World Bank's Open Learning Campus (Video)

A framework for proactive PPP disclosure is similar to any general proactive disclosure policy in terms of the broad guidance – i.e. what should be disclosed, when and in what form, what should not be disclosed and the responsibilities for disclosure. However, the special circumstances and sensitivities associated with PPP projects such as the long contract period, complex structure, provision of ‘public’ services by the private party, performance based payment mechanisms and the multiplicity of stakeholders and their sensitivities, among others, require a PPP disclosure framework to go beyond a general disclosure policy in terms of the level of detail.

This webinar suggests a practical framework for PPP disclosure in countries building on good practice cases from across countries.

Even before the approval of Brazil’s Law on Access to Information, in 2011, the practice regarding PPP projects in Brazil was one of significant openness and disclosure, with full proactive disclosure of PPP contracts and their variations, as well as of other relevant project information. Among the Brazilian states, Minas Gerais has been an example on practices related to disclosure of project information, draft and final signed contracts, as well as bidding process documentation and technical background reports. This webinar takes a detailed look at PPP Disclosure in Brazil, with focus on the state of Minas Gerais.

Cities can re-validate and rejuvenate urban services that reflect both the needs of citizens and those of the city hall by asking citizens to contribute to the design of services, products, business models and environments. Various instruments such as crowdsourcing campaigns, offline meetings and interactive policy workshops can be used to open up the planning process to citizens. Beyond the contribution to the city’s overall innovation policy, such strategies increase ‘innovation literacy’ among civil servants allowing the city hall to adopt a more agile approach to implement innovation by using service design and rapid prototyping methods. This enables administration to better address complex urban problems by engaging users and citizens in planning process. Examples from Amsterdam (Chief Technology Office) and Mexico City (Laboratorio de Ciudad) show how cities can foster civic innovation, entrepreneurship and re-thinking of city spaces through implementing specific strategies, thematic programs and flagship projects.

This webinar was created in collaboration with GTIDR and GSURR.

Living Labs are open and citizen driven innovation ecosystems and structures, used as Instruments for urban and regional innovation. Living Labs use co-creation and a real-life experimental approach to establish a dialog between technology and society leading to investments in new technologies focused on solving citizen’s problems. Implementation of multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholders collaborative infrastructures, tools and methodologies is not always easy. This webinar will explore the “what” and the “how to” of living labs, showcasing 2 Living Labs in 2 different countries: Brazil and Poland.

The purpose of Habitat Living Lab (Vitoria, Brazil) is the improvement of wellbeing and conditions of low-income populations. To achieve its purpose, Habitat LL is organized as a network of projects that combines academia, Government, business and society. Necessarily projects are geared toward the search for innovative solutions that allow advances in any of the areas related to well living. In addition, innovative solutions are sought with the involvement of "users" in a co-creation process. In addition to the Habitat Living Lab, the LabTAR will be presented as an example of an academic lab that manages the Living Lab projects all over Brazil.

Governments have been (and continue to be) the primary focus of most transparency demands and regimes, including disclosure specific to PPPs. A key factor underlying and supporting better transparency and accountability practices in jurisdictions appears to be the wider government policy on transparency and whether these policies are in turn supported by legislation.

This webinar will discuss ways to ensure transparency and accountability in PPPs, including the potential of FoI laws in improving disclosure policies.

This webinar discusses how PPPs can be a mode for infrastructure financing, with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

In the first quarter of 2014, many emerging countries were still struggling to mobilize financing flows to infrastructure, although there were key signs of a revival. A year later, some countries and regions appear to have been successful in reviving their PPP markets, others less so. In addition, against the back drop of developments in the project finance market, international financial institutions and bilateral aid organizations discussed the future of financing of infrastructure in Addis Ababa this year. What does the future look like? This webinar looks at the current trends in PPP financing in major regions of the world from lender and MDB perspectives.

This webinar draws on the recent publication Logged On, which looks at mobile and smart phone technology through the lens of managing the delivery of public services, focusing on developing and emerging economies, in particular in South Asia. The book provides examples of how Government can leapfrog over traditional and often unworkable public management reforms, and collaborate directly with citizens to deliver more effective services. The book offers a new approach called Smart Proactive Government and suggests five solutions that are present in every successful mobile and smart phone example that the authors reviewed.

The webinar series will present the main aspects of the smart proactive government approach and how this delivers service delivery improvements on the ground. The first webinar will put the approach in the context of traditional models of public sector management and shows both how this approach complements these models and where it adds new thinking and value. A further element of the discussion is on ‘what is different’, i.e. why the kind of approach set out in Logged On can work in today’s world when it could not have done so a decade ago. Here we will focus on improved opportunities to get real time date on service delivery performance (including growing access to communication and information technologies), the open government revolution, the enhanced role of social media and the emergence of a new generation of political leaders. Then we will move on to review the five core elements of smart proactive governance and how these can be implemented in practice. Finally, we will focus on potential risks to the successful application of the model and how these can be mitigated.

Innovation is largely an urban phenomenon. Some cities fare better than others and have grown to become global staples in innovation.

Others have found their innovative niche and are silent champions. Recently, we have witnessed the growth of tech startup ecosystems, which is impacting innovation in cities. Some cities have started taking advantage of these new entrepreneurs to bring innovation to urban problems and to increase the competitiveness of their local industry. This new phenomena also helps revitalizing urban areas and creating new jobs.

Victor Mulas, ICT Innovation Specialist with the World Bank Group will discuss current success stories and what policy interventions regional and local governments can undertake to unleash its innovative potential leveraging the tech startup ecosystem. He will draw upon illustrious examples from his own work from all parts of the World.

The percentage of the world’s population that lives in cities is rising, approaching 70 percent by 2050. Rapid urbanization – particularly among the growing middle class in many low-income and emerging economies – is changing the traditional dynamics of energy systems and supply globally. Green growth strategies can help economies and societies become more resilient as they work to meet demand for food production, transport, housing, energy, and water. For example, lighting and cooling of buildings already make up half of global energy use, and by 2030 building-related GHG emissions are set to double, with emerging markets contributing the majority of emissions. Energy efficiency is widely recognized as one of the most effective ways to combat climate change while meeting rising energy demand. Information and communication technology (ICT) is an important driver for clean-tech and green growth. It enables the collection and processing of immense volumes of data that can be used for improved urban systems and new business models. It also allows developing countries to adapt successfully tested international solutions to their local needs, which can help them leapfrog and develop domestic clean technology markets.

The Negawatt Challenge taps into local and global talent to identify hardware and software solutions that can reduce urban energy use, improve quality of service delivery in energy sectors, generate new or improved data, and offer cost-efficient energy management tools for city residents and policymakers. In its first stage, focusing on resource efficiency and open data, the Negawatt has been piloted in four cities globally, including Accra, Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, and Rio de Janeiro. It aims to use an open innovation competition methodology to surface technology and business innovations that catalyze behavioral change and have the potential to transform cities into more sustainable and efficient places.