A Toolkit for Adopting Ideas from Other Cities

Cities worldwide are navigating common challenges, from housing affordability pressures to strained transport systems, demographic change, and resilience concerns, often within tight fiscal and administrative constraints. Subnational governments drive a substantial share of public investment and service delivery, making effective local action critical. In this context, city governments are turning to ideas developed elsewhere to accelerate implementation, reduce uncertainty and improve outcomes. Yet, these practices often remain fragmented and informal rather than structured and deliberate. As part of the OECD’s work on inclusive growth in cities, this toolkit explores how cities learn from each other and offers practical guidance to support more strategic idea adoption among cities. Drawing on evidence from a survey of 76 city governments across 43 countries, 16 in-depth case studies and a series of expert and practitioner workshops, the toolkit recognises the diversity of institutional structures, political priorities and resource endowments shaping local policymaking and proposes a set of 14 concrete actions to guide city officials through the idea adoption process.