Commonwealth Local Government Forum

Southern Africa \ Cities and urbanisation

In 2014, 54% of the global population was living in urban areas and this is predicted to rise to 66% by 2050. The characteristics of cities differ greatly across countries and regions of the Commonwealth and some issues facing large and megacities will differ from those faced by secondary cities and towns and across the Commonwealth, the degree of urbanisation varies significantly. Whilst 38.1% of the population of the Commonwealth lived in urban settlements in 2014, Commonwealth Europe is 82% urban and Commonwealth South-East Asia 78% with Commonwealth Africa 41%, Commonwealth South Asia 33% and the Commonwealth Pacific Islands 18% urban. Achievement of SDG 11 will require cities to actively address the key dimensions of sustainable development – the economy, the society and the environment and to be inclusive, and proactive to ensure safety of all citizens. Subthemes includes urbanisation and migration, urban planning, informal settlements, formal and informal urban economy, disaster risk reduction and emergency planning, safety and security in cities, and smart cities and ICT.

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Smart Cities: Contradicting Definitions and Unclear Measures

Cities are contemporary metropolises that concentrate human and social activity;

engineered to support and develop the physical environment and the people within it, Smart

cities, we are led to believe, are the immediate future, where smartness is perceived as a

characterisation of advancements or digitalisation, in government, mobility and sustainability.

Therefore it is not surprising that many organisations are marketing their smart solutions and

products, often to a ubiquitous extent and so called smart cities are striving to outperform each

other. But how are smart cities actually being defined and how is performance being measured

in an era where there is increasing access to unprecedented amounts of foreseen data? This

paper identifies the plethora of the smart city definitions and categories evidenced from the

literature and shows that 'Smart cities' lacks a robust coherent definition, with many

contradicting facts within what constitutes a smart vision. Notably, almost every attempt from

organisations, the European Union or cities themselves has failed to define 'smart' in objective

terms that can be accepted globally. Certainly, they all are negotiating with a range of

descriptors and smart ways to improve the city. Even the UK's attempts to develop a clear

definition and set of standards for smart cities (i.e. PAS 180 and PAS 182) appears to suffer

from fundamental differences in how the semantic content of a 'smart' city is defined. This paper

demonstrates the necessity for a single 'Smart Cities' definition that deals with both the physical

and digital using shared parameter value(s) that can be adopted and scaled amongst different

localities and within a range of urban contexts adjusting according to existing city condition(s)

and vision(s) setting the paradigm for further innovative research in this area

Author: Marianna Cavada, Dexter Hunt and Chris Rogers Publisher: World Sustainability Forum 2014 – Conference Proceedings Paper Publication year: 2018


The impact of smart technologies in the municipal budget: increased revenue and Reduced expenses for better services

This document is the result of the discussions held during the 2016 Uraía Workshop which took place in Nicosia, Cyprus on April 19 and 20th, 2016. It is a working paper made in collaboration with the participants who attended the workshop including representatives of local governments, city networks, service and technology providers, civil society, international organizations and research institutes from all around the world. It gathers general recommendations on the use of SMART technologies to improve municipal finances and it is based on the participants’ experiences.

Author: Mariana Nascimento Collin Publisher: Uraía Platform Publication year: 2017


Sedibeng District Municipality assisted in achieving a clean audit for two years running

All activities of local government in South Africa are tightly regulated. There are numerous Acts governing how municipalities need to run operations. Municipalities are challenged by not having effective and efficient systems, tools, and processes to support managing their operations. This ultimately impacts on their ability to being able to effectively and timeously monitor their performance against their annual plans. However, the Sedibeng District Municipality was on a manual system that had a negative impact on its effectiveness and productivity. Sedibeng therefore needed to implement a performance management system that would comply with South African legislative requirements. The municipality went on an open tender and awarded the project to Microsoft partner Vision Activ that specialises in performance management solutions for both the corporate and public sectors.

Author: Microsoft CityNext Publisher: Microsoft CityNext Publication year: 2016


Telling city success stories - roundtable on SDGs and Urban innovation

This roundtable aimed at discussing and sparking new train of thoughts on how to strengthen the role of urban innovation among the city leaders, institutions and urban stakeholders, including private sector organisations. It further explored the strategic pathways for Urban Innovation Community (UIC) to provide new tools, expertise and knowledge on implementing and achieving the SDGs at the local level. 

Author: Metropolis Publisher: Metropolis Publication year: 2016


Resource guide on decentralisation and local government

This resource guide provides practical guidance for designing, implementing and evaluating decentralisation reforms and local government practices to ensure they are as effective as possible. It also synthesises and presents current debates on the impact of decentralisation and local government on poverty reduction, service delivery and conflict as well as providing links to cutting-edge research and recent case studies.

Author: Zoe Scott and Munawwar Alam Publisher: Commonwealth Secretariat Publication year: 2011


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