The bridge builders
Cities have mostly been left to their own devices in their smart city initiatives – until now. This is set to change with United Smart Cities: on this global platform, stakeholders in urban planning are being networked.
Kari Aina Eik is very familiar with the structures and procedures within the United Nations (UN). She knows the project’s stakeholders, their interests, and what is needed for implementation. For more than 15 years, the Norwegian worked for various UN agencies, such as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). But there has always been one issue on which she made no headway: public-private partnership projects (PPPs). “The United Nations is not designed for PPPs. The system just isn’t based on taking money from companies. This has to change, as PPP projects are the future of urban areas.” The advantages are obvious: companies get more access to capital and business opportunities, while cities benefit from the use of new innovations and technologies. Eik’s passion was awakened.
Then, in 2013, in Vienna, she happened to meet Ullrich Granser, a board member of OiER – Organization for International Economic Relations. Eik had been completely unaware of the organization’s very existence – until that moment. But the match seemed perfect right from the start: the NGO had always understood itself as a bridge builder between the public and private sectors, and has access to a well-established international network across the board (business, industry, politics and international organizations). That’s exactly what Eik had been looking for. “We had to think about where we could bridge the gap between the public and private – and we came to the subject of cities. In 2050, 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities, which is of course a huge market for the private sector.”
While saying this, Eik leans over the table. She goes on to share that in many African cities, there is a lack of basic infrastructure, and that water is going to be the number one issue regarding resources in the future. Next to her, Ullrich Granser smiles. It’s easy to see that cities are Eik’s passion. As soon as you ask her a question, the words come gushing out. And she makes good use of her energy, too: In 2014, together with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), Eik initiated the United Smart Cities (USC) platform. “I met up with Gulnara Roll from the UNECE (Head of Housing and Land Management Unit) at a café in Vienna and said to her: 'smart cities – that’s the issue of the future. You (the UNECE, note) give us access to the cities – and we (OiER, note) bring you the companies and the investors, and coordinate the program.” With this new direction, the OiER experienced a significant boost.
But first things first. With USC, the two organizations wanted to fill a couple of gaps at once. There have been many smart city programs all over the world. Still, there is neither a uniform definition of the term “smart city”, nor are there guidelines on how these cities' success can be measured. In addition, cities are usually left on their own, and are not connected with one another on a global level.
United Smart Cities is the first ever bundled, global, multi-stakeholder platform for urban development: cities, governments, companies, investors, sustainability experts, international organizations and civil society – all of them should be brought together at an early stage to collaborate on innovative solutions and strategies in cities. The aim is to equip cities with the right information and communication strategies in technologies (ICT) – which form the basis of smart cities – in order to make them sustainable. The (virtual) heart of the whole thing is the United Smart Cities Marketplace: here, cities, industrial companies and financial stakeholders can exchange ideas and coordinate projects and financing models. An (extremely simplified) example: City X needs smart traffic management, Company Y can implement such a technology, while Investor Z comes up with sufficient funds.
The cities are either selected by the UNECE or they themselves apply to the program. “We’re now reaching 1,000 cities across our network. Not all of them are being evaluated, but they can also benefit from other parts of the program, such as the USC lab (the first lab recently opened in Vienna, where companies, startups and organizations can work on innovative solutions, note),” Eik explains. Thus, USC is much more than simply a networking platform. The participating cities must go through a standardized process that has never before existed. UNECE is mainly concerned with creating the key performance indicators (KPI’s) and city profiles that serve as a guide for cities to learn where they still lack sustainability. OiER brings in the companies to implement the projects and coordinates them with the financial sector.
Forbes Magazine https://www.forbes.at/artikel/the-bridge-builders-1315.html