CSUD

Rockefeller Foundation/CSUD Global Urban Summit

The Global Urban Summit, held at the Rockefeller Foundation’s study and conference center in Bellagio, Italy, in July, 2007, convened leaders from the private and public sectors to explore opportunities to foster healthy and sustainable cities. The Rockefeller Foundation conceived of the summit as a way to address issues of public health, shelter, water, sanitation, planning and adaptation to climate change that, because of the accelerated growth of cities, require urgent attention. In the developing world, increasing numbers of migrants are moving between rural areas and crowded urban centers, as well as between cities. These cities, however, often lack the infrastructure or capacity to absorb more residents.

The summit illuminated and leveraged the work already under way to prepare cities, especially in the developing world, to effectively cope with the dramatic growth that has occurred because of globalization and the significant changes in local demographics.

Documentary Film: "Innovations for an Urban World: A Global Urban Summit"

On May 7, 2008 the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD), in conjunction with the Rockefeller Foundation, premiered the documentary film "Innovations for an Urban World: A Global Urban Summit." The half-hour film, based on the four-week-long Global Urban Summit, highlights opportunities to address the challenges faced by the world's fastest growing population group – the urban poor.

Watch the film 

CSUD Summit Papers

In preparation for the summit, the Center for Sustainable Urban Development worked with the Rockefeller Foundation to identify leading research scholars involved in the subject areas of the summit to prepare expert background papers and summaries that helped to inform and frame the summit discussions for each of the four themed summit weeks: financing shelter, water and sanitation; building for climate change resilience; improving urban population health systems; and reorienting planning and design pedagogy and practice for the 21st century.

Financing Shelter, Water and Sanitation

Barbara Evans: Understanding the Urban Poor’s Vulnerabilities in Sanitation and Water Supply

Diana Mitlin: Background Paper on Shelter Finance

Sophie Trémolet, Rachel Cardone, Carmen Da Silva, Catarina Fonseca; International Water and Sanitation Centre: Innovations in Financing Urban Water & Sanitation

Building for Climate Change Resilience

Aromar Revi: Climate Change Risk: An Adaptation and Mitigation Agenda for Indian Cities

David Satterthwaite, Saleemul Huq, Mark Pelling, Hannah Reid, Patricia Romero-Lankao: Building Climate Change Resilience in Urban Areas and Among Urban Populations in Low- and Middle-Income Nations

Improving Urban Population Health Systems

Alex Ezeh, Frederick Mugisha, Eliya Zulu and Rose Towett; African Population and Health Research Center: Innovative Responses to Urban Health Vulnerabilities in Sub-Saharan Africa

Trudy Harpham: Background Paper on Improving Urban Population Health

Gordon McGranahan: Evolving Urban Health Risks in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: From Housing, Water and Sanitation to Cities and Climate Change

Susan Mercado, Kirsten Havemann, Keiko Nakamura, Andrew Kiyu, Mojgan Sami, Roby Alampay, Ira Pedrasa, Divine Salvador, Jeerawat Na Thalang, Tran Le Thuy: Responding to the Health Vulnerabilities of the Urban Poor in the “New Urban Settings” of Asia

David Vlahov, Andrew Quinn, Sara Putnam, Fernando Proietti, Waleska T. Caiaffa: Urban Health: Latin America and the Caribbean

Reorienting Planning and Design Practice and Pedagogy for the 21st Century

Elliott Sclar: Urban Professionals in the 21st Century: Challenges for Pedagogy and Professional Practice