Objective: To facilitate knowledge exchange on key aspects of local governance and social accountability.

Description: FAGLAF is a recently created network of decentralization practitioners in Francophone Africa.  The network brings together government counterparts at the central and deconcentrated levels, local government representatives as well as CSO representatives from seven African countries - Burkina Faso, Benin, Guinea, Niger, Senegal, Mali and Mauritania.  The third session featured a presentation on fiscal decentralization issues in Niger delivered by Mme Ibrahim Diama, Mayor of the Urban Community II in Niamey.

Participants: Some 85 local government practitioners from seven FAGLAF countries

Partners: Global Development Learning Network (GDLN), IED Afrique, AFTPR

Contact:  Sabine Palmreuther, Immanuel Steinhilper 

Objective: To disseminate lessons learned from World Bank projects and learning programs in the urban sector in China and other countries and to highlight worldwide best practices in urban development of particular relevance to Chinese urban professionals and government officials at various levels.

Description: China Urban Development Quarterly is a Chinese & English bilingual newsletter jointly produced by East Asia and Pacific Region (EASUR) and WBI, with strong support from the China Country Management Unit. The theme of Issue 6 is Building Capacity for Urban Growth.

It features a summary of a stocktaking study on capacity building in China's urban planning sector jointly by WBI and Urban Planning Society of China, introduces modern distance learning tools, provides a review of urban planning certification programs around the world, and highlights WBI's urban capacity building programs in China, India, Latin America and Africa.

Download the latest issue here, or visit the website of the Quarterly at www.ChinaUrbanQuarterly.org.cn (in Chinese).

Target Audience: The Chinese version targets Chinese urban professionals and government officials at state, provincial and municipal levels; the English version seeks to promote understanding of urban issues in China to a wider audience.

Partners: Urban Development Unit of East Asia and Pacific Region (EASUR), China Country Management Unit

Contact: Mansha Chen, Victor Vergara, Mir Anjum Altaf.

Objective:  To provide a better understanding of how gender mainstreaming contributes to equitable processes and efficient outcomes in disaster management with specific focus on disaster recovery and reconstruction.

Description: This course is designed to facilitate the gender mainstreaming process by improving the understanding of gender concerns in disaster management, and to contribute to improved knowledge of available policies, regulations and tools for implementing gender sensitive disaster management practices with specific focus on disaster recovery and reconstruction.

Participants: 88 participants

Contact: Katalin Demeter, Berna Yekeler

Objective:  To provide policy makers with tools for financial risk management for assets belonging to households, businesses and the public sector. On the macroeconomic level, it provides a methodology for assessing the risks to public infrastructure and the effects of natural disasters on economic growth.

Description: The course focuses on financial, macroeconomic and development impacts of disasters, trade-offs (costs and benefits) involved in disaster risk management, and offers strategies for reducing the impacts of natural disasters.

The course offers financing strategies for risk management.  It provides policy makers and disaster managers with tools and institutional designs for improved planning and budgeting processes, and national macroeconomic projections.

Partners: National Institute of Disaster Management, India

Participants: 42 participants

Contact: Katalin Demeter, Berna Yekeler

Objective: To facilitate knowledge exchange on key aspects of local governance and social accountability.

Description: FAGLAF is a recently created network of decentralization practitioners in Francophone Africa.  It was launched in March 2008 through a pilot of four videoconference dialogues.  The network brings together government counterparts at the central and deconcentrated levels, local government representatives as well as CSO representatives from seven African countries - Burkina Faso, Benin, Guinea, Niger, Senegal, Mali and Mauritania.

This special session featured a presentation on the new Urban Strategy for the World Bank, as a part of a broader process of consultations with external stakeholders.  The presentation was made by Catherine Farvacque-Vitkovic, Lead Urban Specialist. This was an opportunity for the Bank to seek feedback from ALGAF participants as well as an opportunity for participants to learn about the new urban strategy.

Participants: Some 35 local government practitioners from seven FAGLAF countries

Partners: Global Development Learning Network (GDLN), IED Afrique, AFTPR

Contact:  Sabine Palmreuther, Fadila Caillaud

Objective: To facilitate knowledge exchange on key aspects of local governance through local action.

