The Charter Cities Institute is a nonprofit dedicated to empowering new cities with better governance to lift tens of millions of people out of poverty.
We are pleased to announce the launch of our Reference Guides for charter cities. These documents have been designed to be used by charter city developers to improve their decision-making and assist in the creation of governing legal institutions.
Charter cities are new cities with new rules. The Governance Handbook is the first comprehensive guide that lays out what these rules should be, and how they should be administered.
Download the CCI Governance Handbook here:
We are ecstatic to announce that
@FlyRwandAir
is the official airline partner of the upcoming Africa's New Cities Summit. Thank you for your unwavering support as we work towards building a brighter and more prosperous future for all. Please find Summit registration and travel
We’re thrilled to announce that we have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Rwandan Development Board to establish a formal partnership to implement the plan "Africa's NXT5O Cities Coalition - Road to Kigali 2023."
@RDBrwanda
@kurtislockhart
@cakamanzi
The urban population in Africa is expected to increase by a billion people in the next 27 years. The absence of adequate policies and authorities to manage this expansion is a major impediment for most African cities and towns. At Africa's
#NewCitiesSummit
, we will provide a
Registration for the 2023 Africa's New Cities Summit is now open! This three-day event is the ultimate gathering of influential visionaries who are shaping the future of new cities and offers unparalleled opportunities to connect with key players including government officials,
Policy change doesn’t happen without building a coalition dedicated to reform. With
#NXT50
we are bringing together the key players to get cities in Africa financed, built, and governed effectively. Join the coalition today:
It's awesome to have such thoughtful critiques of the Center for Innovative Governance Research and our goals! Also, Palladium is putting out quality content. Here's my response 1/n
We are thrilled to announce that
@cakamanzi
, the CEO of
@RDBrwanda
, will be speaking at the upcoming
#NewCitiesSummit
. To learn more about Clare, and the Summit, please visit our website.
🔗
🗓 16-18 November 2023
📍 Kigali, Rwanda
A charter city operated via a public-private partnership at the Port of Berbera, Somaliland will substantially increase the positive impacts of Somaliland’s already effective national development strategy.
Read our latest paper here:
SAVE THE DATE! We are excited to announce the first ever Africa's New Cities Summit, on November 16-18, 2023, in Kigali, Rwanda. This exclusive event will bring together a diverse group of key players in the development of new cities, so clear your calendar, and stay tuned for
The
@NewCitiesMap
is now live! To see the map in action, visit .
To use the map for yourself, head to and experience a powerful way visualize new cities
How it started vs. how it's going: In 1980, Shenzhen was designated a special economic zone, helping the city achieve prosperity more quickly than before. Inspired by this, charter cities offer a set of reforms for new cities to create institutions needed for economic growth.
We're excited to announce the release of our first four Reference Guides for charter city developers. The guides will help developers establish their cities and create effective governance frameworks. Enjoy the teasers, we'll be publishing the guides in full on Monday!
Charter city projects are under construction and governments around the world are acting: the
charter cities moment has arrived.
Our State of Charter Cities 2021 report is now available:
We are thrilled to announce that
@iaboyeji
, the co-founder of Itana, Future Africa, Andela, and Flutterwave, will be speaking at the upcoming
#NewCitiesSummit
. To learn more about Iyinoluwa and the Summit, please visit our website.
🔗
🗓 16-18 November
It’s a bittersweet day at the Charter Cities Institute.
@_TamaraWinter
, our first ever hire, is saying goodbye.
But, she won’t be going too far. She’ll stay on as a Non-Resident Advisor and will be the emcee for the Charter Cities Conference. Thanks for the memories, Tammy!
Make a difference with CCI this
#GivingTuesday
! Donate today: .
To learn more about what your money would be going towards, check out our video introducing charter cities and how they can help alleviate poverty around the world.
Only two months until Africa's New Cities Summit! Join us for visionary ideas and sustainable solutions. Explore building, designing, and investment opportunities shaping Africa's new cities' future.
