Urban World: Innovative cities: Why learning is the key to urban development

July 2009

Volume 1 Issue 3

u r b a n WORLD Innovative cities

Why learning is the key to urban development

India bids to be a global leader in solar energy After the Sichuan earthquake: how citizens are rebuilding shattered lives Why the gender gap is growing in cities Interview: Mexico City’s Mayor reveals a novel approach to urban regeneration

FOR A BETTER URBAN FUTURE

u r b a n WORLD www.unhabitat.org © 2008 UN-HABITAT UN-HABITAT P.O.Box 30030, GPO Nairobi 00100, Kenya Tel. (254-20) 762 3120 Fax. (254-20) 762 3477 E-mail: urbanworld@unhabitat.org EDITOR: Roman Rollnick EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Tom Osanjo, Eric Orina EDITORIAL BOARD Oyebanji Oyeyinka (Chair) Daniel Biau Lucia Kiwala Anatha Krishnan Eduardo López Moreno Jane Nyakairu Edlam Yemeru Nicholas You Mariam Yunusa Raf Tuts PRESSGROUP HOLDINGS EUROPE S.A. San Vicente Martir 16-6-1 46002 Valencia, Spain Tel. (34) 96 303 1000 Fax. (34) 96 303 1234 E-mail: urbanworld@pressgroup.net PUBLISHER: Angus McGovern MANAGING EDITOR: Richard Forster STAFF WRITERS: Jonathan Andrews, Kirsty Tuxford ART DIRECTOR: Marisa Gorbe ADVERTISING: Fernando Ortiz, Clive Lawson, Kristine Riisbrich Christensen

CONTENTS OPINION

ANALYSIS

4 Message from the Executive Director

18 A new strategy to close the gender divide Emily Wong

5 Drivers of change

22 Global parliamentarians

Gary Lawrence ARUP

7 Cities and the business of the environment John D. Wiebe

Berti Leinius

BEST PRACTICES 26 Giving revenue collection a big

9 Lessons from an elder statesman Interview with former Mozambique President Chissano

COVER STORY

boost in Somaliland Antony Lamba, Asia Adam and Edward Miller

29 Anji County Li YU

INNOVATIVE CITIES

32 News and project round-ups

11 Secrets of innovative cities

(North America and Europe)

Tim Campbell

14 How innovation can drive economic recovery Christine Auclair

Urban World is published four times a year by UN-HABITAT and Pressgroup Holdings Europe S.A. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not reflect the views and policies of UN-HABITAT. Use of the term “country” does not imply any judgment by the authors or UN-HABITAT as to the legal or other status of any territorial entity.

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REPRINTS

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d lives shattere r energy ilding er in sola ens are rebu neration al lead n rege how citiz be a glob h to urba hquake: bids to cities India l approac uan eart ing in grow the Sich als a nove gap is After or reve gender ’s May Why the Mexico City : Interview

Reprinted and translated articles should be credited “Reprinted from Urban World”.

Reprinted articles with bylines must have the author’s name. Please send a copy of reprinted articles to the editor at UN-HABITAT.

Photo © With the Permission P of BilBao B Bao turismo

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FOR A BETTER URBAN FUTURE

IN FOCUS 36 Latin America Mexico City rides a new wave: interview with Marcelo Ebrard Jonathan Andrews

URBAN WATCH 64 People “Young people are the forgotten majority” A donor speaks out Interview with Eric Berg

News and project round-ups

44 Asia and Pacific Can India lead the global market for solar power?

Kirsty Tuxford

47 After the quake: how selfbuild is the key to Sichuan’s recovery Maya Alexandri News and project round-ups

53 Africa

UN-HABITAT News

Jake Julian

68 Countdown to Expo 2010 Katja Makelainen and Maria-Jose Olavarria

69 Publications 70 Book review Medinas 2030

Field report from South Sudan Eduardo Feuerhake

74 Calendar of events

News and project round-ups

75 Conference briefing

60 Middle East

65

66 UN-HABITAT reveals Business Award winners

Cities at the climate change frontline

News and project round-ups

62 Central and Eastern Europe News and project round-ups

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OPINION

Message from the Executive Director

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early 150 years ago, the great French author and thinker, Jules Verne (1828 – 1905) wrote about air travel, air conditioning, metro rail systems, cars, television, the internet (a worldwide “telegraphic” system), and other pillars of our globalized urban world several generations before any of these were even invented.

