Blogs

We are sharing two reports on civil society today.  Rajesh Tandon and a consortium of civil society organisations produced the first one, "Civil Society at a Crossroads"

The second report was carried out by the consultancy firm KMG for the World Social Forum with the idea of providing the global economic leaders a look in on civil society trends.

2013 will be a big year for international and local development of directions for learning city. These events include the launch of the UNESCO Global Learning City Network in Beijing in November or December 2013, and the 11th PASCAL International Observatory conference Cities Learning Together in Hong Kong on 18-20 November, focussed on the following theme:

Local Communities in the Sustainable and Healthy Learning City

The reports from a programme of work by Scotland's Future Forum and the Goodison Group in Scotland were launched at a gathering in the Scottish Parliament on 4th February.   The programme had involved a series of seminars, roundtable discussions and workshops with a wide range of stakeholder groups across all stages of education, business, the voluntary sector and young people to provide an evidence base.  PASCAL had participated in a workshop bringing together international perspectives as part of this process. 

The history of urbanization in Ethiopia goes back centuries. Archeological and historical evidences show the existence of cities since the Aksumite period. Despite its long history, however, the process of urban development in Ethiopian is known for its extremely slow and sporadic progress (Mesfin 1976). This is in part a result of the fact that pre-twentieth century Ethiopian urbanization was intimately linked with political capitals. After the abandonment of Aksum as a capital, Ethiopian kings have for centuries practiced a tradition of roving capitals because of political, military, and environmental reasons (Assefa 1993:275). Menilik’s decision to make Addis Ababa a permanent capital represented an end to this longstanding practice.

Colleagues may be interested in this interview on the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) website. The discussion features Dr Benjamin Barber, the American political theorist whose forthcoming book - If Mayors Ruled The World - will argue that mayors are the people to get things done on an international scale, emphasising the growing importance of cities.