Cities as agents of change Peer-to-peer Exchange on People-Centred Smart Cities for an Open, Secure and Inclusive Digital Future

The rise of digital technologies in urban development is an emerging issue for all the countries, all the cities worldwide. Digitalization can have very positive impacts on human lives by providing job opportunities, enhancing access to basic services and improving information sharing and collaboration between stakeholders. At the same time, if not properly managed, digitalization can also exacerbate inequalities, reduce sustainability, compromise economic growth and undermine the right to privacy. Addressing the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation is therefore critical to help cities achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda.
This event aligns with the theme of the 12th World Urban Forum through its dimension of adaptation to local contexts. Some cities are already highly advanced in their digital transition, while others are just beginning to tackle the challenge it represents. Each city must therefore build its own model of a smart city by placing human beings at the heart of its policies, but the inspiring practices have to be shared and disseminated through exchanges, common practices and by promoting multilevel cooperation. By drafting the ‘International Guidelines on People-Centred Smart Cities’, a Global Expert Group of 31 experts nominated by Member States, scoped out and delivered multi-level and multi-stakeholder guidance for national and local smart city regulations, plans and strategies. The Guidelines ensure that digital urban infrastructure and data contribute to the sustainability, inclusivity, and prosperity of cities while upholding human rights.
More important that drafting these guidelines, is ensuring good implementation and follow-up in practice. Local governments are front and centre in these developments, as the agents of change catalysing a people-centred digital transformation. This session is organized around three themes (1. Social, economic wellbeing and digital human rights, 2, Access to digital and essential services for all, 3. Territorial data for sustainability). With this perspective, we commit to starting from local needs, analysing demand, finding suitable digital solutions, and providing simple and accessible responses.
These shared experiences highlight how digitalization transforms society and territorial policies, prompting us to question: how to anticipate these changes in the space and services of the city and territories? How to realize digital access for all? How can digitalization support the challenge of ecological transition? How to give a more political dimension to digitalization? With the International Guidelines to be validated in practice and giving a starting point on the ground.
The French Network of Urban Planning Agencies is an association that brings together elected officials, associations of local authorities, ministries, agency teams, and network heads at the national and international levels.