Building Capacity for People-Centered Smart Cities - A playbook for local and regional governments

Launched in 2020, UN-Habitat’s flagship programme ‘People-centered Smart Cities’ acknowledges the transformative potential that digital technologies can have for sustainable urban development. Through the people-centered smart cities flagship programme, UN- Habitat provides strategic and technical support on digital transformation to national, regional and local governments. ‘Building capacity for People-Centered Smart Cities” is one of the new playbooks which are key normative components of UN-Habitat’s people-centered smart cities flagship programme. This new serie of playbooks aim to empower local governments to take a multi-stakeholder approach to digital transformation that realizes sustainability, inclusivity, prosperity and human rights for the benefit of all. To that end, local, regional and national governments will find pragmatic guidance for how to develop smart city strategies that are more inclusive, sustainable, and aligned to the actual needs of residents. Digital transformation is as much a human process as it is digital. Cities today are challenged to adapt to new ways of working, designing and delivering services. In order to achieve modern expectations of fast, convenient and accessible public services, city and regional governments must transform how they operate.