Smart city leaders discuss human-centered urban development

Global city leaders and experts met in Geneva, Tuesday, to discuss people-centered and climate-resilient urban development, highlighting the importance of aligning smart city initiatives with the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, safeguarding human rights, enhancing social inclusion and advancing climate resilience strategies.At Smart City Leaders’ Talk, a high-level event co-organized by the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO) and Global Cities Hub (GCH), multiple speakers including International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Deputy Secretary General Tomas Lamanauskas and Peggy Hicks, director of Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures and Right to Development at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), talked about the role of international organizations in smart city development.

City mayors from around the globe shared ideas on the importance of robust infrastructure and digital inclusion as foundational elements for successful smart city projects.“The journey toward building human-centered smart cities is a collective endeavor that requires vision, collaboration and a steadfast commitment to the well-being of all citizens,” WeGO Secretary-General Park Jung-sook said.In a separate session called Citiverse: Envisioning, Inclusive, Sustainable, and People-centered Cities, co-hosted by the WeGO and the ITU, attendees discussed how innovations in digital connectivity can create inclusive, sustainable and participatory cities. The session also featured keynote speeches from distinguished leaders including Theo Blackwell, chief digital officer of London, Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, mayor of Dhaka South in Bangladesh, and Manuel de Araujo, mayor of Quelimane City in Mozambique.This session set a new direction for the future of smart cities, elaborating on the need for technologies that prioritize human-centeredness and sustainability 추천 within the digital realm.