Cities in Developing Countries (CiDC)

This chapter addresses cities in developing countries that suffer from lack of economic resources and limited capabilities of the society. The chapter provides a definition of an economically productive city and the supports it needs from the national central government. Governance issues related to the local government are described, such as low citizen engagement, necessary legislative/regulatory changes, managing increasing citizen expectations, and community planning issues. It also touches on the issues of transparency and open government, operational inefficiencies, and ever-increasing urbanization movement. An important part of this chapter is touching on preparing for partial transformation and identifying opportunities and threats. It also provides guidelines for a general roadmap of actions that are based on planning a smart city, partnerships, and policies. Finally, transformation guidelines are discussed such as challenges for smart city transformation, alignment with national e-governance, capacity building, and change management.