tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/habitat-iii-26850/articlesHabitat III – The Conversation2017-12-11T11:13:58Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/884262017-12-11T11:13:58Z2017-12-11T11:13:58ZReligious faith can help people to build better cities – here’s how<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198539/original/file-20171211-27698-1wpm0ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1427%2C202%2C6507%2C5079&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Religious faith is deeply ingrained in the way cities look and function. In the past, cities were often built with places of worship at their centre, and today you can find markers of faith dotted across every city in the world: from local parish churches to grand cathedrals, mosques to synagogues, soup kitchens to cemeteries. Faith also serves a social purpose, bringing city dwellers together to mourn, celebrate, remember, reflect and to help others. </p>
<p>Today, cities are <a href="https://theconversation.com/cities-are-gaining-power-in-global-politics-can-the-un-keep-up-83668">becoming a driving force</a> in global politics. It’s predicted that <a href="http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/world-urbanization-prospects-2014.html">66% of the world’s population</a> will live in urban areas by 2050. And in a warming world, it’s more urgent than ever for cities to develop in an efficient and sustainable way. </p>
<p>Yet major discussions about the future of cities largely neglect the topic of faith. The United Nations’ <a href="http://habitat3.org/the-new-urban-agenda/">New Urban Agenda</a> (NUA) - the main global strategy guiding urban development for the next 20 years – is almost entirely silent about the role of faith and religion in the cities of the future, despite the fact that <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2017/04/05/the-changing-global-religious-landscape/">84% of the global population</a> adheres to a religious faith of some kind. </p>
<h2>A moral calling</h2>
<p>The NUA wants the cities of the future to be inclusive places, which all residents can enjoy equally, without suffering discrimination of any kind. Future cities should be just, safe, healthy, accessible, affordable, resilient and sustainable, while fostering prosperity and a high quality of life for everyone. </p>
<p>This vision resonates with <a href="https://parliamentofreligions.org/pwr_resources/_includes/FCKcontent/File/TowardsAGlobalEthic.pdf">the key values</a> of many faiths. For example, the Judeo-Christian idea of <em>shalom</em>, the Islamic notion of <em>saleem</em> and the African tribal concept of <em>Ubuntu</em> all express in different ways the idea of human flourishing within community. </p>
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<span class="caption">A common vision.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tony709/6255509342/sizes/l">Cycling Man/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>These concepts align with deeply-held principles commonly promoted by faith communities, such as justice, peace, stewardship, the intrinsic worth of people and nature and responsibility for future generations. And these values can inspire people to become active citizens who shape their cities. They promote unity and inclusion, by encouraging people to understand that their own well-being is connected with the well-being of the broader community and natural environment. </p>
<p>By recognising that the values embedded in the NUA are also central to much religious teaching, faith communities can play a big role in creating more sustainable and inclusive cities. </p>
<h2>Taking the lead</h2>
<p>In many cases, faith-based organisations are already taking action to help make the vision set out in the NUA a reality. This was highlighted during a <a href="http://www.worldurbancampaign.org/events/faith-based-engagement-and-implementation-new-urban-agenda">unique UN Urban Thinkers’ Campus</a>, which took place in Singapore in November 2017. In our roles as academic experts, we held discussions with faith leaders and representatives from various sectors of civil society such as architects, planners, business leaders and community development workers. </p>
<p>During these talks, we realised that faith-based organisations can spark social change both within and outside of formal religious settings. Indeed, faith communities have a long history of actively working for the well-being of the community. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/rough-sleeping-street-homelessness">Salvation Army runs</a> homeless shelters and drop-in centres, for example, and religious groups lead conservation initiatives such as A Rocha’s <a href="https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/">Eco-Church</a> in the UK, as well as <a href="http://www.healthserve.org.sg/">health care</a> and <a href="http://www.mentoringpittsburgh.org/">youth mentoring programmes</a> around the world. </p>
<p>What’s more, many of the people who work as civil servants, educators, charity workers and business leaders are motivated by their religious faith, to bring about positive change in cities. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198299/original/file-20171208-27719-w3ybpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198299/original/file-20171208-27719-w3ybpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198299/original/file-20171208-27719-w3ybpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198299/original/file-20171208-27719-w3ybpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198299/original/file-20171208-27719-w3ybpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198299/original/file-20171208-27719-w3ybpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198299/original/file-20171208-27719-w3ybpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198299/original/file-20171208-27719-w3ybpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Caring for the community after Grenfell Tower fire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/69057297@N04/34507280394/sizes/l">ChiralJon/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>The fact that places of worship are often located at the geographic centre of the communities they serve also means that they can be a place for people to rally and recover in the face of disaster. For example, after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/grenfell-tower-39675">Grenfell Tower fire</a> in London, local churches and mosques were on hand to administer support to victims, in many cases <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2017/jun/22/after-the-grenfell-fire-the-church-got-it-right-where-the-council-failed">more rapidly and effectively</a> than government support services.</p>
<p>Faith communities can help to make their city fairer and more sustainable by getting involved in urban planning and politics. This can be really effective at a local level, when people representing faith communities connect meaningfully with local authorities, join planning councils and advise in matters of community well-being. In the UK, for example, faith communities have worked with civic organisations such as <a href="http://www.citizensuk.org/">Citizens UK</a> to bring about substantial social change around the country. </p>
<h2>A powerful force</h2>
<p>Religious organisations are also widely connected and influential at regional, national and international levels. The Catholic Church, for example, is estimated to have <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21443313">1.2 billion members</a>. And in the UK, there are <a href="https://www.churchofengland.org/more/policy-and-thinking/research-and-statistics">12,600 parishes</a> of the Church of England (many of which have more than one congregation), far outnumbering the nation’s 8,225 <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/386938/uk-banks-branches-number/">bank branches</a>. </p>
<p>The presence of faith communities in cities puts them in a strong position to act as bridges between governments and citizens. As also seen in the wake of the Grenfell fire tragedy, faith organisations are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jul/19/grenfell-faith-groups-step-in-to-mediate-between-officials-and-community">often more trusted</a> than state ones – and <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1944-8287.2003.tb00220.x/full">trust is vital</a> for communities to rally together and influence powerful institutions. </p>
<p>With strong moral values, a widespread local presence and significant influence, faith communities have huge potential to help build sustainable, inclusive and liveable cities. Both the United Nations and faith organisations must work to engage the energy and enthusiasm, which people of faith can bring to improve the world’s cities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88426/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>By drawing on common values, faith communities can take a lead in making cities fairer, safer, accessible and affordable for all.Christopher Ives, Assistant Professor in Environment and Society, University of NottinghamAndre Van Eymeren, PhD Candidate, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/836682017-09-14T13:17:42Z2017-09-14T13:17:42ZCities are gaining power in global politics – can the UN keep up?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186037/original/file-20170914-9038-12r7jy5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Stepping up. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/unwomen/15650751451/sizes/l">UN Women Gallery/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past two years, urban issues – from sustainability in the built environment, to inequality in cities – have become an international priority. Cities, in turn, are taking on a more important role in global politics; the <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/give-cities-a-seat-at-the-top-table-1.20668">growth of city diplomacy</a> has forged hundreds of city networks and thousands of transnational initiatives. </p>
<p>These developments have been disrupting the established political order. Cities are now relating directly to global instruments, treaties and commitments, often bypassing states – as seen in the steps <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/28/global-covenant-mayors-cities-vow-to-meet-obama-climate-commitments">taken by many cities</a> to implement <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/paris-agreement-23382">the Paris Agreement</a> on climate change, despite opposition from central governments. </p>
<p>These efforts are being met with growing recognition – not least by the United Nations (UN), which has introduced an urban focus to negotiations and agreements of international significance, such as the <a href="http://www.unisdr.org/we/coordinate/sendai-framework">Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction</a>, the universally-binding <a href="http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/">Sustainable Development Goals</a> (SDGs), and the <a href="http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/ffd3/press-release/countries-reach-historic-agreement.html">Addis Ababa Agenda</a> on financing sustainable development. </p>
<p>Perhaps the most relevant development yet, though, was when 170 of the UN’s member states agreed on the <a href="http://habitat3.org/the-new-urban-agenda/">New Urban Agenda</a> – a road map to guide the growth of cities over the next 30 years – at the <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-happened-at-habitat-iii-the-worlds-biggest-conference-on-cities-66146">Habitat III</a> conference in Quito, Ecuador in October, 2016. </p>
<p>Yet the process leading up to and beyond Habitat III raised questions as to whether the UN is fit for purpose, when it comes to addressing major global urban challenges. These concerns materialised in <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2017/sga1717.doc.htm">the appointment of an independent panel</a> on the effectiveness of UN-Habitat – the agency responsible for the UN’s work on human settlements and urban development. </p>
<p>The panel reported its findings at <a href="http://www.un.org/pga/71/event-latest/high-level-meeting-on-new-urban-agenda-and-un-habitat/">a high-level meeting</a> of the UN’s General Assembly (UNGA) over September 5 and 6, where I spoke for academia, offering my input on the panel’s recommendations alongside numerous other representatives and delegates involved with UN-Habitat. </p>
<h2>Time for reform</h2>
<p>The discussions made clear that reform is already afoot, and welcome at the highest level of the UN. As UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed said in her opening speech, the organisation now recognises that “the global response to the promise of urbanisation has been inadequate”. </p>
<p>Bold recommendations are needed, as too much of the urban work in the UN system is fragmented across different arms of the organisation. The stakes are high, as the reform of UN-Habitat is seen by Mohammed as a “litmus test for UN reform ambitions” – so far, a key focus for the new UN Secretary General António Guterres, who took office in January 2017.</p>
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<span class="caption">UN Deputy Secretary Amina Mohammed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/35447871932/sizes/l">United Nations Photo</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/HLP/UN-Habitat-Assessment-Report-3%20August-2017.pdf">panel’s report</a> called on the Secretary General to consider a substantial redesign of UN-Habitat, with universal membership across all 193 UN states reunited in an Urban Assembly (compared with the 58 states currently on the UN-Habitat board). It also called for the creation of a global “trust fund” to enhance urban sustainability efforts, as well as the introduction of a new governance structure, to include a policy board and a committee of local governments. </p>
<p>The report also formalised <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/news/2016/08/un-cities-rumoured-proposal-gains-steam">proposals to establish</a> another UN body – UN-Urban – to act as a coordinating mechanism across UN agencies on urban matters, to be chaired by UN-Habitat. Taken together, these were seen by many as important and valuable steps for the UN to keep pace with the growing global importance of cities.</p>
<h2>Rescue mission</h2>
<p>Though Guterres <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=57305#.Wbj3s9OGOlM">already backed the panel’s findings</a> in early August, discussions at the UNGA meeting cast uncertainty over a few core parts of these recommendations. Most member states reiterated the need to reform and strengthen – rather than do away or re-dimension – UN-Habitat. Even with scarce resources and scattered on-the-ground programs, the agency still commands respect for its capacity to convene and represent a variety of global interests around cities.</p>
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<span class="caption">Quito, Ecuador: the setting for Habitat-III.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>As such, financing UN-Habitat remains an imperative which most agree on. South Africa underlined common concerns about the dire financial situation of the agency, with Kenya even calling for an urgent “rescue package” to save it from financial failure. </p>
<p>But the UN’s work on cities does not stop at UN-Habitat and the New Urban Agenda, with the World Health Organisation progressively <a href="http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/9gchp/shanghai-declaration/en/">picking up an urban focus</a> and connecting with <a href="http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/9gchp/healthy-city-pledge/en/">cities</a> in its efforts to meet the SDGs.</p>
<h2>Power play</h2>
<p>Reforming UN-Habitat means rethinking global urban governance. Many countries across the globe raised concerns that the proposed management structures – policy board, urban assembly, local government committee – would prove ineffective if not properly backed, coordinated and financed. </p>
<p>In fact, discussion on UN-Urban demonstrated substantial scepticism of the panel’s proposal, with the <a href="http://www.g77.org/doc/">G77</a> and China (represented by Ecuador) but also the United States and Russia, emphasising the need to hold off on radical shifts.</p>
<p>These discussions revealed a split emerging between the <em>status quo</em> of some UN member states – which regard the panel’s more radical reforms with suspicion – and an increasingly proactive coalition of cities, civil society groups and businesses, which broadly supports change. </p>
<p>Though cities have evidently played an important role in agreements from Sendai, to Paris and Quito, some states questioned the positioning of cities as key actors in the New Urban Agenda and SDGs. The Russian Federation even suggested that the panel’s proposal was “presenting an erosion of the role of states”. </p>
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<span class="caption">Open for debate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michele Acuto, UCL</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Given the weight of states within the UN system, it seems as though UN-Urban might not see the light of day after all, while cities’ input might be formally confined to the committee of local governments. There is a risk that the proposed reforms could widen the rift between states and cities, rather than opening the door for truly revolutionary shifts in the way the UN engages with local government. </p>
<p>As I noted at the high level meeting – and <a href="http://generalassemblyofpartners.org/our-role-in-the-new-urban-agenda/statements-and-comments/">as evidence</a> from numerous <a href="https://www.global-taskforce.org/local-leaders-debate-future-un-habitat-high-level-meeting">other interventions</a> points out – we need a thorough rethink of the status of cities within the UN System. </p>
<p>Whether this key juncture is solved, the road toward reform is still long, and may yet hold unexpected turns. Before the year is over, UN-Habitat is due to appoint a new executive director. In the meantime, the UN Secretary General and his deputy are charged with proposing and rolling out fresh changes within the broader UN reform agenda, from Spring 2018. The verdict on whether UN-Habitat will be able to bear the weight of responsibility for the urban SDGs is still some months away, but we may yet witness a more radical restructure of the UN’s urban capacities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83668/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michele Acuto receives funding from Research Councils UK (ESRC and EPSRC) and the UK Government (FCO), the World Bank Group,and the United Nations (WHO and UN-Habitat). He is also a Senior Fellow of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.</span></em></p>An expert in urban leadership reports from the UN General Assembly’s high-level conference.Michele Acuto, Professor of Diplomacy and Urban Theory, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/755332017-04-16T19:30:21Z2017-04-16T19:30:21ZWhat can the New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals do for cities?<p>Our cities are increasingly beset by a lack of affordable housing, inequality, lagging infrastructure – the list goes on.</p>
<p>To the rescue, we now have the <a href="http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2016/10/newurbanagenda/">New Urban Agenda</a> and the <a href="http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/">Sustainable Development Goals</a> (SDGs). But how can they help?</p>
<h2>Responding to the urban century</h2>
<p>Australia and 166 other countries agreed the New Urban Agenda at the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/habitat-iii-26850">Habitat III</a> conference in Quito last October. The agenda <a href="https://theconversation.com/habitat-iii-is-over-but-will-its-new-urban-agenda-transform-the-worlds-cities-67432">frames global policy for cities</a> and urban settlements for the next 20 years. Signatories will be measured against its objectives.</p>
<p>This historic agreement did not attract the same attention as the <a href="http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9485.php">Paris climate agreement</a>, yet it has similarly profound and linked potential. The Paris agreement will determine what action countries take on climate change, shaping policies on energy use and carbon production. The New Urban Agenda will aim for city sustainability, shaping our liveability, homes and neighbourhoods.</p>
<p>The agenda responds to the urban century. It recognises the growth energised by cities but also their spatial, social, cultural and economic inequalities.</p>
<p>Action is urgently called for to tackle inequality. The shift to cities hasn’t reduced inequality. Instead, it has shifted poverty to cities and <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-big-cities-are-engines-of-inequality-so-how-do-we-fix-that-69775">deepened inequality in the process</a>.</p>
<p>Two key concepts of the New Urban Agenda are the “city for all” and the “right to the city”. It also clearly links to <a href="http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/cities/">Sustainable Development Goal 11</a>, which aims to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A lack of joined-up thinking</h2>
<p>Three key problems beset our approach to cities. In principle, the New Urban Agenda and SDG 11 can help overcome these. </p>
<p><strong>1)</strong> Policy siloes persist despite decades of rhetoric about joining up policy and programs. Housing affordability, planning and transport, economic development, public health and education, for example, remain remarkably siloed. </p>
<p>Transport policy rarely looks at employment and health impacts. Policy for providing affordable homes rarely examines the impact of employment and economic strategy on housing affordability. Promoting social cohesion and social inclusion is rarely considered in developing and delivering the education system. </p>
<p>Cities are intricate, entwined collections of people, plans and infrastructures. Throwing isolated and disconnected solutions at complex problems is a recipe for failure, but it’s one that is constantly repeated.</p>
<p><strong>2)</strong> Governments not only typically divide their approaches to social and economic policy, they also have split responsibilities between levels of government. Separate ministers and departments deal with the very narrowly defined aspects of their portfolio.</p>
<p>In Australia, the policy separation between states and federal government magnifies the silo issue. Wide cracks between levels of government allow critical planning and policy decisions to be postponed for decades.</p>
<p>In this policy void, local and city governments often lead the way on issues of liveability, climate change mitigation, sustainability and social cohesion. However, many of the levers for change are above their reach. Those powers reside in state and federal governments. </p>
<p><strong>3)</strong> Private sector, government and civil society interests remain fractured and opposed. Not enough attention is paid to negotiating common interests. Cities need capital but they also need to be liveable places for all citizens. New alliances are needed to reconcile needs and resources.</p>
<p>All the above problems are related to the overwhelming need for integration, which provides a common meeting point for a wide range of players to approach complex problems.</p>
<h2>Not a task for government alone</h2>
<p>Australia has no national <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-cities-will-stop-working-without-a-decent-national-housing-policy-60537">housing</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/turnbulls-energy-policy-vision-heavy-on-direction-light-on-action-72272">energy</a> strategy. But both are critical to successful nations and cities.</p>
<p>The joined-up phrasing of the New Urban Agenda and SDG 11 offer an entry point. They provide a catalyst for integration in three critical areas:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>policy formulation to tackle multiple, connected problems;</p></li>
<li><p>fresh attempts to develop integrated multi-level governance; and</p></li>
<li><p>reframed governance across bureaucracy, business and civil society.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Shared ideals, objectives and delivery mechanisms linked to the New Urban Agenda are the first step. This has already led to the setting up of a <a href="http://citiesprogramme.org/our-framework/multi-partner-high-impact-sustainable-urban-development-projects-platform/">multi-partner initiative</a> to support sustainable urban development.</p>