He even wrote about calculators and a chair with an electric charge that was used to execute criminals. And perhaps just as startling, Verne predicted a geometric, modern centrepiece built for the Louvre. The glass pyramid standing there today was built well over a lifetime after his death. In that year 1863, he also wrote about a tall tower in Paris – a generation before the Eiffel Tower.

All of this in his futuristic novel, Paris in the 20th Century.

And well before their time, he also spoke of modern skyscrapers.

His descriptions of the modern innovative city are very similar to what we have in the real world today. How would he find it today, browsing around a riverbank stall along the Seine with posters of our planet from space, some showing the ravages of climate change and pollution coming from dirty cities?

How would such a great urban thinker find our urbanized world today?

It is a blight on our generation that he would probably not have been surprised to see that we have reached a point in history early in the 21st century where unless cities can be made more sustainable, the legacy of negative environmental and social costs will become irreversible.

In this urban era with more than half of humanity living in cities and towns, urban poverty, deprivation and social exclusion will become pervasive with a resultant increase in crime, and health problems and, of course, political and social unrest.

Cities will continue to provide a refuge for those escaping conflict zones. Would Mr. Verne be shocked at our slums, today home to one billion people mostly in cities in the developing world?

The negative consequences of rapid and poorly planned urbanization, including climate change, shows us that the local and global agendas are one and the same. Well planned and managed cities and communities are not only at the heart of any effective strategy in reducing poverty and social exclusion in an urbanized world, they are also critical to reducing the ecological footprint of cities for sustainable development to become possible. While there will be no single solution, the issues and challenges are clearly universal and require global learning and collaboration.

The question that needs to be posed is how can we harness the positive aspects of urbanization to promote social inclusion, smarter growth and thus contribute to our collective stability and prosperity? How can urbanization become the cornerstone

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of a new inclusive civilization? How can we help create vibrant and socially cohesive urban communities?

Would Mr. Verne have been able to tell us how to use the economic downturn to be more inventive and innovative?

The world’s urban professionals have a huge responsibility in front of them because reinventing cities is largely in their hands. Architects, planners, surveyors, engineers and landscape architects, have an ethical if not moral obligation to help confront the urban challenge ahead. Each time architects and planners draw a line, they define a space. That space has to be more socially inclusive and environmentally sounder.

What they design becomes part of the urban landscape for generations to come.

The private sector has also an enormous role to play as drivers of economic change and leaders of innovation. But this time, given the nature of the global crisis, the business community has realized that it has a stake in investing in people and in communities on a larger scale.

The private sector understands well that business cannot succeed in a society that fails and well functioning cities are needed for harmonious development which in turn drives economies, underwrites employment, and enables markets to work.

Therefore, the global financial crisis makes investing in inclusive development more urgent than ever.

In this equation, national and local governments have a large responsibility to support and encourage the professionals and the private sector to work towards solutions and reinvent cities together while involving communities. This global challenge will be at the heart of UN-HABITAT’s work in the years to come with our new World Urban Campaign. The Campaign advocates better design and better planning for urban spaces, safer and healthier communities, and more equitable and inclusive urban governance in order to attain better quality of life for everyone.

It will be about reinventing cities together as one global community.

After all, the city is our greatest achievement. Although robust, it is also fragile, and it must have care and nurturing like all resilient living organisms. Cities are the cradle of human invention, art, culture.

Our modern world’s economic, political and social stability rests on the city’s shoulders. City states preceded the creation of nation states. And today cities endure and this is truly something to celebrate.

