Fostering Collaboration
For Urban Impact
India’s urban transition presents a historic opportunity alongside deep structural challenges. The Urban Reforms Collective (URC) is a pan-India collaborative platform that brings together organisations to collectively shape, advance, and champion systemic urban reforms. Convened by the U-CAN, the URC aims to enable what no single institution can achieve alone: coordinated, sustained, and systemic change in how Indian cities are governed and managed.
Why do we need an Urban Reforms Collective?
Over the past two decades, cities have seen a proliferation of programmes, pilots, and innovations. Yet, many of the underlying challenges – fragmented governance, weak institutional capacity, misaligned incentives, and uneven service delivery persist. This is not due to a lack of effort, but because systemic problems cannot be solved through isolated interventions.
Across the urban ecosystem:
- Organisations are generating valuable insights, but these often remain disconnected from each other
- Policy engagement is episodic rather than sustained, limiting long-term influence
- Collaboration tends to be project-bound, rather than built as an ongoing way of working
- There is no consistent mechanism to aggregate field knowledge into a shared reform agenda
The result is a familiar pattern: strong ideas, promising pilots, and committed actors, but limited systemic shift.
What is missing is not more effort, but alignment. Urban reform requires:
- Multiple actors working across sectors and scales
- A shared understanding of priorities and trade-offs
- Coordinated engagement with institutions that shape policy and practice
The URC is an initiative to enable organisations to work in alignment, build a shared reform agenda, and engage more proactively and collectively with the institutions and leaders that shape urban policy.
What the URC aims to do
The URC focuses on three things:
1. Co-create a Shared Reform Agenda
- Identify and prioritise key urban reforms
- Build consensus across organisations
- Develop actionable pathways for policy and practice
2. Build a Stronger Urban Ecosystem
- Foster alignment across civil society, research, and practitioners
- Enable sustained collaboration through working groups and platforms
- Strengthen collective capacity for long-term reform
3. Amplify Urban Reforms in Public & Policy Discourse
- Shape shared narratives on cities
- Engage decision-makers more effectively
- Increase visibility and urgency of urban reforms
Who is the URC for?
The Collective recognises that meaningful reform requires different roles and levels of engagement:
2. Anchor Partners
- Deep expertise in urban governance and policy
- Lead in shaping the reform agenda
- Contribute technical inputs and engage with policymakers
- Participate in the Coordination Committee
2. Affiliate Organisations
- Contribute based on interest, capacity, and expertise
- Engage in discussions, learning spaces, and collaborative initiatives
- Support amplification and ecosystem-building
Affiliate organisations can evolve into Anchor Partners over time based on engagement and contribution.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the Urban Reforms Collective?
The Urban Reforms Collective (URC), brings together organisations working on urban issues to
champion systemic reforms towards well functioning cities - governance, service delivery, policy
formulation, institutional accountability are all aligned to benefit residents of the cities.
Across India, many organisations are already working on these challenges, but often in silos. As a result, insights and efforts don’t gather full traction to effect policy change. URC aims to make these efforts complementary to each other, with the goal of achieving more than merely the sum of individual efforts.
The URC is an initiative to enable organisations to work in alignment, build a shared reform agenda, and engage more proactively and collectively with the institutions and leaders that shape urban policy. In doing so, it focuses on three things: co-creating a shared and actionable reform agenda for cities, building a stronger and more aligned ecosystem for sustained urban transformation, and amplifying the salience of urban reforms within public and policy discourse.
Across India, many organisations are already working on these challenges, but often in silos. As a result, insights and efforts don’t gather full traction to effect policy change. URC aims to make these efforts complementary to each other, with the goal of achieving more than merely the sum of individual efforts.
The URC is an initiative to enable organisations to work in alignment, build a shared reform agenda, and engage more proactively and collectively with the institutions and leaders that shape urban policy. In doing so, it focuses on three things: co-creating a shared and actionable reform agenda for cities, building a stronger and more aligned ecosystem for sustained urban transformation, and amplifying the salience of urban reforms within public and policy discourse.
2. What is U-CAN?
The Urban Collective Action Network (U-CAN) is a network of organisations working to
strengthen urban problem-solving in emerging Indian cities.
