GUD’s 10th Anniversary Update, 2001-2011
December 14, 2011 (revised May 21, 2013)
Dr. Marc A. Weiss, Chairman and CEO
We first began organizing Global Urban Development (GUD) on the morning
of September 11, 2001, and we were legally incorporated as a non-profit
organization in Washington, DC on December 3, 2001. Today GUD is legally incorporated in the
State of Delaware. It's hard to believe
that more than a decade has gone by since we first set out for Prague on our
ambitious and improbable journey to build a global network of leaders and
experts, and to develop a set of inspiring ideas and innovative policies that
can help enable all people, everywhere in the world, to live and thrive in
peace with each other and in peace with nature.
It's even harder to believe the considerable progress that GUD has
accomplished over the past decade. And for those of you who know about my
severe health problems during more than four of those years (from October 2005
through December 2009), it's incredibly hard to believe that I am still here,
alive and (relatively) well. Life itself has turned out to be the most
extraordinary gift of all, an ongoing blessing for which I am profoundly and
humbly grateful.
Please allow me to express my heartfelt thanks to each and every
one of you for your steadfast love and support during the decade now behind us,
and hopefully for many, many more years into the future. I especially want to thank my wife, Nancy Sedmak-Weiss, GUD’s Secretary-Treasurer and Chief Legal
Officer. Nancy's great love and dedication kept both me, and GUD, alive and
moving forward during extremely difficult and challenging circumstances.
In the spirit of GUD’s 10th
anniversary celebration, what follows are reflections on the past decade of GUD’s evolution as well as on its current context and future
trajectory. The following summary is relatively brief, and necessarily very
selective. It is designed to highlight a
few of GUD’s successes and to thank many
people who generously contributed their time, ideas, money, and many other
resources that made possible our considerable progress since 2001. Please accept my apologies in advance for all
of the people, places, projects, publications, events, and organizations that
are not mentioned by name in the next few paragraphs. Know that our
appreciation and gratitude remains forever strong.
GUD’s
History Since 2001
GUD began in 2001 as the Prague Institute for Global Urban
Development, officially changing our name to Global Urban Development in
October 2005. Since 2001 we have built a
worldwide network of more than 600 leaders and experts in nearly 60 countries
who serve on our Board of Directors, Advisory Board, and as Senior Fellows and
Fellows affiliated with GUD’s 15 offices
located in Barcelona, Beijing, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Hong Kong, Istanbul,
London, Porto Alegre, Prague, Rehoboth, San Francisco Bay Area, Singapore,
Sydney, Toronto, and Washington, DC.
During these years, 12 distinguished GUD leaders have passed away: Nick Bollman, Kim Van Deventer, Andrzej Flis,
Joseph Gross, Eric Hobsbawm, Richard Hollingsworth,
Monika Jaeckel, Gill-Chin Lim, Roger Montgomery,
Peter Oberlander, John Parr, and Anthony Smith. Several other inspiring leaders with whom GUD
had the pleasure of collaborating, especially Ray Anderson, have also passed
on. We deeply mourn the loss of our
beloved friends and colleagues.
In the original Prague Institute
brochure that GUD proudly unveiled early in 2002, there were three major
themes: Treating People and Communities as Assets, Facing the Metropolitan
Challenge, and Celebrating Our Urban Heritage. Today GUD’s three core themes are Innovation
and Prosperity, Sustainability,
and Inclusiveness, and we have nine
program committees: Analyzing Global Urban Development;
Building Gender Equality; Celebrating Our Urban Heritage; Envisioning Sustainable Futures; Facing the Environmental Challenge; Generating Sustainable Economic Development; Improving Global Health; Inclusive
Economic Development: Treating People and Communities as Assets; and Metropolitan Economic Strategy: Advancing Innovation,
Prosperity, and Quality of Life.
Inclusive Economic Development: Treating People and Communities as
Assets
Inclusive Economic Development: Treating People and Communities as
Assets gave birth during 2002-4 to the Community Productivity
Project (CPP), in partnership with Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI),
the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the United Nations Human
Settlements Program (UN-Habitat). The CPP helped innovate
the policy framework for Inclusive Economic Development Strategies and
Community Productivity Indicators. The CPP partnership included government
agencies and NGOs in Cape Town, Cleveland, Mexico City, Mumbai, London,
Nairobi, Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Tirana. Despite the efforts of
Besnik Aliaj, Jockin Arputham, Nefise Bazoglu, Gregory Berzonsky, Sergio Besserman Vianna,
Lance Buhl, Sundar Burra, Tim Campbell, William
Cobbett, Claudia Coulton, Celine d'Cruz,
Kim Van Deventer, Mary del Carmen Diaz Amador, Malika Djebli,
Marlene Fernandes, Peter Hall, Emile Van Heyningen, Eric Hoddersen, Jane
Katz, Jeroen Klink, Nomaindia
Mfeketo, Nhanla Mjoli-Mncube, Eduardo Moreno, Geoff Mulgan,
Sheela Patel, Janice Perlman, Jonas Rabinovitch, Wicaksono Sarosa, Nina Schuler, Wandia Seaforth, Nancy Sedmak-Weiss,
Marta Suplicy, Nigel Tapela,
Marta Tellado, Patrick Wakely,
Emiel Wegelin, Erna Witoelar, Nicholas You, Robert Zdenek,
and many others, and even with the encouragement of Gene Sperling and the
Clinton Global Initiative, we were unable to raise the $10 million needed to do
the full-scale global Community Productivity Project. The good news is that I
now believe there will be numerous opportunities for GUD to engage in Inclusive
Economic Development in many countries during the next few years, especially in
Latin America.
Since 2010 GUD has been working with Habitat for Humanity
International (HFHI), UN-Habitat, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), World
Bank, Cities Alliance, US Government, Rockefeller Foundation, International
Housing Coalition, and many other organizations on the Global Housing
Indicators (GHI) initiative, under the leadership of GUD Board member Jane
Katz, who is HFHI’s Director of International Affairs and Programs. She also
serves as GHI Manager, and as Co-Chair of GUD’s committee on Inclusive Economic
Development, which is actively supporting the GHI initiative. In December 2011
HFHI and IDB organized a Housing Indicators Workshop at the IDB offices in
Washington, DC, and HFHI published a key report, Global Housing
Indicators: Evidence for Action.
Thanks to GUD Board member Jane Katz, HFHI’s Director of International
Affairs, and Co-Chair of GUD’s program committee on Inclusive Economic Development,
for her leadership of this important GHI effort.
Creating Jobs and Livelihoods
As an outgrowth of our major GUD meeting at the 2010 UN World
Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, GUD created a new committee, Creating
Jobs and Livelihoods. Recently this committee merged with Inclusive Economic
Development.
Celebrating Our Urban Heritage
Celebrating Our Urban Heritage has been quite influential as a
theme under the dynamic leadership of committee Co-Chairs Luigi Fusco Girard,
Donovan Rypkema, and Belinda Yuen. This GUD program
committee helped produce an urban
heritage special issue of GUD Magazine in 2008, and continues
to work on creating greater understanding among policymakers and investors of
GUD's decade-long project on "Urban Heritage as an Economic Asset."
Currently GUD is working with the International Scientific Committee on the
Economics of Conservation (ISCEC) of the International Council on Monuments and
Sites (ICOMOS) to produce a special issue of the Journal of Cultural
Heritage Management and Sustainable Development. The Co-Editors of this
special issue are GUD Advisory Board member Christer Gustafsson
and GUD Board member Don Rypkema.
Facing the Metropolitan Challenge
Facing the Metropolitan Challenge started in 2002 with two key
projects:
A) Thanks to GUD Vice Chair Peter Hall, Global Urban Development
was included in a European
Commission-funded research consortium, headed by the Royal Institute of
Technology in Stockholm, to analyze the urban development impacts of the
enlargement of the European Union to include eight new countries from central
and eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic, where GUD’s Prague headquarters was located. During June 2003, GUD hosted
one of the first meetings of this multinational research consortium. This
memorable three-day meeting included a public lecture by Sir Peter Hall
attended by more than 100 invited guests (his speech/report was published in
the 2005 inaugural issue of GUD Magazine as “The
World’s Urban
Systems: A European Perspective”), and a
delightful celebratory dinner when it was officially announced that the Czech Republic
had voted to join the European Union.
B) GUD actively participated in the Coalition for Sustainable
Urbanization together with UN-Habitat, UNDP, UN Advisory Committee on Local
Authorities, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, World Bank, Cities
Alliance, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Metropolis,
United Cities and Local Governments, and numerous other organizations. This
Coalition organized the highly successful five-day Local Government Session,
attended by more than 1,000 local officials from many different countries, at
the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (“Earth
Summit”) in Johannesburg, South Africa
during August 2002. Two GUD Board
members, Kaarin Taipale and
Nicholas You, were key leaders of the Coalition for Sustainable Urbanization,
with Kaarin representing ICLEI and Nick representing
UN-Habitat.
