Source: School of Government
Written by: School of Government
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On November 2, 2015, the opening ceremony of the first Workshop for Thought Leaders: Learning from Urban Innovation took place in Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou. This workshop is committed to addressing global issues through urban innovation and establishing a global community of sharing experiences on urban governance for cities around the world. Officials of international organizations and local governments from 22 cities of 12 countries participated in this workshop. The workshop is co-hosted by Guangzhou Institute for Urban innovation, Sun Yat-sen University, Urban innovation Committee, UCLG ASPAC and the METROPOLIS, and is organized by Center of Urban and Local Governance, School of Government of Sun Yat-sen University.

Madam Bernadia Tjandradewi, Secretary General of UCLG ASPAC, emphasized in her speech that cities should get inspiration from each other to tackle urban problems such as climate change, migration, discrimination and pollution. She appealed to city leaders around the world to work hand in hand so that no one will be left behind. Mr. Felip Roca, Secretary General of METROPOLIS gave the last keynote speech. His speech was on urban capacity building and global cooperation for urban innovation. He indicated that urban sustainable development relies on continuing urban innovation.

Professor He Yanling of Sun Yat-sen University gave her keynote speech and provided a brief introduction to the workshop. She pointed out the 5 challenges city leaders have encountered, which formed the missions of this workshop.

After the opening ceremony, the first discussion took place. Professor Ye Lin from School of Government of Sun Yat-sen University moderated the morning session. Mr. Aioune Badinane, Director of Programme Division, UN-Habitat gave a speech on Urban Development Planning and Cooperation. He introduced Habitat III strategy for a sustainable urban future and covered many topics on challenges urbanization brings about, including poverty, sustainable transport, cultural heritage preservation, waste management, public space and so on. He said that it is the first time to recognize urbanization as the key of sustainable urban development in UN-Habitat. In the last part of his presentation, he led a productive discussion on the misuse of public space with a sharp insight. Several participants shared their experiences on sustainable urban development.  

The afternoon session of the workshop consisted of a roundtable discussion with the theme “Issues and Challenges in Urban Transformation” hosted by Nicholas You, Advisor to the Guangzhou Award and Professor Ye Lin, as well as two case-study presentations by Shelly Nania from Britol and P. Narsing Rao from Hyderabad. The main discussion question put forward by Mr. You is that “How does climate change, localization and urbanization affect your city?” All attendees stated their most concerned urban problems caused by these three irreversible changes, meanwhile shared practices that successfully tackle urban problems. The case study of Bristol has displayed its outstanding urban innovations such as smart mobility programme, citizens’ sensor box and REPLICATE programme. The City Hall of Bristol is making the city a laboratory for change as well as an Internet of things testbed. Mr. Rao presented several urban innovations in Hyderabad such as in digital services and decentralization through IT techniques. He also had an in-depth discussion with the attendees about citizen participation in urban innovation action. In the end, Mr. You closed the discussion with a comprehensive conclusion. He emphasized that city managers are to tackle old problems with new methods, however, the only effective way is the governance approach. How does local authorities engage citizens and at which point to engage them is the first level governance should answer. The higher level of governance is to modify the structure of government because the structure is the key to realize those bright innovations. Economy, governance and technology will be the new three pillars for sustainability.