<p>The New Urban Agenda is the product of many hundreds of urban scholars, mayors, policymakers and community voices. It provides an integrative policy framework that sets a broad direction toward better cities.</p>
<p>Planning for the future of our cities can no longer ignore growing social, economic and environmental issues. And these are all exacerbated by wealth and income inequalities. The task of reframing governance across bureaucracy, business and civil society must recognise the uneven resources across the city, and reconcile the interests around the table.</p>
<p>Signing the Habitat III declaration was easy. Implementing the New Urban Agenda is a challenge that government will not be able to meet alone. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>A multi-partner initiative for sustainable urban development will be among topics discussed at a <a href="http://www.nuaconference.com">forthcoming conference in Melbourne</a> on May 4-5.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75533/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Prof Ralph Horne works for RMIT and is Director of the UN Global Compact Cities Programme. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Adamson is affiliated a member of the Australian Labor Party, and is employed by Compass Housing Services Ltd, a not-for-profit Community Housing Provider.</span></em></p>Planning for the future of our cities can no longer ignore growing social, economic and environmental issues that are all exacerbated by wealth and income inequalities.Ralph Horne, Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor, Research & Innovation; Director of UNGC Cities Programme; Professor, RMIT UniversityDavid Adamson, Emeritus Professor, Social and Community Policy, University of South WalesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/695492016-12-08T00:06:02Z2016-12-08T00:06:02ZDensity threatens liveability if we miss the big picture of how a city works<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148549/original/image-20161205-25685-naehnz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The rapid growth of Melbourne is threatening the very liveability that makes it attractive to so many people.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/fran001/16138805219/in/photolist-qA8Awp-CFzoRy-AXJ72x-qPz4LP-BGfPJR-Cba8jY-yyuCaS-qTj79x-Koc3LU-qT6RZL-rDpvJS-HywoF2-GK5PhR-rp12Gw-r9zYxW-shkLuL-zgVMm9-r7tj7b-F4qEwC-K4oSwQ-rPZkz7-qYc1nS-rr2wiz-re55Rk-xDP4cE-JTvBvV-xq7ubA-qrzf39-FZbcKx-y7Wg9d-HT3Vnd-CV1mQg-wEpSuy-JWsBjX-FTWSfh-FzwrjU-Jgjg1T-zEsRU7-GutmgE-rxwcJU-qrzsgY-FU6s3v-K5o3Hg-J9KPk3-BT95Yt-xqpf3u-wChPfE-E12Ygo-wwF67Y-EqZHyT">Francisco Anzola/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Melbourne has been repeatedly awarded the accolade of <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-18/melbourne-ranked-worlds-most-liveable-city-for-sixth-year/7761642">world’s most liveable city</a>. This is no doubt due in large part to the excellent public domain Melbourne offers. Its parks and leafy suburbs provide green amenity, and the city has great public programs through its libraries, cultural buildings and an ongoing calendar of events.</p>
<p>However, Melbourne is <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/lookup/3218.0Media%20Release12014-15">growing rapidly</a> in a way that threatens this overall <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/liveability-1375">liveability</a>. </p>
<p>The density of existing suburbs is increasing largely through the unco-ordinated development of small “mum-and-dad” developer-builders that replace one house with two or three. This ad-hoc development pattern is eroding the amenity and character of the suburbs. For instance, established tree canopies and gardens are <a href="https://theconversation.com/fewer-trees-leave-the-outer-suburbs-out-in-the-heat-33299">gradually being lost</a>, to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-higher-density-city-development-leave-urban-forests-out-on-a-limb-57106">replaced by concreted areas</a>. </p>
<p>At the same time, large housing developments are being <a href="https://theconversation.com/back-to-the-drawing-board-for-australian-urban-planning-22287">built on newly subdivided land on Melbourne’s fringe</a>. These often lack essential services as well as public and cultural spaces and programs. </p>
<p>The combination of these development approaches is threatening overall city liveability. </p>
<p>Debates in our city about housing futures, including themes of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/housing-affordability-7820">affordability</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/sustainable-design-7">sustainability</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/urban-resilience-28401">resilience</a>, are increasingly considering wider notions of amenity and services. It is important to shift the tenor of this discussion further. This requires that issues of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/public-space-10653">public space</a> and public domain be placed at the centre of debate and action.</p>
<h2>Global agenda shifts course</h2>
<p>Many governments and international organisations, such as the UN, and non-governmental organisations are moving in this direction. </p>
<p>While still foregrounding housing as a basic human right and a central element in city-building, these bodies are looking to provide expanded solutions for increasing populations and urbanisation. Their focus is on public space, amenity, essential service provision and mobility.</p>
<p>This broadening of the debate was evident at the recent 20-yearly <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/habitat-iii-26850">Habitat III</a> <a href="https://habitat3.org/">conference</a> I attended in Quito, Ecuador. Two important shifts from previous housing-focused directions were noticeable. </p>
<p>The first difference was the conference themes. Housing themes were were intertwined with themes around essential services and public space as an essential combination for successful city-making. </p>
<p>As a conference observer-participant, it was fascinating to watch a wide range of presentations by organisations from all over the world maintain a sustained focus on the importance of public space, public domain and amenity. </p>
<p>The shared vision of the <a href="https://habitat3.org/the-new-urban-agenda/">New Urban Agenda</a> adopted at Habitat III illustrates this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We envisage cities and human settlements that … are participatory, promote civic engagement, engender a sense of belonging and ownership among all their inhabitants, prioritise safe, inclusive, accessible, green and quality public spaces, friendly for families …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The second interesting shift was the inclusion of developed cities and states into the debate and action. Previously, there had been a strong focus on developing countries and slum revitalisation and reduction. </p>
<p>It was acknowledged that the impacts of activities and actions in one country, whether planned or otherwise, go beyond jurisdictional boundaries. This was made clear, for instance, in conversations about climate change and urban development. Activities involving countries such as China, India or the US may have an impact not only at the national level but also on the globalised economy.</p>
<h2>What are the local lessons?</h2>
<p>Locally, we can take some cues from these international shifts toward more inclusive urban agendas. In Melbourne, the city faces ongoing growth in high-density living, with apartments and subdivisions rapidly rising across the city. It is imperative to understand why public and cultural spaces as well as quality amenity and services are vital to our city’s success. </p>
<p>We must also recognise that we need to design our homes and other spaces in the larger-scale context of the city.</p>
<p>Rather than looking at developments in isolation, we need to consider their connection with the whole environment and in relation to a range of pertinent issues. These include population growth, climate change, changing family demographics and resource limitations. We need to design for long-term sustainability rather than short-term gain.</p>
<p>In addition to increasing our focus on integrated models locally, it is important to become more active across international boundaries in our region, particularly in Southeast Asia. Projects being developed at Monash University focus on adapting local knowledge and expertise in integrated urban models to the slum contexts of Indonesia and Fiji.</p>
<p>By helping to create sustainable and resilient city-making processes in our region, we can contribute to a global debate and action.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69549/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diego Ramírez-Lovering receives funding from the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities. </span></em></p>The increasing global focus on essential services and public space as a key combination for successful city-making is relevant to fast-growing Australian cities too.Diego Ramírez-Lovering, Head of the Department of Architecture, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/689822016-12-05T23:29:08Z2016-12-05T23:29:08ZWhen planning falls short: the challenges of informal settlements<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146530/original/image-20161118-19352-uji0xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Meeting the challenges of informal settlements, such as this one in Caracas, Venezuela, calls for integrated approaches that cut across urban scales and disciplines.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hesam Kamalipour</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://habitat3.org/wp-content/uploads/event_files/8tGW3tCTvOuowQewN3.pdf">Informal settlements</a> house around <a href="http://www.urbangateway.org/system/files/habitat-iii-issue-paper-22_informal-settlements-2.0.pdf">one-quarter of the world’s urban population</a>. This means roughly <a href="https://www2.habitat3.org/pretoria">1 billion</a> urban dwellers live in settlements that have emerged outside of the state’s control.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/habitat-iii-the-biggest-conference-youve-probably-never-heard-of-63499">Habitat III</a> conference in Quito in October recognised informal settlements as a <a href="http://www.urbangateway.org/system/files/habitat-iii-issue-paper-22_informal-settlements-2.0.pdf">critical issue</a> for sustainable urban development. But how did informal settlements come to make up such a large part of the world’s cities?</p>
<h2>Resorting to informal housing</h2>
<p>Rates of urbanisation can fluctuate rapidly and be hard to predict. This makes planning for urban growth a challenge, especially in developing countries, <a href="http://www.urbangateway.org/system/files/habitat-iii-issue-paper-22_informal-settlements-2.0.pdf">where more than 90% of urban growth</a> is occurring. When data or government capacity is limited, housing shortages often result. </p>
<p>With formal housing too expensive or unavailable, urban migrants must improvise. Many resort to informal housing.</p>
<p>Informal settlements are generally undocumented or hidden on official maps. This is because the state usually sees them as temporary or illegal. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146645/original/image-20161119-19365-1xhv4l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146645/original/image-20161119-19365-1xhv4l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146645/original/image-20161119-19365-1xhv4l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146645/original/image-20161119-19365-1xhv4l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146645/original/image-20161119-19365-1xhv4l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146645/original/image-20161119-19365-1xhv4l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146645/original/image-20161119-19365-1xhv4l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Informal settlements are here to stay: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hesam Kamalipour, Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the past 50 years, governments have tried to deal with these areas in a number of ways. <a href="http://uni.unhabitat.org/thematic-hubs/informal-urbanism/">Strategies</a> have included denial, tolerance, formalisation, demolition and displacement. </p>
<p>While efforts to improve settlements and anticipate future ones are becoming more common, the desire for eradication persists in many cities. Forced evictions in various parts of the world are <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-habitat-iii-defend-the-human-right-to-the-city-57576">putting the rights of informal settlement dwellers at risk</a>.</p>
<p>Over time, however, it has been recognised that poverty and inequality cannot be simply eradicated through demolition or eviction. In the developing world, one-third of the urban population <a href="http://www.urbangateway.org/system/files/habitat-iii-issue-paper-22_informal-settlements-2.0.pdf">now lives in slums</a>. In Africa, the proportion is 62%. </p>
<p>Many cities are looking for alternatives that formalise these areas through incremental, on-site upgrading. In addition to offering effective protection against forced evictions, it is critical to provide access to basic services, public facilities and inclusive public spaces.</p>
<p>We need to adopt integrated approaches that cut across urban scales and disciplines. These need to involve stakeholders from government, citizens and other organisations. Design thinking is essential in this process to meet the challenges of urbanisation.</p>
<h2>The role of the New Urban Agenda</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://habitat3.org/">Habitat III</a> conference <a href="https://theconversation.com/habitat-iii-is-over-but-will-its-new-urban-agenda-transform-the-worlds-cities-67432">adopted</a> a <a href="https://habitat3.org/the-new-urban-agenda/">New Urban Agenda</a> for the United Nations. This document presents a road map for sustainable urban development until Habitat IV in 2036.</p>
<p>While the quality of life for some informal settlement dwellers has improved over recent decades, growing inequality pushes more people into informal housing. As a result, the growth rate of informal settlements often outstrips upgrading processes. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146639/original/image-20161118-19340-1ft2fj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146639/original/image-20161118-19340-1ft2fj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146639/original/image-20161118-19340-1ft2fj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146639/original/image-20161118-19340-1ft2fj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146639/original/image-20161118-19340-1ft2fj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146639/original/image-20161118-19340-1ft2fj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146639/original/image-20161118-19340-1ft2fj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Inequality is both social and spatial in nature across cities such as Bangkok, Thailand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hesam Kamalipour, Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The UN Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) was one of the key agencies involved in Habitat III. Since Habitat II, UN-Habitat has worked extensively on <a href="http://unhabitat.org/urban-themes/housing-slum-upgrading/">housing and slum upgrading</a>. The New Urban Agenda incorporates lessons from this process. </p>
<p>An example is the need for innovative small investment models for informal housing and their inhabitants’ transport needs. The agenda also acknowledges the informal settlements located in hazard-prone areas. Their inhabitants often need more help with reducing the risks and building resilience. </p>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>Dealing with informal settlements is an issue of inequality. This inequality is both social and spatial in nature, across cities worldwide.</p>
<p>It is problematic that spatial thinking <a href="https://habitat3.org/programme/designing-the-urban-age/">does not have a high profile</a> in the New Urban Agenda. While urban design by itself cannot reduce social inequality and urban poverty, much can be learned from <a href="http://www.elementalchile.cl/wp-content/uploads/111000_DESIGN-WITH-THE-OTHER-90_CITIES_LOW.pdf">cutting-edge practices</a> that integrate design thinking into upgrading informal settlements. </p>
<p>One key lesson is that incremental housing (a step-by-step process of upgrading) can be a <a href="http://www.elementalchile.cl/en/projects/abc-of-incremental-housing/">critical part</a> of the solution. Incrementalism allows informal housing to be adapted over time. It also means community engagement is central to governments’ handling of informal settlements. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146643/original/image-20161119-19371-8adtj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146643/original/image-20161119-19371-8adtj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146643/original/image-20161119-19371-8adtj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146643/original/image-20161119-19371-8adtj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146643/original/image-20161119-19371-8adtj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146643/original/image-20161119-19371-8adtj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146643/original/image-20161119-19371-8adtj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Incremental, on-site upgrading, such as the Slum Rehabilitation Project in Pune, India, relies on a sophisticated understanding of informal settlement forms and adaptations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hesam Kamalipour, Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another learning is that evidence-based, multi-scale and multidisciplinary approaches are essential to tackle the challenges of informal settlements. Such integrated approaches intervene at multiple scales to provide a network of public open space and access to affordable public transport and facilities.</p>
<p>Most informal settlements – but for a few exceptions located in hazardous areas – need to be upgraded incrementally and on the same site.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146644/original/image-20161119-19375-zvnb1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146644/original/image-20161119-19375-zvnb1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146644/original/image-20161119-19375-zvnb1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146644/original/image-20161119-19375-zvnb1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146644/original/image-20161119-19375-zvnb1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146644/original/image-20161119-19375-zvnb1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146644/original/image-20161119-19375-zvnb1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Integrated approaches work at multiple scales to provide access to public space and affordable public transport and facilities, as seen in the Northeastern Urban Integration Project, Medellin, Colombia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hesam Kamalipour, Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Are we prepared?</h2>
<p>When it comes to the critical role of design thinking in the process of urbanisation, built environment professionals need to be prepared to tackle the challenge of informal settlements. </p>
<p>Incremental and on-site upgrading relies on a sophisticated understanding of informal settlement forms and adaptations. </p>
<p>Universities have a key role in equipping future built environment professionals with the skills and knowledge needed to meet the real challenges of urbanisation. Informal settlements are here to stay. </p>
<p>To better integrate these settlements into cities globally, they need to be recognised – politically, socially and spatially – and made visible through the gaze of mapping and research.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68982/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hesam Kamalipour receives IPRS and APA scholarships from the Australian Government. He is also a Doctoral Academy member at the Melbourne Social Equity Institute (MSEI).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexei Trundle receives research funding from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and an Australian Postgraduate Award from the Australian Government.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>André Stephan receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hayley Henderson receives an APA scholarship from the Australian Government. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie Lowe receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the National Environmental Science Programme. </span></em></p>Informal settlements are often undocumented or hidden on official maps, but they house about a billion people worldwide. Their existence demands a more sophisticated approach to urban development.Hesam Kamalipour, PhD Candidate and Research Assistant in Urban Design, The University of MelbourneAlexei Trundle, PhD Candidate, Australian-German Climate & Energy College, The University of MelbourneAndré Stephan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of MelbourneHayley Henderson, PhD Candidate in Urban Planning, The University of MelbourneMelanie Lowe, Research Fellow, McCaughey VicHealth Community Wellbeing Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/689842016-11-30T19:19:54Z2016-11-30T19:19:54ZOur cities need to go on a resource diet<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146492/original/image-20161118-19334-15v5qqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Think of all the resources needed to transform Shenzhen, a fishing town 35 years ago, into a megacity of more than 10 million people. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AShenzhen_Skyline_from_Nanshan.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cities are the epicentres of human activity. They cover <a href="http://unhabitat.org/urban-themes/climate-change/">less than 2% of the earth’s land surface</a> but generate <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/urbanization/urban-world-mapping-the-economic-power-of-cities">about 70% of GDP</a> and house <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-urbanization-prospects.html">more than half</a> the human population. The importance of cities is only going to increase in coming decades as another <a href="https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2014-Report.pdf">2.5 billion people move to urban centres</a>. </p>
<p>This intense production and consumption requires huge quantities of natural resources. Cities account for more than 60% of global energy use, 70% of greenhouse gas emissions and 70% of global waste. Current practices are depleting the Earth’s finite resources, changing its climate and damaging its natural ecosystems. With our planetary life support system <a href="http://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries/planetary-boundaries/about-the-research/the-nine-planetary-boundaries.html">in the red</a>, we need to put cities on a serious resource diet.</p>
<h2>Resources efficiency in the New Urban Agenda</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www2.habitat3.org/file/535859/view/588897">New Urban Agenda</a> adopted at the <a href="https://theconversation.com/habitat-iii-the-biggest-conference-youve-probably-never-heard-of-63499">Habitat III</a> conference outlines a vision for sustainable urban development. These <a href="https://theconversation.com/habitat-iii-is-over-but-will-its-new-urban-agenda-transform-the-worlds-cities-67432">global guidelines</a>, along with the related UN <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-worlds-new-sustainable-development-goals-47262">Sustainable Development Goals</a>, recognise the need to use resources more efficiently. </p>
<p>Habitat III included a <a href="https://habitat3.org/programme/rapid-urbanization-and-material-usage-resource-efficiency-through-sustainable-construction-and-urban-planning-2/">number of sessions</a> on resource efficiency and associated tools and <a href="http://www.unep.org/SBCI/pdfs/Cities_and_Buildings-UNEP_DTIE_Initiatives_and_projects_hd.pdf">initiatives</a>. Organisations such as <a href="http://www.unep.org/">UNEP</a>, <a href="http://unhabitat.org/">UN-Habitat</a> and the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm">European Commission</a> and its <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en">research centres</a> typically led these events. The New Urban Agenda includes many references to efficiency and reduced consumption in cities. </p>