Metropolitan Economic Strategy & Facing the Environmental
Challenge
As the cutting-edge ideas of Facing the Metropolitan Challenge
increasingly became more mainstream and widely accepted among national
governments and international institutions such as the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), European Union, United Nations,
and World Bank, GUD decided to split its original theme into two separate
initiatives and program committees:
1) Metropolitan Economic Strategy: Advancing Innovation,
Prosperity, and Quality of Life, with GUD's special blend of technological
innovation, global competitiveness, sustainability, and inclusiveness designed
to generate prosperity and quality of life for central cities, metropolitan
areas, urban regions, states/provinces, and nations worldwide.
GUD created its program committee on Metropolitan Economic
Strategy: Advancing Innovation, Prosperity, and Quality of Life in order to
make Metropolitan Economic Strategy a global policy initiative. One early
project involved producing a major theme paper on “Productive Cities and Metropolitan
Economic Strategy” for the UN International
Forum on Urban Poverty in Marrakech, Morocco in 2001. In 2002 GUD conducted,
with funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), four
days of professional training on Metropolitan Economic Strategy for senior
national, provincial, and city government economic development officials
participating in the South African Cities Network
(thanks to Andrew Boraine). GUD later conducted professional
training on urban economic development for senior USAID officials in
Washington, DC during 2006. Thanks to
David Dowall for his collaboration.
During 2003 and 2004, GUD advised the Central Bohemia Regional Government
(around Prague) and produced two reports for the Strategic Metropolitan Plan of
Barcelona (thanks to Francesc Santacana),
“Metropolitan Regions are Dynamic Economic Engines
of Global Prosperity and Quality of Life for Everyone” and “Metropolitan Governance and Strategic Planning in
the US.” GUD also wrote two major
reports for the OECD on “Leveraging Private Financing and Investment for
Economic and Community Development” and on
the internationally recognized, award-winning NoMa
(North of Massachusetts Avenue) strategic economic development initiative in
Washington, DC. (Thanks to Jonathan Potter, Marco Marchese, and the OECD’s Local Economic and Employment Development Program). In 2002 GUD produced a major report for the
National Governors Association (NGA) on State
Policy Approaches to Promote Metropolitan Economic Strategy, and during
2004-5 we provided strategic advice on Metropolitan Economic Strategy
for the Hampton Roads Partnership in Norfolk, Virginia. Over the past decade GUD focused on
globalizing Metropolitan Economic Strategy, as expressed by our research
project on cross-border international
urban regions, through our Metropolitan Economic Strategy reports on Belo Horizonte, Cape Town, Curitiba, Johannesburg, the Oresund Region (Copenhagen-Malmo), San Diego-Tijuana, Shanghai, Singapore, and Trieste-Koper, and in our comparative study for the Brookings
Institution on national policies supporting Metropolitan Economic Strategy.
Please click here for “Teamwork: Why Metropolitan Economic Strategy is the Key to
Generating Sustainable Prosperity and Quality of Life for the World.” This article from the
inaugural 2005 issue of GUD Magazine summarizes our strategic policy
framework.
2) Facing the Environmental Challenge, focusing on
sustainable urban development. The first major project by this program
committee involved GUD conducting research and producing reports on Sustainable Urban
Development in the US and Sustainable Urban
Development in Canada, funded by the Government of Sweden's Mistra Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research. GUD
Board member Henrik Nolmark coordinated the much
larger Mistra-funded worldwide research project, and
we thank Henrik for graciously including GUD as part of his overall team.
Thanks also to GUD Board member Nola-Kate Seymoar and
her colleagues at Sustainable Cities International for producing the Canada
report, and to Belinda Yuen and Wendy Sarkissian for
participating in the global project.
In addition, GUD signed a Memorandum of Agreement with
the Chinese Government in October 2009 to give strategic advice for the US-China Mayors Sustainable Cities
Program, particularly with respect to Sustainable Economic Development
Strategies. Thanks to C. S. Kiang, Jiang Mingjun, and
Lawrence Bloom for connecting us.
GUD has actively participated in the Partnership for Sustainable
Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), a stakeholder
coalition of NGOs such as ITDP and EMBARQ, private corporations, UN agencies,
and development finance institutions.
The SLoCat Partnership’s “Rio+20” Campaign
recently secured commitments from the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and
six other multilateral development banks to invest $175 billion (USD) in
sustainable urban transportation systems in developing countries over the next
decade, with 16 additional resource commitments from other organizations.
