History & Support
The Center for Sustainable Urban Development’s major donors are the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF) and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Volvo Research and Educational Foundation support
Rockefeller Foundation support
Volvo Research and Educational Foundation support
The Center for Sustainable Urban Development was launched in 2005 with support from the Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF). The VREF focuses on future urban transport by funding research and education centers (Centers of Excellence) that explore engineering, social and political aspects of urban transport. Currently, half of the world’s population lives in urban areas and within the next generation, it is expected that this proportion is likely to reach three quarters. Meeting the pressing challenge of urban development and mobility provides an opportunity to consider such issues in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner. Through its Future Urban Transport initiative, VREF established Columbia University’s CSUD as one of its seven Centers of Excellence. CSUD seeks to understand the complexity of interactions between land-use and transport through research and applications, including student and professional training programs. CSUD’s current project site is located in the Nairobi Metropolitan Region, Kenya. The complexities of urban development are many, and as cities grow, transportation systems that are socially equitable and environmentally sustainable are key to their success. To that end VREF awarded CSUD an additional Smaller Project grant in 2007 to collaborate with the University of California, Berkeley, Center of Excellence on a scientific evaluation of current Nairobi traffic conditions to address the larger policy considerations of a Nairobi metropolitan plan with a transport element.
The mission and program of the Future Urban Transport initiative are clearly delineated on the Volvo Foundation’s website: http://www.vref.se/.
The Future Urban Transport Conference website can be found at: http://www.fut.se/
Along with CSUD, the VREF Centers of Excellence are:
Australia: Australasian Centre for Governance and Management of Urban Transport (GAMUT), Melbourne
Berkeley, California: The UC Berkeley Center for Future Urban Transport
China: The China Urban Sustainable Transport Research Center (CUSTReC), Beijing
South Africa: The African Centre of Excellence in Public and Non-Motorised Transport, Cape Town
UK: The OMEGA Centre for the Study of Mega Projects in Transport and Development, London
Rockefeller Foundation support
In advance of the UN General Assembly in September 2005, CSUD partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ministries of Cities and Housing of South Africa, Brazil and India to organize a workshop on achieving the Millennium Development Goals in the cities of middle-income countries. Ministers of Cities and Housing from South Africa and Brazil were in attendance, along with ministerial representatives from India, Chile, and Mexico.
Shortly thereafter, CSUD organized the official U.S. observance of World Habitat Day with the Rockefeller Foundation, UN-HABITAT and Habitat for Humanity at Columbia University. World Habitat Day is observed yearly to reflect on the state of human settlements, especially the living conditions of the urban poor and their basic right to adequate shelter. UN delegates, donors, local community leaders, Columbia University faculty and students joined CSUD and its partners for the observance.
In July of 2007, CSUD and the Rockefeller Foundation convened a “Global Urban Summit” for leaders from the public, private, and civic sector at the Foundation’s Center in Bellagio, Italy. The Global Urban Summit was a month-long conference series held at the behest of the Rockefeller Foundation as a means to explore potential opportunities in the urban space. The four, one-week meetings focused on addressing the vulnerabilities of the urban poor in the Global South with each week dedicated to a specific theme.
To learn more about the Rockefeller Foundation’s work in expanding opportunities for the poor and vulnerable around the globe, visit their website: