainstreamed into relevant current practice and the university curricula that will nurture future urban policymakers and practitioners. The Roundtable will advance the establishment of a Global Urban Research Umbrella (GURU) - a network of networks which would serve as an online unifying centre and international clearing house for research on urban issues - by examining a recently completed, UN-Habitat commissioned, feasibility study on the same.

2 A new UN-Habitat agreement with the University of South Florida will be presented as a concrete example of the type of research partnership that Habitat will increasingly seek to promote in tandem with GURU. Under this agreement the university s Patel School of Global Sustainability will take the lead on the thematic research area of Urban Futures. The Roundtable will also discuss where future research should be directed in order to answer some of the key questions being raised at WUF 6 in anticipation of Habitat III, such as: o What key decisions and actions should be taken now to reorient city development towards the desired urban future? What are the key levers for change? How should we invest on that urban future? o How can prosperity be enhanced, sustained and optimally shared without generating adverse social, economic and environmental effects? o In the current continuum of the urban development model being followed, are there positive and negative lessons that can be shared? o What role should UN-Habitat play in steering the world towards the desired urban future; and how should it relate with other key actors with respect to the evolving urban agenda? 2. OBJECTIVES AND EXPECTED OUTCOMES OF THE ROUNDTABLE The overall objective of this year s Urban Researchers Roundtable is to chart the way forward for the creation of GURU. With this in mind, the Roundtable will be asked to: 1. Discuss the main findings of the feasibility study, in particular: o Determine the expected role of the network: Will it identify research areas and undertake its own research? Or simply catalogue existing state-of-the-art research and communicate it to members? Or perhaps somewhere in the middle, going beyond cataloguing and communicating to stimulating and assisting in research but not undertaking it directly. o Determine the key stakeholders that will be invited to participate including research institutes and networks, universities/research institutions, government agencies, etc. o Review proposed overall design and membership criteria. o Discuss the proposed funding for GURU and look at different scenarios for financial backing including potential funding partners.

3 o Outline next steps: develop a general work programme for the next 6-12 months, including responsibilities for members/stakeholders. This will be furthered elaborated at post-roundtable meeting. 2. Discuss what type of activities such a network should undertake and what themes should be investigated for participants to engage and for network to be a success (success factors) 3. Promote the formation of research partnerships between academia, the private sector, governments, etc. 3. LIST OF PEERS INVOLVED IN THIS ROUNDTABLE AND A SENTENCE SUMMARY OF THEIR ROLE INCLUDING SPONSORS Dr. Mario R. Delos Reyes is the Dean of the University of the Philippines - School of Urban and Regional Planning (UP-SURP). Prior to becoming Dean, he was Asia-Pacific Regional Node Coordinator for of UNDP s Public Private Partnerships for the Urban Environment Collaborative Learning Course (PPPUE- CLC), and Asia Coordinator for UN-HABITAT s Sustainable Cities Programme (Environmental Planning and Management). Dr. Delos Reyes is a member of the Advisory Board for UN-HABITAT Philippines. He has expertise in urban planning and management, environmental planning and policy, climate change and disaster risk, public private partnerships for the urban environment, and coastal planning and management. Luigi Fusco Girard is professor of Economics and Environmental Assessment in the Faculty of Architecture, at the University of Naples Federico II; he is Director of the International Scientific Laboratory on Creative City, and of the Interdepartmental Research Centre Calza Bini, University of Naples. Luigi is also Director of the Ph.D. Programme on Evaluation Methods for the Integrated Conservation of Architectural, Urban and Environmental Heritage and of the PhD School of Architecture, University of Naples Federico II. Dr. Peter Gotsch is Professor of International Urbanism at the University of Applied Sciences Frankfurt am Main. With a research focus on comparative urban development and the role of new urban actors, he has worked and lectured in more than 30 countries. His portfolio comprises guidelines for post-disaster reconstruction, studies on the governance of urban safety, and planning principles for sustainable neighbourhoods. Dr. Gotsch serves on the board of the Network-Association of European Researchers on Urbanization in the South ( and

