Localizing UN Habitat’s guidelines on people-centred smart cities - assessment by partner cities of the ISCN

Agenda

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09:30 – 09:35 AM - Welcome Address: Priorities of the UN Habitat process and guidance for implementation

Renate Mitterhuber, Head of Division Smart Cities and Regions, Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB), Berlin, Germany

09:35 – 09:45 AM - Insight Talk #1: Reflection on standards and guidelines in Smart City developments 

Milou Jansen, Project Coordinator: International Guidelines on People-Centred Smart Cities, Innovation Unit, External Relations, Strategy, Knowledge, and Innovation Division (ERSKI) UN-Habitat, Barcelona, Spain

09:45 – 10:05 AM - Insight Talk #2: The importance of the Smart City Guidelines across different levels of administration – how to enable seamless implementation on local level

Karen Laßmann, Head of Smart City and Data Management, Senate Chancellery, Berlin, Germany

10:05– 10:45 AM - Reports by partner cities of the ISCN 

City Representatives: Arnsberg/GER, Arezzo/ITA, Hamm/GER, TBA/LAT

10:45 – 10:55 AM - Germany’s international approach and the importance of European and global coordination – the role of the International Smart Cities Network (ISCN)/CIE

Anna Sophie Herken, Managing Director, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Berlin, Germany

10:55 – 11:00 AM - Joint Closing

Gudrun Schwarz, Senior Policy Officer, Division Smart Cities and Regions, Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB), Berlin, Germany
Peter Sailer, Head of Project, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Eschborn, Germany

UN-Habitat is developing guidelines on people-centred smart cities. They will be a non-binding framework to guide the development of national and local smart city regulations, plans, and strategies, which will ensure that digital urban infrastructure and data contribute to making cities and human settlements sustainable, inclusive, and prosperous and respectful of human rights.

These efforts are a great opportunity to share our vision and ideas on issues that are detrimental to developing futureproof settlements on a global level. The event wants to encourage municipal decision makers to assess their efforts taken in developing their towns and villages into smart cities in the light of the UN-Habitat Smart City Guidelines. Furthermore, a discussion on the challenges and opportunities will take place. Municipal decision makers will be given guidance on how to proceed in their respective cities, towns, and villages. Representatives from German as well as European cities that have been engaged in the project #connectedinEurope via the exchange platform of the International Smart Cities Network will share their ideas and visions emerged from their daily work in driving an inclusive, future-fit, and human-centric urban development – supported by digital solutions. The guiding questions of this event are:

Where do we stand integrating digital aspects into urban development and how can these new guidelines assist to close any gaps?
What do these guidelines mean for my city that has already started the process of becoming a smart city?
How can these global guidelines be implemented and help to enhance existing planning frameworks?
What methods are to be integrated and ease the daily workload?

Come and join us to discuss with great speakers (see below)!

The website of the Smart Country Convention offers free tickets for the entire Congress and Expo, including this side event, here.

Speakers of the event

Renate Mitterhuber

Renate Mitterhuber has been Head of the Smart Cities and Regions Division at the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building since 6 December 2021. Prior to that, she was head of the "Federal Portal Network, Business and Coordination Centre 115" unit at the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Her focus there was on setting up the IT infrastructure to implement the Online Access Act (OZG). From June 2017 to October 2019, Renate Mitterhuber was head of the IT Planning Council's office. Before joining the federal administration, she worked in the administration of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, first in various staff positions and since 2001 in the area of digitalisation. Among other things, she was responsible for Hamburg's e-government and IT strategy, the development of the Hamburg Open Data Portal and the transparency portal.

Milou Jansen

Milou currently works as Project Coordinator on the ‘International Guidelines on People-Centred Smart Cities’ at UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Programme). Previously, she has navigated roles as Lead Digital Rights and Ethics at the City of Amsterdam and as Coordinator of the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights. She combines her local and international experience in the field with a solid academic background in Philosophy of Science, Technology & Society.

Karen Laßmann

Karen Laßmann is German member of the Expert Working Group to develop the UN Habitat guidelines on people-centred smart cities. She has been Head of Smart City and Data Management at the Senate Chancellery Berlin for over four years. Prior to that she has worked in the public service of the state of Berlin in various positions since 2006. She studied business administration at the Technical University of Berlin and later obtained a degree in public administration.

Anna Sophie Herken

Anna Sophie Herken is Member of the Board of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). She also serves as a Board / Committee member of various non-profit organizations including the German Business Ethics Network (DNWE),  AllBright Foundation, International Rescue Committee (IRC) Germany and Save the Children Germany. Previously, she was Business Division Head at Allianz Asset Management GmbH and served as Member of the Board at Allianz Life (US) and CPIC Fund Management LtD (China) as well as President and Chair of the Board of Allianz Foundation for North America.  As part of her international career, Anna was CFO of Hasso Plattner Capital Germany, Managing Director of the Hertie School of Governance GmbH and worked at the World Bank in Washington DC  and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London. She also worked for the German government in international fora such as a delegate in the context of, inter alia, UN, EC, WTO, OECD. Anna has extensive experience in developing and implementing strategies as well as business transformation in various sectors and organizations. Anna, a German- Swedish national,  is a lawyer by training having studied in Germany, France and the US and also holds a MBA from the University of Cambridge.

Localizing UN Habitat’s guidelines on people-centred smart cities - assessment by partner cities of the ISCN

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