2.6.1. An opportunity for a new social contract

Long-term responses: Emergency measures to address COVID-19 related socio-economic drawbacks in the short term were swiftly enacted across all sampled cities. However, more than one third of sampled cities (20 cities out of 56) have implemented mid- to long-term strategies to prepare the post-emergency socio-economic recovery, with mid- to higher income cities being the most active in this regard. This type of response suggests a strong relation between the financial capacity of cities and mid- to long-term planning for socioeconomic recovery. Interestingly, 16 out of the 56 cities have also started planning strategies and implementing measures to ensure higher resilience post-pandemic.

Community: Community driven solutions and measures implemented in partnership with local groups have been recorded in more than 25 per cent of the sampled cities and mostly in cities within the lowest GDP group (out of 15 cities, 11 have a GDP of $20,000 or less). This data suggests that there may be an important relationship between cities with relatively low GDP and the adoption of local and community driven solutions.

Source: UN-Habitat original analysis of the OECD Policy Matrix

2.6.1. An opportunity for a new social contract

In sum, cities are at a crossroads. They need to grapple with hard and fundamental questions about welfare state models and universal social protection systems to ensure an adequate standard of living for all. Going back to “normal” is not an option, as advocated by the UN Secretary-General, who in April 2020 highlighted the need and opportunity for systemic change: “We simply cannot return to where we were before COVID-19 struck, with societies unnecessarily vulnerable to crisis. We need to build a better world”. The actions taken now by countries as they respond to the continued impact of COVID-19 will be fundamental in laying the foundations for a fair and sustainable transition to a new social contract in the years ahead – one based on principles of shared prosperity and human rights including right to water and sanitation, health, food, housing and social security.

In order to realize the potential of this emerging social contract, the world needs to rethink what public and social goods should a city deliver. To enhance the social protection function of cities, actions are not sufficient at the level of the city alone. National governments will need to promote policies and institutional reforms that enable the fiscal capacity of cities to implement redistributive measures. Together, cities and governments must take a bold approach and tackle inequality at its roots. Any long-term recovery strategy should follow UN guidance to reduce inequality in all its dimensions and be based on three building blocks97 which for the purposes of this report focused on the urban condition, adapted as follows:

ƒ Address discrimination and bias in the right to adequate standards of living for all by ensuring that housing and service delivery, as well as settlement upgrading is tailored to equally meet the needs stemming from different social characteristics.

ƒ Ensure the participation of marginalized groups during the entire policy and intervention cycle in order to capture the different challenges connected to everyone’s lived experience, but also capitalize on the knowledge, networks and infrastructure that these groups possess.

ƒ Expand capabilities through improved health, education and access to technology in disadvantaged neighbourhoods as well as for socially and economically vulnerable groups.

ƒ Promote redistributive measures towards a fairer allocation of urban space and resources like land, housing, water and energy.