Gary Lawrence

OPINION

Drivers of change: building our urban future Sustainability and sustainable development are about how the Earth’s natural systems work and how they affect and are affected by individual and aggregate human behaviour, writes Gary Lawrence*, Principal and Urban Strategies Leader at Arup.

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hat we do not really understand the long-term causes and effects at the intersection of natural phenomena and human behaviour is quite a barrier to sustainability. Neither mortal nor computer model has the information and perspective necessary to demonstrate exactly what is going on, or what best to do.

The biggest barrier to making more responsible decisions about the present and future is the number of individuals and groups active in the discussion that are absolutely certain about things for which certainty is irresponsible. One particularly virulent form of this phenomenon is the propensity of groups to be certain about the values, motives, and desires of others without ever discussing them honestly.

I am convinced that the ideas and viewpoints of sustainability and sustainable development are attractive. If we have the courage to reshape the ideas in ways that have more natural and emotional appeal to the citizens of the world, we can, I think, see sustainable development become the context through which civic renewal, greater justice, more equity, and more constructive ownership in our new urban future can emerge.

Sustainability is both a physical reality and a political choice. The physical reality is that there is a limited amount of land, fresh water and natural resources. As we use these up or alter them so they are no longer beneficial, we limit our future potential. Technological innovation can help clean up some of our messes, derive better benefits from underutilized resources, and occasionally provide substitutes for scarce resources.

Photo Š aruP

Gary Lawrence

Should those of us who are doing just fine feel any obligation to our fellow humans whose local systems are in collapse? Should we take steps to make life better for future people we will never know? Should we try to make human development more sustainable?

People now and in the future demand that we completely integrate the aesthetic and scientific factors, as well as the real needs and desires of people – their senses, their emotions and their diverse identities.

In this context it can be considered that there are four critical stages to shifting from one paradigm to another.

1. Gaining clarity about the nature of the problem or opportunity What if we accepted that the true cost of oil is USD 480 a barrel?

There is a tendency to focus on attributes, rather than fundamentals, because the attributes are often more intuitively obvious. Climate change is an attribute of the more fundamental issues of energy and population growth and even population growth is a function of available energy resources, yet we have decided that the problem is greenhouse gas emissions.

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OPINION

Gary Lawrence Conflict in Africa taking the Responsibility to Protect

In June 2007, renowned energy expert and analyst Milton Copulus, estimated the true cost of oil at USD 480 per barrel.

This takes into account the direct and indirect costs, economic costs of oil supply disruption, and military expenditures. This would translate to USD 220 to fill the average family car in the United States. How we value energy, price it, choose to use it, and share it drives the climate equation.

If we were willing and able to fold all of the now external costs of energy into fullyloaded costs would that in itself make design more effective? Energy issues shape possibilities about location, mobility and access, and building form itself.

2. The problem or opportunity must be addressed What if we understood that it would take at least 120 years for a standard waste incinerator to produce the amount of dioxins resulting from London’s Millennium fireworks display?

Often we are certain we know the answer without having undergone any sort of methodological approach to gaining knowledge.

For instance, communities almost always resist waste-to-energy facilities in part for fear of emissions. But do they know that one of the things most communities love can be much more damaging? How do we, in communicating what is really at stake in such key decisions, move beyond conventional wisdom into actual rational conversations about cause and effect?

It can be all too easy for professionals to propose solutions to problems that stakeholders either do not think need addressing or are of lower priority than other issues cared about. Part of this is the result of not getting the question right and this is facilitated by the tyranny of experts where the public is expected to simply defer to the intellectual superiority of others. Experience teaches us that this is often a path to heartache. And part is a failure to appreciate and incorporate the wisdom of the masses when they are provided unbiased information that is accessible to them, not just to the experts.

This is not to suggest that majority must rule. The literature is pretty clear however that if institutions and individuals that the majority trusts and for whom they feel some

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kinship are not convinced that the problem at hand is a priority then the majority will withhold their permission.

3. Knowing what to do and being honest with the public Some 35 million new housing units are needed annually – or 95,000 units daily – to meet the world’s urban housing need. In 2005, one out of three urban dwellers was living in slum conditions.