It brings together actors across sectors to create spaces where practitioners, communities, and policymakers can engage with each other, fostering more collaborative approaches to addressing urban challenges. This, in turn, supports more inclusive governance and contributes to more livable cities.
U-CAN’s approach is grounded in collective action, a multisectoral systems lens, and a strong emphasis on citizen participation in policymaking. It serves as the backbone for the URC — supporting coordination, convening organisations, and enabling the collective to function effectively. The U-CAN Secretariat plays a key role in facilitating collaboration, maintaining alignment, and supporting implementation.
It brings together actors across sectors to create spaces where practitioners, communities, and policymakers can engage with each other, fostering more collaborative approaches to addressing urban challenges. This, in turn, supports more inclusive governance and contributes to more livable cities.
U-CAN’s approach is grounded in collective action, a multisectoral systems lens, and a strong emphasis on citizen participation in policymaking. It serves as the backbone for the URC — supporting coordination, convening organisations, and enabling the collective to function effectively. The U-CAN Secretariat plays a key role in facilitating collaboration, maintaining alignment, and supporting implementation.
3. How is the URC related to U-CAN? What is U-CAN’s role in URC?
The URC is an initiative of U-CAN, and will serve as its backbone organisation (or secretariat). The
URC is also one of U-CAN’s three identified strategic goals, reflecting its focus on enabling
collective action towards urban reforms.
The U-CAN secretariat is responsible for day-to-day coordination, ensuring that the Collective
remains aligned and action-oriented.
4. Why do we need an Urban Reforms Collective? Why are policy reforms for our cities important, and why now?
Improving cities isn’t just about better infrastructure projects, but also developing better
integrated policies and delivering efficient and citizen-centric governance. Policy reforms matter
because they shape how programmes are designed, how institutions function, and how services
are delivered by the functionaries. Without innovation and improvements in the way policies are
designed and developed, even well-intended government initiatives struggle to scale or sustain
impact. Moreover, the urban sector continues to have a huge backlog of reforms to usher in good
quality of life for residents of Indian cities.
At the same time, there is a growing recognition across the sector that collaboration is no longer optional. Many organisations are working on similar urban challenges, but often without enough alignment or active coordination. The URC emerged from this moment, as a way to build a shared reform agenda, strengthen collective voice, and enable more coordinated engagement with decision-makers.
At the same time, there is a growing recognition across the sector that collaboration is no longer optional. Many organisations are working on similar urban challenges, but often without enough alignment or active coordination. The URC emerged from this moment, as a way to build a shared reform agenda, strengthen collective voice, and enable more coordinated engagement with decision-makers.
5. What activities will be undertaken by the URC? What reforms will the URC prioritise?
The URC’s work is centred on enabling a stronger, more connected field around urban governance
reform. This includes creating spaces for organisations to learn from each other, share insights
from research and practice, and build a deeper understanding of urban governance reforms.
It also involves bringing together actors across the ecosystem, from civil society to research institutions, and enabling more meaningful collaboration for engagement with key stakeholders in the government and the allied eco-system. A key priority will be to co-create a shared reform agenda and policy engagement roadmap for long-term and short-term, and aligning efforts across organisations to champion this agenda.
Alongside this, the URC will work to build the infrastructure that collaboration requires, such as working groups, communication channels, and coordination mechanisms, and explore ways to better align resources in support of shared priorities.
The URC’s reform priorities will be developed with input from all members. This will involve collective brainstorming to shape the agenda to focus on systemic improvements in urban governance, service delivery, and policy design. Specific priorities will evolve over time based on collective input and emerging opportunities.
It also involves bringing together actors across the ecosystem, from civil society to research institutions, and enabling more meaningful collaboration for engagement with key stakeholders in the government and the allied eco-system. A key priority will be to co-create a shared reform agenda and policy engagement roadmap for long-term and short-term, and aligning efforts across organisations to champion this agenda.
Alongside this, the URC will work to build the infrastructure that collaboration requires, such as working groups, communication channels, and coordination mechanisms, and explore ways to better align resources in support of shared priorities.
The URC’s reform priorities will be developed with input from all members. This will involve collective brainstorming to shape the agenda to focus on systemic improvements in urban governance, service delivery, and policy design. Specific priorities will evolve over time based on collective input and emerging opportunities.
