A U-CAN Initiative · Implemented by Artha Global

Learning Network for Urban Managers

The Learning Network for Urban Managers is a peer-driven platform implemented by Artha Global with support from U-CAN, that enables municipal officials to learn directly from one another's real-world experiences of city challenges. The initiative focused on continuous, meaningful peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and co-developing solutions rooted in practical municipal experience.

8-month pilot · 2025 Maharashtra & Andhra Pradesh Peer-to-peer learning

Overview

Learning from those who do the work

Indian cities are solving complex problems every day, often with limited resources, overlapping mandates, and little opportunity to learn from peers facing the same constraints. The Learning Network for Urban Managers was created to change that.

Anchored within the Urban Collective Action Network (U-CAN) and implemented by Artha Global, the Learning Network brings municipal officials together to share lived experience, exchange practical solutions, and learn directly from one another. Rather than focusing on one-off trainings or expert-led lectures, the Network is grounded in peer exchange and practice-based learning. Over an eight-month pilot phase in 2025, the Learning Network demonstrated that when given the right space and structure, city officials are eager to engage, reflect, and collaborate across state boundaries.

How it works

How the Learning Network took shape

The Learning Network was intentionally designed as a practice-oriented platform, not a conference saeries. Its objective was clear from the outset: create sustained opportunities for peer-to-peer learning that are grounded in real implementation challenges.

During the pilot phase, the Network:

Established partnerships with state governments
Engaged diverse municipal stakeholders
Piloted thematic workshops that generated measurable impact, beginning with air quality and affordable housing

What made the Network effective was a champion-led approach – working with senior state officials who could convene the right city-level participants and create a sense of shared ownership. In Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, support from the respective Directorates of Municipal Administration played a catalytic role, enabling strong participation from municipalities across both states.

The pilot

The Pilot Workshop

Maharashtra

Air quality management in Maharashtra

The first pilot workshop brought together over 35 municipal leaders from across Maharashtra. Instead of technical lectures, the emphasis was on city-led case sharing and dialogue.

Officials from Thane and Pimpri Chinchwad shared on-ground experiences; from networked air quality monitoring and mechanised road washing to EV adoption and enforcement challenges. Cross-state learning was introduced through presentations by officials from Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada on piloting Clean Air Zones.

What stood out was not just the diversity of interventions, but the quality of discussion. Participants engaged deeply on questions of implementation, sensor placement, compliance, community engagement, prompting a clear call for recurring forums and systematic documentation of best practices.

Andhra Pradesh

Air quality management in Andhra Pradesh

Building on this momentum, a second workshop was convened with nearly 40 officials from 13 non-attainment cities in Andhra Pradesh. Here, the format shifted even further towards collaborative problem-solving. Presentations by officials from Visakhapatnam and Bhubaneswar on Clean Air Zones and Low Emission Zones served as starting points for reflection, rather than models to be copied. City officials discussed how solutions could be adapted to their own contexts, moving the conversation from theory to action. By the end of the session, there was strong consensus on the value of sustained, peer-driven engagement, and broad support for scaling the Learning Network beyond a single theme or state.

Maharashtra Virtual workshop

Affordable housing in Maharashtra

The Learning Network also expanded beyond environmental issues to address affordable housing, a priority concern for many cities. A virtual workshop with municipal representatives from Maharashtra explored housing challenges through a combination of expert framing and city case studies. Officials from Kolhapur and Nanded shared experiences implementing housing under PMAY's Beneficiary-Led Construction vertical, while officials from Odisha's award-winning Jaga Mission offered insights into in-situ slum upgrading and community-led approaches. The discussion underscored the value of the Network as a space where cities could openly discuss constraints, financial, institutional, and political, while learning from peers who have navigated similar challenges.

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What we learned

What the pilot phase revealed

Peer learning consistently emerged as the most valued element. City officials were more receptive to lessons grounded in lived experience than to external prescriptions.
Action-oriented design of the sessions – structured dialogue, problem-solving exercises, and reflection – helped sustain engagement and generate practical takeaways.
While air quality served as an effective entry point, cities repeatedly expressed interest in engaging on a much wider set of themes, including clean and liveable neighbourhoods, municipal finance, governance, and climate adaptation.

The road ahead

From pilot to platform

Looking ahead, the Learning Network aims to:

From pilot to platform

PilotGrowingPlatform

Expand participation across states
Systematically document and share best practices
Broaden its thematic focus beyond air quality
Strengthen digital infrastructure for continuous engagement
Support 'champion cities' to mentor and guide others

Why this matters

The Learning Network demonstrates that collaboration, not just capacity building, is key to improving urban outcomes. With targeted investment and institutional support, the Network has the potential to evolve into a national mechanism for strengthening urban governance and delivering better outcomes for millions of citizens.

Read the full report Pilot one-pagers