West Africa
News from Ford
2 April 2012New Online Platform for Sustainable and Just Cities
A new global, multilingual social media platform, urb.im engages urban practitioners and social activists in focused problem-solving to reduce urban poverty in developing countries—a crucial element of creating just, sustainable cities. The site is a project of the Ford Foundation and Dallant Networks. Dallant is also responsible for SocialEdge, the Skoll Foundation’s social entrepreneur network. Recently launched in beta form, urb.im helps practitioners in Lagos, Nairobi, Jakarta, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City connect, share ideas and work toward finding lasting solutions to poverty.
A recent urb.im post on the slums of Nairobi.
Transparent and inclusive, urb.im aims to be the premier collaboration platform for the field, enabling people and organizations to discuss best practices and begin to implement practical plans within their own cities and others in the network. One recent post looks at an innovative solution to the dire sanitation problems plaguing the slums of Nairobi. Concluding that “even a small economic incentive can mean the difference between success and failure,” the post ends with a list of questions for further discussion—prompting thinking about how to confront a problem that has serious health implications.
Ford’s support for urb.im reflects our commitment to realizing just cities: Cities that are shaped by fairness, opportunity and a commitment to shared prosperity. We hope it will be a hub for meaningful conversation and relationship-building in the lead-up to Rio+20—the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development taking place in Brazil in July 2012.
Media Contacts
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Joshua Cinelli
- Media Relations Chief
- j.cinelli@fordfoundation.org
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