GPIA International Urban Assistance Project

Organization: Cities Alliance
Team: Allison Castaldi, Allie Esslinger, Mark Farrell-Javits, Silvana Gramajo Barboni, Daniel Liswood, Cinthya Marquez, Louise Moreira Daniels, Marc Mousky
Semester: Spring 2009

The GPIA has been involved in international urban assistance projects for the last several years (see attached document, link at bottom of page). Students had the opportunity to work for the Cities Alliance in establishing a University Network for Urban Assistance which involved universities, mostly in developing countries, who are interested in undertaking research on the impact of international urban assistance in their respective cities. This work involved creating a system for developing profiles of universities in the developing world in which there is a major potential for this work, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, and subsequently inviting them, on behalf of the Cities Alliance, to participate in an international meeting in 2009. The work also included developing a disemination strategy for city development studies, slum upgrading strategies, and other "knowledge products" developed by the Cities Alliance which is a collaborative program of 25 governments, the United Nations, and the World Bank, based at the World Bank in Washington.

The governments of France, Norway, and Brazil have aready indicated their interest to support this Network, for which the GPIA was expected to receive about US$1.1 million over the next three years.

Students would work with Michael Cohen; Barbara Camus, a French urban planner and engineer; and GPIA graduate Pamela Hershey.

This work may also include some preparatory work for the Inter-American Development Bank on a program of case studies on successful slum upgrading programs in developing countries which have included employment creation efforts. The GPIA is one of three organizations that has been preselected by the IABD to do this work, supported by the Japanese Government, and we will hear the final decision in late February 2009.

Core Documents


Terms of Reference
Timeline
Final Presentation

Additional Documents


UURI Final Product.pdf

Navigate: All Spring 2009 practicums