Description: The Africa Local Government Action Forum (ALGAF) is a process that brings together local government practitioners from eight African countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe) through a monthly videoconference. 

The topic of the session was "The role of Youth in socio-political and economic transformation : the Case of Tanzania", and the discussion focused on the role of Youth as agents of change in development.

Participants: Some 80 local government practitioners from eight Anglophone African countries.

Partners: Global Development Learning Network (GDLN), Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa (MDP-ESA), National Associations of Local Governments, ANSA-Africa.

Contact:  Sabine Palmreuther

Objective: To address the growing concerns for China's rapid industrialization and urbanization, and improve the sustainable urban development knowledge and managerial skills of city officials using the most up-to-date international and domestic theories and practice.

Description:   A hybrid learning program using video conferences as well as facilitators for local context and discussion.

Topics include 2009 World Development Report, China's urbanization and regional development, urban planning issues and policies, housing policy and public housing, preservation of historical cultural heritage in Chinese cities, and Tianjin ecological city development and planning practice. 

Details on the agenda, presentations and recommended reading materials are available (in Chinese): http://go.worldbank.org/LJ9Y6QJIW0

Partners: China National School of Administration; Western China Distance Development Learning Network (CDDLN).

Participants:  232 participants, including officials from Provincial School of Administration, Bureau of Construction, Bureau of Environment,  Bureau of Land and Housing, Bureau of Infrastructure and Landscape, and other bureaus at municipality, county and town levels; university graduate students from Chongqing, Xiamen and Guangxi; staff from urban planning institutes and design companies.

Contact: Mansha Chen, Sheng Li, Phil Karp and Victor Vergara.

Objective: To facilitate knowledge exchange on key aspects of governance through local action.

Description: The Africa Local Government Action Forum (ALGAF) is a process that brings together local government practitioners from eight African countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe) through a monthly videoconference. 

The topic of the session was "Urban Crime Prevention Strategies: Lessons from Africa - The Case of Safer Cities in Tanzania." The discussion focused on issues of urban safety and security, national crime prevention strategies and the role of local government in crime prevention. 

Colleagues from ANSA-Africa and UCLGA participated in the session. Next session will feature a presentation and discussion on the role of the youths in socio-political and economic transformation.

Participants: Some 80 local government practitioners from eight Anglophone African countries.

Partners: Global Development Learning Network (GDLN), Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa (MDP-ESA), National Associations of Local Governments, ANSA-Africa.

Contact:  Sabine Palmreuther

Objective: To facilitate knowledge exchange on key aspects of governance through local action.

Description: FAGLAF is a recently created network of decentralization practitioners in Francophone Africa.  It was launched in March 2008 through a pilot of four videoconference dialogues. 

The network brings together government counterparts at the central and deconcentrated levels, local government representatives as well as CSO representatives from seven African countries - Burkina Faso, Benin, Guinea, Niger, Senegal, Mali and Mauritania.  This was the first session to restart the monthly dialogue series.  Our ALGAF colleagues from Zimbabwe and Ghana participated in the video conference and shared lessons from ALGAF with the francophone counterparts, mainly local FAGLAF facilitators. 

The next session will feature a presentation and discussion on local finance issues.

Participants: Some 18 local government practitioners, including the GDLN representatives and local facilitators from seven FAGLAF countries.

Partners: Global Development Learning Network (GDLN), IED Afrique, AFTPR

Contact: Sabine Palmreuther, Fadila Caillaud

Objective: To facilitate knowledge exchange on key aspects of local governance through local action. 

Description: The Africa Local Government Action Forum (ALGAF) is a process that brings together local government practitioners from eight African countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe) through a monthly videoconference.

The topic of the session was "Challenges for Combating Corruption: the Case of Ghana", and the discussion focused on causes, cost and impact of corruption, as well as mechanisms for combating corruption.  The need to strengthen the capacity of anti-corruption institutions such as the Judiciary, Parliaments, CSOs was emphasized.

Participants: Some 90 local government practitioners from eight Anglophone African countries.

Partners: Global Development Learning Network (GDLN), Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa (MDP-ESA), National Associations of Local Governments, ANSA-Africa.