We can feel more confidence (and influence) when addressing attributes of problems rather than fundamentals, but addressing attributes will never solve the underlying problems. For instance, design can go a long way towards addressing aspects of some problems.

However, great design of products that do not advance civilization merely uses up scarce resources without addressing the core of the problem. The fundamentals are nearly always political. We make choices rooted in the interplay of self-interest, sympathy for others, respect for others, and concerns about our own morality.

Nowhere is the ascendancy of self-interest more apparent than in addressing our housing issues.

Getting housing built for the homeless and poorly housed is a serious problem. In my days as planning director for the City of Seattle, we used the term affordable housing to describe housing units that could be afforded by those with household incomes less than the regional median household income. After a long and painful process, we discovered that for most residents in the communities in question, the term af affordable housing meant “housing for people who aren’t like us, who don’t share our values, and who are threats to our property and lives.” It is not surprising that there is such resistance to affordable housing.

Finding ways to reduce the psychological distance between communities that perceive themselves as stakeholders in the future of a place and those that they perceive as not stakeholders is very tough. If we can’t find formulas in which sympathy, respect for rights, and concerns about each other’s individual moral identity balance the perceived self-interest of those who fear the change, then it is possible only at huge political cost.

4. Choosing to do what we know Cities house half the world’s population but consume three-quarters of the world’s resources and produce three-quarters of the world’s pollution.

We are not focusing sufficiently on the big questions that shape our future. The activities of urban settlements are key contributors to climate change factors. For most people in the world, the lack of water for irrigation of crops and the lack of potable water for drinking will have a much more dramatic and immediate effect than rising sea levels and the increasing range of communicable disease associated with temperature increases. Global climate change and its current and potential consequences for life property and prosperity are accepted as the major challenge for human society in the next 100 years.

Without the choice to act, and in the cases we care about the choice to act differently, conventional wisdom will dominate and we will make much less progress than would otherwise be possible. The choice to act differently is a risk management issue – political risk, financial risk and resource management risk. u

*Gary Lawrence is a principal at Arup and its Urban Strategies Leader. He provides thought leadership for strategic urban development throughout the firm’s 70 global offices. With roots in Seattle, he has served as advisor to the Clinton Administration’s Council on Sustainable Development, UN-HABITAT’s landmark Habitat II conference in Istanbul in 1996, the US Agency for International Development, the Brazilian President’s Office, the British Prime Minister’s Office, the European Academy for the Urban Environment in Berlin, and the Organization for Economic and Community Development (OECD) in Paris on matters of sustainable development and environmental policy. He is actively involved in the local and national chapters of the Urban Land Institute, the American Planning Association, and the US Smart Growth Leadership Council. In Bellingham, Gary serves as Adjunct Professor at Huxley College of Environmental Studies at Western Washington University.

OPINION

John D. Wiebe

Cities and the business of the environment Urbanization has transformed human society and in the process is redefining the business of the environment, says John D. Wiebe, President and CEO of the Vancouver-based GLOBE Foundation of Canada, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to finding practical business-oriented solutions to the world’s environmental problems.

John D. Wiebe

E

nvironmental concerns and activities increasingly are a part of our everyday lives. As nations large and small, rich and poor strive to cope with the changing social, economic and ecological challenges of urban growth, our concepts of what constitutes the business of the environment are also changing.

Historically the business of the environment encompassed activities and enterprises focused on solving problems of air and water pollution, the remediation of contaminated land, the supply and reuse of water, and the management of liquid and solid wastes.

More recently the environmental marketplace has grown to include the development of technologies to supply and make more efficient our use of energy, both traditional fossil fuel based and from renewable sources.

Increasingly people are finding employment in a broad cross section of sectors that now comprise the green economy many of which did not provide significant environmental content in the past.

These include activities and enterprises designed to reduce carbon emissions, particularly in the transport and construction sectors; to transform our cities into more sustainable and healthier places in which to live and work; and to provide more environmentally friendly goods and services for an increasingly urbanized global population.