Secure your spot now 👉
The city of Berbera,
#Somaliland
has some of the greatest growth potential in the Horn of
#Africa
region. Somaliland's positive outcomes can be increased by adopting the charter cities model. See
@CarlHPetersonIV
's research for more:
#UrbanAfrica
In this podcast episode,
@MarkLutter
talks about community building with
@VitalikButerin
, the co-founder of
@ethdotorg
. They discuss the challenges and successes of creating diverse communities in various contexts (such as crypto communities and health tribes) and Vitalik shares
This week
@balajis
joins the Charter Cities Podcast to discuss and debate the uncertain American future, political exit and intentional communities as a vehicle for reform, and building cities cities in the cloud with
@MarkLutter
.
Re-sharing our new research: The Planning Guidelines! This is a new approach to urban planning intended to support a charter city's long-term urban and economic development. Check out the full paper here:
This week,
@PronomosVC
@Seasteading
founder Patri Friedman
@patrissimo
joins the Charter Cities Podcast to talk about funding charter cities with venture capital, governance as a software stack, the evolution of the competitive governance space, and more.
Learn more about how charter cities can improve urban economies in the second of our
#UrbanOctober
video series:
(And while you're there, follow us on
@YouTube
!)
CCI & the MIT Sustainable Urbanization Lab are hosting the 1st New Cities Conference this October. We're interested in academic papers and research on new city development with a focus on their role as engines of economic growth. Learn more & submit here:
Get a sneak peek at the documentary 'Polis'. This film, featuring CCI, will be the first comprehensive look at the history and destiny of urban spaces including the role charter cities will play in them. Watch now:
The
@NYUMarron
New Cities Conference is just days away. This event will feature discussion panels with Nobel Prize laureate
@paulmromer
, Chair of the Cities that Work Council Edward Glaeser, economist William Easterly, scholars from CCI and the Marron Institute, and more.
From Andela to Flutterwave,
@iaboyeji
has put Africa's startup scene on the map! At the Charter Cities Conference in March he'll share more about how new cities can build their own startup ecosystems, attract existing companies and incubate new ones:
In today's Urban October podcast special, we had the privilege to speak with Lant Pritchett, a distinguished economist and a thought leader in development economics. Our discussion revolved around the Pritchett "Smell Test" and how charter cities pass the test, the need to shift
The National Congress of
#Honduras
recently repealed the constitutional amendment and enabling law for charter cities, aka ZEDEs. What happened and what happens next? CCI's
@JeffJMason
answers these questions and more in a new blog post:
.
@MarkLutter
in
@amconmag
: To Counter China’s Belt And Road Initiative, Build Cities.
"A smarter way to push back against both debt-based Chinese financing, and American hawks urging military action."
Entrepreneurs are all over Nigeria, but without better governance it’s difficult for them to thrive. We’re excited to welcome
@iaboyeji
to the Charter Cities Conference to discuss the new city he’s building in Nigeria:
Read more:
We (
@MarkLutter
and
@_TamaraWinter
) are hosting an AMA on r/neoliberal today at 3 PM (ET)!
Add your questions about charter cities and follow along here:
See you then!
This Friday at 11am EST, CCI's
@hebaelhanafi
and charter city founder
@iaboyeji
@anafricanfuture
will be featured in a virtual event hosted by
@GeoEconomicsPod
on the History and Future of African Charter Cities!
Register here for this great event:
We’re pleased to announce our Technology Zones White Paper Contest. If you have ideas about how cities + states can use zone-based reform to promote emerging technologies, submit a paper by March 17th. 1st & 2nd places will receive $10K and $5K. Read more:
Part of our focus at the Center for Innovative Governance Research is to identify new teams capable of building charter cities. Today we're pleased to announce our first Charter Cities Business Plan Contest to further this effort.
More information here:
Dr. Darl Uzu presents Enyimba Economic City – a master-planned city in Nigeria set to break ground in 2024. By establishing a stable business environment, Enyimba will attract manufacturing and incubate technological innovation, helping catalyze economic growth in the region.
We are excited to announce the first class of our Emerging Market Writing Fellowship! The recipients come from the Americas, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, bringing needed diversity to the charter cities discourse.
Congratulations to these talented writers!
Join us in exploring the broad intellectual history of the role self-governing cities have played in economic and political development, from ancient times to the present. Learn more here:
We’re pleased to share our new brochure, “Building The Future Of Governance.”