4 TRIALOG, the German research network on planning and building in the South. Dr. Kosta Mathéy is professor at the Global Urban Studies Institute, International Academy, Berlin Free University. At the Vietnamese German University in Ho Chi Minh City he is directing a Masters Course on Urban Development Planning. He also is co-director of TRIALOG, the German research network on planning and building in the South and one of the coordinators of the working group on housing in developing countries of the European Network for Housing Research. Dr. Izabela Mironowicz is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Director for the Studies in Planning, Wrocław University of Technology. She is a board member of Polish Society of Town Planners and Vice-President of the Lower Silesia branch of the Society. She is Secretary General of AESOP as well as member of European Urban Research Association (EURA).She is also a Secretary General of the Commission on Architecture and Town Planning in Wrocław, an advisory body in urban matters for the Mayor of Wrocław. Dr. Michelle Mycoo is Senior Lecturer, Town and Country Planner, Department of Surveying and Land Information, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Trinidad and Tobago. Prior to joining academia Dr. Mycoo worked as a Chartered Town Planner in the Town and Country Planning Division of Trinidad and Tobago. After doctoral studies she was recruited by the World Bank as a consultant in the Urban Division of the Environmentally Sustainable Development Department. Dr. Mycoo joined UWI, St. Augustine in 1997 and is a tenured Lecturer and Coordinator of the MSc Planning and Development programme. Dr. Kala Vairavamoorthy is a director in the School of Global Sustainability at the University of South Florida. He was Chair of Water Engineering and the University of Birmingham. Dr. Vairavamoorthy was previously Professor of Sustainable Urban Water Infrastructure Systems at UNESCO-IHE, Delft, Netherlands. Additionally, he has served as scientific director of SWITCH (Sustainable Water Management Improves Tomorrow s Cities Health), the European Union s Integrated Project for Sustainable Urban Water Management. 4. ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE PEER GROUPS SINCE LAST FORUM

5 A feasibility study on Global Urban Research Umbrella was prepared, and a draft presented at the Global Meeting of the Habitat Partner University Initiative. Partnerships are being developed with universities, notably one with the University of South Florida to create an urban research hub. 5. NEXT STEPS AND EXPECTED ACCOMPLISHMENTS BY NEXT FORUM We expect to have the foundations for the research umbrella prepared in advance of an Expert Group Meeting to be hosted by the University of South Florida in November This includes selecting key members such as urban institutes, universities, etc.; selecting and establishing a governance structure for the research umbrella; and developing funding plans. GURUs should be launched in early STRUCTURE AND OUTLINE PROGRAMME OF THE ROUNDTABLE WITH PROPOSED SPEAKERS Moderator: Claudio Acioly, Head, Capacity Development Unit (UN-Habitat) 1. Brief introduction by Mohamed Halfani, Head, Urban Research Unit (UN-Habitat) 5 minutes 2. Presentation of main findings of feasibility study by Prof. Dr. Kosta Mathey and Prof. Dr. Peter Gotsch a. Presentation will focus each of the first four findings described in objective 1 (10 minutes each) 3. Reactions to each of the main feasibility study findings (10 minutes each) led by Dr. Michelle Mycoo, Dr. Izabela Mironowicz, Luigi Fusco Girard, and Dr. Mario de los Reyes. 4. Participants response to the four findings (20 minutes). 5. Participants recommendations of what type of activities the network to undertake to provide a useful service to them, and what themes should be focused on for them to want to engage 20 minutes 6. Brief presentation by Dr. Kala Vairavamoorthy on Habitat partnership with USF 10 minutes 7. Closing remarks by Claudio Acioly 5 minutes 7. LANGUAGE The Roundtable will be conducted in English.

6 To register: Please send an to indicating you wish to participate in the Researchers Roundtable with your name, title, university and department; AND register online as a participant at: Focal point: Bernhard Barth bernhard.barth@unhabitat.org