Focus Cities Programme: Multi-Stakeholder Participation in City Governance - Case Reflections Brief

Cities are challenged by a variety of environmental problems, most of which are associated with failures in the way urban growth is planned and managed. The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) set up the Focus Cities Research Initiative to address these urban management challenges. It was unusual in that it supported both research and action, and used multi-stakeholder teams to employ action-research and work in partnership with local government and civil society to identify solutions to environmental problems affecting urban dwellers, to implement them and to monitor the results. This brief focuses on the three Latin American Focus Cities (FC) initiatives: Lima, Peru; Cochabamba, Bolivia; and Moreno, Argentina.