Home - Council on Urban Initiatives

About

Launched in November 2021, the Council on Urban Initiatives is an independent body established in collaboration between UN-Habitat, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) and LSE Cities at the London School of Economics.

Constituted initially by an international group of eighteen pioneering mayors, practitioners, activists and academics, the Council has been formed in response to UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ call to use the COVID-19 pandemic as an ‘opportunity to reflect and reset how we live, interact, and rebuild our cities’. The Council’s mission is to advocate for the power of cities to promote systemic change to achieve the goal of the green, just and healthy city.

With this mission at the core, the Council is organised around three concrete objectives:

1 To overcome existing barriers to innovation, progressive policymaking, and transformative action at the city level
2 To demonstrate that integrated urban action, focusing on green, healthy and just cities, is central to addressing inequalities and tacking health and climate emergencies at the national level
3 To influence agendas at the highest levels of the UN and international community

Members

Mariana Mazzucato (co-chair) Founding Director, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, London
Ricky Burdett (co-chair) Director, LSE Cities, London
Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr Mayor, Freetown
LaToya Cantrell Mayor, New Orleans
Chan Heng Chee Professor, Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, Singapore
Ada Colau Mayor, Barcelona
Liz Diller Founding Partner, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York
Leilani Farha Global Director, The Shift, Ottawa
Dan Hill Director, Melbourne School of Design, Melbourne
Alcinda Honwana Inter-Regional Advisor, UN DESA, New York
Lesley Lokko Founding Director, Africa Futures Institute, Accra
Claudia López Mayor, Bogotá
Rahul Mehrotra Founding Principal, RMA Architects, Boston
Soledad Nuñez Founder, Alma Cívica, Paraguay
Fatma Şahin Mayor, Gaziantep
Saskia Sassen Robert S. Lynd Professor, Columbia University, New York
Richard Sennett Visiting Professor of Urban Studies, MIT, Boston
Claudia Sheinbaum Mayor, Mexico City

Publications

For more information please download the following PDF publications:

Partners

UN Habitat for a Better Future
UCL Institure for Innovation and Public Purpose
LSE Cities

The Council on Urban Initiatives is supported by Knowledge Partner:

For more information please contact:

Rebecca Flynn
Project Co-ordinator
Council on Urban Initiatives  
LSE Cities
r.flynn1@lse.ac.uk