<p>We must now act urgently to translate words into actions. This will ease pressure on ecosystems and produce a range of co-benefits, including health, wellbeing and resilience.</p>
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<h2>How do we create more resource-efficient cities?</h2>
<p>Cities use resources directly, such as burning fossil fuels for electricity and transport. However, indirect uses, such as water for growing food crops, are much wider-reaching. </p>
<p>It can be overwhelming to consider the resources used for all goods, processes and infrastructure in cities. Yet it is possible to measure this using a <a href="http://watersfoundation.org/systems-thinking/definitions/">systems approach</a>. Instead of considering components in isolation, the entire city is considered as an open system, connected to others. </p>
<p>This perspective ensures a much broader understanding of complex relationships between scales, resource flows, the built environment, socio-economic factors and ecological outcomes.</p>
<p>There are tools that embrace a systems perspective. For example, the <a href="https://urbanmetabolism.weblog.tudelft.nl/what-is-urban-metabolism/">urban metabolism</a> approach considers cities as ecosystems, across which flows of resources (such as energy or water) are measured. <a href="http://www.unep.org/resourceefficiency/Consumption/StandardsandLabels/MeasuringSustainability/LifeCycleAssessment/tabid/101348/Default.aspx">Life cycle assessment</a> measures resource use through the entire production, consumption and degradation process of a good or service.</p>
<p>These approaches have been successfully applied at various scales such as <a href="http://metabolismofcities.org/datavisualizations/1-the-urban-ecosystem-of-brussels">cities</a>, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2013.06.003">neighbourhoods</a> and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2013.05.076">buildings</a>. This reveals that we are using more resources than shown by traditional assessment techniques (see this example on <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-energy-saving-homes-often-use-more-energy-20589">building energy efficiency regulations</a>). </p>
<p>But measurement without action has no impact on the ground. How can these tools be used to transform our cities?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147099/original/image-20161123-19722-1thf46b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147099/original/image-20161123-19722-1thf46b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147099/original/image-20161123-19722-1thf46b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147099/original/image-20161123-19722-1thf46b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147099/original/image-20161123-19722-1thf46b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147099/original/image-20161123-19722-1thf46b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147099/original/image-20161123-19722-1thf46b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recent research enables us to map the quantities of materials in buildings and predict when and where we can reuse or recycle these. Here a map of estimated steel quantities in each building of Melbourne, Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Source: authors' own; left: Google and TerraMetrics; right: Stephan, A. and Athanassiadis, A. (In Press) Quantifying and mapping embodied environmental requirements of urban building stocks, Building and Environment</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many initiatives are targeting urban resource efficiency. The <a href="https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy">circular economy paradigm</a> is a good example, where materials are reused, upcycled and recycled. It demonstrates that waste is a human concept and not an inherent property of cities. Waste does not exist in natural systems. </p>
<p>A range of projects by <a href="http://www.unep.org/resourceefficiency/Policy/ResourceEfficientCities/tabid/55541/">UNEP</a>, the <a href="http://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/resource-efficient-cities-vital-step">European Commission</a> and other organisations support local resource efficiency initiatives and encourage local governments to implement related regulations. Blogging, data visualisation and disseminating research all help promote the adoption of resource efficiency concepts. In addition to the pioneering work of groups such as <a href="http://metabolismofcities.org/">metabolism of cities</a>, the uptake of <a href="https://theodi.org/about">open data</a> is helping with this.</p>
<h2>Learning from those who already live on less</h2>
<p>Informal settlements provide interesting lessons in resource efficiency. Construction materials in these settlements are typically not very durable. However, because they are in short supply, they are constantly reused or repurposed, almost never discarded. </p>
<p>Other residents often reuse replaced materials, such as metal sheets, or store them for later use. This practice avoids additional resource use to produce new materials.</p>
<p>Although informal slum areas are often the focus of “<a href="unhabitat.org/urban-initiatives/initiatives-programmes/participatory-slum-upgrading/">upgrading</a>” and improvement, lessons learnt in these settings can enhance material flow management and reduce waste elsewhere in cities.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146903/original/image-20161122-24533-29505h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146903/original/image-20161122-24533-29505h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146903/original/image-20161122-24533-29505h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146903/original/image-20161122-24533-29505h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146903/original/image-20161122-24533-29505h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146903/original/image-20161122-24533-29505h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146903/original/image-20161122-24533-29505h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Informal settlements like Karail next to Banani Lake in Dhaka, Bangladesh, can offer lessons in resource efficiency, waste reduction and material flow management to most cities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexei Trundle</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Co-benefits of resource efficiency</h2>
<p>More resource-efficient cities tend to result in better health outcomes. For instance, encouraging walking, cycling and public transport instead of car use can reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30067-8">improve population health through increased physical activity</a>. </p>
<p>Food systems that promote consumption of fresh, local produce can benefit both the environment and nutrition. Energy-efficient housing reduces energy and water use and can <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2008.08.017">improve occupants’ health</a> at the same time.</p>
<p>Resource efficiency can also contribute to urban resilience. <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/research/environment/index.cfm?pg=nbs">Nature-based solutions</a> use relatively few non-renewable materials to increase resilience to environmental change and natural disasters. For example, a park can be designed to be flooded during storms or a tsunami, reduce the urban heat island effect, support urban ecosystems and provide areas for community activities, recreation and urban agriculture.</p>
<p>Efficiency can also ensure that redundancy – <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/320741468036883799/pdf/758450PUB0EPI0001300PUBDATE02028013.pdf">a core principle of resilience</a> – is built into urban systems. This means resources can be repurposed in the event of an unanticipated shock or stress. For example, during the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-caused-south-australias-state-wide-blackout-66268">blackout</a> in South Australia, a household with solar battery storage was able to <a href="http://techau.com.au/tesla-powerwall-delivers-12-hrs-of-power-during-sa-blackout/">maintain power for 12 hours</a> “off grid”. </p>
<h2>Working together for better solutions</h2>
<p>Although these steps move cities in the right direction, more action from governments, the private sector and civil society is needed to transform our growing urban footprints.</p>
<p>Focusing solely on resource efficiency may neglect opportunities to generate co-benefits across sectors and will not provide robust solutions. We need to look at the entire city as a system and work together, across all disciplines, with effective and strong governance structures that support integrated policy definition and long-term implementation. If we don’t, we might simply shift a problem from one area to another, increase resource demand elsewhere, or create social divisions and tensions. </p>
<p>Strong leadership, political stability, effective institutions and awareness-raising among citizens are vital factors for success. Urban resource efficiency is critical, but it should be considered along all other pressing issues highlighted in the New Urban Agenda.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68984/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>André Stephan receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexei Trundle receives research funding from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and an Australian Postgraduate Award from the Australian Government.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dave Kendal receives funding from the Clean Air and Urban Landscape hub of the National Environmental Science Program</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hayley Henderson receives an APA scholarship from the Australian Government.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hesam Kamalipour receives IPRS and APA scholarships from the Australian Government. He is also a Doctoral Academy member at the Melbourne Social Equity Institute (MSEI).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie Lowe receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the National Environmental Science Programme.</span></em></p>Our cities need to become much more efficient not just to conserve precious resources but to improve the economy, wellbeing and resilience to environmental change and disasters.André Stephan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of MelbourneAlexei Trundle, PhD Candidate, Australian-German Climate & Energy College, The University of MelbourneDave Kendal, Researcher, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (ARCUE), The University of MelbourneHayley Henderson, PhD Candidate in Urban Planning, The University of MelbourneHesam Kamalipour, PhD Candidate and Research Assistant in Urban Design, The University of MelbourneMelanie Lowe, Research Fellow, McCaughey VicHealth Community Wellbeing Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/674322016-10-25T06:12:47Z2016-10-25T06:12:47ZHabitat III is over, but will its New Urban Agenda transform the world’s cities?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143039/original/image-20161025-28420-ry8nwu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Quito lights up for Habitat III. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexei Trundle</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www2.habitat3.org/file/535859/view/588897">New Urban Agenda</a> was officially adopted in Quito, Ecuador in the last plenary of the <a href="https://habitat3.org">Habitat III</a> conference.</p>
<p>The agenda provides a <a href="https://theconversation.com/habitat-iii-the-biggest-conference-youve-probably-never-heard-of-63499">20-year “roadmap”</a> to guide sustainable urban development globally. </p>
<p>The text of the New Urban Agenda itself was agreed well before Habitat III at the UN General Assembly <a href="http://sdg.iisd.org/events/informal-negotiations-on-habitat-iii-outcome-document/?rdr=sd.iisd.org">in September</a>, during an extraordinary informal negotiation session that lasted for <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/news/2016/09/final-burst-talks-results-consensus-draft-new-urban-agenda">more than 30 hours</a>.</p>
<p>This allowed the focus in Quito to shift towards commitment and action. Under the banner of the “<a href="https://habitat3.org/quito-implementation-plan">Quito Implementation Plan</a>”, commitments ranged from the development and enhancement of <a href="http://unhabitat.org/mayor-sally-lee-sorsogon-launches-addressing-climate-change-in-national-urban-policy-publication-at-habitat-iii/">national urban policies</a>, to integration between <a href="http://www.un.org/pga/71/2016/10/16/world-mayors-assembly-of-habitat-iii/">different levels of government</a>.</p>
<p>The conference also saw announcements of new sources of <a href="https://habitat3.org/programme/habitat-for-humanitys-launch-of-commitments-under-the-quito-implementation-plan/">international development assistance</a> for countries to provide better access to housing and shelter for millions more people worldwide.</p>
<h2>Sustainable urban development for all</h2>
<p><a href="https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2014-Highlights.pdf">More than half</a> of the world’s population now lives in cities. So it makes sense that the New Urban Agenda will significantly shape the <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld">UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development</a>.</p>
<p>The 2030 agenda is built around a series of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Most relevant to the New Urban Agenda is <a href="http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/cities/">SDG 11</a>, which aims to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. However, the New Urban Agenda has been <a href="http://www.citiesalliance.org/sites/citiesalliance.org/files/Opportunities%20for%20the%20New%20Urban%20Agenda.pdf">criticised</a> for lacking direct links to the <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg11">targets</a> set out within Goal 11.</p>
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<p>Unlike their predecessors the <a href="http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/goals/">Millennium Development Goals</a>, the SDGs apply to all UN members states equally. </p>
<p>While most of the world’s rapid urban growth is in the Global South, challenges abound in the cities of Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and East Asia. In these regions, upgrading existing infrastructure and avoiding “<a href="https://www.sei-international.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/SEI-WP-2015-11-C40-Cities-carbon-lock-in.pdf">carbon lock-in</a>” - where old, carbon-intensive structures prevent the adopting of lower carbon alternatives – will require significant transformative efforts.</p>
<p>Much of Habitat III focused on the application of new technologies and the harvesting of big data, particularly in these established urban centres. Under the umbrella of <a href="http://www.thefifthestate.com.au/articles/data-driven-cities-a-key-to-the-habitat-iii-new-urban-agenda/85843">Smart Cities</a>, using open data networks for better urban planning provided an optimistic, technology-based future for cities. However, questions about the security, ethics, and oversight of large-scale information gathering remain largely <a href="http://cityminded.org/smart-technology-ethics-15967">unanswered</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142709/original/image-20161021-1763-oabs20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142709/original/image-20161021-1763-oabs20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142709/original/image-20161021-1763-oabs20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142709/original/image-20161021-1763-oabs20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142709/original/image-20161021-1763-oabs20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142709/original/image-20161021-1763-oabs20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142709/original/image-20161021-1763-oabs20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142709/original/image-20161021-1763-oabs20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Melbourne, Australia, is consistently rated as the world’s ‘most liveable city’, but it’s also very carbon intensive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexei Trundle</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Also included in the New Urban Agenda are renewed efforts to help developing countries urbanise. These build on earlier work under the <a href="http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/goals/">Millennium Development Goals</a> and <a href="http://www.un.org/en/development/devagenda/habitat.shtml">Habitat II</a>. Related commitments focus on emerging concepts, such as <a href="http://www.iclei.org/details/article/iclei-launches-resilient-cities-report-2016.html">urban resilience</a> and <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/commentary/2016/10/placemaking-and-promise-new-urban-agenda">inclusive public spaces</a>.</p>
<p>Commitments from individual countries under the Quito Implementation Plan <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/news/2016/10/official-commitments-new-urban-agenda-slow-start?utm_source=Citiscope&utm_campaign=4901066977-Mailchimp_Quito_2016_10_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ce992dbfef-4901066977-118056697">were underwhelming</a>. Instead, civil society and academia led the way with a range of commitments to <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/news/2016/10/habitat-iii-ngo-makes-major-commitments-strengthen-access-housing">new initiatives</a>. This included a new $15 million <a href="https://habitat3.org/programme/habitat-for-humanitys-launch-of-commitments-under-the-quito-implementation-plan/">Terwilliger Centre for Innovation in Shelter</a> funded by Habitat for Humanity, and $2.3 million by the <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/news/2016/10/fund-seeks-strengthen-climate-action-cities">C40 Cities Finance Facility</a> to upscale urban climate action. A full list of commitments to the Quito Implementation Plan can be found on the <a href="https://habitat3.org/quito-implementation-plan">Habitat III website</a>. </p>
<p>Despite references to <a href="http://unctad.org/en/pages/aldc/Least%20Developed%20Countries/UN-list-of-Least-Developed-Countries.aspx">Least Developed Countries</a> and <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/sids">Small Island Developing States</a> in the agenda, support for sustainable urbanisation in areas such as the Pacific was limited. As noted by one Pacific delegate: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are not enough people talking about the Pacific, and the Pacific’s problems with urbanisation. We don’t have the means, but we are the ones being heavily impacted by disasters and climate change.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The role of partnerships between city authorities and universities in the Global South and their more developed neighbours was also strongly emphasised. UN-Habitat is soon to release a Higher Education <a href="https://habitat3.org/programme/hesi-global-meeting-of-universities-action-plan-for-universities-to-maximize-impact-of-higher-education-in-the-sustainability-of-urbanization/">Action Plan</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142715/original/image-20161021-1763-n6gba7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142715/original/image-20161021-1763-n6gba7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142715/original/image-20161021-1763-n6gba7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142715/original/image-20161021-1763-n6gba7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142715/original/image-20161021-1763-n6gba7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142715/original/image-20161021-1763-n6gba7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142715/original/image-20161021-1763-n6gba7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Participants in a training session on urban climate action planning in Small Island Developing States.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bernhard Barth, UN-Habitat</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Was Habitat III a success?</h2>
<p>Views on the success of the conference varied among Habitat III’s <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=55360">36,000</a> participants. This was perhaps inevitable given the contested nature of cities and urban space.</p>
<p>A clear highlight was the participation of countless young Quito residents. Many attended side events and UN-Habitat’s <a href="https://habitat3.org/programme/children-and-youth-assembly/">Youth Assembly</a>. The continued growth in the role of civil society, mayors and advocacy groups is a positive trend that should be supported.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142745/original/image-20161022-1773-nb4d93.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142745/original/image-20161022-1773-nb4d93.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142745/original/image-20161022-1773-nb4d93.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142745/original/image-20161022-1773-nb4d93.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142745/original/image-20161022-1773-nb4d93.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142745/original/image-20161022-1773-nb4d93.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142745/original/image-20161022-1773-nb4d93.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Young Quiteñas and Quiteños participate in a UN-Habitat Training Session.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bernhard Barth, UN-Habitat</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The parallel <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/news/2016/10/alternative-forums-offer-urban-visions-outside-habitat-iii">Alternative Habitat</a> forums provided a platform for challenging some of the consensus-based narratives.</p>
<p>Bridging these official and unofficial events was the launch of <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/top-down-bottom-up-urban-design">the Quito Papers</a>. Authored by a trio of world-renowned urban experts, The Quito Papers provide an alternative vision for cities of the future. </p>
<p>Unlike the <a href="http://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/research_resources/charters/charter04.html">Charter of Athens</a>, which likened cities to machines, the Quito Papers consider cities as adaptive and evolving open systems. These papers urge decision-makers to give cities back to the people that inhabit them, and promote equality and socially interactive spaces.</p>
<h2>Towards Habitat IV</h2>
<p>All countries will need to step up their commitments if the aspirations set out in Habitat III are to be achieved. Key concepts, such as integrated planning and models for local-national government cooperation, will need further work. </p>
<p>Although Habitat IV will not take place until 2036, a four-yearly review process has been agreed upon, building on the biannual <a href="http://unhabitat.org/wuf/">World Urban Forum</a>. </p>
<p>Also included in the New Urban Agenda is a review of UN-Habitat’s role in its implementation. It is not yet known whether a new “<a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/news/2016/08/un-cities-rumoured-proposal-gains-steam">UN-Cities</a>” entity will emerge when the review concludes in 2017.</p>
<p>From a planning perspective, 20 years is a short space of time to change the trajectory of global cities. However, the unplanned changes in our cities over the next two decades are almost equally unimaginable. </p>
<p>With the New Urban Agenda as a road map, it is hoped that we can rise to the challenge of creating more liveable, resilient and sustainable cities. Because without global urban transformation, we cannot achieve sustainable development as a whole.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67432/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexei Trundle receives research funding from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and an APA scholarship from the Australian Government.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>André Stephan receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hayley Henderson receives an APA scholarship from the Australian Government.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hesam Kamalipour receives IPRS and APA scholarships from the Australian Government. He is also a Doctoral Academy member at the Melbourne Social Equity Institute (MSEI).
