RELEVANT WEBLINKS

This section contains links to institutional and non-institutional sites concerned with urban development. It includes associative and non-governmental organisations involved in community based initiatives or/and research and providing a more local perspective.

This is NOT, nor does it attempt to be, an exhaustive list of institutions involved in urban development.

Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR)
Before the emergence of ACHR there was no common forum or facility for NGO’s, professionals and grassroots groups working in Asian cities to exchange ideas, despite an expressed need to share experiences, tackle the large problem of forced evictions in the regions cities, develop opportunities for organisations of the poor and consider their place in city planning. It was with these intentions in mind that ACHR was formed in 1988.

Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID)
AusAID manages the Australian Government's official overseas aid program by assisting developing countries to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development through investing in growth, stability and prosperity in the Asia/Pacific region. AusAID provides policy advice and support to the Minister and Parliamentary Secretary on development issues and develops and manages effective and innovative poverty reduction programs in partnership with developing countries, Australian businesses, NGOs and international agencies.

BERGEN SEMINAR SERIES 2002/2003: “Accountability and Responsiveness-workshop”
The UNDP Oslo Governance Centre and the Chr. Michelsen Institute organised a joint workshop on Responsiveness and Accountability for Poverty Reduction: Democratic Governance and the Millennium Development Goals at the Solstrand Fjord Hotel near Bergen, Norway on 18–19 November 2002.

Bretton Woods Project
The Bretton Woods Project works as a networker, information-provider, media informant and watchdog to scrutinise and influence the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Through briefings, reports and the bimonthly digest Bretton Woods Update, it monitors projects, policy reforms and the overall management of the Bretton Woods institutions with special emphasis on environmental and social concerns

Building Advisory Service and Information Network (BASIN)
The Building Advisory Service and Information Network (BASIN) has been set up by the German Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) and is devoted to the dissemination of professional advice and information relating to appropriate and proven building technologies and systems

Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
CIDA's services and programs support sustainable development throughout the world. Canada's Official Development Assistance (ODA) program concentrates resources on providing for basic human needs: primary health care, basic education, family planning, nutrition, water and sanitation, and shelter.

Centre de recherche de l' École d'Architecture de Grenoble (CRATERRE)
The International Centre of Earth Construction, CRATerre-EAG, is since 1986 one of the research centres of the Ecole d'Architecture de Grenoble.

Cities Alliance
The Cities Alliance was created to foster new tools, practical approaches and knowledge sharing to promote local economic development and a direct attack on urban poverty. Its activities support the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. It is aglobal alliance of cities and their development partners committed to improve the living conditions of the urban poor.

CLIFF-The Community-Led Infrastructure Finance Facility-Homeless International (PDF)

Community Planning Website
Useful website based on the publication by Nick Wates (2000), The Community Planning Handbook, How people can shape their cities, towns and villages in any part of the world. It provides an overview of these new methods of community planning. It is aimed at everyone concerned with the built environment. Jargon is avoided and material is presented in a universally applicable, how-to-do-it style. Whether you are a resident wanting to improve the place where you live, a policy maker interested in improving general practice, or a development professional working on a specific project, you should quickly be able to find what you need.

Department for International Development (DFID)
DFID is the UK Government department working to promote sustainable development and eliminate world poverty. DFID seeks to work in partnership with governments committed to these targets, with business, civil society and the research community. DFID also works with multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, United Nations agencies and the European Community. The website makes available most of its own publications produced since 1997.

Development Alternatives (DA)
DA is a not-for-profit research and development organisation established in 1983. It designs and fosters new relationships needed between technology, nature and people to attain the goal of sustainable development. DA is part of a larger and continually expanding DA Group, in which its sister organisations Technology and Action for Rural Development (TARA) and TARA Nirman Kendra (TNK) undertake the production and marketing of tehcnology packages and their products. People First, its policy wing, assists in building a favourable regulatory framework for sustainable development initiatives. DA has built up a nationwide network of partners, facilities and field centres working on projects aimed directly at the fulfilment of basic needs without destroying the environment.

