Gangwon, South Korea, 22 July 2015-- One mayor, senior and technical municipal officials from Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Mongolia and Vietnam gathered at the International Urban Training Centre (IUTC) in Gangwon Province, South Korea to share their experiences on Urban Indicators and learn about Urban Policies and Planning Strategies for Achieving Prosperity in Cities.

The intensive course was run by UN-Habitat and IUTC. 18 senior and technical municipal staff presented their experiences with urban indicators and were introduced to the City Prosperity Initiative as a strategic measurement, monitoring, and policy tool for cities.

Through a combination of informative and problem-solving oriented sessions participants became familiar with urban indicators and their utilization in urban policy analysis, spatial planning, monitoring and support to decision making in urban planning and management in different cities. A simulation exercise using real data gave them the opportunity to perform the calculation of the City Prosperity Index and visualize trends and planning scenarios in the different dimensions of Prosperity (Productivity, Infrastructure Development, Quality of Life, Equity and Social Inclusion, Environmental sustainability and Urban Governance).

At the final course evaluation, the majority of participants considered the CPI a very useful tool for their cities and expressed satisfaction with the subject, training methodology, course facilities and trainers. 

Training courses to be jointly organized by UN-Habitat, IUTC and Gangwon Province in 2015 include “Land Readjustment”, “Water & Sanitation” and “Youth & the New Urban Agenda.