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie Lowe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nation states, UN bodies and civil society gathered in Quito for Habitat III to adopt the New Urban Agenda. So how will the UN’s new global urban roadmap transform our cities over the next 20 years?Alexei Trundle, PhD Candidate, Australian-German Climate & Energy College, The University of MelbourneAndré Stephan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of MelbourneHayley Henderson, PhD Candidate in Urban Planning, The University of MelbourneHesam Kamalipour, PhD Candidate and Research Assistant in Urban Design, The University of MelbourneMelanie Lowe, Research Fellow, McCaughey VicHealth Community Wellbeing Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/661462016-10-21T16:38:03Z2016-10-21T16:38:03ZHere’s what happened at Habitat III – the world’s biggest conference on cities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142695/original/image-20161021-1769-15fgqzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-habitat-iii-and-why-does-it-matter-a-beginners-guide-to-the-new-urban-agenda-65500">Habitat III</a> – the United Nation’s global conference on the future of cities – has come to a close. About 30,000 people gathered in Quito, Ecuador, to discuss the key issues facing cities today and sign off on the <a href="https://www2.habitat3.org/bitcache/97ced11dcecef85d41f74043195e5472836f6291?vid=588897&disposition=inline&op=view">New Urban Agenda</a> – the global strategy which will guide urban development over the next 20 years. </p>
<p>For four days, the Casa de la Cultura Benjamín Carrión – where most of the conference events took place – buzzed with action. A range of diverse voices was heard in the conference precinct: from high ranking UN conference officials, to activists who fight every day for a more just city. UN-Habitat can take credit for a diverse and generally inclusive conference which delivered an optimistic – though somewhat ambiguous – outlook on the future of cities. </p>
<h2>An inclusive conference</h2>
<p>Efforts to make the conference inclusive – it was free and anyone could register – materialised in a big jamboree of all kinds of people interested in urban affairs (as well as complaints about long queues). The overall message of the conference emphasised the need to address social, economic and material inequalities in cities and urban areas. </p>
<p>Disadvantaged groups were widely represented at Habitat III. Most side events included representatives of the urban poor, such as organisations like <a href="http://knowyourcity.info/">Shack/Slum Dwellers International</a>. </p>
<p>International organisations which had previously ignored the significance of cities in international development – such as <a href="http://www.unido.org/unido-united-nations-industrial-development-organization.html">UNIDO</a> and the <a href="http://www.redcross.org.uk/">Red Cross</a> – pleaded to join an increasingly popular (and highly lucrative) urban field. </p>
<p>Yet international experts often appeared oblivious to the enormous progress that the poorest urban communities have made to organise themselves and finance their futures. During the sessions, questions from Ecuadorian students raised eyebrows, pointing towards unexamined assumptions that international experts take for granted – such as <a href="https://ayonadatta.wordpress.com/2013/06/30/what-is-smart-about-smart-cities-a-response-from-the-global-south/">what makes a city “smart”</a>. </p>
<h2>The New Urban Agenda</h2>
<p>The main outcome of Habitat III was that UN nation states agreed on the New Urban Agenda (NUA): a non-binding document, which will guide policies over the next 20 years with the goal of making cities safer, resilient and sustainable and their amenities more inclusive. </p>
<p>The foundation for the 24-page document was <a href="http://unhabitat.org/issue-papers-and-policy-units/">a collection of papers</a> written by six policy units, made up of experts from around the world. The NUA itself emerged from a consultative process, whereby UN-Habitat collected the inputs of a diverse community of urban scholars, leaders, planners and activists. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142704/original/image-20161021-1796-5564oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142704/original/image-20161021-1796-5564oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142704/original/image-20161021-1796-5564oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142704/original/image-20161021-1796-5564oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142704/original/image-20161021-1796-5564oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142704/original/image-20161021-1796-5564oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142704/original/image-20161021-1796-5564oq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">UN-Habitat director Joan Clos in action.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/98168367@N06/29151347403/sizes/l">Ministry of Natural Resources - Rwanda/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The key message of the NUA was “leaving no one behind”. This points towards a vision for the future of cities, where diverse urban aspirations of prosperity and sustainable development are linked by a desire for equality. </p>
<p>Yet the document did not escape criticism. Its reliance on experts generated scepticism about whether the NUA could actually integrate grassroots perspectives. Meanwhile, the consensual approach – which involved redrafting the NUA a total of five times – has led to the avoidance of polemic issues. For example, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/oct/19/un-new-urban-agenda-inclusive-cities-lgbtq-rights-habitat-3">LGBTQ rights were excluded</a> from the NUA at the request of a group of 17 countries, led by Belarus. </p>
<p>The impact of the NUA will depend on how it is put into practice. Neither the NUA nor Habitat III have clarified how the ideals outlined should be achieved. So for the moment, the text can be thought of as a series of important goals – the consequences of which will only become evident during implementation. </p>
<h2>Urban leaders</h2>
<p>The role of city governments in implementing the NUA was one of the big issues discussed at Habitat III. The <a href="https://habitat3.org/programme/world-mayors-assembly/">World Mayors’ Assembly</a> which preceded Habitat III asserted two key demands. One was that city, metropolitan and regional governments <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/news/2016/05/cities-clamour-seat-table-un-countries-club">should have a seat</a> at UN negotiation tables and be able to take decisions without the interference of national governments. </p>
<p>The other was that mayors want direct access to international finance. Some proposed that 20% to 25% of global finance for development – in instruments such as the Green Climate Fund – should be allocated directly to cities. </p>
<p>But the NUA is created by and for national governments. As a result, it often appears to prioritise the role of national policies which strategically coordinate urban development at the national level. This focus may become an obstacle for local governments seeking to implement the goals. </p>
<h2>The right to the city</h2>
<p>The consensus around the “right to the city” – an idea championed by Ecuador and Brazil – was historical. The “right to the city” generally refers to the capacity of urban citizens to influence processes of urban development, and make a city they want to live in. </p>
<p>Social movements have promoted the “right to the city” to denounce urban processes that generate injustices, such as gentrification, <a href="https://theconversation.com/public-spaces-are-going-private-and-our-cities-will-suffer-60460">privatisation of public spaces</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/vila-autodromo-the-favela-fighting-back-against-rios-olympic-development-52393">forced evictions</a> and the mistreatment of urban refugees. But the inclusion of the “right to the city” in the NUA meant watering it down, because it is not explicitly recognised as a universal human right. Instead, the NUA merely encourages governments to enshrine the right to the city in their laws. </p>
<p>Contradictions are already beginning to emerge around the right to the city. For instance, one representative from the Senegal delegation kicked off a high level round table on financing sustainable urban development by explaining that informal settlements are often situated on high-value land. This value, he argued, can be cashed by local governments if dwellers are willing to relocate. </p>
<p>However, this representative did not explain that this means of gathering finances often entails local governments leading a process of urban gentrification. Research on <a href="https://www.bshf.org/publications/how-people-face-evictions-lessons-from-people-led-initiatives/">forced evictions</a> has documented the tremendous negative impacts that relocation has on the livelihoods and well-being of displaced people. This is just one of many contradictions which will become visible as the NUA is implemented. </p>
<p>Habitat III brought together thought leaders on the future of urban areas, fostering dialogue and collaboration. It will have a lasting impact on efforts to address urbanisation – one of the global challenges of our time. </p>
<p><em>This is part of a series on publicly funded UK research at the UN Habitat III summit in Quito, Ecuador. It is a collaboration between the <a href="http://www.urbantransformations.ox.ac.uk/">Urban Transformations Network</a>, UK Economic and Social Research Council and <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk">The Conversation UK</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66146/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vanesa Castán Broto works for the Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College London. She receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Funding and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. </span></em></p>As many as 30,000 delegates gathered to decide the future of cities for the next 20 years – here’s how it played out.Vanesa Castán Broto, Senior Lecturer Environment and Sustainable Development, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/666882016-10-21T12:29:56Z2016-10-21T12:29:56ZHow can we make the world’s cities safer for women and girls?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142312/original/image-20161019-20340-1ozc8bl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs239/en/">One in three</a> women around the world currently experience gender-based violence. Harmful practices such as trafficking, forced marriage, domestic violence and female genital mutilation occur both in public and in private spaces. Today, these forms of violence are recognised as a major violation of human rights, a public health challenge and one of the clearest forms of gender discrimination. It’s also <a href="http://eau.sagepub.com/content/25/1/65.full.pdf+html">widely acknowledged</a>
that women experience heightened levels of violence in cities. </p>
<p><a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/news/2016/10/50000-gather-quito-habitat-iii-once-generation-summit-future-cities">Tens of thousands of delegates</a> from right across the globe met in Quito, Ecuador, to discuss the future of cities at the UN’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-habitat-iii-and-why-does-it-matter-a-beginners-guide-to-the-new-urban-agenda-65500">Habitat III</a> conference, where the fifth and final version of the New Urban Agenda was adopted by member states. The document will help to guide urban policy around the world for the next 20 years. Which begs the question: how have women’s voices and gender issues been incorporated into it?</p>
<p>Impressively, with each new draft of this latest document, women’s views are increasingly being taken on board. Consultation took place at a range of levels, with notable contributions from important global networks that fight for women’s rights and gender equality, such as Slum Dwellers International (<a href="http://sdinet.org/sdi-focus/women/">SDI</a>), Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising (<a href="http://wiego.org/">WIEGO</a>) and the <a href="https://huairou.org/">Huairou Commission</a>. </p>
<h2>Living without fear</h2>
<p>From the first draft to the final document, references to women more than doubled from 14 paragraphs to 32, out of 175. The <a href="https://habitat3.org/the-new-urban-agenda/">final document explicitly states</a> that cities should: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, ensuring women’s full and effective participation and equal rights in all fields and in leadership at all levels of decision-making, and by ensuring decent work and equal pay for equal work, or work of equal value for all women, as well as preventing and eliminating all forms of discrimination, violence and harassment against women and girls in private and public spaces. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The fact that these commitments explicitly address the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls in public and private spaces, as well as safety and security for women in cities, is a major achievement. </p>
<p>In particular, there are three commitments that have the potential, not just to empower individual women, but also to transform gender power relations in cities. These include <a href="http://workspace.unpan.org/sites/Internet/Documents/UNPAN90435.pdf">land tenure rights</a> for women, which gives women individual titles to land. When integrated into land regulation procedures, measures like these can transform gender power relations because it means women no longer have to depend on men in order to access land, as seen in <a href="https://www.habitatforhumanity.org.uk/what-we-do/where-we-work/latin-america-and-caribbean/brazil/secure-land-tenure-women-and-vulnerable">Recife, Brazil</a>. </p>
<p>Another <a href="https://habitat3.org/the-new-urban-agenda/">key commitment</a> relates to informal economy opportunities for women in terms of “livelihoods, working conditions, income security, legal and social protection”. Access to an independent income for those working in the informal economy – such as waste-pickers and recyclers – empowers women, while successfully contesting legal rights can change structural power relations by <a href="http://wiego.org/informal-economy/occupational-groups/waste-pickers">reducing their dependence</a> on men for financial resources. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142642/original/image-20161021-1785-iu6qba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142642/original/image-20161021-1785-iu6qba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142642/original/image-20161021-1785-iu6qba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142642/original/image-20161021-1785-iu6qba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142642/original/image-20161021-1785-iu6qba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142642/original/image-20161021-1785-iu6qba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142642/original/image-20161021-1785-iu6qba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Get rights.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathanstening/25670497336/sizes/l">Jonathan Stening/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The third commitment relates to calls for cities with “public spaces and streets, free from crime and violence, including sexual harassment and gender-based violence”. This empowers women by enhancing their mobility, and access to both education and employment opportunities, which can allow them to <a href="http://eau.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/09/01/0956247816662573.abstract">live more independent lives</a>.</p>
<h2>Watered down</h2>
<p>Yet some measures to address violence against women and girls were diluted throughout the five drafts. The <a href="http://citiscope.org/sites/default/files/h3/Draft_outcome_document_Habitat_III_Conference_May_6_2016.pdf">first draft</a> not only identified the importance of preventing and eliminating violence against women and girls in cities, it also specified how it should be addressed: through a range of measures, including the “investigation, prosecution and punishment of the perpetrators”. </p>
<p>It also called for the provision of services for survivors, recognition “that the treatment of women and girls can be a broader reflection of societal norms” and a commitment to “using education and public awareness campaigns as a further tool against abuse”. </p>
<p>But by the final draft, making places safer for women and girls had become a matter relating merely to the design and management of infrastructure and urban public spaces – for instance, by <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-shouldnt-dismiss-the-idea-of-women-only-carriages-46829">ensuring transport is accessible</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/gender-equality-comes-one-toilet-at-a-time-50700">improving urban sanitation</a>. There was no acknowledgement that many of the problems faced by women and girls are caused by underlying gender inequalities in society. And in the paragraph on urban safety, crime and violence prevention, women are entirely ignored. </p>
<p>Throughout the agenda, women are typically referred to as part of a composite, monolithic and vulnerable group. There are continual references to “age and gender-responsive” interventions – but very little clarity as to what this means or involves in practice. </p>
<p>In fact, only one practical commitment was made, to age and gender-responsive budgeting. This involves strengthening the capacity of national, sub-national and local governments to ensure that there are equal numbers of women represented throughout all state institutions, and to take women’s needs into account in the allocation of state budgets.</p>
<p>Compromises have to be made when agreeing on global agendas and the inclusion of women is complex and contradictory. But if the UN’s agenda is to effectively address issues of violence against women and girls, it needs to clarify the meaning of generic “gender-responsive” commitments, and consider women specifically, rather than as part of a larger group of “vulnerable” citizens. </p>
<p>While design and management can play an important role in forging safer cities, it is essential to move beyond these aspects, in order to transform gender relations in urban spaces around the world over the next 20 years. </p>
<p><em>This is part of a series on publicly funded UK research at the UN Habitat III summit in Quito, Ecuador. It is a collaboration between the <a href="http://www.urbantransformations.ox.ac.uk/">Urban Transformations Network</a>, UK Economic and Social Research Council and <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk">The Conversation UK</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66688/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caroline Moser is Emeritus Professor at the University of Manchester and Editor of 'Gender, asset Accumulation and Just cities (Routledge). She is Chair of the Board of Trustees of Chidren Change Colombia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cathy McIlwaine is Director of the ESRC and Newton Fund Urban Transformations project on ‘Healthy, Secure and Gender Just Cities: Transnational Perspectives on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in Rio de Janeiro and London’. She is a trustee at two organisations: Children Change Colombia and Latin Elephant.</span></em></p>Over the next 20 years, one global strategy will help to shape our cities. Here’s what it says about women.Caroline Moser, Emeritus Professor, University of ManchesterCathy McIlwaine, Professor of Geography, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/616612016-10-19T23:29:23Z2016-10-19T23:29:23ZDesign in the ‘hybrid city’: DIY meets platform urbanism in Dhaka’s informal settlements<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140669/original/image-20161006-20145-1wnwvb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cities like Dhaka are internally diverse, even contradictory. Such variation extends to the types of economic activity that take place in them.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Andrew Biraj</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, moved from the world’s <a href="http://www.eiu.com/public/topical_report.aspx?campaignid=Liveability2015">second-least-liveable city</a> to the <a href="http://pages.eiu.com/rs/783-XMC-194/images/Liveability_August2016.pdf?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWWpOaE5URmhOV0U0TURZMSIsInQiOiJxQ0NHQlIxdXptVmx2QVFCdCtuWHFCV1Vyb2xqRTdnWXBqalpCZFhYYUE2aFZhdXZIb0FzVVE2SWd4M0I5bXA2TjJyTm14azBwTEJKcjJSWFdnSUVvTWNDN1lZZjNZNW8yajdvMVhEb1lnVT0ifQ%25253D%25253D">fourth-least-liveable city</a> in The Economist’s latest liveability survey. But cities are complex and measures of liveability often subjective. These rankings perhaps say more about the <a href="https://theconversation.com/signals-from-the-noise-of-urban-innovation-in-the-worlds-second-least-liveable-city-56925">biases of global standards</a> than about Dhaka itself.</p>
<p>This isn’t to suggest these measures do not have their uses. The very growth of the urban measurement industry points to the productive diversity of world cities. It also illustrates how cities are internally diverse, even contradictory, in character. </p>
<p>This is especially true in Dhaka. On the back of <a href="http://archive.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2016/apr/06/gdp-growth-crosses-7">high GDP growth</a>, standards of living for Dhaka’s middle class have risen considerably. At the same time, informal settlements have also grown.</p>
<p>Based on Bangladesh’s 2014 census, it was calculated that 1.06 million people are living in slums in the Dhaka division. This number “has <a href="http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2015/06/29/number-of-slum-dwellers-in-bangladesh-increases-by-60.43-percent-in-17-years">increased by 60.43%</a> in the last 17 years”. Unofficial estimates of the number of slum residents are much higher, <a href="http://www.citiesalliance.org/node/420">around 3.5 million</a>.</p>
<p>Across the developing nations, around <a href="http://www.citiesalliance.org/node/2195">one-third of city residents live in slums</a>. A 2013 <a href="https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/app/uploads/Constrained-Opportunities-in-Slum-Economies.pdf">Rockefeller Foundation report</a> suggested that rather than focusing on a linear vision of “world-class cities”, planners and policymakers should adopt an alternative lens of “hybrid cities”, in which:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… informal economies are directly integrated into city planning and priorities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This requires inclusion of social movements and grassroots organisations that exist in and around informal economies. Secure housing, political recognition, legal protections and well-funded health and education programs are minimal measures for how this might be realised.</p>
<h2>Illuminating shadow economies</h2>
<p>As cities trumpet their liveability, creativity and greenness, informal settlement activities are often <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-habitat-iii-defend-the-human-right-to-the-city-57576">relegated to the shadows</a>. The Rockefeller report suggests this is not only a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ethical-city-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-53385">problem for social justice</a> or political representation, but also for economic growth.</p>
<p>A hybridised city looks to light up those areas where communities are already bringing together existing needs, new ideas, vigorous debate and innovative possibilities. John Thakara observes that informal settlements <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Recoded-City-Co-Creating-Urban-Futures/dp/1138819794">have a “DIY urbanism”</a>, which has implications for urban design, planning and development:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The shadow economy is more fragmented, and more reliant on social networks, than the formal one – but it is no less dynamic for that. Because social practices are a key part of this urban transformation, the tasks of design are mutating.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>An integrated approach would recognise how these practices – and associated urban planning processes – respond inventively to the limits and loopholes of rapidly expanding cities. According to the Rockefeller report, such limits include:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… information asymmetries in the labour market that prevent equitable access to jobs; and insufficient access to resources (for example, skills, finance and markets) that enable growth.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Kolorob: a participatory platform</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.kolorob.info/">Kolorob</a> is an urban innovation initiative stemming from a multi-sectoral collaboration with the communities of two slums in Mirpur, Dhaka. Young people have been integral from the start as mappers and facilitators to collect data about services and involve communities in the application’s design.</p>