Also, GUD Vice Chair Nicky Gavron is working with Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, Phillipp Rode, Dimitri Zenghelis,
Karl Baker, and their faculty and senior research colleagues at the London
School of Economics on The Economics of Green Cities Program, a collaborative
global research project analyzing the economics of sustainable urban
development, with an initial focus on Copenhagen, Portland, and Stockholm.
Finally, GUD serves on the Steering Committee of the United Nations
Sustainable Development Knowledge Partnership, established by the UN Department
of Economic and Social Affairs.
Generating Sustainable Economic Development
GUD's Facing the Environmental Challenge and Metropolitan Economic
Strategy committees also collaborated to create a new GUD program committee on
Generating Sustainable Economic Development. GUD President James Nixon, in
addition to serving as the committee’s
Co-Chair, has played a key role in developing GUD’s
comprehensive Sustainable Economic Development strategic framework.
Climate Prosperity
Beginning in 2007, GUD created and helped organize the Climate
Prosperity Project (now Clean Economy Solutions) in the US and the Climate Prosperity Alliance globally, both of which
were later established as independent organizations. The Climate Prosperity movement promoted a
new wave of Sustainable Economic Development Strategies in US cities and
regions during 2008-9.
The Climate Prosperity Alliance (CPA) and GUD worked together with
Tariq Banuri, the UN’s
Director of Sustainable Development and a senior member of the UN
Secretary-General's climate team, to develop the Global
Climate Prosperity Agreement ("The One Trillion Dollar Deal").
GUD and CPA also collaborated with Hazel Henderson and Ethical Markets Media to
create the Global
Climate Prosperity Scoreboard (now the Green Transition Scoreboard), and
later teamed up with Jigar Shah and the Carbon War
Room to design the Global Coal Transition
and Clean Technology Investment Initiative. These initiatives helped
encourage the agreement by developed countries, operating through the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to establish the Green Climate
Fund, which beginning in 2020 will make available $100 billion annually to
developing countries for climate mitigation and adaptation. They also played a role at Rio+20 in
encouraging more than $50 billion of private sector investment commitments,
another $30 billion from multilateral development banks, plus billions more
from national governments, for the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All program to
promote universal energy access, renewable energy production and distribution,
and energy conservation and efficiency improvements in developing countries by
2030.
Building Gender Equality
In 2004 GUD adopted the theme of Building Gender Equality,
creating a committee spearheaded by the late and beloved Monika Jaeckel.
We even introduced the principle of gender equality in successfully
reconfiguring the composition of GUD's Board of Directors.
Improving Global Health
In 2006 we added the theme and program committee on Improving
Global Health. Under the leadership of Claire Blanchard, Wilfried
Kreisel, and Vivian Lin, this committee is working
closely with the International Union for Health Promotion and Education
(IUHPE), and particularly with IUHPE’s Global Working Group on Climate Change
and Health, to potentially organize a worldwide campaign for "Leaving Coal in the Ground: Building a
Sustainable Economy and Ending a Global Health Crisis by 2030." We are very pleased to participate in this
path-breaking and visionary collaboration.
Analyzing Global Urban Development
Along the way we also added a theme and program committee on
Analyzing Global Urban Development, reflecting the many scholars, researchers,
writers, and analysts that are part of GUD's worldwide professional network.
This committee is involved with LSE's Economics of Green Cities Program
studying sustainable urban economic growth.
It is also working with the UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign (“I’m a City
Changer”), the Atlantic Council’s Urban World 2030 initiative (thanks to
Banning Garrett and Peter Engelke), the Global City
Indicators Facility (thanks to GUD Board member Patricia McCarney),
the World Bank Urbanization Knowledge Partnership, and the Habitat for Humanity
International/Inter-American Development Bank/UN-Habitat Global Housing
Indicators initiative.
Envisioning Sustainable Futures
Recently we added Envisioning Sustainable Futures (ESF) as a new
program committee (initially called Climate Prosperity Media/Arts), reflecting
the media and arts talent in GUD’s network. ESF
will encourage education, communications, and entertainment about the global
future of Innovation and Prosperity, Sustainability, and Inclusiveness.
International Collaboration
Throughout the past decade, GUD has participated in and partnered
with many international organizations.