Développement et Insertion Internationale (DIAL)
DIAL is a Scientific Think Tank conducting economic and statistical studies on development. DIAL is the main implantation of the research unit CIPRE from the Institut de Recherche pour le Développemen (IRD).

Division for Sustainable Development - United Nations
The Division for Sustainable Development serves as the substantive secretariat responsible for servicing the Commission on Sustainable Development; for follow-up of the implementation of Agenda 21 as well as the Plan of Implementation (POI) of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The Division's responsibilities have grown considerably as a result of the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Ecological Footprints of Nations
Compiled by Mathis Wackernagel et als, this "Footprints of Nations" report compares the ecological impact of 52 large nations, inhabited by 80 percent of the world population. It also shows to what extent their consumption can be supported by their local ecological capacity. One key finding is that today, humanity as a whole uses over one third more resources and eco-services than what nature can regenerate. In 1992, this ecological deficit was only one quarter...

EcoSouth
EcoSouth, the Network for an Ecologically and Economically Sustainable Habitat promotes a larger scope of activities in the field of ecologically and economically sustainable construction. The network seeks to take advantage of current synergies among countries, persons and entities active in these fields. EcoSouth focuses its activities in southern countries and propagates south - south technology transfer as well as actual trade where equipment and material is concerned.

ELDIS - Gateway to Information Sources on Development and the Environment
ELDIS is a gateway to wide range of high quality information on development and environmental issues and links to a variety of information sources, including online documents. It offers a directory of websites, databases, library catalogues and email discussion lists.

European Science Foundation (ESF)
The European Science Foundation promotes high quality science at a European level. It acts as a catalyst for the development of science by bringing together leading scientists and funding agencies to debate, plan and implement pan-European initiatives.

Forum: Habitat in Developing Countries
Virtual library about the habitat in developing countries, maintained by the "Forum: Habitat in Developing Countries", an initiative of the Polytechnic of Turin.

Geoffrey Payne and Associates
The practice, established in 1995, has undertaken consultancy, training and research assignments throughout the world. Links on the web site point to information on current projects, publications and other information dealing with land management, housing and urban development in developing countries with which GPA has been involved during recent years. Clients include national governments, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), UN-HABITAT, the World Bank and various NGOs and universities.

Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ)
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH is a government-owned corporation for international cooperation with worldwide operations. GTZ supports ca. 2,700 development projects and programmes, in more than 130 partner countries, chiefly under commissions from the German Federal Government. GTZ’s aim is to improve the living conditions and perspectives of people in developing and transition countries.
Of interest is the German Appropriate Technology Exchange (GATE) of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) specializes in environmental resource protection and dissemination of appropriate technologies for developing countries.

Homeless International
UK based charity that supports community-led housing and infrastructure related development in partnership with local partner organisations in Asia, Africa and Latin America. They support partners through long term development initiatives; advocate through sharing information and influencing policy; provide financial services by scaling up access to credit for the poor through loans & guarantees; organise technical assistance by providing practical forms of specialist help; and carry out research aiming to explore long term solutions to poverty. Homeless International was established in 1989 following the 1987 United Nations International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. Initially formed as a trust, the organisation became Homeless International and permanent headquarters were established in Coventry.

Huairou Commission - Women, Homes & Community
Huairou Commission's mission is to forge strategic partnerships to advance the capacity of grassroots women worldwide to strengthen and create sustainable communities. This is done through the promotions of the institutional transformation, the development and implementation of a global plan of action to ensure accountability of governments and international agencies to the commitments made to grassroots women (national to global), the strengthening and promotion of dialogue, strategic alliances and power-sharing among grassroots women and all other stakeholders (local to global). The Huairou Commission aims to devise, disseminate and evaluate peer learning methods for horizontal technical assistance and up-streaming knowledge and information, increasing grassroots women's participation in the decision-making processes impacting their lives with a special focus on political participation.

