Page 262 - ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services – Executive Summary

1 Introduction

1.1 Challenge and Response

Since the end of the last decade, nearly 50 percent of the world’s population has been living in urban areas.
Urban populations have been projected to constitute 66 percent of the global population by 2050. With its
increasing populations, cities are being recognised as growth hubs, which can unlock economic potential and
empower citizens with capability to themselves drive sustainable urbanization.
Recent urbanization trends revolve around making cities energy efficient and eco-friendly. Many cities are
also climbing on to the smart city bandwagon to facilitate the adoption of technologies including smart grids
and internet of things (IoT).

Despite such efforts for smart and sustainable urban transitions, there was no global platform to facilitate
discussions on successful smart sustainable city ventures and support their replication. The United for Smart
Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) initiative was created by the ITU and UNECE to fill this void and provide
international visibility to successful smart and sustainable city measures and highlight best practices and
guidelines which can be adopted across the world.
Keeping in mind the catalytic role of ICTs in enabling the transition to smart sustainable cities, this initiative
will also assist with the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 11 to “Make cities and human
settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. Given the large scale cooperation for smart sustainable
cities within U4SSC, this initiative also caters to Sustainable Development Goals 17 to “strengthen the means
of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development”.
Within the umbrella of the U4SSC, ITU and UNECE have also created an Advisory Board for Smart Sustainable
Cities. This Advisory Board is tasked with the responsibility of refining the existing key performance indicators
(KPIs) for smart sustainable cities developed by ITU and UNECE. Members of the Advisory Board comprise
city representatives, United Nations officials, associated from NGOs, ministry officials as well as participants
from academia. Following the revision of the KPIs, this Advisory Board will develop a Global Smart Sustainable
City Index, based on pilot projects conducted by its member organizations. The refined KPIs will also
submitted to ITU-T Study Group 20 on IoT and Smart Cities and Communities for facilitating its approval as
an international standard.
The U4SSC is supported by 16 United Nations agencies and programmes including ITU, UNECE, United
Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Secretariat of United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), UN Women, United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UNEP Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI), World Trade Organization
(WTO), Secretariat of United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), United Nations
University-Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), UN-Habitat, United Nations
Economic Commission for Africa and the Secretariat of Convention on Biological Diversity.

2 Implementation

The U4SSC is chaired by H.E. Ms. Daiva Matonienė, Vice Minister, Ministry of Environment, Republic of
Lithuania and Mr. Nasser Saleh Al Marzouqi, Chairman ITU-T Study Group 20 on IoT and smart cities and
communities. The first U4SSC meeting was held from 21-22 July 2017 in Geneva, Switzerland. This meeting
was attended by over 150 global smart city experts.
During this meeting, the terms of reference and the vision of the U4SSC was approved. Participants to this
meeting also helped define the future action plan for the first phase of U4SSC.
The first phase of the U4SSC lasted from May 2016 to March 2017. Within these 11 months, U4SSC initiated
its work through the following working groups:
Working Group 1: Setting the Framework
Working Group 2: Connecting Cities and Communities
Working Group 3: Enhancing Innovation and Participation

258 U4SSC series