Celebrating nine years linking Research to Action for
Sustainable, Inclusive, Resilient, Safe and Prosperous Cities & Communities
Observatory linking Research to Action
Observatories linking Research to Action (ORAs) are institutional platforms for development of urban indicators with quantitative as well as qualitative sources, from classical sources of information (population and housing censuses and household surveys) as well as GIS, social media and other Big data. They serve monitoring, evaluation and result-based management promoting an agenda by the people for the people.
Achievement of sustainable development calls for an all inclusive development in which the current generation will not only meet their needs but also ensure there will be sufficient, if not more and better resources for future generations to utilize to meet their needs. GORA Corp, in line with its mission of a people driven development advocates for the role of data and evolving measurement approaches to monitor global growth and development across various indicators.In 2014, GORA Corp introduced three revolutionary indices, a) the sustainable, inclusive and prosperous cities index, b) the sustainable city foundation, and c) the multiple slum index, which address the entire human settlements continuum, integrating the social, spatial, economic, environmental and political components of growth. Over the next 15 years, these indices will not only be key in monitoring sustainable development, but will also promote inclusive growth across all sectors, and on all forms of human settlements.
Smart Urban Observatory
Why Smart Urban Observatory?Cities are dynamic living organisms that are constantly evolving. ICT has begun to turn numerous places into real-time cities. Social media itself is an example with billion of people using either Facebook, Linkedin, WhatsApp, Messenger or other digital platforms for social interactions as well as economic and financial transactions and services. This rapidly changing society makes the assessment and anticipation of future needs of city dwellers in terms of services, including transport, water, energy, employment, education and health, even more problematic. Addressing the complex problems of city planning it is not sufficient just to be concerned with the physical structure of the city; the interplay of intangible economic, social and environmental factors needs to be considered as well. This cannot be captured with the classical urban observatory that provides information from household surveys, censuses, administrative report that often dated back two-five years. This calls for a smart real-time monitoring which is the mission of the smart urban observatory. This is the context where GORA Corp are introducing the concept of Smart Urban Observatory for Smart Cities and Human Settlements to unlock the potential of cities to be sustainable, inclusive, resilient, safe and prosperous.
Indicators
Achievement of sustainable development calls for an all inclusive development in which the current generation will not only meet their needs but also ensure there will be sufficient, if not more and better resources for future generations to utilize to meet their needs. GORA Corp, in line with its mission of a people driven development advocates for the role of data and evolving measurement approaches to monitor global growth and development across various indicators.In 2014, GORA Corp introduced three revolutionary indices, a) the sustainable, inclusive and prosperous cities index, b) the sustainable city foundation, and c) the multiple slum index, which address the entire human settlements continuum, integrating the social, spatial, economic, environmental and political components of growth. Over the next 15 years, these indices will not only be key in monitoring sustainable development, but will also promote inclusive growth across all sectors, and on all forms of human settlements.
Advocacy & Communication
ORA's key findings are shared with people and institutions through user friendly open platform of advocacy and communication . ORAs promote Open data through data visualization and revolution technology including social media, open portal, workshops and conferences.
Policies
The ORA policy/action toolkit combines research analysis, impact assessment and learning practices and policies to assist for policy formulation and action plan development for a people agenda
Training & Capacity Development
A major weak link between research and action is in the difficulty of people,government employees and other stakeholders to access and use indicators for policy formulation. GORA's training and capacity development tools link research to action.