IDB - Inter-American Development Bank
IDB is the oldest and largest regional multilateral development institution, established in 1959 to help accelerate economic and social development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Bank's original membership included 19 Latin American and Caribbean countries and the US. Subsequently, other Western Hemisphere nations joined the Bank. Today Bank membership totals 46 nations. The Bank's operations cover the entire spectrum of economic and social development. In the past, Bank lending emphasized the productive sectors of agriculture and industry, the physical infrastructure sectors of energy and transportation and the social sectors of environmental and public health, education and urban development. Current lending priorities include poverty reduction and social equity, modernization and integration, and the environment.

IDS - Institute of Development Studies
IDS is an internationally-renowned centre for research and teaching on development, established in 1966. IDS also hosts many innovative information and knowledge management services and boasts Europe's largest research collection on economic and social change in developing countries.
IDS Info Services
Participation Group
The ‘Participation Group’ is a team working on key development issues at Institute of Development Studies (IDS), serving as a centre for research, innovation and learning in citizen participation and participatory approaches to development.

IFPRI - International Food Policy Research Institute
The mission of the International Food Policy Research Institute is to identify and analyze policies for sustainably meeting the food needs of the developing world. Research at IFPRI concentrates on economic growth and poverty alleviation in low-income countries, improvement of the well-being of poor people, and sound management of the natural resource base that supports agriculture. IFPRI seeks to make its research results available to all those in a position to use them and to strengthen institutions in developing countries that conduct research relevant to its mandate.

IIED - International Institute for Environment and Development
IIED is an independent, non-profit organization promoting sustainable patterns of world development through collaborative research, policy studies, networking and knowledge dissemination.
Human Settlements programme of the IIED
The Human Settlements Programme works to reduce poverty and improve health and housing conditions in the urban centres of Latin America, Asia and Africa. The Programme seeks to combine this with promoting good governance and more ecologically sustainable patterns of urban development.
Rural-urban linkages and urban change
For the majority of the world's poorest residents, local rural-urban linkages, investment patterns and population movements are probably far more important than the much touted global linkages, foreign direct investments, and international migration.

ILO - International Labour Organization
The ILO is the UN specialized agency which seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights. It was founded in 1919 and is the only surviving major creation of the Treaty of Versailles which brought the League of Nations into being and it became the first specialized agency of the UN in 1946. The ILO formulates international labour standards in the form of Conventions and Recommendations setting minimum standards of basic labour rights: freedom of association, the right to organize, collective bargaining, abolition of forced labour, equality of opportunity and treatment, and other standards regulating conditions across the entire spectrum of work related issues. It provides technical assistance primarily in the fields of: vocational training and vocational rehabilitation; employment policy; labour administration; labour law and industrial relations; working conditions;management development; cooperatives; social security; labour statistics and occupational safety and health.

ILO - International Labour Organization
"Promote and realize standards, fundamental principles and rights at work", In order to attain this objective, the ILO assists members States as well as employers' and workers' organisations in ratifying ILO Conventions and implementing international labour standards. Since 1994, the ILO is engaged in a process of modernizing and strengthening its labour standards system.

International Development Department - University of Birmingham
The Department is undertaking research on aid policy, local government budgeting and finance, chronic poverty, urban livelihoods, land management and natural resource management - some of which is described here. In advisory services and project management, we have had long term work in, for example, Russia, the Ukraine, Kenya, Romania and Bangladesh, as well as shorter term work elsewhere. Increasingly IDD is involved in the supply of information services to policy-makers and field-workers; the Governance Resource Centre that IDD has mounted for DFID supports governance specialists in diverse countries around the world, by supplying information electronically on current policy and management issues.

ITDG - Intermediate Technology Development Group
The Intermediate Technology Development Group aims to demonstrate and advocate the sustainable use of technology to reduce poverty in developing countries. It was founded in 1966 by the radical economist Dr EF Schumacher to prove that his philosophy of ‘Small is Beautiful’ could bring real and sustainable improvements to people’s lives. ITDG is a charity registered in the United Kingdom which works directly in four regions of the developing world – Latin America, East Africa, Southern Africa and South Asia.

Localising the Habitat Agenda
The Habitat Agenda is the internationally agreed framework for urban policies, providing a key tool for urban poverty reduction through local development. The aim of this research is to explore the most effective forms of practice in local development for urban poverty reduction. It is being conducted in partnership with researchers in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya and Pakistan (completion date: September 2004). The City Poverty Website has been built as part of this project.

