The Uraía Platform and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) have shared the interest and commitment to the development of new models of open and collaborative governance that foster transparency and accountability in urban management. Acknowledging that networking among local administrations and stakeholders has become an essential platform to find solutions and exchange instruments that can improve the design and development of public policies Uraía offered a space for exchange and debate on different experiences to promote innovation as key factor for city’s transparency.

 

Cities and partners were encouraged to present their experiences on the innovative solutions on transparency in municipal management, in an open call launched on November 2016. The call obtained an unprecedented number of positive responses with over 130 candidate experiences, showing the relevance on the topic for city’s leaders and stakeholders and the great interest for learning opportunities on the matter. The selection process was done according to a specified criteria taking into account geographic and gender balance with the broadest extent possible, as well as thematic focus of the experiences.

 

Consequently, the workshop titled "Transparent and accountable cities: innovative solutions for municipal management and finance" brought together 80 representatives of local governments and their partners (network of cities, civil society and international organizations, service providers from the private sector, universities, etc.) from all around the world.

 

The objective of the workshop was to present and exchange experiences on innovative initiatives that local governments and their partners are developing to implement mechanisms for transparency, accountability and participation in urban management.

During two days, participants had a chance to discuss different approaches and mechanism with which municipalities can profit from, advantages of innovation and technology in preventing corruption and mismanagement in urban settings. Additionally, participants had the opportunity to discover available SMART solutions that can have significant impact on transparency and can improve their communication with the citizens.