<p>A Bangla word meaning “clamour” or “noise”, Kolorob is aimed at amplifying the diverse voices and inventive practices of these informal settlements. It builds on the immediate strengths and networks of these communities to help meet their need for information about services, jobs and opportunities in a rapidly growing city.</p>
<p>The main features of the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=demo.kolorob.kolorobdemoversion&hl=en">GooglePlay app</a> include an interactive map about essential services in the two informal settlements. Kolorob also provides detailed information, a feedback system and a comparison tool.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.uws.edu.au/newscentre/news_centre/more_news_stories/new_app_co-designed_with_low-income_communities_reduces_information_gap_to_dhaka_services">We are</a> exploring the expectations, experiences and reflections of community members involved in co-designing the app. Discussions with young people highlighted how they strongly value: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>increasing smartphone penetration and usage in their communities;</p></li>
<li><p>making the variety of local services more visible, providing in-depth detail about these, and using community feedback to enhance decision-making; and</p></li>
<li><p>beginning to promote informal jobs to increase opportunities and autonomy for informal-sector workers.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Our initial research into the co-design of Kolorob has found significant scope for participatory platforms to enhance access to existing services and employment opportunities in these areas. They also generate the potential for broader capacity-building by linking people to skill development and institutional support where available.</p>
<p>How such technology platforms can be maintained and leveraged in continued partnership with such communities is critical. This experiment connects with similar conversations in other cities and through other networks. One prominent example is the <a href="http://platformcoop.net/">Platform Co-operativism</a> movement, which includes <a href="https://www.refugeeswork.at/">RefugeesWork</a> in Germany, <a href="http://www.sensorica.co/">Sensorica</a> in Canada and <a href="http://enspiral.com/">Enspiral</a> in New Zealand. </p>
<p>Such platforms work to make data collection and knowledge sharing more inclusive.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-5onTZxziKI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Kolorob explained.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Connecting people and opportunities</h2>
<p>A range of policymakers, politicians, researchers and community organisation representatives are now converging on the UN’s <a href="https://habitat3.org/about/">Habitat III</a> conference in Quito, Ecuador. Key to the conference is the adoption of a New Urban Agenda. This aims to be:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… an action-oriented document which will set global standards of achievement in sustainable urban development, rethinking the way we build, manage, and live in cities through drawing together co-operation with committed partners, relevant stakeholders, and urban actors at all levels of government as well as the private sector.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The role of information and communication technology in this invites not only close attention but novel collaborations. For instance, a <a href="https://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/2016/ict-sdg.pdf">2015 report</a> highlights several hurdles to overcome:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>More public-private partnerships are needed to incubate new ICT startups to provide locally appropriate services.</p>
<p>Small, fragmented demonstration projects require national scale-up with business models addressing urban and rural areas.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a platform, Kolorob is still in its early development stage. But there is interest from existing and new multi-sectoral partners in exploring the potential of scaling it up within Dhaka, as well as across other South Asian megacities. </p>
<p>Rather than focusing on artificial solutions based upon improving world-class cities, we need to turn the spotlight to inclusive ICT platforms that contribute to both informal and formal economies. We can then begin to meet the wider social and political needs of hybrid cities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61661/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Teresa Swist has received funding from Save the Children Australia to support an evaluation of the Kolorob project mentioned in this article.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Sweeting is affiliated with Save the Children Australia. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liam Magee has received funding from Save the Children Australia to support an evaluation of the Kolorob project mentioned in this article.</span></em></p>As cities trumpet their liveability, creativity and greenness, many informal settlement activities are often relegated to the shadows.Teresa Swist, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Western Sydney UniversityDavid Sweeting, Institute Associate, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney UniversityLiam Magee, Senior Research Fellow, Digital Media, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/666952016-10-18T10:57:56Z2016-10-18T10:57:56ZHow should we plan the cities of tomorrow?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142159/original/image-20161018-16173-30iu19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bernd_thaller/15926320948/sizes/l">Bernd Thallar/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UN <a href="http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/publications/2014-revision-world-urbanization-prospects.html">estimates that</a> more than six billion people will live in cities by the year 2045 – compared with fewer than four billion today. But these huge numbers hide subtle complexities. Every city is growing at a different rate, in its own distinctive direction – each one is an open, complex system, which generates cultural, economic and technological innovation by combining new materials with unique histories.</p>
<p>Clearly, there’s no single road map for the future which all cities can follow. But if urban areas are to grow sustainably, as well as coping with scarce resources, global warming, inequality, epidemics and natural disasters, then a global strategy is in order. To this end, scholars, politicians, business people and community representatives have gathered for the UN’s <a href="https://habitat3.org/">Habitat III</a> conference in Quito, Ecuador, to agree on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-habitat-iii-and-why-does-it-matter-a-beginners-guide-to-the-new-urban-agenda-65500">“New Urban Agenda”</a>. </p>
<h2>Where to begin?</h2>
<p>For those attending Habitat III, Brazil, India, China, and South Africa provide some of the best case studies of extreme division and extraordinary innovation in cities. Despite having very different histories, cities in these countries share several features, which make them useful when we want to compare how similar urban processes are playing out around the world. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142170/original/image-20161018-16145-pogg90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142170/original/image-20161018-16145-pogg90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142170/original/image-20161018-16145-pogg90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142170/original/image-20161018-16145-pogg90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142170/original/image-20161018-16145-pogg90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142170/original/image-20161018-16145-pogg90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142170/original/image-20161018-16145-pogg90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indian cities at night.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/24354425@N03/16173824128/sizes/l">sjrankin/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Brazil urbanised much earlier than most of Asia and Africa, absorbing more than 80m people into its cities between 1970 and 2000. China has recently caught up; as of 2015, 56% of its population was living in urban areas. India and South Africa are soon to follow: according to <a href="https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/wallcharts/WUP_2014%20Urban-Rural%20Areas%20Wallchart.pdf">UN data from 2014</a>, almost 40% of India’s population, and 71% of South Africa’s, will reside in urban areas by 2030. </p>
<p>Cities in these countries are experiencing a period of great change. Part of this is political: South Africa held municipal elections in August this year, followed by Brazil in October, while in India – which is on a five-year municipal election cycle – elections are often held when politically convenient. In each case, different political promises can invoke a wide range of possible urban futures.</p>
<p>The global shift of mega-events to BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa) countries over the past decade has also caused an enormous upheaval in host cities. Examples include the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 South Africa World Cup, the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, the Sochi (Russia) Winter Olympics of 2014 and, of course, the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. </p>
<p>These events have been catalysts for all kinds of harm and glory. While cases of Zika virus alarmed residents and visitors in one part of Rio, the new <a href="http://www.brtrio.com/">Bus Rapid Transport</a> system improved transport links for the growing population in another. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142157/original/image-20161018-16167-1np4uyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142157/original/image-20161018-16167-1np4uyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142157/original/image-20161018-16167-1np4uyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142157/original/image-20161018-16167-1np4uyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142157/original/image-20161018-16167-1np4uyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142157/original/image-20161018-16167-1np4uyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142157/original/image-20161018-16167-1np4uyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Chinese nail house.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/triplefivedrew/5104282303/sizes/l">Triplefivedrew/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such contrasts are common in these countries. From <a href="http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/Africa/article272369.ece">slum evictions in South Africa</a>, to <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20632277">modernist master-planning in Brazil</a>; from experiments in <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6276362.stm">participatory budgeting in more than 100 Brazilian cities</a> to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2014/apr/15/china-nail-houses-in-pictures-property-development">“nail houses”</a> resisting mass development in China – these countries’ cities are often labelled both “problem case studies” and “great urban innovators”. </p>
<h2>Taking the lead</h2>
<p>Yet while these nations’ cities are attracting fresh attention, this hasn’t necessarily given urban leaders and citizens more power to predict, understand or determine their future. In particular, municipalities continue to rely heavily on national resources to cover local expenses, while mayors are bound to follow elaborate national regulations. </p>
<p>As cities grow, there’s pressure for city leaders to involve local communities in decisions. While this is <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-to-give-people-a-greater-say-in-their-cities-62672">ideal in theory</a>, it can be unpredictable in practice. Local discussions can easily become a stage for the strongest voices or would-be politicians, or residents can retreat from such meetings entirely, to avoid confronting local economic and political powers, especially if residents live in informal houses or have irregular jobs. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142164/original/image-20161018-16173-1x9egnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142164/original/image-20161018-16173-1x9egnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142164/original/image-20161018-16173-1x9egnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142164/original/image-20161018-16173-1x9egnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142164/original/image-20161018-16173-1x9egnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142164/original/image-20161018-16173-1x9egnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142164/original/image-20161018-16173-1x9egnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Easy for some.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/c0t0s0d0/3415437248/sizes/l">☻☺/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From Bangalore to Cape Town, Shanghai to Sao Paulo, it is not uncommon for residents to start such meetings by stating their inability to participate. Many consultations take place during working hours, far removed from the site of interest. Some are presented in technical terms, formally offering a channel for participation but actually encouraging silence or absence from some members, while over-empowering others. </p>
<p>For example, a meeting in a city hall or public building to discuss an informal settlement can discourage participants from attending if they feel they do not possess the right clothes. From stigmatisation to transportation, problems with participatory practices run deep; it takes a lot more than simply offering people a channel to voice their concerns. </p>
<h2>Locked in?</h2>
<p>To really understand how a city will develop, it’s crucial to understand its “lock-ins” and “path dependencies”. Lock-ins are features of the built environment, which limit the potential of a city. For example, in Mumbai, regulations to facilitate the development of luxury condos in much of the city centre has generated infrastructure such as roads and car parks which work well for car drivers, but block possibilities for imagining public and green transport systems from the ground up. </p>
<p>Similarly, “path dependencies” occur where the history of the urban form inhibits some kinds of change and promotes others. For instance, in Rio, the long-established divisions between the city’s formal and informal settlements limit, but also shape, any future changes to the city. </p>
<p>Scientific research offers the opportunity to bring a greater understanding to the constantly shifting urban form. To that end, the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council has created <a href="http://www.urbantransformations.ox.ac.uk/research/">a series of collaborative research projects</a>, in partnership with China, Brazil and South Africa. Such research can reveal the metabolism of the city, mapping and measuring the lock-ins and path dependencies which structure the interdependent web of water, food and energy systems. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142168/original/image-20161018-16191-jz2d2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142168/original/image-20161018-16191-jz2d2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142168/original/image-20161018-16191-jz2d2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142168/original/image-20161018-16191-jz2d2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142168/original/image-20161018-16191-jz2d2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142168/original/image-20161018-16191-jz2d2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142168/original/image-20161018-16191-jz2d2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The urban web.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertotaddeo/12458450145/sizes/o/">https://www.facebook.com/robertotaddeofoto28/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It can also analyse the way that transport systems can reproduce either segregation or integration, and how gendered divisions determine which places are safe or dangerous – and for whom. <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-big-data-and-the-sims-are-helping-us-to-build-the-cities-of-the-future-47292">Enormous amounts of data</a>, generated by citizens’ own behaviours, can be used to interpret the city as it evolves. Of course, all of these advancements trigger ethical questions, which demand longer reflection.</p>
<p>While every city’s future is unique, we can enrich our understanding with collaborations that explore the diversity of cities and draw comparisons across the world. Yet scientists face the challenging task of reconciling the long-term horizons of a city with the political motivations of urban democracy, which measure the future in electoral cycles. </p>
<p>Researchers have an obligation to highlight the trade offs, compromises and alternatives that ongoing elections and global UN summits might generate for each country’s unique urban future. They must bring short term and long term possibilities to the surface, and mitigate between them, if we’re ever to get a clear vision of the future of cities. </p>
<p><em>This article is part of a series on publicly-funded UK research at the UN Habitat III summit in Quito, Ecuador. It is a collaboration between <a href="http://www.urbantransformations.ox.ac.uk/">Urban Transformations Network – UK Economic and Social Research Council (UT-ESRC)</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk">The Conversation</a>. This is a modified version of an article that appeared on <a href="http://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-37466807">BBC Brasil</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Keith has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. He was formerly Labour Party Leader of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andreza de Souza Santos is employed as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Urban Transformations Network (UK Economic and Social Research Council).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Simcik Arese is employed as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Urban Transformations Network (UK Economic and Social Research Council).</span></em></p>Three researchers examine the big challenges of urban development: from city leadership to lock-ins.Michael Keith, Director of COMPAS, University of OxfordAndreza de Souza Santos, Post-doctoral Research Associate, University of OxfordNicholas Simcik Arese, Post-doctoral Research Associate, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/671252016-10-18T06:46:00Z2016-10-18T06:46:00ZIn Quito, the world meets to discuss the future of cities<p>As the global population grows from seven to nearly ten billion by 2050, we will need to build the equivalent of <a href="https://www.science.org.au/news-and-events/events/third-australian-earth-system-outlook-conference/cities-future-earth-summary">a city of one million people every five days</a> to house them. </p>
<p>The world already has ten cities with more than 20 million inhabitants, including Tokyo (37 million), Beijing (21 million), Jakarta (30 million) and New Delhi (25 million). Out of the seven billion people in the world, 6.7 billion live with <a href="http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2016/09/vast-majority-of-world-6-76-billion-people-living-with-excessive-air-pollution-un-report/">pollution above WHO clean air standards</a>. </p>
<p>By 2050, around 12 million people from 23 cities in East Asia alone will be <a href="https://www.adb.org/publications/economics-climate-change-east-asia">at risk from coastal inundation</a>. Planning for climate change will be critical to minimise risk to these areas. </p>
<p>These are just some of the stark facts about our <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308776602_The_Future_of_Global_Warming_and_Its_Impact_on_Asia">global urban future</a>.</p>
<p>With these issues in mind, up to <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/news/2016/10/50000-gather-quito-habitat-iii-once-generation-summit-future-cities">50,000 participants</a> have gathered in Quito this week to discuss a New Urban Agenda at <a href="https://habitat3.org">Habitat III</a> – the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development. </p>
<p>The adoption of the agenda will set standards for sustainable development with a strong emphasis on social inclusion, cultural diversity, urban prosperity, urban governance, urban spatial development, and integrated urban planning including climate change. </p>
<h2>From Paris to Quito</h2>
<p>The Paris agreement on climate change will come into effect in November 2016. Cities will be at the heart of achieving its aim to limit global warming to less than 2°C. Planning for a low-carbon and resilient urban future is now our greatest global challenge. It is critical to achieving emission reduction targets and planning cities for climate change. </p>
<p>After all, cities produce 76% of carbon dioxide emissions and account for 75% of <a href="https://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/article/navigating-urban-age-principles-innovations/">energy use</a> worldwide.</p>
<p>The focus is now on implementing the Paris agreement; that is where the <a href="http://citiscope.org/sites/default/files/h3/Habitat_III_New_Urban_Agenda_10_September_2016.pdf">New Urban Agenda</a>, proposed for agreement at UN Habitat III, comes into play. Key issues being discussed include affordable housing, urban transport, gender equity, empowerment of women and girls, poverty, and hunger in all its forms. Involving communities in the future and design of cities is essential. Better urban governance of our growing cities and urban regions is a core theme.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"787866414765998080"}"></div></p>
<p>Observing the range of activities here at Habitat III, it is impressive to see the significant engagement of the private sector as well as governments and NGOs. This mix of partnerships is vital if we are to make positive change in the planning of our cities. Global companies are present as well as local consultancies. They can clearly see there is a market for them in more sustainable futures. This brings great hope for the future. </p>
<p>The scientists are less happy, and are seeking greater engagement in future discussions. In the latest issue of Nature, the <a href="http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/1.20760!/menu/main/topColumns/topLeftColumn/pdf/538165a.pdf">commentary</a> says “Scientists must have a say in the future of cities” and argues that they should have been more involved in the Habitat III processes. Clearly, better connecting scientists with planners with communities is important in finding sustainable solutions. </p>
<p>A key component in improving city planning is sharing knowledge and expertise. Cities are often connected through global urban networks such as <a href="http://www.c40.org/">C40</a>, a network of megacities advocating for action on climate change, and the <a href="http://www.iclei.org/about/who-is-iclei.html">International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives</a>. </p>
<p>Another important strategy being presented is improving the <a href="http://cures.lmu.edu/our-programs/the-mediterranean-city-climate-change-consortium/">sharing of knowledge</a> and expertise between “like climate regions”. It is equally important to improve communication of the major urban challenges with wider audiences. </p>
<p>Researchers with the United Nations University developed an <a href="http://iigh.unu.edu/news/news/thrive-arts-folio-launched-online.html">art strategy</a> as part of the preparatory process for Habitat III, with the intention of stimulating thought and discussion on health and well-being in cities. </p>
<p>The overall message from UN Habitat III is that the sustainable planning and design of our cities and human settlements is fundamental to improving the health and well being of our urban communities and acting on climate change. Through that, we tackle the stark facts of urban pollution, our response to climate change, and the future liveability of our cities. </p>
<h2>Our moment to act</h2>
<p>We are living in a unique time for cities, with multiple UN agendas coming together at once: the UN <a href="http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/">Sustainable Development Goals</a>, the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/international/negotiations/paris/index_en.htm">Paris climate agreement</a>, <a href="http://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000071589.pdf">Sendai Framework for Risk Reduction</a> and the <a href="http://www.sids2014.org/">Small Island Developing States Partnerships Framework</a>. </p>
<p>National urban policies are seen as crucial to implementation of all these agreements. As the New Urban Agenda states: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the persistence of multiple forms of poverty, growing inequalities, and environmental degradation remain among the major obstacles to sustainable development worldwide. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Through better urban governance, we can make significant inroads to address the ongoing barriers to achieving more sustainable cities. The proposed agenda particularly highlights transportation and mobility as a priority to support action. </p>
