The Colombo Focus City team is in the process of developing working papers that reflect the experience of the team’s action research. Two aspects that we consider to be quite path breaking is to do with,
- State institution as the project leader and facilitator
- Integrating the USS with the mainstream ‘city’
While the experience of the Colombo City is extremely interesting we would like to compare it with and learn from the experiences of other cities. Would any of the global team members or resource persons know of any literature, or other web based material that we could access on the subject? We would be most grateful if you could point us in the direction.
To give a little bit more background;
Topic one was thought of due to the very unusual partnership of the Colombo Focus City team. It is led and facilitated by the local government i.e. the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC). Two non-state institutions (Sevanatha and CEPA) were invited by the CMC to join the partnership. In a sector where the norm is for research institutions/ NGOs to take the lead in donor funded, partnership based projects; this is surely a path breaking institutional arrangement. We are looking at the many impacts of this including the role in influencing policy.
If any of the global members are interested in a discussion on the topic, we would be very keen to get facilitate it. For a little bit more on our thought process see the attached abstract for the working which will also be presented at the upcoming Commonwealth Local Government Conference.
What do you think? Is this a new way of implementing a project?
The second topic is a little bit more discussed among urban poverty stakeholders. In the case of Colombo, the CMC’s policy drive is towards integrating the USS into the mainstream city for reasons related to equity as well as governance. In line with national policy, the CMC has a long history of a strong welfare orientation. However, there are some aspects of regulations and policy that is creating a bottleneck in the drive for integration. In addition, of course, are the socio-political issues of integration.
Would any of the global members have good experiences, literature, or material on the topic?
2009-03-06 9:01
Forum 2 de 33