The brochure features our core programs, mini-spotlights on Singapore, Dubai, and Shenzhen, and testimonials from our partners. Link:
Join us in welcoming
@gyude_moore
as CCI's newest Board Member! Gyude is a senior policy fellow at
@CGDev
and previously served as Liberia's Minister of Public Works. Prior to this, Gyude was Deputy Chief of Staff to President
@MaEllenSirleaf
.
Recently
@TechCrunch
wrote about
@talentcitylagos
- our thoughts about the article and the likelihood of success of charter cities in Africa - and Talent City in particular - are here in a new blog from
@CarlHPetersonIV
:
We're excited to announce the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Charter Cities Institute and the Zambia Development Agency to work to improve economic competitiveness and create the legal framework for charter cities in Zambia.
In our latest research paper,
@Paul_A_Healy
and
@m_t_prewitt
detail three
@RadxChange
policies for improving charter city governance: (i) SALSA (Self-Assessed Licenses Sold via Auction, (ii) Quadratic Finance, and (iii) Quadratic Voting.
Our newest podcast with
@devonzuegel
. Our conversation ranges from overrated cities to the importance of walkability, to weirdness as a metric for slack in a city.
#NEWS
: Our Founder and Executive Director Dr.
@MarkLutter
is stepping down from his role at CCI to lead a new city development project. He will remain on the CCI Board, and CCI will be advising on this exciting new project.
We are thrilled to announce that CCI and the Malawi National Planning Commission signed an MOU to solidify a formal partnership. This is just the beginning as we work to create a prosperous and flourishing urban future for
#Malawi
.
#visionMW
We're hiring! CCI is adding an experienced Senior Researcher to our team. The Senior Researcher will work with the Research team to research and communicate how charter cities can help solve the most pressing development challenges of the 21st century.
A short summary of
@tylercowen
charter cities talk. He differentiates between minimal charter cities (cruise ship), hegemon charter cities (Hong Kong), and culture charter cities (Singapore).
We're thrilled to announce
@Mwiyas
as a speaker for the Charter Cities Conference! Mwiya is building Nkwashi, a new city outside of Luska, Zambia focused on services—the fastest growing sector in the global economy.
See Mwiya & more at the conference:
On Episode 6 of the Charter Cities Podcast, geopolitical strategist
@PeterZeihan
talks about the coming collapse of the US-led international order, the determinant power of geography, and China as just a paper tiger. Enjoy!
We're hiring! CCI has recently established a regional office in Zambia to advance its mission in Africa. We are hiring a full-time Policy and Research Assistant to support the work of this regional office.
For job details and to apply, please see here:
Looking for some good reading for this
#UrbanOctober
? Here are some outstanding books recommended by the team at CCI - stay tuned all month for more recommendations!
“What we see in cities all over North America is that they lack the capacity, they actually lack the wealth, internal to their systems, to maintain their critical infrastructure.”
@clmarohn
talking to our
@MarkLutter
on our latest podcast, available here:
We are excited to introduce CCI’s new research agenda! This document outlines research topics most important to the charter cities movement and helps guide our research on urban governance, economic growth, and poverty alleviation. See the full agenda:
We're hiring interns for Spring 2021! Intellectually curious undergrad/grad students interested in charter cities, international development, and related topics are encouraged to apply. Internships are available in urban planning, development, research, and communications.
Founder of the African School of Economics
@ASE_cotonou
, Leonard Wantchekon’s (
@lwantchekon
) life is as impressive as his economic & political research. We spoke with him recently for our podcast - we hope you'll listen, enjoy and share! Available here:
Spots remain for the 2023 Africa's New Cities Summit - register now:
This three-day event is the ultimate gathering of influential visionaries who are shaping the future of new cities and offers unparalleled opportunities to connect with key players
CCI's first academic publication on Honduras' charter cities law, authored by
@JeffJMason
&
@CarlHPetersonIV
with
@danielaicano
. Published in Volume 1, Issue 2 of the Journal of Special Jurisdictions:
CCI intern
@MTabarrok
makes the case for an Olympic Charter City.
"As the costs of traditionally hosting the Olympics rises ever higher, the arbitrage opportunity for an Olympic charter city grows."