The business of the environment in today’s urban-centered world has changed to encompass most of those activities that define the quality of our daily lives.

The fact that more than half of humanity now lives in cities is well known.

Responding to the environment-related challenges of rapidly growing urban populations – particularly in the mega-cities of the developing world – is a daunting undertaking, the enormity of which cannot be minimized. It is a task involving more than supplying safe drinking water, improving air quality, providing adequate housing, or managing the disposal or recycling of waste.

It extends to the very form and design of cities and of the transportation, communication and distribution networks that are the lifelines of cities. It encompasses the creation of urban spaces where people can live and work, and to the restoration of ecological balances between cities and the hinterlands that sustain them. It includes making better use of the energy needed to power the services and facilities upon which we depend to survive.

The enormity of this challenge is in fact the wellspring of the changes that have transformed the business of the environment. The demand for housing in urban areas has prompted the redesign of buildings and the products used to construct them to

Photo © GloBe foundation

accommodate greater urban densities while improving the amenities needed for healthier living.

The increased demand for and the rising costs of energy have sparked the redesign of household appliances, heating and lighting fixtures, passenger vehicles, and many other consumer products to make them more energy efficient and durable. On a broader scale they have stimulated a technological revolution focused on harnessing new forms of low-carbon energy and transforming and smartening the electricity grids that power our cities and towns.

The need to feed, clothe and keep healthy a growing population has led to more sustainable supply networks for food and water, and in the management of liquid and solid wastes.

Municipal waste to energy systems are becoming commonplace and the technologies they employ more innovative.

In effect, whereas in the past urbanization was viewed as a bad thing, that led people to live in miserable conditions in slums with few opportunities to find work, or to educate their children or to escape poverty, many now see urbanization as the engine of growth that can lead to cities which, if well planned and managed, offer their residents new opportunities for productive lives.

A useful analogy to better understand the enormity of the transformation of the business

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OPINION

John D. Wiebe

Cities need to be healthier and more sustainable places W to live and work Photo © dan PaWley

of the environment is to view cities as living beings. Cities can grow old and can die, as do all living things; and maintaining good health applies as much to cities as it does to the people who live in them. Cities can be reborn.

Building on the parallel with medicine, there is equally a split between treating illness and preventing it, between remedying environmental problems and preventing them.

Perhaps the greatest preventative challenge the world now faces relates to climate change, and cities are highly vulnerable in this regard, particularly those in low lying areas relative to adjacent oceans, or in water scarce regions where persistent drought conditions prevail. Increasingly the business of the environment is focused on deploying the measures required to adapt to the impacts of climate change or to protect cities from violent weather disturbances and flooding.

Today’s business of the environment is cross-sectoral, multi-disciplinary and links almost every industrial sector in the modern economy. Almost every organization in

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business and government has environmental considerations it must deal with. Even the finance, banking and insurance industries are being influenced by environmental concerns, many of which relate to climate change and global warming.

That is why growth estimates for the business of the environment are so persistently high relative to other economic sectors.

Over the past decade growth in traditional ‘end-of-pipe’ environmental business activity has risen by 3 to 5 percent a year in most developed economies, but at much higher rates – approaching and often exceeding 10 percent per year in many emerging economies, particularly in India and China.

When renewable energy and low carbon technology sectors are factored in, anticipated growth rates for the business of the environment increases dramatically.

Countries in Eastern Europe still require enormous investments in basic environmental infrastructure, such as water supply and waste management. Developing counties in Asia and South America require massive investments in primary environmental services including clean air, water and land over the next 10 years. The most significant potential growth in environment-related business is found in China and India, the world’s most populated nations.

In addition to the traditional environmental goods and services industries, renewable energy technologies are forecast to grow exponentially over future decades.

The International Energy Agency forecast that by 2030 renewable electrical generation including hydropower, wind, solar, geothermal, wave and tidal power will grow globally by 145 percent over 2008 figures.

