Sameer Unhale - Smart Sustainable Urbanism

03/10/2023

will be crucial for all city ventures. Traditional Challenges for of , , and water, as well as new emerging challenges of , all will depend upon the finances available to City level institutions.
Due to sub sovereign status of , trend of imbalance is more wide spread. Municipalities are most dominant form of City Government yet the role and responsibilities given to Municipalities and access to finance , through , , as compared with the and and the and # and various City level organization like , , Mobility Companies , to large extent will decide the ability of Municipal Government to deliver.
by way of committed or discretionary grants, still is most prominent way of making finance available through higher level of government.
current attempts of raising and access to finance from agencies of , , use of , Use of and use of other innovative finance will be inevitable.
Scenario is facing accelerated changes and City level institutions will have to find real time mechanism to respond in , , and .
Innovations in municipal finance and urban will be major sectors to focus.

Author: Sameer Unhale Published on: September, 2023 ISBN: 978-81-956403-3-1

23/09/2023

With global population estimated by organization as 56 percent by 2021 ranging from 80 percent in developed countries and 35 to 45 percent in developing economies, with the proportion expected to increase about two third in coming decades , any global endeavour will have to succeed essentially in the estimated Thirty Five thousand urban centres across all Continents.

Markanomy foundation and REPA Foundation had organised an activity on and and more importantly the "How" to attain them and ensure . Hon. Jairaj Phatak, Director General also graced it by his presence and wide experience.

In the deliberations, learnt from various experts , across generations , especially the younger professionals on the way forward for sepcific and .

The SDG framework , as already approved by all countries under aegis of UN, and also agreed by the International Agencies, Multi lateral Organizations, Transnational Organization, International Think Tanks , International Philanthropic organisations.

Working specifically on specific operational , ensuring and will be the three most important elements of ensuring the achievement of SDGs by 2030.

To ensure synchronised efforts by all the stakeholders , we need to move from the paradigm of direction , supervision and control to that of communication, cooperation and collaboration viz Cities and local players.
City issues must be truely participative and not techno-managerial elitism.which would do more damage in long term , irrespective of any short term success by achieving low hanging fruits.
Involving political leadership at City Level and engaging all citizens , including everyone one willing to contribute, would be a more surer way of engaging with challenges like SDGs by cities.
Further new urban centres like into , spreading thousand of Square Kilometres, now have simultaneous existence of multiple Organizations involved in city affairs, their Coordinated efforts , along with that of , , and based organisation , will be very crucial .
For involvement, we need to develop seamless engagement mechanism , including platforms, that would allow all stakeholders to know the strategy and actions with time schedule and attainment in realtime basis.

Address by Shri Sameer Unhale, Joint Commissioner - Municipal Administration and Former State Mission Director, Swatch Bharat, Government of MAHARASHTRA - CH...

18/04/2023

A good initiative from the agencies on making common people aware of issues with . A small two hour course introducing basic concepts. Apart from the efforts of , Financial institutions, Corporates, the awareness and demand of would have significant effects of the and efforts towards climate change in settings

13/10/2022

A Book Discussion on City Reflections: A Practitioner’s Experience in Urban Governance amidst Uncertain Times with Sameer Unhale

Center for Habitat, Urban and Regional Studies (CHURS), IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, invites you to a :

A Book Discussion on

:
A Practitioner’s Experience in Urban Governance amidst Uncertain Times

Details of the :

Date: October 22, 2022
Time: 6:30 p.m. IST
Platforms: Zoom | Facebook Live | YouTube | Spotify | Google Podcasts

Author and Speaker:
Sameer Unhale - Smart Sustainable Urbanism
Urban Practitioner

Moderator:
Dr Soumyadip Chattopadhyay
Associate Professor, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan;
Visiting Senior Fellow, IMPRI