Is America full? In his new working paper
@vladtarko
says no, and argues the US should use a mix of increased immigration and special economic zones to boost US productivity.
New on our website:
First, I agree with most of it! E.g. the title is 'Why Charter Cities Won’t Lead To Decentralized Government'. I mostly agree. However, the goal isn't decentralized gov, it's human flourishing, charter cities are a tool for policy reform to improve human flourishing 2/n
New Research Q&A Video!
@Chapman_Law
professor Tom Bell chats with
@CarlHPetersonIV
about Ulex, the comprehensive and open source common law legal system he developed for easy implementation of new, better rules anywhere in the world.
Things I'm excited about (incomplete list)
* Cryptography+blockchains esp
@ethereum
family
* Life extension
@SENSResearchFou
* New governance/"social tech"
@RadxChange
* Better online education of all types
* Building cities
@CCIdotCity
* Ongoing global poverty reduction
* Space
“Because the West has given up on innovating in governance, in experimenting with new rules in new cities, the end of history is looking less like liberal democracy and more like authoritarian economic dynamism.” -
@William_Blake
on the future of cities
We’re hiring! Here’s the job posting for our Research Fellow position: Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. Email tamara
@innovativegovernance
.org with any questions.
We congratulate
@ItanaAfrica
for their highly successful pre-seed funding round. CCI is proud to have been working with Luqman,
@cocobliu
,
@iaboyeji
, and the entire Itana team to achieve this significant milestone. They will share more about Itana and its broader vision at
We’re thrilled to announce our $2m pre-seed funding, led by
@localglobevc
, Amplo,
@PronomosVC
, and
@anafricanfuture
.
Africa's first Digital Free Zone for the Digital Economy is becoming a reality! 🌍
This week,
@Andela
cofounder and former
@theflutterwave
director
@iaboyeji
joins the Charter Cities Podcast to talk about the complexities of Nigerian entrepreneurship and economics, his faith, and Talent City, his new charter city project. Enjoy!
We're thrilled to share an exciting project we've been working on with
@AdrianopleGroup
- The Charter Cities Atlas, where we present 13 examples of self-governing cities across the world from different historical periods.
In a world with increasing numbers of forcibly displaced persons, charter cities can help generate more effective responses to refugee movements. Read more here:
#AfghanistanCrisis
The first note is on
@DPWorldUAE
's Berbera Port in Somaliland as a potential charter city site. Ethiopia's manufacturing rise presents big opportunities for ports around the Horn of Africa, including at Berbera.
CCI's Executive Director
@kurtislockhart
and Ambassador
@Omar_Arouna
met Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema at the Zambia Presidential Gala on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Silicon Valley is an industry cluster for developing startups.
@MarkLutter
argues charter cities need a similar industry cluster of city developers and other stakeholders that can benefit from agglomeration and knowledge sharing.
Introducing the Charter Cities Atlas! We are taking you on a journey through the history of self-governing cities across the world from different historical periods.
Check it out here:
#CharterCities
#CharterCitiesAtlas
#Governance
#Atlas
#NEWS
: Our Senior Head of Research
@KurtisLockhart
has officially been named the new Executive Director of CCI. He has a bold vision on how to take the team to the next level and we look forward to him building on the hard work of our Founder,
@MarkLutter
.
Exciting news! We're spreading our wings. No longer constrained to just building the ecosystem for charter cities, the Charter Cities Institute is now available to serve all your charter needs, including private jets, helicopters, and more! Please contact us for more information.
If you're a student in urban planning that:
🌎cares about sustainable urban development
🇳🇬🇭🇳🇿🇲is interested in cities in emerging markets
🏙️ wants to build cities from scratch
Apply for our Spring 2021 Urban Planning Internship!
.
@erickbrimen
CEO of Próspera joins
@MarkLutter
in a conversation about the mechanics of starting a charter city, focusing on the legal side. Prospera is arguably the world’s first charter city off the coast of Honduras on an island called Roatán.
Today we change the world of urban planning and governance with a powerful new tool: the New Cities Map. Learn more and join the special launch event now:
Please join us in welcoming and congratulating this extremely talented group of CCI Summer Fellows, who will join us next week! We look forward to officially meeting them, and to sharing their great ideas with you.