Even in the shorter term, growth forecasts for the key components of the environmental business sector are positive, notwithstanding current economic conditions. Growth in traditional environmental goods and services will exceed 22 percent by 2015 over 2007/8 levels; by 45 percent in the emerging low carbon component, and by an astounding 63 percent in the renewable energy sector.

Efforts to tackle climate change will create millions of new green jobs in the coming decades, according to a joint study last year by the International Labour Organization and the UN Environment Programme

The Globe Foundation The GLOBE Foundation, formed in 1993, has helped companies and individuals realize the value of economically viable environmental business opportunities through its conferences and events, research and consulting, project management, communications and awards. It helped, for example, to ensure that the third session of UN-HABITAT’s World Urban Forum in Vancouver in 2006 was a landmark historic event. For further information see: www.globe.ca

on the global green economy. Key findings include: Sectors particularly important for their environmental, economic and employment impact are energy supply, renewable energy, buildings and construction, transportation, and basic industries such as agriculture and forestry.

Already over 2.3 million people work in the renewable energy sector and an additional 20 million jobs are expected.

In agriculture, 12 million new jobs could be created in biomass for energy and related industries.

A worldwide transition to energy-efficient buildings would create millions of jobs, as well as existing employment for many of the estimated 111 million people already in the construction sector.

Investments in improved energy efficiency in buildings could generate an additional 2 - 3.5 million green jobs in Europe and the United States alone, with much higher potential in developing countries.

Recycling and waste management employs an estimated 10 million in China and 500,000 in Brazil today and is expected to grow rapidly in many countries due to escalating commodity prices.

In short, the business of the environment in the world’s cities will continue to expand and in the process will improve the quality of living for city dwellers everywhere, and also create new livelihoods and economic prosperity. The future of our planet depends on it. u

President of Mozambique

OPINION

Lessons from an elder statesman One of the world’s greatest men of peace, Joaquim Chissano, the former president of Mozambique, told a youth summit on the eve of the fourth session of the World Urban Forum last year that he always looks up to them for wise counsel and advice. Mr. Chissano, who speaks five languages, is the winner of the inaugural Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership in 2007. He led Mozambique for 18 years during which he steered the country out of a devastating civil war.

Lee-Anne Ragan met him in Nanjing last November when they presented a workshop together on peace building at the fourth session of the World Urban Forum.

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ere are eight lessons I learned from President Chissano about facilitating peace on the local and global stage. Many of his words of wisdom below apply to business practices as well.

1. Be realistic Peace is sometimes more complicated to keep than to make. After a conflict, people are eager to recover and you have to go through the process of reconciliation, especially when the conflict involves internal enemies – nationals of the same country.

It’s complicated. After reconciliation the situation is not the same as before the conflict. You cannot reconstitute the country the same way. You have to learn how to live in new conditions.

How it applies to business: manage people’s expectations regarding conflict and change.

2. Keep making peace all the time Peace-building is about many things. The material reconstruction and infrastructure – schools, hospitals, shops and homes.

But then there is also social reconstruction.

Families, disarmament and demobilizing, the reintegration of refugees, and displaced people starting life anew. Reconciliation requires maintaining unity. Peace-building is progressive and it doesn’t stop. You have to keep working at it all the time.

President Joaquim Chissano

How it applies to business: take a hard look at who all your stakeholders are and keep them meaningfully involved all the way.

3. Keep your eye on the horizon Always keep your eye on the overall vision: maintaining reconciliation and unity. Learn how to live in and with new conditions. Keep being creative.

How it applies to business: balance being present and future focused.

Photo © un -h haBitat

4. Look to your roots Don’t forget the root causes of conflict (such as the root causes of tradition), and don’t just take a superficial look.

Language is important, values can be found in verbs – especially in a country where people speak different languages even in the same province.

How it applies to business: dig deep how does your organizational culture affect conflict?

