Summary Are there any models and mechanisms for effective coordination within metropolitan and mega-urban regions on planning and governance? How can rapid growth of urban regions be guided towards sustainability in Asia, Africa and South America? Can urban regions be planned and governed in coordination across local administrative boundaries, inclusive of land- and resource efficient, low-carbon, climate-resilient, inclusive and competitive urban development in a country and in growing urban regions? How can effective models be replicated?
Urbanization often is not well managed and urban development goes in many or most cases well beyond the territories of local city administrations. This happens for small and medium cities, and it is normal for metropolitan and mega-urban regions. These ‘natural cities’ don’t have administration and coordination which makes effective land use planning, effective and efficient infrastructure and service provision, and risk- informed planning to minimize and manage climate-related disasters very challenging. Coordinating and integrating master planning, land use, transport and open space protection planning will result in synergies and benefits for all areas, jurisdictions and residents. There are cases in which such coordination is practiced and in various forms of mechanisms and institutional and governance arrangements. Various models of successful national planning and urban region coordination will be shared, including top-down and voluntary approaches. Agreeing on achieving SDGs can be an incentive to coordinate across local jurisdictions.
A metropolitan area and urban region is usually formed by different separate cities and towns, bound together by powerful economic and social dynamics and building an urban continuum. The multiplicity of local jurisdictions, endowed with particular governments, makes it more challenging to plan the development of these areas and manage them properly across the different urban policy fields. Furthermore, local autonomy at the municipal level is considered a requisite of a full developed democratic polity. Therefore, an overarching and inclusive governance of metropolitan areas requires the support or at least the acquiescence of the citizens of their constituting municipalities.
Metropolitan areas often have a central city, much larger and influential than the surrounding urban towns, which provides key assets for the benefit of the whole area. However, this may also become an obstacle for metropolitan governance, as the neighboring municipalities can perceive integration as a threat of becoming dominated and/or made irrelevant by the central city. However, considering the huge challenges posed by the deep and speedy climate change, demographic and economic transitions, and growing social inequalities, there is a need for a stronger coordination of policies and governance.
Objectives Participants will get a basic understanding and people with prior knowledge will deepen their understanding of challenges and benefits of coordination across local jurisdictions. They will understand models and cases presented of coordination and be able to find entryways for replication in their own countries and support constituencies. Examples from metro-regions in Asia and Europe will be shared by regional experts of metropolitan urban areas.
And the session will share experience of SDG implementation coordination in Metropolitan Areas, presenting the core elements of a Voluntary Metropolitan Review and discussing the procedures for creating a VMR. The session will be about sharing experiences of enhancing the capacity of Metropolitan City and Urban Areas to strengthen their governance system to deliver the SDGs through a Whole-of–Government approach, smart city technology, enhanced infrastructure asset management and resilient Metropolitan Governance (policy consultation, coordination, and cooperation) including monitoring & evaluation and innovative finance and partnerships.
According to the OECD, metropolitan areas are defined as a population between 500 000 and 1.5 million people. For instance, the region of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has several such metropolitan areas which are often agglomerations of different separate cities and towns which became integrated into a larger size urban areas. These separate areas often retain some form of autonomy making it very challenging for the larger metropolitan agglomeration to coordinate sustainable growth of its infrastructure, personal mobility, safeguarding food security, managing waste and social development such as education, health, security and housing rules and regulations. This side-event focuses on the implementation of SDG 11 at a metropolitan scale which goes beyond the traditional VLR (Voluntary Local Review) reporting and introduces instead a VMR (Voluntary Metropolitan Review).
This concept note explains the urgent need to address the specific challenges of SDG implementation of metropolitan areas and to complement the VNR and VLR with a VMR (Voluntary Metropolitan Review.
Panel session on “Strengthening coordination of urban development PPPs with the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs”.
Co-Chairs: Prof Raymond Saner, University of Basel & Prof Mateu Turró, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). with the participation of PPP experts:
· Mrs Sedef YAVUZ NOYAN, Head of PPP Department, General Directorate of Sectors and Public Investments, Presidency of Republic of Türkiye, Presidency of Strategy and Budget
· Mrs Angelina Nuñez (Lead Operations Office, World Bank) and Mr Yan F. Zhang (Senior Urban Specialist, World Bank)
· Mr Juraj Jurik, Director, Nature-Based Solutions, Global Infrastructure Basel Foundation (GIB)
· Prof Irina Zapatrina Chairman of the Board, Ukrainian PPP center, Founder of the PPP Academy, Kiev- UKRAINE
· Mr Andrea Tinagli (EIB – Union for the Mediterranean) & Prof Mateu Turró (ESGPAR – UPC Barcelona)
· Prof Lichia Saner-Yiu, President, CSEND- Geneva & Prof Raymond Saner, University of Basel
Session Chair: Raymond Saner, Basle University & CSEND, Geneva, Switzerland
Stronger Together Voluntary Metropolitan Coordination Across Local Boundaries on SDGs and Governance – Cases from Europe and Asia
Are there any models and mechanisms for effective planning and governance coordination within metropolitan and mega-urban regions? How can the rapid growth of urban areas be guided toward sustainability in Asia, Africa, and South America? Can urban regions be planned and governed in coordination across local administrative boundaries, including land- and resource-efficient, low-carbon, climate-resilient, inclusive, and competitive urban development in a country and in growing urban regions?