Details: https://www.impriindia.com/event/city-reflections/

15/09/2022

, will be an important challenge and opportunity, of this decade. Mainstreaming lens , especially , will be an important axis to deliberate. It's encouraging to see it's resonance within community .
Climate will impact vulnerable sections more adversely.
and is a good canvas to evaluate relevance of actions in and measures and it's efficacy for and , not only for the institutions and processes involved in managing our cities , but the vulnerable sections. We will therefore require more deliberations, conversations , discussions and listen more and more to all section of cities .
technolgies, more in platforms could help all sections raise their concerns . Ability to aggregate this data in meaningful and humane context, beyond technology, could prove to be crucial criteria for Climate Action .
Thank You , Consul General of Canada , Germany, Sweden , France and Spain in Mumbai, for wonderful opportunity to interact and listen many ideas.
UN Environment Programme UNFCCC

08/07/2022

has ensured existence and survival of since time immemorial. With densification as a norm of , we now have huge city regions , even in global south , spread over thousands of square kilometers housing millions of people . Experts in have identified increased frequency and intensity of extreme events by way of draughts and through rains or cyclones . Even managing water dynamics on cities ,that of drinking water supply , drainage / treatment and water management requires a more holistic approach . Cities , big and small , in global North as well as global south , would require robust processes for main streaming concerns in conceptualizing and management of water related projects in cities and city regions . Including Current challenges of , and and carbon and water economy .
United Nations MyGov India Maharashtra WASH-ES Coalition

26/06/2022

Potential of of and and other agencies working in areas is immense .
Along with technology and finance , we also need citizen engagement for and in out city Institutions.
UN-HABITAT Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

14/05/2022

International collaboration amongst cities , as a part of para diplomacy or sub national diplomacy will be a major force multiplier for global scale and accelerated pace of credible climate actions with support from the community.
Let City alliance be a part of UN Habitat than UNOPS with all cities and towns with automatic membership to it and also all official and staff working in it .
UNOPS UN-HABITAT United Nations News

“ Many cities are trying to learn from each other . The city alliance , that works under UNOPS need to work under UNhabitat . Will be force multiplier . A global all inclusive network of cities available to all of us who work in cities . cities are chief actors climate change !”

12/05/2022

Was happy to participate in round table held in Mumbai in presence of Dr. Andrew Light , Assistant Secretary , Department of Energy , USA , on Climate and Energy and participated by members of the delegation and Industry leaders , organized by ORF.
Any discussion on Climate Change would involve carbon footprint of cities and towns of the urban system and it's energy utilization . It is a threat and also an opportunity to steer the global community away from carbon intensive pathway .
Any discourse about climate change has to be make cities and citizens the Primary protagonist for credible climate actions .
Traditionally , cities have been major energy consumers , fossil fuel and also electricity .
The real challenge, we now require , is global scale of efforts and it's accelerated pace of ex*****on. The journey of ideas into actions and actions into impact would require lots of commitment and innovations and trailblazing .
Net Zero number game , though inevitable , need not limit the true potential of efforts and innovations . One also needs to declare the mile stones in this journey , and also help various sub national units like states or provincial and city government and various sectors . And also the corporates and industry and so also individual citizens , now and today and not something after decades .
The belief or acceptance, in the science of climate change , and convincing the billions of people to tide over the " triangularity of challenge of climate responsible behaviour " , at the individual level or institutional level is going to be crucial .
currently , most of the choices to be climate responsible may include the triple challenge of cost penalty , time penalty and inconvenience penalty . Would we only require people to be sufficiently convinced and motivated to take these barriers in stride ? Or use Public Policy instruments like regulation , taxation and investment can soften the impact . And much more and beyond .
Along with the challenges of technology and Finance , we require "whole of global community " approach" to make any credible impact on the ground .
we would require greater innovation in community messaging , being open to doubts and criticism and disbelief and taking the long route of patience , empathy and consideration .