N-AERUS - Network-Association of European Researchers on Urbanisation in the South
N-AERUS is a pluridisciplinary network of researchers and experts working on urban issues in Developing countries. It was created in March 1996 by a group of European researchers. Its objective is to mobilise and develop the European institutional and individual research and training capacities on urban issues in the South with the support of institutions and individual researchers with relevant experience in this field.

Natural Resources Systems Programme, Peri-Urban Production Systems Research (NRSP-PUR), Natural Research Institute (NRI-ODA)
The programme supports policy initiatives to optimise utilisation of peri-urban resources, based on research - executed in partnership with local institutions - into agricultural and natural resources productivity and overall waste utilisation in various city demonstrations. The research is aimed at producing strategies for peri-urban environmental planning and management. Programme support also includes provision of specialist expertise and information to cities through demonstration projects, as well as dissemination of research findings.

Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD)
NORAD, a directorate under the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (UD), aims to assist developing countries in their efforts to achieve lasting improvements in political, economic and social conditions for the entire population within the limits imposed by the natural environment and the natural resource base

ODI - Overseas Develpment Institute
ODI is Britain's leading independent think-tank on international development and humanitarian issues. Their mission is to inspire and inform policy and practice which lead to the reduction of poverty, the alleviation of suffering and the achievement of sustainable livelihoods in developing countries. They produce applied research, practical policy advice, and policy-focused dissemination and debate, working with partners in the public and private sectors, in both developing and developed countries.

OECD - Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development
The OECD groups 30 member countries sharing a commitment to democratic government and the market economy. With active relationships with some 70 other countries, NGOs and civil society, it has a global reach.

Organization of World Heritage Cities
OWHC was founded in 1993 in Fez, Morocco. In 2001, the organization was made up of 197 cities in which are located sites included on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Of the member cities, 7 are located in Africa, 35 in Latin America, 20 in Asia and the Pacific, 116 in Europe and North America and 19 in the Arab States. The OWHC’s initiatives, which are geared to the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, cover several areas, including the information and the training of municipal managers. To this end, the OWHC organizes symposia and seminars dealing with the challenges to be met in the realm of management and strategies pertaining to the development and preservation of historic sites. The OWHC also strives to heighten awareness among UN, UNESCO, World Bank and The Council of Europe, officials of the importance of better protecting historic cities in the event of armed conflicts. In the coming years, the Organization will focus on the establishment of an electronic communications network linking member cities through the Internet and the creation of a data bank on historic cities.

Participation and Civic Engagement Group
The Participation and Civic Engagement Group (World Bank) promotes methods and approaches that encourage stakeholders, especially the poor, to influence and share control over priority setting, policy making, resource allocations and access to public goods and services.

Shack/Slum Dwellers' International
The SDI network is a voluntary association of like-minded people’s organisations committed to a shared process of grassroots organisation, problem solving, and solution sharing. An SDI Secretariat helps to co-ordinate these activities, but the primary focus of the network’s activities is emphatically local. Set up in 1996, when the People’s Dialogue (South Africa), SPARC (India) and urban poor community groups in Asia, Africa and South America met in South Africa to initiate a people’s process for strengthening grassroots savings and credit schemes. Collective savings and credit was recognized by all participating organisations as a critical tool for the urban poor in their worldwide struggle against poverty and socio-economic injustice. The participating groups agreed to come together as a network called Shackdwellers’ International in Africa and Slumdwellers’ International in Asia.

Shelter Forum
Shelter Forum is a coalition of non-governmental organisations which deal with issues of low-cost housing shelter in Kenya. Its main goal is to enhance access to affordable shelter for all, particularly the poor, among whom the most vulnerable are women and children, through advocacy, extension and networking.
For more information, contact Shelter Forum: shelter@shelterforum.co.ke

SPARC - Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres
SPARC is a registered NGO/Non profit organisation set up in 1984 to create new and innovative partnerships with communities of the poor and professionals who wish to work with them on issues of social justice and equity. The alliance works in 36 cities in six states of India. This means there is an ability to get at least 10-15 settlements in each city to work together, participate in exchanges and so on. The depth and range of activities and the maturity of the alliance differs in each city. Over the last 15 years these communities have expanded in the number of areas of activities they undertake and the depth of engagement of various other actors in development. No area is outside the scope and instead becomes the area for exploiting new learning whenever communities see new priorities emerging in their lives.

