On 10 September 2024 GCH contributed to the consultation with Local and Regional Governments and representatives of city networks and associations to reflect on the Global Digital Compact (GDC) and opportunities for its implementation by local actors, while leveraging the first International Guidelines on People-Centred Smart Cities, organized by UN-Habitat in collaboration with WeGO, UCLG, SCEWC, Eurocities and Fnau.
The Global Digital Compact is being developed as one of the Annexes of the Pact for the Future expected to be adopted at the UN Summit of the Future later in September. Local and regional governments as well as other urban actors are vital to achieving the vision of the Global Digital Compact.
The International Guidelines on People-Centred Smart Cities by UN-Habitat will serve as a non-binding framework for developing national and local smart city regulations, plans and strategies. People’s needs and priorities, principles of inclusion and human rights should drive the application of digital technology and not the other way around, to ensure a better quality of life for all.
As part of the inclusive consultation process, speakers at the event highlighted several aspects of LRG’s engagement with the global process. GCH shared the main conclusions of the in-person discussion with mayors and smart city leaders on the people-centered smart city guidelines held on the margins of the Smart City Leaders’ Talk earlier this year:
The three core values identified by the mayors that serve as the right starting point for building people-centered smart cities were:
- inclusivity,
- equity,
- accessibility.
They formulated two key principles:
- A mindful matching of technology’s offers and citizens’ real needs is the only successful and sustainable way forward.
- A human rights-based framework is a useful tool to mitigate the risks while advancing the development of a smart city leaving no one behind.
City leaders emphasized the importance of understanding the complexity and layers of smartness: involving people, economy, infrastructure, and governance. Education and capacity building both for local government staff and the general population are key to make everyone be able to use smart city services. Mayors pointed out the significance of protection of data and establishing the right data policy to develop smart cities with effective collection, management and use of public data. Promoting and enabling the ethical use of AI in cities and inclusion in the CitiVerse to create inclusive, sustainable, and people-centered urban environments are crucial challenges requiring multistakeholder collaboration.
Indeed, similar ideas were echoed in the negotiations for a new Human Rights Council resolution which states that in developing and operating digitalization schemes for cities, local governments should Implement robust data protection and cybersecurity measures to ensure digital communication and transactions are secure; ensure data used for public service algorithms is accurate, relevant, and representative; guarantee equal access to public services without discrimination, assess human rights impacts, and promote digital literacy.
Mayors at the Smart City Leaders’ consultation suggested several approaches:
First, as people commonly get most of their services locally it is important that systems and services be designed around user needs at the local level. IOs should help to find balanced technology-driven processes and people-centered approaches.
Second, we need more investment in talents at a local and regional, not just central government level to acquire digital knowledge. The numerous capacity building programs run by international organizations should take into account more systematically the local actors.
Finally, supporting and celebrating LRGs trying out new technologies, like using AI to improve services, should be higher priority. Helping local government with the development of data architecture and skills to share data effectively among each other would be a major step. IOs should take their fair share identifying and promoting best practices.
Based on the above-mentioned principles and approaches Global Cities Hub expressed its conviction of the need to provide a dedicated space to Local and Regional Governments in general and Smart City Leaders in particular to give rise to a more inclusive multilateralism and better access to digitalization for everyone, everywhere. When international regulations are created LRGs should not only be formally consulted on policy, but the expertise of those in public service delivery need to be respected and the needs of users (the citizens) must be designed in.
The “Joint Global Communique – The Role of Local and Regional Governments in the Global Digital Compact” drafted at the meeting calls to action on inclusive multistakeholder collaboration: “We urge member States to embed mechanisms for LRGs’ participation in the governance structures and approaches proposed by the GDC, particularly in areas related to digital public goods and infrastructure, data and internet governance, AI governance frameworks and interoperability standards.” GCH wishes to echo this call and will continue to follow namely through activities at the ‘AI for Good’ and WSIS 2025 editions.