<p>Habitat III offers an opportunity to raise global understanding of the enormous challenges facing cities, and a platform for nations to collaborate in developing more sustainable urban futures. This will require considerable effort from everyone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67125/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Barbara Norman currently receives external funding from the ACT Government and research grants from the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility and the Australian Research Council. Professor Norman is Chair of the ACT Climate Change Council and a member of the Accountability Roundtable and the Australian Labor Party. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Colin Reid has consulted for the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He was invited to participate, and financially supported to attend, Habitat III in Quito by the Habitat III Secretariat, New York, USA. </span></em></p>A report from Habitat III in Ecuador, where 50,000 delegates are trying to change the world.Barbara Norman, Chair of Urban & Regional Planning & Director of Canberra Urban & Regional Futures, University of CanberraJohn Colin Reid, Visual artist, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/655002016-10-11T14:33:10Z2016-10-11T14:33:10ZWhat is Habitat III and why does it matter? A beginner’s guide to the New Urban Agenda<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141215/original/image-20161011-12009-xxkfx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/simonmatzinger/12815810614/sizes/l">Simon Matzinger/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Next week, the city of Quito, Ecuador, plays host to the third ever United Nations conference on housing and sustainable urban development – also known as Habitat III. At this four-day international gathering, nation states are expected to agree on <a href="https://www2.habitat3.org/bitcache/97ced11dcecef85d41f74043195e5472836f6291?vid=588897&disposition=inline&op=view">the New Urban Agenda</a>, which will set out a global strategy on sustainable urban development for the next 20 years.</p>
<h2>What is it?</h2>
<p>The Habitat process was launched by the UN in 1976, when governments began to recognise the risks of rapid urbanisation: in particular, rising inequality, falling quality of life and unsustainable development. </p>
<p>The first conference, held in Vancouver, encouraged governments to adopt a territorial approach to their national development strategies, and to involve civil society organisations focusing on urban issues. It also established the first UN agency to be based in Africa: the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements – operated from Nairobi, Kenya – formed the foundation for the UN Programme on Human Settlements, or UN Habitat. </p>
<p>The second conference, held in Istanbul in 1996, was much bigger. It involved representatives from civil society in UN working groups, and produced a 229-page <a href="https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/istanbul-declaration.pdf">Habitat Agenda</a>. Nation states in the Habitat II process endorsed the “the universal goals of ensuring adequate shelter for all and making human settlements safer, healthier and more liveable, equitable, sustainable and productive”.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why does it matter?</h2>
<p>More than half of the world’s population now <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS">lives in urban areas</a>, and this figure is predicted to rise to almost 70% by 2050. As a result, cities have become focal points for addressing many of humanity’s greatest challenges. Economic inequalities have dramatically increased, and are heavily concentrated in urban areas: <a href="http://thecityfix.com/blog/upgrading-informal-settlements-urbanizing-world-slum-inclusive-readjustment-titling-tenure-property-rights-caleb-stevens/">almost one third</a> of city-dwellers live in informal settlements, such as slums. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141219/original/image-20161011-12002-1142u75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141219/original/image-20161011-12002-1142u75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141219/original/image-20161011-12002-1142u75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141219/original/image-20161011-12002-1142u75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141219/original/image-20161011-12002-1142u75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141219/original/image-20161011-12002-1142u75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141219/original/image-20161011-12002-1142u75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of Rio’s favelas, or slums.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stopherjones/15589676686/sizes/l">stopherjones/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cities are also responsible for <a href="https://theconversation.com/oslos-ambitious-climate-budget-sets-the-bar-for-other-cities-66452">70% of global CO₂ emissions</a> and two thirds of the world’s energy consumption, making them big contributors to climate change. And coastal human settlements are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. </p>
<p>In recent times, the international community has made several important global agreements, all of which emphasise the significance of urbanisation. It’s seen as both a challenge, and an opportunity to implement the UN’s 17 new <a href="http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html">Sustainable Development Goals</a> (SDGs), one of which <a href="http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-11-sustainable-cities-and-communities.html">specifically focuses</a> on creating sustainable cities and communities.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Who’s going?</h2>
<p>Habitat is a state-led process, so many world leaders and UN representatives will be at the conference. The UN also established a <a href="http://unhabitat.org/major-groups/">General Assembly of Partners</a> to encourage the participation of local authorities, grassroots and indigenous organisations, women’s and youth groups, as well as the private and charitable sectors. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141223/original/image-20161011-12031-1bg9jhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141223/original/image-20161011-12031-1bg9jhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141223/original/image-20161011-12031-1bg9jhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141223/original/image-20161011-12031-1bg9jhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141223/original/image-20161011-12031-1bg9jhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141223/original/image-20161011-12031-1bg9jhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141223/original/image-20161011-12031-1bg9jhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The man with the plan: UN-Habitat Executive Director Joan Clos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/98168367@N06/29151347403/sizes/k/">Ministry of Natural Resources - Rwanda/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What’s more, experts from all around the world were invited to make recommendations for the NUA, through <a href="https://www2.habitat3.org/the-new-urban-agenda/policy">ten policy units</a>. These groups examined a range of intersecting issues, including local government finance and urban ecology. Meetings and preparatory committees have been happening since 2014, in anticipation of the main event. </p>
<hr>
<h2>What’s on the agenda?</h2>
<p>The main topic of discussion will be the <a href="https://www2.habitat3.org/bitcache/97ced11dcecef85d41f74043195e5472836f6291?vid=588897&disposition=inline&op=view">Zero Draft of the New Urban Agenda</a> (NUA): a 24-page document, which outlines the nation states’ shared vision for a sustainable urban future. The NUA has undergone <a href="https://theconversation.com/phew-new-urban-agenda-clears-last-hurdle-before-habitat-iii-65217">three rounds of revisions</a> between May and September 2016, to iron out conflicts and reach a consensus between the UN nation states. </p>
<p>First and foremost, the draft emphasises the leading role of national governments in setting up national urban strategies. At a time when mayors are <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/give-cities-a-seat-at-the-top-table-1.20668">rising to prominence</a> as key leaders on the international stage, the draft does not explicitly mention what role these city leaders might play when it comes to implementing the NUA. </p>
<p>The draft also stresses the need to include local authorities, community and grassroots organisations and the private sector in urban development “when appropriate”, without providing much detail about when and how this might be. </p>
<p>The controversial <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/news/2016/09/historic-consensus-reached-right-city-new-urban-agenda">“right to the city”</a> is also enshrined in the document, calling on governments to create “cities for people, not for profit”, ensuring an inclusive, gender and age sensitive approach to city planning, as well as continuing efforts to reduce urban poverty.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Will it work?</h2>
<p>Unlike the Paris climate agreement or the SDGs, the NUA is non-binding – it merely provides guidelines for those involved in urban development. There is a <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/commentary/2016/09/can-we-actually-agree-indicators-measure-urban-development">notable lack of practical advice</a> about how the NUA should be carried out, and who is in charge of implementing it. The draft does recognise the need for producing evidence to inform the implementation of the NUA, but does not indicate how cities’ progress should be <a href="http://www.futureearth.org/blog/2016-sep-26/what-role-will-science-play-future-cities">measured and assessed</a>.</p>
<p>There needs to be adequate information and monitoring systems to provide relevant city-level data on key outcomes, such as levels of inequality and carbon emissions. And many nations still need to skill up planners to help with these efforts: according to the <a href="http://wcr.unhabitat.org/quick-facts/">2016 World Cities Report</a>, there are 38 planners for 100,000 inhabitats in the UK, compared with 1.44 in Nigeria and just 0.23 in India – two of the fastest-growing parts of the world. </p>
<p>In cities around the world, ordinary citizens, local leaders, civil society groups, community organisations, the private and charity sectors are already addressing global challenges. Good intentions will reach a dead end without proper financing schemes and efficient national urban strategies, which distribute skills and resources across sectors and levels of government. </p>
<p>The extent to which the NUA can pave the way to sustainable, inclusive and resilient urban futures remains uncertain. Outcomes will heavily depend on the willingness and capacity of governments and actors at every level to implement strategies that effectively address the global challenges we face; from climate change and rising inequality, to food security and displacement. </p>
<p><em>This is the first in a series of articles on publicly funded UK research at the UN Habitat III summit in Quito, Ecuador. It is a collaboration between the <a href="http://www.urbantransformations.ox.ac.uk/">Urban Transformations Network</a>, UK Economic and Social Research Council (UT-ESRC) and The Conversation.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65500/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Enora Robin is a researcher at the City Leadership Laboratory (UCL) and receives funding from EPSRC.
</span></em></p>This global conference will set out how cities should develop over the next 20 years, tackling some of humankind’s toughest issues.Enora Robin, PhD Candidate in Urban Governance (Cities, Networks and Knowledge Management), UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/626722016-10-10T10:48:11Z2016-10-10T10:48:11ZHere’s how to give people a greater say in their cities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140772/original/image-20161006-32723-1s01hpv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ladi/8132234707/sizes/l"> Daniel Ladenhauf/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.unfpa.org/urbanization">UN estimates that</a> more than half of the global population currently live in cities, and this figure is expected to balloon to five billion urban inhabitants by 2030. In both developed and developing countries, the fast pace of urban growth often overwhelms existing housing and infrastructure. This in turn has led to an expansion of informal settlements, expensive rent, the growth of household debt and the consolidation of power and revenue with developers and landlords. </p>
<p>With these issues in mind, political leaders, academic experts, civil society organisations and community representatives from UN member states are meeting at the <a href="https://habitat3.org/">Habitat III</a> conference in Quito, Equador, to develop strategies for managing an urban future, which they will define in the <a href="http://habitat3.org/programme/the-new-urban-agenda/">“New Urban Agenda”</a>.</p>
<p>In general, the people and groups proposing solutions to these problems have access to certain forms of capital – not just economic, but also <a href="http://schugurensky.faculty.asu.edu/moments/1986bourdieu.html">cultural or social</a>, political, intellectual and natural capital. Each of these offers a way to exercise power and access resources, using means such as education, social connections, political popularity and natural resources. Access to any of these forms of capital can be a way of influencing the urban agenda and contribute solutions to the problems of the city.</p>
<h2>Empowering politics</h2>
<p>The redevelopment of existing communities and the construction of new urban areas is frequently funded by private companies looking to make a high return on investment. This is achieved by high-value sales or rental rates. </p>
<p>Without regulation, these processes create conditions that exclude or disempower poorer people within cities; for example, by <a href="https://theconversation.com/public-spaces-are-going-private-and-our-cities-will-suffer-60460">limiting access to public spaces</a> or making rent and home ownership unaffordable. <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0143622816300789">One recent study</a> revealed that, compared to other groups of people, poorer renters move more frequently into disadvantaged areas, each time experiencing a decline in their living standards. </p>
<p>Yet there are ways to avoid these outcomes: at the <a href="https://lsecities.net/ua/">2016 Urban Age conference</a>, Barcelona mayor Ada Colau described her election as a way of leveraging political and social capital against financial capital. Strong social bonds between communities formed the background to her election, while grassroots campaigns against evictions and market forces in the city informed her mandate to govern.</p>
<p>Enhancing political capital is one way to challenge the urban agenda. To meet demand and solve overcrowding problems after World War I, the <a href="https://www.wien.gv.at/verwaltung/rathaus/">Vienna City Council</a> pursued an aggressive development plan. Housing construction, levied by taxes rather than credit from the banks, would allow the council to limit rent to 4% of an indvidual’s income, without the problem of paying off debt. To this day the city is lauded for its <a href="https://www.wien.gv.at/english/housing/promotion/pdf/socialhous.pdf">housing affordability</a> and <a href="http://pages.eiu.com/rs/783-XMC-194/images/Liveability_August2016.pdf">livability</a> and a number of <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/3119/AHURI_Research_Paper_International_measures_to_channel_investment_towards_affordable_rental_housing_Austrian_case_study.pdf">incentives</a> for financing affordable rental properties.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140759/original/image-20161006-32718-fazwg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140759/original/image-20161006-32718-fazwg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140759/original/image-20161006-32718-fazwg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140759/original/image-20161006-32718-fazwg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140759/original/image-20161006-32718-fazwg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140759/original/image-20161006-32718-fazwg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140759/original/image-20161006-32718-fazwg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Welcome home.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rogernewbrook/2301143832/sizes/o/">roger.newbrook/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As part of the original plan, the hundreds of buildings – called as “Wiener Gemeindebauten” – were constructed with kindergartens, clinics, libraries, laundries, parks and other public facilities. These facilities were not just convenient; they also improved the social capital of residents, giving them access to the amenities and services they needed to improve their lives and those of their children. </p>
<h2>Power to the people</h2>
<p>Social capital is another means of empowering people to influence the urban agenda. While banks and real estate analysts like measurable outcomes, many features of urban communities – such as a sense of beauty, belonging or safety – may be intangible and unquantifiable.</p>
<p>Take, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/graffiti-sao-paulo-brazil_us_56829a67e4b06fa688811a5a">for example</a>, a low-income community at Parque do Gato in Sao Paolo, which benefited from beautification strategies such as mural making. These efforts increased the community’s visibility in the city, which made it less vulnerable to removal. </p>
<p>This accords with <a href="http://www.domusweb.it/en/architecture/2016/08/03/beauty_value_and_survival_kunle_adeyemi.html">statements</a> made by Nigerian architect Kunye Adayemi at the Urban Age conference. When the community of Makoko in Lagos was labelled an “eyesore” by the government and earmarked for demolition, his intervention – a floating school made from local materials – empowered the community with an identity that attracted media interest and enhanced its stability.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140765/original/image-20161006-32691-19msmou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140765/original/image-20161006-32691-19msmou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140765/original/image-20161006-32691-19msmou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140765/original/image-20161006-32691-19msmou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140765/original/image-20161006-32691-19msmou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140765/original/image-20161006-32691-19msmou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140765/original/image-20161006-32691-19msmou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Makoko floating school.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/eager/8555385805/sizes/l">Forgemind Archmedia/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There’s also clear <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07293682.2012.678872">evidence</a> in favour of consulting the communities which are expected to use these housing or urban developments. Ideally, methods such as “social design” or “community engaged design” lead to plans which are specific to the community and its unique circumstances. </p>
<p>As a <a href="http://www.raco.cat/index.php/Waterfront/article/view/259235/346497">study</a> on the Wall of Remembrance by the University of Barcelona found, better consultation and involvement of communities in new projects greatly improves results. By offering people greater ownership over, and participation in, these developments, it’s more likely that they will accept and use them properly. </p>
<p>Different types of capital don’t necessarily have the same power to affect change. But when poorer people and communities exercise their social capital, it increases their capacity to negotiate with powerful state and market forces and improve their lives. For example, the <a href="http://youngfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/N_E_W_web.pdf">Local Well-being Project</a> – a partnership between The Young Foundation, the LSE and local authorities – reported higher well-being in three different areas in England where residents had the confidence to exercise control over local affairs. </p>
<p>People with access to capital will be most emboldened to influence the urban agenda on behalf of others. This capital takes many forms – intellectual, financial, social and political. For low income earners and vulnerable groups who may lack access to other forms of capital, access to social capital can be improved through consultation and thoughtful urban design. As cities grow, it’s crucial to consider intangible benefits such as beauty, community and safety, instead of having a narrow focus on short-term profit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62672/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>From 2011-2013 Philippa Nicole Barr received funding from the Australian federal government to complete post graduate research. </span></em></p>Here’s how social and political power can come together in cities, to counteract the focus on short-term profit.Philippa Nicole Barr, PhD Candidate, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/652172016-09-12T02:00:48Z2016-09-12T02:00:48ZPhew! New Urban Agenda clears last hurdle before Habitat III<p>Having run the diplomatic equivalent of a cross-country marathon, there was concern that negotiations on the New Urban Agenda might trip at the final hurdle. Three days of talks were needed, with negotiations continuing long into the night before agreement was reached on Saturday night in New York.</p>
<p>The agenda is a non-binding international agreement designed to shape urban development over the next two decades. It will be formally adopted at the UN <a href="https://www.habitat3.org">Habitat III</a> summit in Quito, Ecuador, from October 17-20, 2016.</p>
<p>Negotiations began in New York at the first preparatory meeting in September 2014. It was envisaged then, if everything went smoothly, that the final draft would be agreed at the third preparatory committee meeting in Surabaya, Indonesia, on July 25–27, 2016. The negotiators in Surabaya, however, could not reach consensus. Instead they punted the draft to a final intersessional meeting held in New York last week.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.habitat3.org/the-new-urban-agenda/roadmap">road to Quito</a> has been at times precarious and it is unclear how the agreement will be taken forward thereafter. It is a tremendous achievement, though, when you consider the highly contested terrain the international community has been able to negotiate to reach an agreement.</p>
<p>Credit should go to the dedicated team at UN-Habitat, the committed representatives from civil society (under the banner of the <a href="http://www.worldurbancampaign.org">World Urban Campaign</a>) and the member state negotiators. Although not without <a href="http://blog.felixdodds.net/2016/07/is-clos-killing-un-habitat.html">his critics</a>, the leadership from UN-Habitat executive director Joan Clos has also been significant in moving the agreement forward (or at least not messing things up).</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"773896073945485312"}"></div></p>
<h2>What is at stake?</h2>
<p>The disagreements were many, but I would like to point out three particular issues of contention.</p>
<p>First, it is recognised that no single UN agency can reasonably be given responsibility to implement such an all-encompassing agenda for the future of our cities. UN-Habitat hoped to have this role, but its motivation was to gain both influence and financial resources.</p>
<p>Second, co-operation from sub-national, city and local governments is a prerequisite for successful implementation. From the very start of negotiations, they have felt excluded from what is principally an agreement between nation-states. Sub-national government wants more say on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137309/original/image-20160912-13375-54xwb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137309/original/image-20160912-13375-54xwb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137309/original/image-20160912-13375-54xwb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137309/original/image-20160912-13375-54xwb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137309/original/image-20160912-13375-54xwb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137309/original/image-20160912-13375-54xwb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137309/original/image-20160912-13375-54xwb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137309/original/image-20160912-13375-54xwb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Joan Clos often talks about a paradigm shift to a global emphasis on ‘cities for people, not for profit’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/Joanclos">Twitter</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Third, civil society has fully engaged with the formulation of the agenda and successfully pushed for the principle of the “right to the city” to be included. </p>