Swiss Centre for Development Cooperation in Technology Management (SKAT)
The SKAT Foundation is a resource centre that promotes exchange of knowledge and experience in development cooperatio, it provides useful insights in the areas of water and sanitation, architecture and building, transport infrastructure, cost-efficient housing and social infrastructure and urban development. Particular attention is given to sustainable building practices and income generation from labour-intensive technologies. The Skat Foundation is an active partner in the international Building Advisory Service and Information Network (BASIN), which is a powerful means of sharing knowledge and experience.

The Development Planning Unit - University College London (DPU)
The Development Planning Unit is an international centre
specialising in academic teaching, practical training, research and consultancy in the field of urban and regional development, planning, and management. The central purpose of the DPU is to strengthen the professional and institutional capacity of governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to deal with the wide range of issues that are emerging at all levels.
The Peri-Urban Interface Programme of the DPU
The Peri-Urban In developing countries, a substantial and growing proportion lives in and around metropolitan areas and large cities, including the zone termed the 'peri-urban interface', where their livelihoods depend to some extent on natural resources such as land for food, water and fuel, and space for living. In collaboration with local communities, planners, NGOs, donor agencies and other academics, the Development Planning Unit has been engaged, since 1998, in a number of activities in search for a more sustainable environment and better living conditions for the people living in these areas.

Transparency International (TI)
TI was established in 1993 by a group of people who shared the vision of TI's founding chairman Peter Eigen. With backgrounds in inter-governmental and business environments, they shared in common the experience of having witnessed first hand the devastating effects of cross-border corruption. It was this desire to fight global corruption that prompted the launch of the fledgling non-governmental organisation, Transparency International, in May 1993.

UNDP
At the United Nations Millennium Summit, world leaders put development at the heart of the global agenda by adopting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which set clear targets for reducing poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women by 2015. On the ground in 166 countries, UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) uses its global network to help the UN system and its partners to raise awareness and track progress, while it connect countries to the knowledge and resources needed to achieve these goals.
UNDP's Urban Governance Initiative (TUGI)
The Urban Governance Initiative is a regional project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that acts as a hub for promoting good urban governance through institutional capacity building, providing policy advisory services, enabling innovations on tools and methodologies for good urban governance and ensuring wide information dissemination and collaborative networking on all of the above within and between cities in the Asia Pacific region.
Public-Private Partnerships for the Urban Environment (PPPUE)
UNDPs PPPUE facility supports the development of innovative partnerships at the local level. Focusing on assisting small and medium-sized cities, PPPUE works with all potential stakeholders, including investors, providers, regulators, users, and experts to meet the challenge of providing basic urban environmental services. Participation, local ownership and shared responsibility are important aspects of PPPUEs innovative approach. This complementary approach, with a unique international network, flexible design and a constant feedback mechanism, contributes to the success of Public-Private Partnerships.

UNEP
UNEP's (United Nations Environment Programme) mandate is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.

UNESCO
The main objective of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is to contribute to peace and security in the world by promoting collaboration among nations through education, science, culture and communication in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations. To fulfill its mandate, UNESCO performs five principal functions : prospective studies, the advancement, transfer and sharing of knowledge : relying primarily on research, training and teaching activities, standard-setting action, expertise and exchange of specialized information.
UNESCO-MOST PROGRAMME
MOST (Management of Social Transformations Programme) is a UNESCO programme that promotes international, comparative and policy-relevant research on contemporary social transformations and issues of global importance.

