In an earlier post I mentioned that I had been asked to put down some thoughts on learning from urban projects. The thoughts have now been published open source. Link to full text
Forbes Davidson (2022) Learning from urban projects: why and how we should unlock the learning potential of urban development projects and programmes, International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, DOI: 10.1080/19463138.2022.2042305
The images below show how a project changes over time, but long term monitoring and evaluation and needed to learn the lessons.
For more information on the Ismailia projects see here for downloads and links , and here for a list of references. Photographs can be accessed here for early stages in the project and here for more recent images.
Here is the abstract:
Urban projects are developed partly to solve local problems but often have wider aims to influence policy and practise. However, there is very little long-term evaluation carried out, and few systematic efforts to link the experience gained in project development and implementation to wider learning and capacity building. I have written this opinion piece based on my experience both in practise in the public and private sectors and in teaching and research. The paper is divided into three parts. First, why urban projects and programmes are important for learning and capacity building. Second, how we learn from projects and the opportunities and barriers to learning. Third, how we could increase learning by explicitly including learning objectives in project planning and evaluation, strengthening links between practice and learning, and improving long-term access to project materials with learning potential.
I would appreciate any feedback and thoughts that you might have.