Photo © alan rainBoW

Peace has been kept in Mozambique

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OPINION

President of Mozambique

and this was no longer possible, we had to change the way we transferred new farming methods to people. But while it’s good to embrace the new, make sure it’s not at the expense of traditional knowledge that is still working.

How it applies to business: experience shows it is usually not the first company to use a break-through technology which succeeds, but those that follow. Balance your organization’s traditional knowledge with what new technology has to offer.

7. Always be properly informed When it comes to replicating best practices, not everything will work everywhere. The realities in Africa are different and there are tendencies in the West to think that Africa is one country. We are many countries that had many different levels of development when the Europeans first came.

Show due appreciation for these different characteristics and look at the things that work. Learn how we gather together in the African Union, and understand our cause.

Africa is not alone in its tribal differences or its failures – just look, for example, at the Balkans and parts of Eastern Europe.

How it applies to business: seek out diverse opinions, ask questions, don’t burden yourself with thinking you have to be an expert in everything.

Balancing traditional methods with new technology is key

5. Respect diversity, language and culture Mozambique lacks a national language. One does not realize how much this affects a nation when one has to speak through interpreters. You cannot pretend that everyone will understand what you say. Keep cultures alive. Show respect for the ways people bury their dead or celebrate their weddings.

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Photo © alex QuistB uist erG

How it applies to business: figure out what is expressed in your organization that may not be understood by everyone and ensure better understanding and shared values.

8. Keep busy Problems and frustrations lead to violence when people are not at peace in their communities or their families. Search for sustainable peace with development. People need to keep busy so set up programmes and don’t allow people time to quarrel. They should be busy solving their problems.

How it applies to business: realize and communicate your vision of success clearly and get busy achieving and sustaining it.

And a final bit of wisdom as we parted company: “I think the creation of confidence building is critical in peace building.” u

Lee-Anne Ragan is President and Director

6. Embrace technology but never lose sight of the basics My mother cultivated her fields using traditional methods. But as the population grew

of Training at the Vancouver-based corporate training company, Rock.Paper.Scissors Inc. (www.rpsinc.ca)

COVER STORY

Innovative cities

Secrets of innovative cities Many of the cities that have implemented innovations in recent decades have drawn on systematic learning, much of it gained from sources outside the city. Here Tim Campbell*, Chairman of the Urban Age Institute, says that recent evidence suggests that cities are on the move, actively seeking to find good and better practices.

Communication between cities has been insufficient in the past

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COVER STORY

Innovative cities

Why don’t cities learn?

In effect, they have already formed a large shadow economy of knowledge. They know that successful places have reformed, restructured, or enjoyed regional competitiveness. What is not so well known is that successful places enjoy a kind of soft infrastructure composed of a learning environment that is characterized by trustworthy relationships, a culture of sharing, and a willingness to collaborate.

But how is this achieved? The UN-HABITAT Dubai Best Practice Awards have identified and celebrated hundreds of great innovations.

But larger numbers of cities lag behind, or are bogged down in making reforms. Why are successes in a few places not spread more rapidly?

Why don’t cities learn?

The growing body of work in the academic and institutional literature has largely ignored these questions, although scholars in several distinct domains — organizational learning (and learning organizations), capacity — and institution building, social capital, regional competitiveness — provide some clues for exploration, for instance about the conditions, mechanisms and measurement of learning.

At the same time, regional economists and geographers have sensed that city and regional competitiveness consists of some special regional attributes that depend on home-grown qualities.

Snapshots of learning innovators Recent research shows that innovative cities like Bilbao, Curitiba and Seattle have many similarities and important differences. First, they are similar in that a crisis or shock of some kind jolted them into action.

Bilbao perceived and reacted successfully to a threat to the city’s economic survival with elimination of trade protections with the formation of the European market; Curitiba foresaw increasing congestion in its inner core and was already vulnerable to chronic flooding. Seattle also experienced crises, first in the 1970s and again in the 1980s, with the cutbacks at Boeing Aircraft, one of the city’s primary employers.

