Alberto Cendoya, assistant of research of NCID, awarded by the publishing house Routledge in a congress in South Africa.
His work proposes to contextualize digital technologies in African cities to promote the socio-economic inclusion of slum dwellers.
Alberto Cendoya, assistant to research at the Navarra Center for International Development at the Institute for Culture and Societywon the Routledgeaward during the 52nd congress ISOCARP (International Society of City and Regional Planners), held in Durban, South Africa. The distinction, awarded by the international house publishing house Routledge to the best poster, valued the technical content, the poster as a means of communication and its graphic quality.
The topic of congress was 'The cities we have vs. the cities we need'. Alberto's poster was based on his paper, Digital Suburbs: Understanding the importance of digital connectivity to transform digital suburbs, which he presented as part of the congress Smart Citiesfor People block.
Alberto Cendoya's poster and work argued that during rapid urbanization in Africa, digital technologies need to be contextualized in cities to maximize their potential for promote socioeconomic inclusion of slum dwellers. For this purpose, he examined traditional connectivity strategies that have been shown to be efficient and modern digital connectivity strategies in Africa that are providing new tools for the development of the urban poor.
Participants in the competition came from 22 countries and diverse backgrounds, especially universities (Oxford, Stockholm, Oxford...) and urban planning institutions from Shanghai, Cape Town, Detroit, Berlin and Lagos, among others.
The jury was composed of Guy Perry (USA), Zeyne Gunay (Turkey), Jianxiang Huang (China) and Dorota Kamrowaska-Zaluska (Poland). He noted that Alberto's work "proposes a stimulating and thoughtfultopic about suburbia in the digital age. His poster was the most striking and graphically memorable, dealing with a stimulating and significantly optimistic topic about smart technology."
Prior to congress, Alberto participated in the 25th Young Professionals in Planning Workshop, which took place at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Eighty planners from 22 countries participated, developing seven projects in the Durban metropolitan area for the eThekwini municipality.
Alberto also visited local NCID partners in South Africa to strengthen relationships and promote research future collaborations along the lines of development economic, development urban and poverty alleviation strategies.