Marcela is passionate about cities and public space. Her personal and professional drive emanates from connecting with others and contributing to improve the place where she lives. Born and raised in Bogota, Colombia, Marcela lived in the US for most of her adult life before moving to South Africa in 2006. Marcela holds a Masters in Public Administration and International Affairs from Syracuse University. She has worked in policy and advocacy for over a decade in organisations that include The Carter Center, CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Partcipation, and Fairtrade Africa. Marcela moved to Johannesburg in 2006 and worked in Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Kenya before moving permanently to Cape Town in 2011 where she founded Open Streets, a citizen-based NGO working to radically increase the use and ownership of streets as public space by individuals and communities across Cape Town. Marcela has recently co-founded Local South, a platform that supports and facilitates dynamic and locally-driven approaches that help build bridges across the Global South.
La habitabilidad es clave para la calidad de vida en las ciudades de cara al futuro. No es necesario mirar demasiado lejos para ver cómo esto se refleja en las calles.
Livability is key to the quality of city life as we look to the future. We don’t have to look far into that future to see how this plays out on the streets.
Las ciudades dependen del transporte urbano de mercancías para garantizar la entrega de bienes y servicios a residentes, tiendas y otras empresas cuando los necesitan. Pero cuando se trat...
Cities rely on urban freight to ensure that goods and services are delivered to residents, shops and other businesses when they need them. But when it comes to making urban freight in the...
最近，联合国人居署在开普敦召开了全球城市道路安全联盟（ACRoS）城市间交流会。在会上，开普敦道路安全主管Solomzi Mdlangaso表示，“无法逾越的痛苦、折磨和心痛”使他在夜晚辗转难眠。
「耐え難い痛み、苦しみ、心の傷が、ケープタウンの道路交通安全担当者を夜も眠れないほどに悩ます理由です。」これは、先頃ケープタウンで開催された国連ハビタットの「世界都市交通安全アライアンス（Global Alliance for Cities on Road Safety, ACRoS）」の都市間交流会で、ソロムジ・ムドランガソ氏が語った言葉です。
"El dolor, sufrimiento y angustia insuperables" es lo que no deja dormir al jefe de Seguridad Vial de Ciudad del Cabo, Solomzi Mdlangaso. Estas fueron sus palabras en el reciente intercam...
“The unsurmountable pain, suffering and heartache” is what keeps Cape Town’s Head of Road Safety up at night. Those were the words of Solomzi Mdlangaso at the recent Global Alliance of Ci...
Como centros densos de talento, capacidades e innovación, las ciudades son lugares perfectos para la colaboración público-privada. A la luz de los urgentes llamamientos de la comunidad in...
As dense hubs of diverse talent, skills and innovation, cities are perfect places for public-private collaboration. In light of the urgent calls from the international community for solut...
Cuando Janvier Twagirimana se adentró el mes pasado en las ajetreadas calles del centro de Bogotá, comentó lo mucho que se parecía y se sentía a su casa, a diferencia de lo que ocurre en ...
As Janvier Twagirimana stepped into the busy streets of Bogotá’s city centre last month, he remarked how much it looked and felt like home – unlike in Europe, where such visits often take...
Cycling lanes and walkways are popping up in cities across the globe, from Bogotá to Paris to Jakarta, and even in car-centric cities such as Los Angeles and Sydney, as pandemic-calming m...
A future in which everyone travels in driverless flying cars may still dominate the popular imagination, particularly when it comes to media and marketing hype. But if we are to meet the ...
Gridlocked highways, smog over buildings and armies of unhappy and angry commuters are images seen in cities around the world. But a different vision – one of people on bicycles, buses, t...
