Smart, livable and resilient city - Australian perspective

Ms. Katherine O'Regan, Executive Director of the Cities Leadership Institute, who shared some highlights from Australia's smart city journey from the perspective of the cities of Adelaide, Prospect, the Sunshine Coast, and Townsville. She highlighted the bold leadership and cultural change needed within organizations and governments to implement smart city solutions, as well as the reality that not all organizations have the skills and capacity to do so.

Copenhagen – a smart livable and resilient city

Ms. Lykke Leonardsen, City of Copenhagen's Head of Program for Resilient and Sustainable Cities, spoke about the city's work on adaptation and resilience and its journey to becoming a smart and resilient city. She shared Copenhagen's vision of working with all city stakeholders to co-create the most livable city in the world and how the city will deliver this to future generations in terms of climate action, carbon emissions reduction, and resiliency. She further underscored the value of understanding what matters to their city stakeholders and how this influences their planning.​

Sheela Patel

Sheela Patel is the founder Director of the Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC), an NGO that supports community organizations of the urban poor to access secure housing and basic amenities and seek their right to the city. She is also a founder member and former Chair of the Board of Slum Dwellers International (SDI), an international network of urban poor federations in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Jaya Singh Verma

Jaya Singh Verma is presently Policy Advisor with the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office working with the Indo-Pacific Regional Team. She is the Senior Responsible Officer for the Managing Climate Risks for the Urban Poor (MCRUP) Programme. She has over 20 years of development experience including with DFID, international NGO and as an academic. She has led partnerships and managed multi-sectoral program and policy approaches in India, Asia regional, Africa, and established partnerships for innovations and lesson sharing as an acting head of Global Partnerships.