Networking event: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Implementing the New Urban Agenda
Large-scale slum upgrading and prevention through planned city extensions and infills, life-affirming livelihood opportunities, local economic development, resource mobilization and partnerships for the goals.
Venue: 9:00-11:00 AM on Friday February 9, 2018
Room 408, Forum, Kuala Lumpur Convention Center
Action Framework for the Implementation of the New Urban Agenda (AFINUA)
9th UN World Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur

With the joint efforts of our partners, we are launching the Institute for Advanced Urbanization and Artificial Intelligence at the 9th UN World Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur. The launch will take place during the Networking Event ‘Leveraging artificial intelligence for implementing the New Urban Agenda’s goals on slum upgrading and prevention, planned city extensions and infills, life-affirming livelihood opportunities, local economic development, resource mobilization and partnerships’ on Friday 9 February from 9:00-11:00 AM in room 408 at the venue of the Forum, Kuala Lumpur Convention Center.

IAUAI will act as a non-profit host for a broad initiative for market-based and inclusive slum prevention and upgrading. To make the initiative a success, we invite your collaboration and partnership. One of IAUAI’s key tasks will be the creation of an artificial intelligence (AI) application to support the planning of inclusive urbanization projects, the design of respective city and national policies as well as private sector business plans for labor-intensive land, infrastructure and shelter developers and respective financial institutions.

We are certain that this will make a major difference in managing inclusive, sustainable, resilient and safe urbanization through mobilization of domestic resources (e.g. land-based financing and inclusive financial services), local economic development (e.g. profitable business plans with a labour-intensive approach) and participation of the urban poor. As part of its commitment, Matthias Nohn alias Rapid Urbanism will incubate IAUAI with base equity plus invest significant time and effort to kick off the initiative. IAUAI will initially be lead by Founder CEO Matt Nohn, also the Principal of Rapid Urbanism.

Given the speed of both technological innovation and rapid urbanization, now is the right time to leverage partnerships for building AI for developing more inclusive, more resilient, safer and more sustainable cities — with and through the participation of the urban poor, the domestic private sector, governments and the international community. The event is supported by Mahila Housing SEWA Trust, SIGUS at MIT, UN-Habitat’s Slum Upgrading and Housing Branch, and Rapid Urbanism – and we invite further collaboration.

This event is open to anyone interested in using artificial intelligence for better managing rapid urbanization challenges and the implementation of the New Urban Agenda, focusing in the urbanization and housing value chain. We look forward to mobilizing new collaborations and partnerships with interested actors from civil society, private sector, governments and bilateral/international agencies, foundations, academia and beyond. To succeed it will be critical to mobilize stakeholders that contribute to, inter alia, the spatial, socioeconomic and financial development of the model, the programming of the AI, case studies for enriching the library of parametric prototypes, on the ground development and testing in real world projects (e.g. in collaboration with developing countries’ government), partnerships for development funding the former activities.

For further information please find the WUF presentation on IAUAI and the envisaged AI.