UN-Habitat
UN-Habitat, United Nations Human Settlements Programme and formerly known as UNCHS (Habitat), is the lead agency within the United Nations system for coordinating activities in the field of human settlements. Its mission is to promote sustainable urbanization through policy formulation, institutional reform, capacity-building, technical cooperation and advocacy, and to monitor and improve the state of human settlements worldwide. Its activities contribute to the overall objective of the United Nations system to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development within the context and the challenges of a rapidly urbanizing world.
The main documents outlining the mandate of the organization are the Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements, Habitat Agenda, Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements, the Declaration on Cities and Other Human Settlements in the New Millennium, and Resolution 56/206

UN-Habitat's Best Practices Database
The Best Practices Database, set up by UN-Habitat, aims at sharing solutions that address all sorts of urban issues. The searchable database contains over 1100 case studies from more than 120 countries. It demonstrates the practical ways in which communities, governments and the private sector are working together to improve governance, eradicate poverty, provide access to shelter, land and basic services, protect the environment and support economic development.

UNICEF
Created by the UN General Assembly in 1946 to help children after World War II in Europe, UNICEF was first known as the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund. In 1953, UNICEF became a permanent part of the UN system, its task being to help children living in poverty in developing countries. Its name was shortened to the United Nations Children's Fund, but it retained the acronym "UNICEF," by which it is known to this day. UNICEF helps children get the care and stimulation they need in the early years of life and encourages families to educate girls as well as boys. It strives to reduce childhood death and illness and to protect children in the midst of war and natural disaster. Working with national governments, NGOs, other UN agencies and private-sector partners, UNICEF supports young people, wherever they are, in making informed decisions about their own lives, and strives to build a world in which all children live in dignity and security.

UNRISD
The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) is an autonomous agency that engages in multi-disciplinary research on the social dimensions of contemporary problems affecting development.

Urban and Ecological Footprints
hosted by the Global Development Research Centre

Urban and Economic Development Group (URBED)
The Urban and Economic Development Group is a leading independent research and consultancy firm specialising in the fields of urban regeneration, local economic development, sustainability and urban design

Urban Management Programme (UMP)
The Urban Management Programme (UMP) was launched in 1986 as an initiative of UNDP, UN-HABITAT, the World Bank and several bilateral partners. It is one of the largest urban global technical assistance programmes of the UN system. The UMP develops and applies urban management knowledge in the fields of participatory urban governance, alleviation of urban poverty and urban environmental management, and facilitates the dissemination of this knowledge at the city, country, regional and global levels.

Urban Resource Centre (URC)
The Karachi URC was set up in 1989. Its founders were urban planning related professionals, representatives of NGOs and grass-root community organisations and teachers at professional colleges. They felt that Karachi's official development plans ignored the larger socio-economic reality of the city and as such were unworkable, unaffordable and environmentally disastrous. They further felt that workable alternatives were required and these were possible only with the involvement of informed communities and interest groups. To promote its objectives the URC identifies the actors and factors that are involved in shaping Karachi's development along with their relationships with each other and with relevant state agencies. In addition, it carries out research on all proposed major urban development projects and analyses them from the point of view of communities and interest groups.

Urban Upgrading: A Resource for Practicioners
Excellent resource for practitioners, put together by the Special Interest Group in Urban Settlement (SIGUS), MIT School of Architecture and Planning, for the Thematic Group for Services to the Urban Poor, World Bank, with the support of Cities Alliance.

World Bank Group
he World Bank is one of the world's largest sources of development assistance. Its primary focus is on helping the poorest people and the poorest countries. This site provides an overview of how the Bank uses its financial resources, its staff, and its extensive knowledge to help developing countries onto paths of stable, sustainable, and equitable growth.
The World Bank Urban and City Management Program provides city officials with a platform with which to learn and explore in great detail key aspects of urban management. The program consists of core courses targeting city managers, local level policymakers, urban planners and directors of training institutes. The objectives are to advance their knowledge and understanding of the broad range of urban issues and to present the tools they need to plan, manage and govern their cities.

World Social Forum
The World Social Forum is an open meeting place where groups and movements of civil society opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism, but engaged in building a planetary society centred on the human person, come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, for formulate proposals, share their experiences freely and network for effective action.