For example, GUD serves on the Steering Committees for the United
Nations Sustainable Development Knowledge Partnership, the UN-Habitat World
Urban Campaign, the UN-Habitat Best Practices and Local Leadership Program, and
the Atlantic Council’s Urban World 2030 initiative, on the Advisory Council of
the UN-Habitat Cities and Climate Change Initiative, on the Board of Directors
of the International Housing Coalition, on the Board of Advisors for Green
World City, and as a member of the World Bank Sustainable Cities Partnership,
Coalition for Sustainable Urbanization, ICOMOS (International Council on
Monuments and Sites) International Scientific Committee on the Economics of
Conservation, Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), Clinton Global Initiative, European Spatial
Planning Observation Network (ESPON), Metropolis Initiative on Integrated
Strategic Planning and Public-Private Partnerships, Development Gateway, and Citistates Group. Similarly, GUD served on the Board of
Directors of the International Downtown Association, as a member of the
Metropolis Commission on Urban Mobility and the Metropolis Commission on Financing
Urban Infrastructure and Services, on the Editorial Board of the Journal of
Town and City Management, and on the International Board of Advisers for
Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. In addition, GUD has served as an adviser to
the World Bank, OECD, USAID, European Union, UN, and World Future Council.
Also, GUD has worked with the Energy and Climate Partnership of
the Americas, Tallberg Foundation, Ashoka, United Cities
and Local Governments, International Union for Health Promotion and Education,
United Way International, Sister Cities International, Cities Alliance,
International Chamber of Commerce, Global Federation of Competitiveness
Councils, American Chambers of Commerce Abroad, International Economic
Development Council, Tomorrow’s Company, World Business Council for Sustainable
Development, World Economic Forum, World Social Forum, World Business Academy,
Urban Land Institute, Globe Forum, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability,
C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Global City Indicators Facility, American
Planning Association, American Council on Renewable Energy, National
Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, Carbon War Room, Climate Group,
Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, EMBARQ, ShoreBank International, Habitat for Humanity
International, Microcredit Summit Campaign, Shack/Slum Dwellers International, Grameen Trust, Grassroots Women's International Academies,
Mother Centers International Network for Empowerment, Huairou
Commission, Participatory Budgeting Project, Young Foundation, International
Renewable Energy Agency, Washington International Renewable Energy Conference,
350.org, Ethical Markets Media, State of the World Forum, Earth Policy
Institute, Urban Age Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars, Building and Social Housing Foundation, North/North Network, Columbia
University Earth Institute Millennium Cities Initiative, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology Sloan School of Management, Cornell University Global Labor
Institute, Georgetown University Global Education Institute, London School of
Economics Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment,
University of Sao Paulo Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, and University
College London Development Planning Unit, among many others.
Every two years GUD holds a major meeting of our global network at
the UN World Urban Forum.
Sustainable Economic Development Strategies
GUD’s Generating Sustainable
Economic Development initiative has grown substantially during the past six
years. In 2006 we moved our main
headquarters office from Prague back to Washington, DC, because we decided that
if the US could begin following the path of Sustainable Economic Development,
then it would be easier for other places around the world to do likewise. With
financial support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Environmental
Defense Fund (thanks to Michael Northrop and Jackie Roberts), GUD developed an
innovative policy and program framework for Sustainable Economic Development
Strategies that was applied in various ways by San Antonio, San Jose, Silicon Valley,
Southwest
Florida, Metropolitan
Portland, Metropolitan Denver, and the State of Delaware.
During the past two years, GUD completed a strategy for Sarasota County,
Florida to become a "Center for Innovation in Energy and
Sustainability" with funding provided by the US Department of Energy. The final report, summary
slideshow presentation, and five of the background reports
are available on the Publications page of GUD's website, www.globalurban.org,
together with various strategy reports from the other places mentioned
above. Thanks to my GUD Sarasota team
colleagues: James Nixon, John Cleveland, and Al Victors.
Currently GUD is advising the City of Denver, Colorado, on its
Denver Seeds initiative for sustainable food production and distribution as an
economic development, business growth, and job creation strategy. Recently GUD
produced a report for
Denver Seeds on Best Practices for Urban Food Strategies.
Please enjoy GUD's colorful and attractive new SED logo, where
Sustainability and Economic Development separately merge into the new jointly
overlapping space of Sustainable Economic Development.
Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA)
GUD's substantial Sustainable Economic Development activities over
the past five years recently led to a major international opportunity. On June
7-8, 2011 in Curitiba, Brazil, the Brazil and US Governments, through the
Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA), sponsored a conference
on "Planning for Sustainable Economic Development Across the
Americas." GUD played a key role in organizing this conference, working
with the American Planning Association, the City of Curitiba, and the US State
Department. Thanks to GUD Senior Fellow Eduardo Pereira Guimaraes,
former Secretary of International Relations for the City of Curitiba, Edson
Ramon, President of the Commercial Association of Parana, and Paul Farmer, APA
Executive Director, as well as thanks to all the leaders from GUD’s network who either spoke at and participated in the conference
or helped enable it to succeed: GUD Vice Chair Jaime Lerner, Rosa Alegria, Rob Bennett, Cid Blanco, Jr., Christina Carvalho Pinto, Aser Cortines, Emilio Haddad, Walter Hook, Daniel Hoornweg, Daniel Kammen, Paul Krutko, Rodrigo Loures, Adalberto Maluf, Cecilia
Martinez, Stephanie McLellan, Cesar Menezes, James Nixon, Emilia Queiroga, Nancy Sedmak-Weiss,
Jeffrey Soule, Ramiro Wahrhaftig, Stephen Walsh, and
Larry Zinn.
Please click here to
view the ECPA conference agenda, six of the powerpoint presentations, and related photos. GUD’s website is directly linked to the official ECPA website,
operated by the Organization of American States (OAS), which also contains
information and documents about the Curitiba conference: http://www.ecpamericas.org/events/default.aspx?id=90.
Please click here for "The
Global Future of Green Capitalism." This article, written for the ECPA Curitiba conference, briefly
explains GUD's Sustainable Economic Development framework. For a more detailed overview,
please read the GUD publication, Sustainable Economic
Development Strategies.
Metropolitan Economic Strategy, Sustainable Innovation, and
Inclusive Prosperity
Please click here for Metropolitan
Economic Strategy, Sustainable Innovation, and Inclusive Prosperity. GUD originally prepared this slide
presentation for senior Chinese national and urban government officials
participating in Georgetown University’s
Global Education Institute, and then revised it for my graduate course at
Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. This
slideshow combines GUD's work on Metropolitan Economic Strategy, Sustainable
Innovation, and Inclusive Prosperity into one comprehensive package, the
dynamic result of a decade of GUD’s strategic
combination of policy research and practical advisory work.
We wholeheartedly invite all of you to actively participate in
spreading the word about Metropolitan Economic Strategy, Sustainable
Innovation, and Inclusive Prosperity throughout the world. Indeed, we strongly
encourage you to reach out to government officials and to business and civic
leaders, suggesting that they consider working with GUD to advise and assist
them in how to design and implement effective and innovative economic
strategies.
Currently GUD is working on Metropolitan Economic Strategy,
Sustainable Innovation, and Inclusive Prosperity in Brazil. We are advising the
Federation of Industries of Minas Gerais (FIEMG) and
the State Government of Minas Gerais, the Federation
of Industries of Rio Grande do Sul (FIERGS) and the State Government of Rio
Grande do Sul, and the Federal Government, including the Brazilian Agency for
Industrial Development (ABDI). Please read GUD’s two recent Brazil reports, Advanced
Manufacturing and Sustainable Innovation: The Third Wave of Industrial and
Urban Economic Growth for Minas Gerais
(October 2012) and Local
and Regional Economic Development Opportunities Related to the Implementation
of the Sao Jose do Norte EBR Shipyard in Rio Grande do Sul
(December 2012). Thanks to GUD
colleagues Ian Bromley, Ellya Jeffries, Paul Krutko, James Nixon, Emilia Queiroga,
Elaine Yamashita Rodriguez, and Nancy Sedmak-Weiss. Recently Ernani Jardim de Miranda Machado,
a Brazilian technology entrepreneur, has joined GUD as our Director of
Technology Research, and as Coordinator of New
Technology Development for GUD’s subsidiary, Metropolitan Economic Strategy
LLC. He is working with us on developing
sustainable and innovative new technologies for Brazil and many other
countries.
At the 2012 UN World Urban Forum on September 5, GUD organized a
Networking Event on “Metropolitan
Economic Strategy and Sustainable Economic Development in Brazil.” Featured speakers included Mauro Borges Lemos, ABDI President; Olavo
Machado Jr., FIEMG President; Marcus Coester,
President of the Rio Grande do Sul Development Agency (AGDI); Ines Magalhaes, National Secretary of Housing at the Ministry of
Cities; Cid Blanco Jr., Director of Culture, Communications, and Events at the
Olympic Public Authority; and Fabio Veras, Deputy
Secretary of Economic Development for the State of Minas Gerais.
