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Urban Strategies For Developing Cities

As cities expand at an unprecedented pace, urban development has become a defining challenge of the 21st century. Rapid urban growth is intensifying inequalities in access to housing, infrastructure, basic services and green spaces, while also exacerbating informality and insecurity in contexts marked by political, economic and social instability.

These challenges are particularly pressing across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the MENA region, where cities face structural barriers to sustainable urban development and struggle to keep pace with both demographic change and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Addressing them requires innovative, inclusive and sustainable solutions that bridge policy, practice and local realities.

This certificate programme in Urban Governance equips professionals to navigate formal and informal urban dynamics through academic expertise and applied insights into public policy, governance and financing.

Overview

Intended Participants

Professionals working in urban planning, public policy, security, infrastructure, housing, transport, and environmental sectors across the world, from public, private, and non-profit organisations.

Objectives

Strengthen your capacity to design and implement realistic, inclusive, and sustainable urban projects in rapidly transforming cities;
Explore context-sensitive solutions in key areas such as financial governance, urban policy management, and formal and informal planning, considering institutional constraints as well as political, social, and cultural dynamics;
Identify and mobilise the full range of levers for effective project implementation, including stakeholder engagement, financing mechanisms, risk management, and emerging technologies;
Map the structural challenges that hinder the development and coordination of large-scale urban initiatives in major cities;
Foster intellectual exchange among urban experts as a driver of innovation and practice-based learning;
Promote a sustainability-oriented approach that places environmental concerns at the center of analysis and decision-making.

Programme

The training programme explores three core themes:

Financial Governance of Urban Projects
Formal and Informal Urban Planning
Urban Public Policy Management

The programme is structured around five modules:

Address global issues in urban planning and public project management, identify the key stakeholders and practices shaping the sector in today’s context.

Update knowledge of urban planning and infrastructure, identify levers to ensure equal access to basic infrastructure.

Identify the most suitable financing mechanisms for each organization’s challenges, explore new forms of funding

Understand the social, environmental, and economic dimensions of sustainable and resilient urban projects for target populations.

Explore new practices to improve efficiency, understand the role of emerging technologies and AI in a fast-changing global environment.

Throughout the programme, participants will benefit from tutoring sessions designed to help develop their final assessment and guide them in their methodological approach. A total of six hours of tutoring are included during the training sessions in Paris, followed by three hours of online group tutoring between the two training sessions.

Teaching Staff

Gabriel Feltran

Research Director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)

Gabriel Feltran is a sociologist and urbanist whose work sits at the intersection of urban studies, political sociology, and anthropology. He is widely recognized for his research on inequality, urban peripheries, and informal governance structures in major metropolitan areas of the Global South, with a particular focus on Brazil. His contributions offer a deep analysis of the relationships between marginalized populations, state institutions, and urban policy regimes, shedding light on the social and political transformations shaping contemporary cities.

Camillo Gorleri

Programme Manager, Stratégies Territoriales et Urbaines, Sciences Po Urban School

Camillo Gorleri is programme manager at Sciences Po Urban School, leading the “Stratégies Territoriales et Urbaines” master program, and the development of tailor-made executive education programmes. He holds an Executive Master in Territorial Governance and Urban Development from Sciences Po and a Master in Cities and Governance from Université Paris 8. He has taught as a visiting lecturer at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Politecnico di Torino, École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Paris-Est, and École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, focusing on social and urban development, heritage, and cultural project production in public space.

Tommaso Vitale

Professor at the Fondation nationale des sciences politiques (FNSP), Dean of Sciences Po Urban School

Tommaso Vitale is Professor of Sociology at Sciences Po (Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics) and Dean of the Urban School of Sciences Po. His research focuses on urban governance, local welfare systems, public space regulation, and metropolitan inequalities, with a particular interest in the interaction between social and spatial dynamics across multiple scales. He is the scientific director of the research seminar Cities Are Back in Town. His current work explores housing policy innovation, environmental inequalities and drought-related urban transformations, and the role of local associations in shaping urban governance and anti-poverty strategies.

Dr Champaka Rajagopal

Professor at the Fondation nationale des sciences politiques (FNSP)

Dr. Champaka Rajagopal brings over twenty five years of experience of having worked with national, state and local governments in India and abroad on urban policy, planning and governance. She is Professor Affiliate, Urban School, SciencesPo, Paris and Founder, Director, The Entrepreneurship and Partnerships Lab. Her research interests include institutions, urban and regional planning, infrastructure governance, urban law, policy, regulation and governance, firms, innovation and entrepreneurship. Previously, she was project manager and co-lead the Draft Development Plan for Greater Mumbai 2034. She has worked on multiple large public projects in cities of the global south and north. Champaka has a doctoral degree in Planning and International Development Studies from the University of Amsterdam, a Masters’ Degree in Urban Design from University of California at Berkeley, USA and an undergraduate degree in Architecture from Centre for Environmental Planning & Technology, Ahmedabad, India.

Cremaschi Marco

Professor at the Center for European studies and Comparative Politics

Marco Cremaschi is the director of the Master's in Urban Planning and teaches at the Urban School at Sciences Po, Paris. His expertise spans urban development, housing, and urban policy, with a comparative approach to large urban projects. His research focuses on urban policies, European Union city programmes, and housing. His latest book is: Rome, Promenades sociologiques, Presses de Spo, Paris, 2026.

Patrick Le Galès

Research Director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)

Patrick Le Galès is a CNRS Research Professor in Sociology, Political Science, and Urban Studies at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE) at Sciences Po. He is also a Professor at Sciences Po, where he teaches at both the School of Research and the Urban School. He is a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), a member of Academia Europaea, and a member of the French Academy of Technologies.

Fromm Deborah

Visiting Fellow, London School of Economics and Political Science

Deborah Fromm holds a PhD in Social Anthropology and is a researcher affiliated with the Urban School at Sciences Po. She is currently a Visiting Researcher at the Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge, and was awarded the 2024 Urban Studies Foundation International Fellowship at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research focuses on the financialization of urban security, insurance governance, and the political economy of protection in high-risk and criminally vibrant cities. Her recent work has appeared in leading journals, including Economy and Society, Security Dialogue, and the Journal of Illicit Economies and Development.

Practical Information

Duration : Ten days over three months
Format : Two five-day non-consecutive sessions
Completion of the programme leads to a Certificate awarded by Sciences Po.
Our courses can be adapted to accommodate various accessibility requirements. Please do not hesitate to contact us to discuss any necessary adjustments.
By enrolling in a Sciences Po certificate programme, upon completing your training, you have the opportunity to join the large international community of Sciences Po alumni, to become a member* and contribute to the Sciences Po Alumni Association. (Without voting rights at the General Assembly and ineligible for the Board of Directors)