<p>This was a huge and <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/news/2016/09/historic-consensus-reached-right-city-new-urban-agenda">historic victory for civil society</a> from a social justice perspective. This encapsulates the “paradigm shift” that Clos often talks about in terms of a new global emphasis on “cities for people, not for profit”.</p>
<p>All of the above will be the subject of intense analysis and discussion once the New Urban Agenda is adopted. If taken seriously, each has the potential to be transformative. </p>
<p>First, the UN system now needs to reflect on how best to promote urban sustainability. Second, sub-national governments need to reshape how they interact and influence the UN. Third, cities need to re-evaluate how they work with and for their people.</p>
<h2>A bumpy road ahead</h2>
<p>Realistically, the biggest headaches will start from Quito onwards. By far the most significant challenge is the timing. For the UN, 2015 was an apex year with the adoption of the 17 <a href="http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/">Sustainable Development Goals</a> (the 2030 Agenda) and the <a href="http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9485.php">Paris Agreement on Climate Change</a>.</p>
<p>In contrast, 2016 has been a year of intense discussion and reflection on how best to implement and fund those two world-changing initiatives. The fundamental predicament will therefore be how to squeeze the implementation of the New Urban Agenda into an already jam-packed and rapidly evolving global schema.</p>
<p>The situation is complicated by the fact that a new UN secretary-general will take up office from January 1, 2017. They will inherit a UN system that needs drastic reform to deliver effectively on the 2030 Agenda. Some <a href="https://www.un.org/ecosoc/sites/www.un.org.ecosoc/files/files/en/qcpr/ita-findings-and-conclusions-16-jun-2016.pdf">major reforms have been proposed</a>, and the new UN chief is going to have their hands full.</p>
<p>The central aim is to reduce fragmentation and duplication of effort. This implies that we need a multi-agency approach to the New Urban Agenda.</p>
<p>This was one of the sticking points in New York last week as negotiators struggled with two proposals on implementation responsibilities.</p>
<p>The first option, supported by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_77">the G77</a> (pushed by UN-Habitat host country Kenya), was for a strengthened UN-Habitat with universal representation in its governing council and greater financial resources.</p>
<p>The second, from the European Union and others who would be footing the bill, was a recommendation that the institutional framework to support the New Urban Agenda be determined in the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly. This would effectively put off the decision to late 2017.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://citiscope.org//habitatIII/news/2016/09/proposal-would-kick-habitat-iiis-main-sticking-point-un-general-assembly">compromise between these positions was reached</a> in New York. This gives UN-Habitat a period of grace to move forward from Quito until new arrangements are determined.</p>
<h2>Innovation should follow from Quito</h2>
<p>There is <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/news/2016/08/un-cities-rumoured-proposal-gains-steam">a proposal</a> that the best way forward would be to establish a new co-ordinating body – UN Cities – similar to <a href="http://www.unwater.org/about/ru/">UN Water</a> and <a href="http://www.un-energy.org">UN Energy</a>. </p>
<p>This would certainly be more in line with the way that funding is moving from donors to the UN system in recent years – known as <a href="http://mptf.undp.org">multi-partner trust funds</a> – with the aim of increasing agency co-ordination.</p>
<p>An initiative like UN-Cities could also provide a more effective framework (or a clean slate) for how the UN works with sub-national government. Another option could be a <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/commentary/2016/07/united-nations-risks-stifling-its-own-progress-sustainable">UN Council for Cities</a> and/or a <a href="http://www.globalparliamentofmayors.org">Global Parliament of Mayors</a>. Both represent a significant departure from the practice to date and would likely take some time to become a reality.</p>
<p>While these global-level institutional shell games play out, perhaps we may end up concluding that the most significant outcome from Quito is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-habitat-iii-defend-the-human-right-to-the-city-57576">emphasis on the right to the city</a>.</p>
<p>There is a rich intellectual tradition reaching back to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Lefebvre">Henri Lefebvre’s</a> 1968 book, <em>Le Droit à la ville</em>. If seriously taken forward, the notion of the right to the city – essentially a human-rights approach to city governance, development and sustainability – would bring into focus a wide array of social justice issues. This includes how we deal with homelessness, urban poverty, gentrification and the privatisation of public space.</p>
<p>Can this transformation really happen, or are we doomed to repeat the follies of <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/outcomedocuments/agenda21">Agenda 21</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/kyoto-protocol-fails-get-ready-for-a-hotter-world-10742">Kyoto Protocol</a>?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65217/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Barrett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two years of marathon negotiations have finally yielded agreement in last-minute meetings in New York on the New Urban Agenda to be adopted at the Habitat III summit in Quito in October.Brendan Barrett, Research Fellow/Research Coordinator, UN Global Compact Cities Programme, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/636392016-09-08T04:03:27Z2016-09-08T04:03:27ZUrban food systems may be just a ‘side dish’ at Habitat III<p>The year 2016 is crucial for both food and cities. In October, UN member states will convene for the <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/explainer/what-habitat-iii">Habitat III</a> <a href="https://www.uclg.org/en/issues/habitat-iii">conference in Quito</a>, Ecuador, to discuss <a href="https://www.habitat3.org/">guidelines for sustainable urban development</a> for the next 20 years.</p>
<p>In relation to food, 2016 has seen increased interest in bringing food to centre stage of many non-traditional domains. For example: this is the <a href="http://www.fao.org/pulses-2016/en/">International Year</a> of <a href="https://theconversation.com/green-beans-why-pulses-are-the-eco-friendly-option-for-feeding-and-saving-the-world-64014">the Pulses</a>; food waste is getting more attention, such as the announcement of the first global standard to <a href="http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2016/06/un-announces-first-ever-global-standard-to-measure-food-loss-and-waste/">measure food loss and waste</a>; and food and agriculture lie at the very heart of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/infographic-how-are-we-progressing-on-the-sustainable-development-goals-45441">Sustainable Development Goals</a> (SDGs). </p>
<p>At the 2016 Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (<a href="http://www.gffa-berlin.de/en/">GFFA</a>), UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon <a href="http://www.un.org/press/en/2016/sgsm17457.doc.htm">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Ensuring that everyone in expanding urban areas has access to nutritious food is critical to achieving the goal of zero hunger set out in the 2030 [SDG] Agenda. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.fao.org/ag/humannutrition/23781-0e8d8dc364ee46865d5841c48976e9980.pdf">Sustainable diets</a> are gaining traction, and many governments are demonstrating <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/1252/text">high-level commitment</a>.</p>
<h2>Will the new urban agenda put food on the table?</h2>
<p>On the road to Quito, the zero draft of the <a href="http://www.worldurbancampaign.org/habitat-iii-zero-draft-new-urban-agenda">New Urban Agenda</a> bears only oblique references to food systems. </p>
<p>Food (security) has been “sprinkled” over physical and social infrastructure, natural resources and ecosystems, sustainable consumption, resilience, urban planning, land and mobility. It is conspicuously missing from urban basic services and altogether from heritage and culture. </p>
<p>This omission has occurred despite common knowledge of food’s profound impacts. It shapes rural landscapes, provides spaces for buying, selling and eating food in cities, and is integral to everyday individual and collective identities. </p>
<p>If the New Urban Agenda carries a promise for change, sustainable and equitable food systems in cities will perhaps only be a side dish at Quito.</p>
<h2>Cities’ role in food systems is growing</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.milanurbanfoodpolicypact.org/">Milan Urban Food Policy Pact</a> is testament to the increasing realisation of the need for urban planners to make food systems central in city planning. More than half of humanity lives in urban areas. </p>
<p>According to the UN, nearly <a href="https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2014-Highlights.pdf">70% of the global population</a> will live in cities by 2050, making urbanisation one of the 21st century’s most transformative trends. </p>
<p>Of the 124 signatories to the Milan Pact, Melbourne is the only Australian signatory. Although the pact’s framework for action is voluntary, it provides strategic opt ions to those cities aiming to achieve more sustainable food systems. </p>
<p>Melbourne is also part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/has-the-100-resilient-cities-challenge-benefited-melbourne-60307">100 Resilient Cities</a> project, which sees food shortages as a potential threat to urban resilience. </p>
<p>Increasing recognition of the multiple dimensions of food in cities is driving the urban food debate. It encompasses nutrition, ethics and social justice, and sustainability. </p>
<p>In Canada, the US, South America, the UK and a few cases in Australia (notably Melbourne), municipal governments are increasingly seeking ways to promote synergistic relationships between food consumers and producers. But this process remains sporadic and non-systemic.</p>
<h2>Australian cities are complacent about food</h2>
<p>Australians are predominantly <a href="https://infrastructure.gov.au/infrastructure/pab/soac/files/2015_SoAC_Chapter_2.pdf">urban dwellers</a>. More than 80% of the population lives in the 20 largest cities. </p>
<p>As well as the horde of other issues for urban food systems, Australia has one of the most concentrated food retail sectors in the world dominated by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-is-our-grocery-market-one-of-the-most-concentrated-in-the-world-16520">supermarket duopoly</a>, significant <a href="https://theconversation.com/nutrition-is-key-to-closing-the-aboriginal-life-expectancy-gap-32632">health disparities</a> between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and a serious and growing issue of <a href="https://theconversation.com/melbourne-wastes-200-kg-of-food-per-person-a-year-its-time-to-get-serious-60236">food waste</a>. </p>
<p>All of the SDGs have targets that are directly or indirectly related to the daily work of regional and local governments, the closest administrative units to communities. In 2015, there were 571 local governing bodies across Australia. This is the level of government best placed to link the global goals with local communities.</p>
<p>It is at the municipal level that the socioeconomic and environmental problems associated with food systems first become evident. In Queensland, for example, the 2011 floods <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-015-9603-1">showed the potential impact of disaster</a> on urban food systems. </p>
<p>Despite a renewed <a href="https://theconversation.com/hopes-of-a-new-urban-age-survive-ministers-fall-52975">national focus on cities</a> in Australia, food systems remain a secondary consideration. Neither the Australian Local Government Association (<a href="http://alga.asn.au/?ID=14499&Menu=44,469">ALGA</a>) nor the Planning Institute of Australia (<a href="https://www.planning.org.au/aboutpia/strategic-plan">PIA</a>) has food for the cities in their strategic plans. Researchers such as <a href="http://www.soacconference.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Burton-Environment.pdf">Paul Burton</a> and <a href="http://sydneyfoodfairness.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Food-Security-_NWMR_Local-Government_Literature-Review-Final-2011_10_17.pdf">Meg Montague</a> allude to the “complacent attitude” to urban food systems in Australia. </p>
<p>The City of Melbourne is notable in promoting integrated local government planning on key factors that influence food systems – transport, housing, economic development and land use. Several local governments have trialled micro-level initiatives to improve health and reduce inequities, or reduce ecological footprints. Most cities are lagging, though, when it comes to food systems. </p>
<h2>Battle will be won or lost in cities</h2>
<p>Food systems are perhaps not as visible as other areas of urban development. They are, however, an essential element that involves many aspects of cities. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>transport and infrastructure (connecting consumers, retailers and producers);</p></li>
<li><p>housing (access to affordable nutritious food);</p></li>
<li><p>recreation;</p></li>
<li><p>economy (food sector businesses and employment); and</p></li>
<li><p>culture and identity.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Food is a new policy arena for city governments, but cannot be separated from housing, water and sanitation, energy, employment and all the other rights related to a life of dignity that local governments promote. Urban food systems are poorly understood, though. Often there is no clear jurisdiction or mandate by which city planners can manage these systems.</p>
<p>The challenge is to broaden the scope of policy debates beyond food supply chains and urban agriculture, to include strategic plans and reforms to tackle food systems. </p>
<p>This could help to identify strategic leverage points that can affect the way food business is done in cities and have significant impacts on diet-related diseases, large urban carbon footprints, food waste, social injustice and the negative impacts of supermarket power. </p>
<p>Indeed, the battle for sustainable development <a href="http://www.un.org/press/en/2015/dsgsm874.doc.htm">will be won or lost in cities</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63639/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Lawrence receives funding from the Australian Research Council (Project No. DP 160101318, the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2010-330-00159) and the Norwegian Research Council FORFOOD Project No 220691</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Grace Muriuki does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The draft agenda for the UN urban development conference in Quito neglects the food systems on which the wellbeing of the world’s 4 billion city dwellers depends.Dr Grace Muriuki, Program Manager, Food Systems Program, Global Change Institute, The University of QueenslandGeoffrey Lawrence, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/634992016-09-04T20:12:29Z2016-09-04T20:12:29ZHabitat III: the biggest conference you’ve probably never heard of<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135721/original/image-20160829-17851-qlwz9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A distinctive feature of the New Urban Agenda is that it redefines informal settlements, such as Dharavi in Mumbai, India, as an asset based on their potential to promote economic growth.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/yglvoices/6519884373/">YGLvoices/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>More than 25,000 delegates will meet in Quito, Ecuador, in October to set out the United Nations’ <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/explainer/2015/06/what-new-urban-agenda">New Urban Agenda</a> for member states. The <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/explainer/what-habitat-iii">Habitat III</a> conference will mandate the UN’s work in cities and settlements for the next 20 years. But Australia, one of the <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS?year_high_desc=true">world’s most urbanised nations</a>, is yet to play a major role in negotiations. </p>
<p>If you haven’t heard of the Habitat conference series, you’re not alone. Steered by one of the UN’s smaller organisations – <a href="http://unhabitat.org/">UN-Habitat</a> – it is the key negotiation process within the UN for planning the development of cities and human settlements. </p>
<p>Unlike the annual “<a href="http://unfccc.int/bodies/body/6383.php">Conference of the Parties</a>” held by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, these events <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/explainer/2015/06/whats-history-habitat-process">take place only once every 20 years</a>. The Habitat conference has been held twice previously: in Istanbul in 1996, and in Vancouver in 1976.</p>
<p>Since then, humanity has crossed an urbanisation milestone. Half the world’s population now lives in cities. At the time of Habitat I, <a href="http://mirror.unhabitat.org/cdrom/docs/WUF1.pdf">just over one-third</a> were urban dwellers. Habitat III and the New Urban Agenda therefore represents a watershed moment for urban development globally. </p>
<h2>Setting the New Urban Agenda</h2>
<p>The 1996 <a href="http://www.un-documents.net/ha-4.htm">Habitat Agenda</a> called for sustainable development and access to adequate shelter. These goals have driven progress in many places. For instance, provision of adequate housing is now included in many national constitutions. </p>
<p>The Habitat Agenda also formed a platform for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), agreed in 2000. The MDGs expired in 2015 and <a href="https://theconversation.com/weve-reached-the-end-of-the-millennium-development-goals-period-so-are-children-better-off-52122">were superseded</a> by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/infographic-how-are-we-progressing-on-the-sustainable-development-goals-45441">Sustainable Development Goals</a> (SDGs). These goals lie at the centre of the UN’s <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld">2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development</a>. </p>
<p>Habitat III, unlike Habitat II, builds out of these targets, not the other way around. The New Urban Agenda is therefore aiming to implement these goals in cities, particularly <a href="http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/cities/">SDG 11</a>: to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135760/original/image-20160829-17845-1behgah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135760/original/image-20160829-17845-1behgah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135760/original/image-20160829-17845-1behgah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135760/original/image-20160829-17845-1behgah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135760/original/image-20160829-17845-1behgah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135760/original/image-20160829-17845-1behgah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135760/original/image-20160829-17845-1behgah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135760/original/image-20160829-17845-1behgah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The New Urban Agenda will be finalised in Quito, Ecuador, the third city in 40 years to host the Habitat conference.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jchification/24484961539/in/photolist-DiDQ2i-FqGXU2-BQQwbm-yCK9FL-xVnLBG-yE6orb-yCK6jq-GqoSeb-BhKZMp-FiAJGo-GqoWRN-EkvuZ7-GwhReA-G9r2s1-GsPyXV-GcPS5G-FDhDop-FD5aG7-Fqx6F5-FDhQdF-CUCwvG-Gf8FCk-Gf9JYX-FqHrCP-FVSWmW-Gf9Gwn-Gf8ZBX-GiGeWS-GkZs4k-xRVJgF-FqwvbJ-FqHiSD-DsrpPg-x1yG9V-FqHLNT-FqHyLX-AGDHqR-Gf9N5X-FqxpC7-wHS75D-wZ4Hcv-LkxAL7-KyfYKT-KyfUka-Kt6U7J-LcApef-LcAoWw-KiE8QG-Kk3AeK-JYJ6kf">John Haxby/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The current version of the agenda, the “<a href="http://citiscope.org/sites/default/files/h3/Draft_outcome_document_Habitat_III_Conference_May_6_2016.pdf">zero draft</a>”, was released at the end of July 2016, having undergone a series of revisions at preparatory negotiations. Unusually for the UN, this included direct feedback from civil society and other stakeholders, following public release of the draft. </p>
<p>The draft <a href="https://www.habitat3.org/the-new-urban-agenda">New Urban Agenda</a> recognises that decisions about how we house, feed and mobilise urban populations will have a critical impact on human wellbeing and sustainability. Key focus areas include guiding national urban policies and systems of urban governance. The draft also has a strong emphasis on citizen participation and democratic processes.</p>
<p>What sets the agenda apart from its predecessors is the elevation of pressing global issues, such as urban informality, gender equity and disaster and climate resilience. It also recognises cities as drivers of economic and social development. </p>
<p>It is estimated that <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/urbanization/urban-world-mapping-the-economic-power-of-cities">70% of global economic activity</a> is in cities. Cities also account for more than <a href="http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/media/weowebsite/2008-1994/weo2008.pdf">70% of greenhouse gas emissions</a>. The agenda will therefore be critical in achieving the <a href="http://www.cop21paris.org/">COP21 targets</a> agreed in Paris last year.</p>
<p>The current draft is not without controversy. Inclusion of the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/will-habitat-iii-defend-the-human-right-to-the-city-57576">Right to the City</a>” has already stalled talks. And the <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/news/2016/07/final-talks-fail-deliver-consensus-new-urban-agenda">future role of UN-Habitat</a> is being <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/news/2016/07/will-new-urban-agenda-define-future-un-habitat">hotly contested</a>. </p>
<p>In its current form, the agenda redefines informal settlements and sectors as assets with the capacity to promote economic growth. It also recognises the right to equal access to jobs, urban infrastructure and affordable housing, emphasising design, participation and empowerment in meeting the challenges of informal settlements.</p>
<p>The key challenge for the New Urban Agenda will be distributing implementation to the thousands of cities that need development assistance across the world. Crucially, it is unclear who will monitor and evaluate progress, and how.</p>
<h2>Australia missing in action</h2>
<p>Unlike the Paris Agreement, the New Urban Agenda is not intended to be a legally binding document. Instead, it aims to provide guidance to member states and UN agencies. However, several nations are yet to engage with the Habitat III process, either through preparatory meetings or by <a href="https://www.habitat3.org/the-new-urban-agenda/regions/Asia-and-the-Pacific">submitting country-level urban reports</a>. </p>
<p>The Australian government has so far been absent from the Habitat III process. In regional thematic meetings the Australian chair has remained empty, despite our heavily urbanised population, <a href="https://dfat.gov.au/about-us/publications/Documents/economic-infrastructure-development-strategy.pdf">regional investment in urban development</a>, and urban policy expertise. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"725344392249266176"}"></div></p>
<p>The agenda represents a key opportunity to reflect on Australia’s role in engaging with pressing urban development questions at home and abroad. </p>
<p>Establishment of Australia’s first <a href="https://theconversation.com/urban-policy-could-the-federal-government-finally-get-cities-47858">minister for cities</a> by the Turnbull government in 2015 was seen as a strong platform for redefining an Australian national urban policy. However, the portfolio was short-lived, being downgraded to an assistant ministry <a href="http://architectureau.com/articles/minister-for-cities-lost-in-reshuffle/">six months later</a>. </p>
<p>Australian cities face many challenges associated with sustainability and population growth. These include housing affordability and deficits in provision of essential infrastructure and services. </p>
<p>Stronger federal government leadership on national and international urban policy could promote economic prosperity and the sustainability of urban settlements at home. It could also improve Australia’s ability to engage with our Asia-Pacific neighbours on shared urban challenges, such as urban migration, the health and social impacts of climate change, and managing environmental resources for current and future generations.</p>
