This year’s 12th session of the World Urban Forum in Cairo, Egypt (WUF12) brought a record-breaking attendance of over 25,000 participants from 182 countries. Our team led and/or participated in more than 8 events throughout the week, giving us a significant presence at this global gathering to showcase the work we’ve accomplished on the Data Ecosystem project and several other projects within the IDEAMAPS Network.
“The World Urban Forum (WUF) is a UN Habitat conference aimed at addressing one of the most pressing issues facing the world today: rapid urbanization and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies.”
Our sessions all had high attendance from a diverse audience that shaped engaging discussions. In several sessions, every seat was occupied and as people continued to filter in, the WUF Technical Support teams helped us find more seats. Our sessions also generated some of the highest numbers of online attendees out of any WUF events.
Participatory Action Research (PAR) groups are one of the main pathways within the IDEAMAPS Data Ecosystem project for amplifying the voices of communities that are most affected by urban challenges and actively engaging residents of informal settlements. During the Transforming Urban Futures - Data, Climate Justice, and Community Co-Production event on 06 November 2024, Dr. Peter Elias (University of Lagos), Dr. Caroline Kabaria (African Population and Health Research Center), and Ms. Bunmi Alugbin (Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development) showcased their successes and learnings from the PARs they’ve steered in their cities over the past 2 years.
This event was a chance to present to a wider audience how IDEAMAPS PAR activities have continuously adapted to community priorities. The panelists took us through the progression:
Throughout the months of June and July (2024) PARs were carried out with communities to identify and map key assets in their neighborhoods. In previous PARs, we heard that it was difficult for communities to actually locate themselves on the maps because so many of the critical resources they use every day were not visible or easily identifiable. Therefore, the teams in Kenya and Nigeria designed sessions to ask the communities questions like – “What is an asset?” – from their perspective. Once the definition of an asset was defined, they were equipped to go into the field and pinpoint the location of their assets on the map. See blog post here for more about the recent mapping sessions.
All of the data collected by communities to map assets has now been uploaded to OpenStreetMap (OSM) by the teams working diligently out of the University of Lagos, African Population and Health Research Center (Nairobi), and the The African Centre of Excellence for Population Health and Policy (Kano). Relying on open-source tools like OSM is in line with our commitment to accessibility and inclusivity. Open-source platforms democratize access to high-quality data, enabling communities, especially in resource-constrained settings, to harness the same advanced tools available in well-funded cities. These discussions shed light on how open-source solutions can bridge critical gaps in data, especially in cities that lack traditional urban planning resources.
As highlighted by our team in Voices from Cities, the qualitative feedback received during PARs has provided essential insights to inform the development of the IDEAMAPS Data Ecosystem Platform. This feedback loop underscores the importance of local perspectives in creating tools that truly reflect community needs, as the participants’ recommendations have directly influenced the platform evolution throughout the project’s lifecycle.
“The Voices from Cities event underscored the need for genuine, ongoing dialogue between data developers, community advocates, and policymakers. IDEAMAPS is unique in its combination of community-led insights and open collaboration. I left the event feeling inspired and hopeful, knowing that the relationships and platforms developed would continue to shape resilient, equitable urban spaces.”
- Adenike Shonowo, PhD Candidate in Urban Studies, University of Glasgow
Our team also organised and participated in several training events during the 12th session of the World Urban Forum. These capacity strengthening events aimed to equip people with skills they could takeaway to practise in their own work toward improving the lives of urban communities through better access to quality information.
Professor João Porto de Albuquerque (University of Glasgow) led a session introducing techniques and case studies for mapping and data generation to address mostly "invisible" urban peripheries and disadvantaged areas: Inclusive Data Innovations for Mapping Urban Deprived Areas, Peripheral Territories, and Informal Settlements. With opening speeches by the Secretary of Peripheries of Brazil Federal Ministry of Cities, Guilherme Simões, and the Head of Data and Analytics of UN Habitat, Dr. Robert Ndugwa, the session brought together experts from the USA, Kenya and Brazil to talk about their experience in mapping with communities. The session concluded with interactive table-based discussions about experiences in this area as well as the resources they used to support their efforts.
“It’s truly energizing to see the emphasis on co-creating inclusive data ecosystems and the tangible outcomes achieved. The session (...) on "Inclusive Data Innovations" was a major highlight for me—bringing data to the forefront to empower marginalized communities is essential for driving meaningful urban transformation. The real-world examples you showcased, from the grassroots Community Mappers in Nairobi to the "Mapa das Periferias" project in Brazil, demonstrate the power of participatory approaches in addressing urban inequities. The response to our call for a global coalition on urban data is especially exciting, and I look forward to working/seeing how the IDEAMAPS Network can support us to drive this vision forward. Kudos to you and your team for advancing this vital work!”
- Dr. Robert Ndugwa, Head of Data and Analytics, UN Habitat
Another training event organised by the IDEAMAPS team at WUF12 was the session Professionalising Community Data Collection - Building on the Data4HumanRights Curriculum - led by Nicera Wanjiru, Dr. Dana Thomson and Dr. Monika Kuffer. The team showcased the training curriculum developed by Data4HumanRights - highlighting key methods and tools that are aimed towards documenting evictions, performing rapid need assessments after crises, and monitoring community indicators.
One of our networking events ‘Inclusive Data and Digital Tools for Informal Settlements’ took place on Tuesday, 05 November 2024 and marked the first public launch of the IDEAMAPS Data Ecosystem platform. Led by Andy Clarke (University of Glasgow) and Bunmi Alugbin (Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development), the event brought together tool builders, policymakers and other user communities to reflect on better ways to effectively monitor and drive upgrades related to challenges faced by people living in informal settlements.
After our platform launch, the event gave space to rich discussions between panellists and event participants - attendees that represented an extended worldwide community of people working with digital tools and data to address challenges facing informal settlements. In these forums, members of the IDEAMAPS Network discussed topics related to using technical solutions to monitor progress towards SDG 11.1 with members of Slum Dwellers International, World Resources Institute, leaders of informal settlements and city-level policy makers amongst many others.
“Powered by citizen science and local participation, our platform aims to provide accurate and updated information that can drive change in informal settlements.”
We are proud to report that the IDEAMAPS Data Ecosystem platform is publicly available at https://www.ideamapsdataecosystem.org/. It has now had over 600 site visitors from countries including Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt. For more information about the platform - check out this blog post.
Aside from showcasing work from the IDEAMAPS project, the World Urban Forum provided opportunities to exchange with people working across a variety of contexts towards a better future for cities. Through our participation on various panels during WUF and our collaboration with other organizations in designing these events, members of our team exchanged knowledge and learned from the diverse approaches that were shared at the event.
“The strength of attending WUF was in part the opportunity to foster better collaboration in our field through the beginning of new relationships and the growth of existing ones.”
We spoke with local policymakers who attended WUF as representatives of their city, and conversations with them have deepened our understanding of each other’s goals and widened avenues to work collaboratively. Additionally, event partnerships with Slum Dwellers International (Know Your City Campaign), World Resources Institute (WRI), and Justice & Empowerment Initiatives have strengthened existing relationships. We were also very excited to build new relationships, specifically with Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI), 3iF and Mathare Legal Aid and Human Rights Advocacy (MLAHRA) - organisations working in Nairobi to co-create infrastructure for resilient, thriving neighbourhoods.
The team is now looking forward to Year 3 of the project. We’ve set our sights on delivering more value for community members, extending the datasets presented on our platform and reinforcing the connections that we’ve made at WUF12 and throughout the past two years of collaboration on this project. Thank you to all who have worked with us and supported us along the way.