United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)

22/04/2022

Various initiatives are being taken to improve in . As an good example of wider collaboration , we find international agencies , Think Tanks , City governments , academic institutions like IIT coming togather to work to find solutions.
Empowering and the Cutting edge human resource to conceptualize and execute the plans will be the most important link for ensuring changes on ground ; such changes which citizens also experiance .
New challenges , which were not visible a decade back are crowding on the horizons . Black Swan events , especially with grave for the management , administration and Governance of cities around the globe now desperately require newer paradigms , approaches and innovations for solutions . We also need to realise that such solutions will be possible only through collaboration and community engagements. Partnerships , across all levels of Governments , International Agencies will have to be more bold .
Along with collaboration and partnerships , a deeper rethinking of idea of training and capacity building in Municipal and city organizations is necessary .Skill enhancement of cutting edge human resources, a new purpose , methodology and longevity of skills upgradation and continuous Cyber support to functionaries would lay a strong foundation for attaining required competency.
Air Quality in Cities , even smaller ones , is an outcome of multiple factors wherein the causal relationship will not be uni linear . The air pollution load , dumped onto the city air , also manifest the behaviour , habits, and livelihood angst , of the citizens . Vehicular Traffic , Dust , construction activities , Industrial pollution of air , dimensions of rural urban conflicts like that of stubble burning , and persistent issues of solid and liquid waste management will have to be controlled . This calls for interventions from non municipal actors. Thus effecting a major change in established and entrenched mind sets and habits call for a newer approach of and voluntary efforts of major stake holders , inspite of the political economy and disinterested citizenry, especially when it calls for additional cost to businesses or inconvenience to citizens .
Mere use of technologies , however advanced it might sound , just to monitor the fact that we already know is necessary but never never sufficient . We will require collaboration and partnerships to find credible and scientific specific measures to improve the air quality and a demand from citizens .
Measures to convince and nudge the human behaviour to adopt non air polluting options , and providing availability and support to those options , through policies , financial resources and accessibility to them acros inclusion spectrum will be necessary.yet one lesson would also be that mere availability of funds for a purpose would never be sufficient in itself . Converting intents into reality is a complex journey , we all need to brave and persist through .
Was happy to be a part of the beginning of this experiment. has been urbs Primus in India . Efforts through MyBmc MCMCR to anchor and support capacity enhancement activities for various other cities of the state by experience sharing and getting various players to gather . Learning from earlier mission, those who were sucessful in creating traction with people is also necessary.
One can hope that such experiance sharing , amongst city level mid functionaries can bridge a major gap in matching skilling with responsibilities.
UN Environment Programme

07/04/2022

It was a delight to be a part of urban connect across three Continents of Latin America , Asia and Australia!!
Many many things to understand and learn and co-operate and collaborate!!
Thank You Ana and Ed .

Edtalk global radio for a politically active, socially aware global audience http://www.Edtalkradio-fm.com

23/03/2022

The potential of emerging digital technologies is infinite , especially in engaging with citizens and businesses . Moving beyond digital service delivery or greviance redressal , fundamental rethinking on governance philosophy would help declutter many of the outdated objectives , procedures and compliance. The primacy of clerical thinking in government organization also presents a different challenge for use of digital technologies . Computerization or E-governance or Digital technologies , or by whatever name we may choose to call it , would unknowingly be used for making clerical compliances easier . But why to have these compliance at all is not questioned .
The challenges of the third decade of the third millenium , of containing waves of pandemic , restarting an inclusive economic growth , ensuring credible climate actions and attaining the SDGs require entirely new paradigm of urban Governance, much beyond greviance redressal or electronically delivery of most , if not all services .
Further , the effectivity , efficiency and efficacy of service delivery procedure needs to move away from the paper mind set and capture the essence of dynamic and trans-morphing nature of Electronic Data. Human intervention , and it's associated dimensions in government processes or SOPs , mostly arise from paper based clerical methods of offices which can easily be done away with .
The purpose of extensive use of digital technologies in government need to make citizens as the epicenter of the digital transformation. The size of organization, entrenched heirarchy , significance of local political leadership and organizational culture , the paradigm for accelerated deployment of digital tools and more importantly , it's acceptance and full utilization has its own challenges that will have to be overcome. Technology and it's intersection with society thus essentially becomes a cultural and behavioral phenomenon!!