Contact:  Sabine Palmreuther

Objective: To share and disseminate the main lessons and key findings from the three out of eight peer learning projects which were implemented in 2008 under the Peer to Peer Mutual Learning Initiative on Participatory Budgeting

Description: The event connected 12 sites in Subsahara Africa and Latin America via a video conference involving WB offices and GDLN sites. The key findings from the three completed projects were jointly presented by their African and Latin American team members, and were followed by a lively discussion that concentrated on the regional differences between different models of participatory budgeting, as well as the way forward of the Peer to Peer Mutual Learning Initiative.

Partners: The Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa (MDP-ESA) and the Centro Internacional de Gestion Urbana (CIGU).

Participants: 40 participants from 12 different sites (Ghana, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Washington).

Contact: Laura Gruenewald, Andre Herzog

Objective: To facilitate knowledge exchange on certification of urban planners and share good practices in municipal planning.

Description: The session was part of the Urban Week 2009 and featured findings of research carried out in WBI on the importance of certification in urban planning, as well as presentations by planners from Mexico, China, and Guatemala.  To address the importance of resilient planning institutions, presentations were made on the history and current state of Municipal Planning Institutes in Brazil (IPPUC, Curitiba) and Mexico (IMPLAN, Monterrey).

Participants: some 25 participants, incl. urban planners from Mexico, China, and Guatemala, and students from the University of Southern California.

Partners: University of Southern California, Urban Anchor

Contact:  Sabine Palmreuther, Victor Vergara

Objective: To facilitate knowledge exchange on key aspects of local governance through local action. 

Description: The Africa Local Government Action Forum (ALGAF) is a process that brings together local government practitioners from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Madagascar, and Zimbabwe through a monthly videoconference.  The topic of the session was "Community Driven Strategies for Combating Corruption: the Case of Ethiopia." The discussion focused on causes, cost, and impact of corruption, as well as mechanisms for combating corruption.

Participants: Some 90 local government practitioners.

Partners: Global Development Learning Network, Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa, National Associations of Local Governments, ANSA-Africa.

Contact:  Sabine Palmreuther.

Objective: To address particular concerns of urban managers and planners. The course reviews the necessary processes, regulations – related to land use, infrastructure, construction, building codes – enforcement issues and methods to reduce the exposure to hazards and limit the physical vulnerability of high density settlements.

Description: This course provides an overview of disaster risk management sound practice for local government policymakers, urban managers, planners, and disaster management professionals. It discusses the inter-linkages of the social and physical parameters of vulnerability of cities with their local government development, organization, and management. It explains the impediments to disaster risk reduction in urban environments and then presents the key concepts of disaster risk management and the role and intervention of local institutions. It emphasizes that disaster risk reduction only takes place when it is inherently integrated within local government functions. 

Partners: National Institute of Disaster Management - NIDM, New Delhi-India.

Participants: 40 participants.

Contact:   Katalin Demeter, Berna Yekeler.

Objective: To facilitate knowledge exchange on key aspects of local governance through local action. 

Description: The Africa Local Government Action Forum (ALGAF) is a process that brings together local government practitioners from seven African countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe) through a monthly videoconference.  The discussion during the first ALGAF IX session focused on "Ethics and Integrity in Local Governance" - the Ugandan experience.  As of February 2009, Madagascar joined the ALGAF network, which constitutes an important development to scale up the dialogue.

Participants: Some 95 local government practitioners from eight Anglophone African countries.

Partners: Global Development Learning Network (GDLN), Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa (MDP-ESA), National Associations of Local Governments, ANSA-Africa.

Contact:  Sabine Palmreuther

Objective: To test didactic materials and design approach with faculty and staff from MIT via videoconference with peer-reviewers in Washington DC, as well as urban planners from Mexico, Jamaica, Guatemala and Ghana.

Description: The course introduced the relationships between land use and environment, energy consumption, climate change, competitiveness, and social equity. It also illustrated how better land use outcomes can be orchestrated through deployment of effective policy frameworks as well as regulatory and economic instruments. This workshop brought together the instructional design experts and subject matter experts to review the course content and a pilot Moodle product, and provide feedback on further development and improvement.

Partners: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Participants: Some 80 urban planners from urban planning institutes, city officials from urban planning and land management bureaus, professors and students from universities.

Contact: Mansha Chen, Victor Vergara, Damon Luciano