6. How does my organisation become part ofthe URC?
Joining the URC involves a simple but curated process:
● Submitting an expression of interest through an online form
● Participating in a follow-up
conversation with the URC team Membership and its level is curated to ensure alignment with the Collective’s goals. Acceptance and membership into the network will be decided by mutual agreement and alignment of both parties.
● Submitting an expression of interest through an online form
● Participating in a follow-up
conversation with the URC team Membership and its level is curated to ensure alignment with the Collective’s goals. Acceptance and membership into the network will be decided by mutual agreement and alignment of both parties.
7. Why should my organisation join the Urban Reforms Collective?
By being part of this initiative, you will connect with and build trusted relationships with other
organisations, have an opportunity to shape priority urban reforms, communicate shared
narratives to strengthen the momentum of reform efforts, and actively engage with key
government and other eco-system stakeholders to effect the identified reforms. You can lead the
reform agenda along with peer organisations in your chosen geography or sub-domains. Further,
by engaging with other organisations in the ecosystem, it will improve the organisation’s
understanding of cities, and an opportunity to improve the quality of conversations around Indian
cities.
8. Are there categories or levels of membership/participation?
The URC brings together organisations with different strengths, recognising that meaningful
reform requires complementary expertise and roles.
a. Anchor Partners are organisations with deep expertise and experience in urban governance, particularly in research, policy engagement, and institutional reform.
- They play a central role in shaping the reform agenda, contributing technical inputs, and engaging with policymakers.
- Anchor Partners also serve on the Coordination Committee by rotation and set the overall direction of the Collective.
b. Affiliate Organisations are organisations committed to advancing urban reforms, but may be limited by bandwidth, being new to policy engagement or to the urban sector. They contribute in a range of ways, from participating in discussions and learning spaces, to amplifying key messages, to actively engaging in inputting into shaping reforms, strategy and collaborative initiatives.
Organisations other than those eligible to play the role of Anchor Partners join as Affiliates. Over time, based on engagement, contribution, and readiness, and after a minimum engagement period of 15 months, affiliate organisations could move to become Anchor Partners.
a. Anchor Partners are organisations with deep expertise and experience in urban governance, particularly in research, policy engagement, and institutional reform.
- They play a central role in shaping the reform agenda, contributing technical inputs, and engaging with policymakers.
- Anchor Partners also serve on the Coordination Committee by rotation and set the overall direction of the Collective.
b. Affiliate Organisations are organisations committed to advancing urban reforms, but may be limited by bandwidth, being new to policy engagement or to the urban sector. They contribute in a range of ways, from participating in discussions and learning spaces, to amplifying key messages, to actively engaging in inputting into shaping reforms, strategy and collaborative initiatives.
Organisations other than those eligible to play the role of Anchor Partners join as Affiliates. Over time, based on engagement, contribution, and readiness, and after a minimum engagement period of 15 months, affiliate organisations could move to become Anchor Partners.
9. What does my organisation need to commit to?
The URC is built on voluntary association, flexibility in participation based on capacities and
shared ownership. Organisations are expected to:
● Contribute to co-creation of reform priorities
● Participate actively in discussions, convenings, and collaborative outreach activities
● Engage according to their capacity and areas of expertise/focus
The Collective values flexibility, allowing organisations to contribute in ways that align with their expertise and resources. It will work on the tenet of ‘commit what you can deliver, and deliver what you commit.’
● Contribute to co-creation of reform priorities
● Participate actively in discussions, convenings, and collaborative outreach activities
● Engage according to their capacity and areas of expertise/focus
The Collective values flexibility, allowing organisations to contribute in ways that align with their expertise and resources. It will work on the tenet of ‘commit what you can deliver, and deliver what you commit.’
10. Is there a fee or financial implication to join the URC?
Currently there is no fee or financial implication. However, there is an expectation of time and
human resources to build the collective and its joint efforts. Organisations will have to defray their
own costs to participate in the convenings, deliberations and outreach activities of the collective.
11. Who can I speak to for more information?
You can reach out to the team at reforms@urban.org.in for any further questions.
Get involved
If this sounds interesting to you, reach out to us to express your interest in being part of the Urban Reforms Collective.
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