Within the next few years, GUD will be engaging in Metropolitan
Economic Strategy, Sustainable Innovation, and Inclusive Prosperity in many
countries throughout the world. Indeed, we firmly believe that such an approach
combining Innovation and Prosperity, Sustainability, and Inclusiveness will
become a key component of the positive path forward for humanity, such that by
2020 nearly all sub-national economic development strategies globally will be
based on growing businesses, jobs, and incomes by becoming more innovative,
sustainable, and inclusive, not less. Earning and saving more money by
conserving and reusing resources more efficiently will become the main engine
of economic growth and the central driver of value creation worldwide. People,
places, and organizations will improve their overall prosperity, quality of
life, health, and peace, through innovation, efficiency, and conservation in
the use and reuse of all natural and human resources. In other words, they will
"get richer by becoming greener."
Sustainable Economic Development (SED) Network
Currently GUD President James Nixon is coordinating the Sustainable Economic Development (SED)
Network, bringing together many organizations and individuals throughout
the world. This global social media network will enable professionals in
economic development and sustainable innovation along with cleantech
and green entrepreneurs and investors to share information, advice, and best
practices, and to engage in collaboration and deal-making.
Global Urban Development (GUD) Magazine
During the past decade we created GUD Magazine, a truly
state-of-the-art international publication. We are very proud of all five
issues of GUD Magazine, including the 2005
inaugural issue, the 2006 special
issue focusing on the UN Millennium Development Goals, the 2007 special issue on urban land and
housing policies published in partnership with the World Bank and the
Institute for Applied Economic Research in Brazil (thanks to Mila Freire, Bruce
Ferguson, Ricardo Lima, Dean Cira, and Christine Kessides), the 2008
special issue produced by the GUD program committee on Celebrating Our Urban
Heritage, and the 2008 special issue
on the role of the private sector and market-based innovative urban housing and
community development initiatives, edited and published in partnership with
Ashoka (thanks to Valeria Budinich, Stephanie
Schmidt, Bruce Ferguson, and Aileen Nowlan). Some of
you are among the authors from these five issues of GUD Magazine, and we
thank you for contributing your wisdom and experience.
Please continue to share GUD Magazine with your friends and
colleagues. I am using some of these articles for assigned readings in my Columbia University graduate
course on “Global
Urban Policy and Development.” In the future GUD will be publishing
individual articles more frequently than entire issues of GUD Magazine,
and we encourage you to submit articles authored or co-authored by you, as well
as to suggest both original material and interesting recent reprints written by
others.
Thanks!
Global Urban Development Events
October 5, 2002 GUD Board of
Directors Meeting in Washington, DC
December 12, 2002 GUD Board of Directors Meeting and Reception in
Washington, DC
April 21, 2003 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, DC
April 24, 2003
GUD Reception in Washington, DC
May 30, 2003
Seminar by Dr. Emiel Wegelin
and Reception in Prague
June 13-14, 2003
Meeting of European Union ESPON Research Consortium in Prague hosted by GUD
June 13, 2003
Public Lecture by Sir Peter Hall and Reception in Prague
October 3, 2003
Seminar by John McIlwain and Reception in Prague
October 9, 2003
Public Lecture by Peter Calthorpe and Reception in Prague
November 28, 2003 Seminar by Cornelia Poczka
and Reception in Prague
December 12, 2003
GUD Board of Directors Meeting and Reception in Prague
February 3, 2004 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, DC
March 24, 2004 Seminar by William Stafford and
Reception in Prague
March 26-30, 2004
Conference on “Redefining Europe: Federalism and the Union of European Democracies”
in Prague
March 26, 2004 GUD Reception in Prague
April 15, 2004 GUD Reception in Prague
May 20, 2004 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, DC
July 22, 2004 Seminar by Mary del Carmen
Diaz Amador and Reception in Prague
September 13-17, 2004 International Meeting on Good Urban Policies and
Enabling Legislation, UN World Urban Forum, Barcelona, Spain
September 18, 2004 GUD
Board of Directors and Advisory Board Meeting at the UN World Urban Forum,
Barcelona, Spain
September 29, 2004 Seminar by Margaret Caust
and Reception in Prague
September 30, 2004 Seminar by Dr. Arthur Alderson and Reception in Prague
October 12, 2004
Seminar by Christopher Leinberger and Reception in
Prague
February 10, 2005
GUD Board of Directors Meeting and Reception in Washington, DC