<p>More than 30 representatives of Australian non-governmental organisations, municipalities, peak bodies and universities are registered to attend Habitat III. However, it is not yet clear whether the government will be participating in the Quito negotiations.</p>
<p>Despite its challenges, the New Urban Agenda is persuasive. It will inspire urban actors to champion its cause and drive its implementation. It will undoubtedly be used to frame funding policies of important bodies like the <a href="http://www.undp.org/">UN Development Program</a>, the <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/">World Bank</a> and <a href="http://www.adb.org/">Asian Development Bank</a>. </p>
<p>Fulfilling our UN member state role in Habitat III is an opportunity not to be missed. Through Quito, we can reinvigorate our national urban policy, build our regional profile and leverage and export our urban expertise. But, more importantly, by taking our seat at the table we will be playing our part in the transition of humanity into a sustainable, urbanised world.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles about Habitat III <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/habitat-iii-26850">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63499/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hayley Henderson receives an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) from the Australian Research Council (ARC). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexei Trundle receives research funding from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and an APA scholarship from the Australian Government. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>André Stephan receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hesam Kamalipour receives IPRS and APA scholarships from the Australian Government. He is also a Doctoral Academy member at the Melbourne Social Equity Institute (MSEI).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie Lowe receives funding from the NHMRC and National Environmental Science Programme </span></em></p>More than 25,000 delegates will meet in Quito in October to set out a New Urban Agenda for the UN, to be implemented over the next 20 years. But Australia is yet to play a major role in the process.Hayley Henderson, PhD Candidate in Urban Planning, The University of MelbourneAlexei Trundle, PhD Candidate, Australian-German Climate & Energy College, The University of MelbourneAndré Stephan, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of MelbourneHesam Kamalipour, PhD Candidate and Research Assistant in Urban Design, The University of MelbourneMelanie Lowe, Research Fellow, McCaughey VicHealth Community Wellbeing Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/575762016-04-27T04:03:02Z2016-04-27T04:03:02ZWill Habitat III defend the human right to the city?<p>Luar Batang, one of Jakarta’s oldest waterfront squatter areas, is being flattened. Residents and their homes <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-09/jakarta%27s-poorest-forced-to-leave-luar-batang-to-boost-tourism/7312888">will be removed</a> to free up flood-prone land and access to the city for tourists. Thousands of people will be evicted, disrupting if not destroying livelihoods, jobs, homes and long-established social networks.</p>
<p>Like the illegal settlements in <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-24/jakarta-demolition-of-kalijodo-leaves-hundreds-facing-eviction/7194330">Kalijodo</a> district, Luar Batang has received global attention for the heavy-handiness of the state-led intervention. Yet the decision to demolish a community built on a unique combination of circumstance, place and people is unlikely to be reversed.</p>
<p>The Luar Batang story is not exclusive to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakarta">Jakarta</a>. In many cities in the Asia-Pacific and developing countries, <a href="http://www.urbangateway.org/system/files/habitat-iii-issue-paper-22_informal-settlements-2.0.pdf">informal or unplanned settlements</a> continue to grow and are seen as a blight on city development. </p>
<p>These “parasites” of the city are on land that the formal planning system deemed unsuitable for development. Yet state and private developers now see them as a relatively easy land gain to reap higher financial returns. </p>
<p>Rather than engage in <a href="http://unhabitat.org/urban-themes/housing-slum-upgrading/">strategies to upgrade settlements</a>, some policymakers want them “out of sight, out of mind”. The settlements’ structure, people and image do not conform to middle-class and private developer views.</p>
<h2>Informal settlement isn’t the exception</h2>
<p>Globally, informal settlements in urban areas are growing at an unprecedented rate. In 2016, <a href="http://unhabitat.org/about-us/">UN-Habitat</a> estimated that <a href="https://www.habitat3.org/pretoria">around one billion people live in slums</a> (an extreme type of informal settlement). That’s about <a href="http://www.urbangateway.org/system/files/habitat-iii-issue-paper-22_informal-settlements-2.0.pdf">one-quarter of the world’s urban population</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119591/original/image-20160421-8030-uv7g17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119591/original/image-20160421-8030-uv7g17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119591/original/image-20160421-8030-uv7g17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119591/original/image-20160421-8030-uv7g17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119591/original/image-20160421-8030-uv7g17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119591/original/image-20160421-8030-uv7g17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119591/original/image-20160421-8030-uv7g17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119591/original/image-20160421-8030-uv7g17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">About one-quarter of the world’s urban residents have created communities in slums.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Jones</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A United Nations report, <a href="http://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/The%20State%20of%20Asian%20and%20Pacific%20Cities%202015.pdf">The State of Asian and Pacific Cities 2015</a>, noted that the Asia-Pacific region has gained a reputation as home to the world’s biggest and most populated slums and informal settlements. While the urban middle class has grown and good gains have been made in reducing urban disparities, including poverty, basic <a href="http://unhabitat.org/urban-themes/human-rights/">human rights</a> remain elusive for people in such settlements.</p>
<p>In October 2016, the <a href="https://www.habitat3.org/">UN Habitat III Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development</a> takes place in Quito, Ecuador. This global event happens only every 20 years.</p>
<p>Habitat III offers policymakers the chance to adopt a better-managed, more humane approach to the complexities of <a href="http://citiscope.org/habitatIII/commentary/2015/09/un-habitats-vision-sustainable-urbanization-good-not-enough">urbanisation</a>. <a href="http://unhabitat.org/regional-and-thematic-meetings/">Regional meetings and other laudable initiatives</a> have been taking place for the last 18 months. Government, civil society and other stakeholders have been working towards a <a href="https://www.habitat3.org/the-new-urban-agenda/">New Urban Agenda</a> to be debated and adopted at Habitat III.</p>
<p>With more than <a href="http://unhabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Brochure-Habitat-III-.pdf">54% of the world’s population now urban</a>, informal settlements are burgeoning. The challenges are daunting. So where will informal settlements and the people who live in them be placed at Habitat III?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119584/original/image-20160421-8003-ybw7rm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119584/original/image-20160421-8003-ybw7rm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119584/original/image-20160421-8003-ybw7rm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119584/original/image-20160421-8003-ybw7rm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119584/original/image-20160421-8003-ybw7rm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119584/original/image-20160421-8003-ybw7rm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119584/original/image-20160421-8003-ybw7rm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119584/original/image-20160421-8003-ybw7rm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How we view places like kampung Lebak Siliwangi in Bandung, Indonesia, largely determines how the people who live in them are treated.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Jones</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Seismic shift in attitudes is needed</h2>
<p>The emerging agenda is strongly centred on the Habitat III policy theme of the <a href="http://www.csb.gov.tr/db/habitat/editordosya/file/POLICY%20PAPER-SON/PU1-right%20to%20the%20city%20and%20cities%20for%20all.pdf">“Right to the City and Cities for All”</a>. The sociologist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_the_city">Henri Lefebvre</a> proposed the “Right to the City” in 1968. <a href="http://davidharvey.org/media/righttothecity.pdf">David Harvey</a> developed the concept in the new millennium as a means to reshape urbanisation by enhancing or extending access to human rights. </p>
<p>The Right to the City agenda requires a monumental shift in society attitudes. It requires us to reduce <a href="http://www.csb.gov.tr/db/habitat/editordosya/file/POLICY%20PAPER-SON/PU1-right%20to%20the%20city%20and%20cities%20for%20all.pdf">sociospatial injustices, achieve sociospatial inclusion, increase equity</a>, improve multi-level governance and, importantly, respect the sociocultural diversity that increasingly defines cities.</p>
<p>Therein lies a major hurdle. The <a href="http://www.alnap.org/resource/20567">rights of the people in informal settlements</a> are being taken away or withheld at many levels, such as access to safe water, sanitation and educational opportunities. As well, their non-compliance with the norms and values of prevailing formal planning – such as land tenure and where and how they build houses, construct spaces and undertake social activities – means they have reduced rights to a city.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119588/original/image-20160421-8007-krra2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119588/original/image-20160421-8007-krra2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119588/original/image-20160421-8007-krra2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119588/original/image-20160421-8007-krra2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119588/original/image-20160421-8007-krra2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119588/original/image-20160421-8007-krra2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119588/original/image-20160421-8007-krra2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119588/original/image-20160421-8007-krra2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Should residents of Lebak Siliwangi have any less right to housing, water and sanitation because of where they live?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Jones</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Right to the City idea challenges us first and foremost as individuals to decide what basic human rights – such as land, housing, water and sanitation – are “non-negotiable” and “must haves” in city development. Changing how informal settlements and the city are viewed requires a multi-scale and multi-institutional policy underpinned by a major coalition of support.</p>
<p>For teachers in the privileged position of educating university students who will one day be urban planners and designers in a multicultural world, for example, this requires major realignment of planning education. We need to integrate civic responsibility and the broader Right to the City into current approaches.</p>
<p><a href="http://sydney.edu.au/news/architecture/274.html?newsstoryid=14907">Initiatives by Australian universities</a> to work with tertiary institutions in <a href="http://portal.kemlu.go.id/sydney/Pages/Embassies.aspx?IDP=105&l=en">developing countries</a> and interested stakeholders are small but important steps. These opportunities to share ideas, work together in the field and experience everyday life in informal settlements let graduates see first-hand what the Right to the City means. This opens eyes to future international development opportunities. </p>
<p>As noted in a recent assessment of the <a href="https://www.academia.edu/12374166/Slums_Improvement_Program_Through_Cultural_And_Tourism_Planning_Supported_by_Public-Private_Partnership_The_Case_Study_of_Greater_Pulosari_Area_Bandung_West_Java_Indonesia">Pulosari kampung</a> (“village”) in Bandung, Indonesia, we need to “<a href="https://www.academia.edu/22615818/Paul_Jones_Unpacking_Informal_Urbanism_Cover_22_JAN">step outside our comfort zone on how we view and understand the city</a>”.</p>
<p>The “Right to the City” debate at Habitat III is important for Australia in how it positions itself working with developing countries and with the greater issue of human rights for the next 20 years as mainstreamed into the urban realm. </p>
<p>For example, recognising the role that informal settlements play in providing affordable housing – rather than seeing them as an aesthetic problem – is part of changing society’s blinkered view of an increasingly complex urban world. </p>
<p>With Habitat III looming as a landmark global event, will informal settlements be taken seriously as people seek a reasonable life in the city? What impact will this have on the urban divide?</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles about Habitat III <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/habitat-iii-26850">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57576/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The world’s informal settlements are growing at an unprecedented rate, with about one in four urban dwellers living in slums. We need to rethink how we view and deal with these people and places.Paul Jones, Associate Professor, Urban & Regional Planning, Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/533852016-01-27T00:22:34Z2016-01-27T00:22:34ZThe ethical city: an idea whose time has come<p>Globally, there is intense discussion about the future of urban life through the <a href="http://www.worldurbancampaign.org">World Urban Campaign</a>. The central proposition is that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… the battle for a more sustainable future will be won or lost in cities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Presumably, this is predicated on the fact that 54% of the world’s people live in cities, where 70% of global GDP is generated. By 2050 the urban population will have <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-urbanization-prospects.html">risen to 66%</a>. </p>
<p>In parallel, following the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-paris-climate-agreement-at-a-glance-50465">Paris climate agreement</a>, major cities <a href="http://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org">are committing</a> to measures designed to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The poster for this campaign should read “Coming to your city soon”.</p>
<p>It is clear 2016 will be the “urban year” as the global community prepares for the <a href="https://www.habitat3.org">Habitat III summit</a> in Quito, Ecuador, this October.</p>
<p>At Habitat III, governments will agree an urban agenda to guide global urban development over the next 20 years. The agenda is taking shape through preparatory meetings (the next one is in Indonesia in July), as well as regional and thematic meetings.</p>
<p>A series of 28 <a href="http://www.worldurbancampaign.org/urban-thinkers-campus">urban thinkers campuses</a> has been organised across the globe, running until February 2016. One of the last of these is in Melbourne, Australia.</p>
<h2>A world of challenges</h2>
<p>We are all too familiar with the problems cities commonly face. These include rising house prices putting ownership beyond the reach of many, suburban sprawl, long commutes, traffic congestion, social problems, isolation and polarisation.</p>
<p>At the same time, Australian cities have real strengths. This is reflected in their performance in various rankings on <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-green-is-our-infrastructure-helping-cities-assess-its-value-for-long-term-liveability-50528">liveability</a> and quality of urban life. But we ought not assume that this situation is <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-among-the-most-liveable-nations-but-it-lags-other-countries-on-sustainability-47572">sustainable</a>, or that we can lock in liveability.</p>
<p>Globally, cities face even greater challenges. In the global south, if you live in a city there is a one-in-three chance that you live in a slum.</p>
<p>Also, despite <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-the-millennium-development-goals-hit-their-targets-36527">progress</a> on the Millennium Development Goals, poverty is still our greatest urban concern. It is not limited to the south and has been growing across cities globally since the global financial crisis. Limited financial resources constrain the capacity of city administrations to respond to these challenges, especially in the face of austerity measures.</p>
<p>While that may seem like a pretty glum picture, there are reasons to be hopeful.</p>
<p>In a survey of 20 cities last year for the UN <a href="http://www.citiesprogramme.org">Global Compact Cities Program</a> we identified many examples of civic leadership and urban innovations.</p>
<p>Related to this, in the US, Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley at Brookings have described these innovations as a “<a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/books/2013/the-metropolitan-revolution">metropolitan revolution</a>”. They argue that local leaders are doing the hard work of growing the job market and making their communities more prosperous. They cite examples in New York, Portland, Houston and Miami.</p>
<p>In Europe, the Norwegian city of Oslo <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/oslo-first-capital-city-divest-fossil-fuels-plans-halve-emissions-by-2020-1524753">plans to be fossil-fuel-free</a> by 2030. Utrecht is the first of several cities in the Netherlands <a href="http://qz.com/473779/several-dutch-cities-want-to-give-residents-a-no-strings-attached-basic-income/">planning trials</a> in which they pay citizens a universal basic income.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108924/original/image-20160122-9732-11opqot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108924/original/image-20160122-9732-11opqot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108924/original/image-20160122-9732-11opqot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108924/original/image-20160122-9732-11opqot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108924/original/image-20160122-9732-11opqot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108924/original/image-20160122-9732-11opqot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108924/original/image-20160122-9732-11opqot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108924/original/image-20160122-9732-11opqot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Oslo aims to be a fossil-fuel-free city by 2030.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/newsoresund/10590568265">flickr/News Oresund</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Across the English Channel, Bristol is seeking to transform the economy by introducing a local currency. The <a href="http://bristolpound.org/">Bristol pound</a> is designed to strengthen business relationships within the city and to build trust.</p>
<p>What these cities and their leaders have recognised is that “business as usual” will not get us to where we need to be.</p>
<p>Technological innovation, institutional reform, financial investment and regulatory change are all part of the answer, especially as we seek to achieve development goals while ensuring we do not undermine our environmental sustainability. However, we may need to dig deeper. Something that we neglect is the need for changes in values at both the societal and individual levels.</p>
<p>Twisting Einstein’s famous quote somewhat, it is possible to assert that “we can’t solve problems by using the same value system that created them”.</p>
<p>Here is where the notion of the ethical city comes in.</p>
<h2>What is the ethical city?</h2>
<p>Ethics is concerned with what is “right, fair, just or good”, not necessarily what is most accepted as normal or expedient.</p>
<p>Most people will have heard of the term ethical corporation. It suggests that such businesses place certain key values and practices at the centre of their operations. This could include fairness, integrity, respect for the environment, elimination of discrimination, and so on.</p>
<p>Internationally, some of these key values are elaborated in the ten principles of the UN <a href="https://www.unglobalcompact.org">Global Compact</a>. Thousands of companies have signed up. Mayors of cities and governors of regions can also sign up to these principles by sending a letter to the UN secretary-general.</p>
<p>Yet the term ethical city is rarely used, even though ethical considerations underpin how we plan and manage our cities. And the ethical values underpinning the vast majority of our decisions about city life are rarely made explicit.</p>
<p>Even so, in most cities we already see various measures designed to support ethical governance. These range from internal commissions to audit and check on performance through to measures to promote transparency and community participation in decision-making.</p>
<p>Urban leaders, administrators, planners, engineers and others are aware of the ethical ramifications of their work, have guidance to refer to and training when needed. Although sometimes people fall foul, the vast majority do not because they are seen to be doing the right thing.</p>
<p>But we must recognise that there is a dominant view of “business as usual” based on an embedded set of values. Good examples include how most cities are designed primarily to accommodate the car, how we work in the CBD and live in the suburbs, or how homelessness is seen as a fact of life in many cities.</p>
<h2>How do we create a more ethical city?</h2>
<p>Thought leaders like Peter Singer have done a lot to elaborate the importance of ethics in everyday life, especially with his book <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practical_Ethics">Practical Ethics</a>. However, we live in utilitarian times.</p>
<p>More than ever, our cities need ethical leadership – good governance, transparency, public trust building and fairness. They need ethically based planning to deal with the complex challenges facing our communities. This depends on our willingness to tackle the tough questions around sustainability, resilience, economic vibrancy and inclusiveness.</p>
<p>There is also our role as citizens. What are our expectations of ourselves as ethical, engaged citizens? What do we expect and deserve, and what are we prepared to commit to each other in the ethical city? What kind of citizens do we need to be?</p>
<p>Most of all, if we end up agreeing that we need a city that cares, how do we navigate to this end in a world where private profit and consumption are kings and where the tenets of the ethical city – social inclusion, climate action, gender equity, rights of children and youth, and myriad other rights and needs – are lacking?</p>
<p>If this sounds like a new year dose of utopianism, think of cases that you could envisage in your city – from participatory budgeting, to crowd-funded social enterprises, to any number of people who decided “what should we do?”, then acted on it.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles about Habitat III <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/habitat-iii-26850">here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>The <a href="http://ethicalcities.org/">Ethical Cities Urban Thinkers Campus</a>, to be hosted at RMIT University in Melbourne on February 16, will explore the ethical city in relation to urban development, inclusion and rights, and resilience. The Urban Thinkers Campus is co-organised by the <a href="http://citiesprogramme.com/aboutus/the-cities-programme">UN Global Compact Cities Program</a> and World Vision as part of their role as lead partners in the <a href="http://www.worldurbancampaign.org/">World Urban Campaign</a> organised by <a href="http://unhabitat.org/">UN Habitat</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53385/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Barrett is a research coordinator with the UN Global Compact - Cities Programme hosted by RMIT University.</span></em></p>At the Habitat III summit in October, governments will agree an agenda to guide sustainable global urban development over the next 20 years. The rise of the ethical city is a key element of this.Brendan Barrett, Research Fellow/Research Coordinator, UN Global Compact Cities Programme, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.