How can effective models be replicated? Urbanization often is not well managed, and urban development goes, in many or most cases, well beyond the territories of local city administrations. This happens for small and medium cities, which is normal for metropolitan and mega-urban regions. These ‘natural cities’ don’t have administration and coordination, which makes effective land use planning, effective and efficient infrastructure and service provision, and risk-informed planning to minimize and manage climate-related disasters very challenging. Coordinating and integrating master planning, land use, transport, and open space protection planning will result in synergies and benefits for all areas, jurisdictions, and residents. There are cases in which such coordination is practiced and in various forms of mechanisms and institutional and governance arrangements. Various models of successful national planning and urban region coordination will be shared, including top-down and voluntary approaches. Agreeing on achieving SDGs can be an incentive to coordinate across local jurisdictions.
A metropolitan area and urban region is usually formed by different separate cities and towns, bound together by powerful economic and social dynamics and building an urban continuum. The multiplicity of local jurisdictions, endowed with particular governments, makes it more challenging to plan the development of these areas and manage them properly across the different urban policy fields. Furthermore, local autonomy at the municipal level is considered a requisite of a full developed democratic polity.
Therefore, an overarching and inclusive governance of metropolitan areas requires the support or at least the acquiescence of the citizens of their constituting municipalities. Metropolitan areas often have a central city, much larger and influential than the surrounding urban towns, which provides key assets for the benefit of the whole area. However, this may also become an obstacle for metropolitan governance, as the neighboring municipalities can perceive integration as a threat of becoming dominated and/or made irrelevant by the central city. However, considering the huge challenges posed by the deep and speedy climate change, demographic and economic transitions, and growing social inequalities, there is a need for a stronger coordination of policies and governance.
Raymond Saner (2025) “Emeriti Professors as entrepreneurs” Emerald Publ. UK
Retirement and average life expectations in the European and North American regions indicate that retired persons, in general, are in good health between 60/65 to 80/85 years of age. Some use this window of longer life expectations to work because their pension fund is insufficient to live a decent life. Others enjoy the new freedom of not having to work and choose to explore interesting tourist attractions, cultural events and other activities like gardening or caring for their grandchildren. However, an increasing number of retirees express interest in continuing to work and engage in meaningful jobs or contribute to solving important societal problems. A small group who has accumulated financial resources during their work life is interested in sharing their knowledge and skills and helping new start-up companies or associations active in the solidarity and social economy.
Conference: Chaos Theory and the Arts in the Context of Social, Economic and Organizational Development sponsored and co-organised by CSEND (Centre for
Socio-EcoNomic Development, Geneva), March 18-21, 2001; John Briggs, pp. 26-29, Pari-Perspectives 2020
F. Duconseille & R. Saner (2020), “ Creative Placemaking for Inclusive Urban Landscapes”
Final Version available at The Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society, Routledge Publisher
This paper contributes to the understanding how urban areas could be made more inclusive and sustainable and support the planning of inclusive human settlements. The main research question of this article was how to stimulate successful placemaking in urban landscapes for social integration in open urban spaces through the use of creative and artistic activities of mixed groups of artists.
The authors describe and discuss the evolution of urban development from being a physical infrastructure development determined by urban planners to a reclaiming of public space through spacemaking which is a social re-appropriation of urban space by citizens residing in the urban spaces.
Different stakeholder groups meet and exchange at urban places and co-create urban scenarios and scenographies by negotiating the urban landscapes through urban place- making projects
CSEND organised a symposium in Seoul on 11th November 2014 under the auspices of the Swiss Embassy in Korea and the DAW International of ETH Zurich at the Museum of Art, Seoul National University; 1, Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul. The title of the CSEND symposium was “Entrepreneurial Undertaking and Social Innovations for a Sustainable Future”. Subsequent to the symposium, the DAW team conducted interviews with several of the DAW organisers including Prof Raymond Saner, Director at CSEND see:
Palimpsest Multiplex is a performative installation dedicated to provide a new perception of the public space and to raise awareness of how meaning (particularly in the arts) is constructed through interaction and communication. It shows the spectators that everyday life is a multilayered construct.
The concept of Palimpsest Multiplex is based on Raymond Saner’s idea of a “Multiplex Palimpsest”. It was coined during fruitful discussions between the concept developer and artists and art theoreticians who helped further develop the idea. It is a performance concept which provides an experimental space allowing the public to experience art in a novel manner.
While social media has generated a lot of new ideas, e.g. museum 2.0 (use of face book, twitter) or museum 3.0 (global participation via social media of real or virtual exhibitions), the downside of this use of social media is that artist and spectator might be further removed from each other than before thereby further reinforcing “aboutness” of art rather than providing contact and dialogue between artists and spectator.
The enlarged concept of Palimpsest Multiplex was developed by Raymond Saner in cooperation with Luise Kloos, Christoph Schön,
Seraina Müller, François Duconseille and Monica Dematté.