April 29-May 2, 2005 Conference on “Redefining Europe: European Union
Enlargement One Year After” in Prague
May 30, 2005 GUD Advisory Board Meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden
June 1, 2005 GUD Meeting on Celebrating Our Urban Heritage in
Gothenburg, Sweden
June 28, 2005 GUD Meeting on Celebrating Our Urban Heritage in
Naples, Italy
July 27, 2005 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, DC
September 22, 2005 GUD Reception in Prague
October 21, 2005 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, DC
April 3, 2006 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, DC
May 5, 2006 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, DC
June 23, 2006 GUD Board of Directors and Advisory Board Meeting at
the UN World Urban Forum, Vancouver, Canada
December 15, 2006 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Rehoboth, Delaware
September 10, 2007 GUD Meeting on the Mistra
Foundation Project and Reception in Washington, DC
November 26-28, 2007 GUD and Rockefeller Brothers Fund meeting on “The
Economic Benefits of Climate Action” at the RBF Conference Center, Pocantico Hills, NY
December 10, 2007 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Rehoboth, Delaware
March 6, 2008 GUD and Rockefeller Brothers Fund Event on “Climate
Prosperity and Renewable Energy” at the Washington International Renewable
Energy Conference, Washington, DC
July 7-8, 2008 GUD and Rockefeller Brothers Fund strategic leadership
meeting of Climate Prosperity at the RBF Conference Center, Pocantico
Hills, NY
September 26, 2008 GUD and Rockefeller Brothers Fund strategic leadership
meeting of Climate Prosperity, Washington, DC
November 5, 2008 GUD and Ashoka Foundation Networking Event on
“Transforming Urban Markets for the Poor through Entrepreneurship” at the UN
World Urban Forum, Nanjing, China
November 5, 2008 GUD and Rockefeller Brothers Fund Networking Event on
“Climate Prosperity: Sustainable Economic and Community Development” at the UN
World Urban Forum, Nanjing, China
November 5, 2008 GUD Board of Directors and Advisory Board Meeting at
the UN World Urban Forum, Nanjing, China
February 4, 2009 GUD and Rockefeller Brothers Fund seminar on “Climate
Prosperity: Democratic Capitalism with a Twist” at the Woodrow Wilson
International Center, Washington, DC
February 20-21, 2009 GUD and Rockefeller Brothers Fund strategic leadership
meeting of Climate Prosperity, and public launch of
the Silicon Valley Climate Prosperity Strategy, San Jose, CA
September 29, 2009 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Rehoboth, Delaware
March 18, 2010 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
March 26, 2010 GUD Board of Directors and Advisory Board Meeting at
the UN World Urban Forum, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
October 30, 2010 Climate Prosperity Media/Arts Salon, Santa Barbara, CA
December 8-9, 2010 ACORE’s
Phase II of Renewable Energy in America National Policy Forum, Washington, DC
December 20, 2010 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Rehoboth, Delaware
June 7-8, 2011 “Planning for Sustainable Economic Development Across the Americas” international conference, Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas,
Curitiba, Brazil
December 1, 2011 Housing Indicators Workshop, Inter-American Development
Bank and Habitat for Humanity International, Washington, DC
December
19, 2011 GUD Board of Directors
Meeting in Rehoboth, Delaware
May 18,
2012 GUD Board of Directors
Meeting in Rehoboth, Delaware
September
5, 2012 GUD Networking
Event on “Metropolitan Economic Strategy and Sustainable Economic Development
in Brazil” at the UN World Urban Forum, Naples, Italy
September
6, 2012 GUD Board of
Directors and Advisory Board Meeting at the UN World Urban Forum, Naples, Italy
October
25, 2012 GUD Board of
Directors Meeting in Rehoboth, Delaware
February
26, 2013 GUD Global
Webinar with Jeff Olson on his new book, The
Third Mode: Towards a Green Society.
March
18, 2013 GUD Board of Directors Meeting
in Rehoboth, Delaware
December
5, 2013 GUD Board of
Directors and Advisory Board Meeting in Washington, DC
April
10, 2014 GUD, Habitat
for Humanity International, Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, and
UN-Habitat Networking Event on “Global Housing Indicators (GHI) Working Group
Launch Event: Policy Knowledge and
Empirical Data to Promote Equitable, Affordable, Sustainable, and Resilient
Housing and Community Development” at the UN World Urban Forum, Medellin,
Colombia
July
21, 2014 State of Rio
Grande do Sul, Aspen Institute’s Accelerating
Market-Driven Partnerships (AMP), and GUD, “Addressing Climate Change Through
Sustainable Innovation”, Porto Alegre, Brazil
December 18, 2014 GUD Board of Directors Meeting in Porto
Alegre, Brazil
July
22, 2015 GUD Board of
Directors and Advisory Board Meeting in Washington, DC