Cities as partners: The challenge to strengthen urban governance through North-South city partnerships - Softcover

Cities become increasingly connected through formal international relations and networks. They partner up to transfer resources and to exchange municipal knowledge and expertise. City partnerships seek to contribute to meeting a variety of urban planning challenges in developing countries, such as poverty alleviation and local institutional strengthening. Do these partnerships lead to better local government institutions and a more powerful position of citizens in these countries? How do city partnerships emerge, and what do cities need in order to maintain international relations? How do cities learn from partner cities worldwide and what are the benefits that may accrue for municipalities in development? This book provides insightful and interesting answers to these questions, by telling the story of four partnerships between cities in The Netherlands, Germany, Peru, South Africa and Nicaragua.

Marike Bontenbal (1978) graduated in 2003 from the Faculty of Geosciences at Utrecht University. She earned an MSc in Human Geography and Urban and Regional Planning, with a specialisation in Development Geography. She worked as project assistant at the Urban Governance Unit of the European Secretariat of ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability in Freiburg, Germany (2003), and completed an administrative internship at the European Commission’s International Co-operation Office, EuropeAid in Brussels (2004). She has further worked in short term elections missions in Kosovo (with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe – OSCE) and for the Iraq Out-of-Country Voting Programme (with the International Organisation for Migration – IOM). She started her PhD research in January 2005, and has conducted research in Nicaragua, South Africa, and Peru. Since 2007 she has worked as a trainer at the The Hague Academy for Local Governance/VNG-International in courses for Dutch local government officials on working in municipal partnerships and local governance. She has also worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of Aid Effectiveness and Quality (2009). Marike Bontenbal has published several articles in the field of development geography and urban planning.