Second, in each of these cases, the cities valued information and knowledge and took the initiative to obtain it, creating different mechanisms of discovery, proactively seeking out knowledge from other parts of the world to feed into city thinking and planning.

Third, the cases provide three different versions of proactive learning that might be

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Bilbao removed trade protections to protect its economy

labelled “corporate”, “technical”, and “informal”, respectively.

Bilbao pursued complex organizational arrangements in Metropoli 30, an agency that brought a large variety of stakeholders to the table incorporated them into a formal structure with a balance of powers and transparency in deliberation, decision-making, and implementation.

Curitiba structured its learning process in IPPUC, the Planning and Research Institute of Curitiba. The most important elements of learning took place within a smaller technical staff of seasoned professionals operating interactively with each other.

The learning style of the Trade Development Alliance (TDA) in Seattle is the most informal, and in many ways, inward of the three cases. The intense interaction among participants in Seattle’s annual study tours and trade missions has the effect of breaking down barriers and forging new bilateral and multilateral understandings among public, private, and civic groups taking part in the outbound visits.

These cities are all proactive about knowledge, and each has its own way of accomplishing this. The flagship organizations in each case — Metropoli 30, IPPUC, and the

Trade Development Alliance, and more recently the Prosperity Partnership — all play a role in keeping track of events, documenting findings, and building a data base.

Each of the cities has taken on the role of tracking performance indicators. Curitiba enjoyed a clear mandate from the beginning and currently supports a strong data base on city management and performance. Basic information on demographics, land use, income, economic fundamentals, and environmental quality helped IPPUC partner with national authorities in many projects and activities, for instance, housing census and infrastructure projects.

Bilbao has assigned importance also to benchmarking and now trades on this data and comparative analysis that it makes possible. Likewise, Seattle and the Puget Sound Prosperity Partnership are now developing data and city indicators, recruiting other cities from the Pacific Rim and Europe to take part in comparative analysis about innovation and competitiveness.

Perhaps the most important repository of acquired knowledge is in the minds of the many actors involved in learning – members of the public and private sectors, civil society organizations and neighbourhood groups.

Innovative cities

Photo © With the Permission of BilBao B Bao turismo

Proactive cities have excelled in building and strengthening systemic relationships between and among members broad segments of civil society. The continuity of policy, political commitment, and practice, seen most strikingly in IPPUC, has allowed the creation of deep reservoirs of knowledge and learning that are continuously available to city decision-makers and private and civic partners.

Seattle and Bilbao also built up a large stock of knowledge in their respective networks.

These practices in all three cities underscore the importance of longevity of community members and rates of turnover in the professional and artistic talent in the community.

The bottom line is that the soft infrastructure, i.e. the collaborative character and cooperative spirit of a place, is intangible but indispensable. Though information and communication technologies are important, they do not show up as a central feature of innovative cities. Rather, it is the collective learning in a place, the activities that engage a wide cross-section of stakeholders that break down internal barriers and create common understanding. Innovative places create a culture of knowledge. Perhaps it could be called a learning culture.

Learning without change Of course, not all learners are innovators.

Cities have different types of learning styles that affect the outcome of their efforts. Let us call the proactive learner-innovators Type 1. Others vary in many ways, although the following categories are neither tidy nor mutually exclusive.

A second type engage in a specialized, selfdefined classes — like cultural heritage cities or Agenda 21 cities — let’s call them Type 2.

They focus on specific goals, have a narrower scope of concern, and restrict the extent to which the learning reaches into the community. Though the process of learning in Type 2 cities may last more than a decade, if the engagement is intermittent and core stakeholders are limited, the formation of the soft infrastructure is stunted.

Similarly, cities that engage in twinning — lets call them Type 3 learners — may take part in high intensity learning, but twinning is usually focused on one or two core business practices, for instance, procurement or community based planning, and confined to a restricted number of participants, often city employees.

The interactive process is short term and usually technical. Many cities in Type 2 learning and most in Type 3 have much less opportunity than Type 1 cities to establish a continuity of learning, extensive and repeated interaction with many players, and depth of common understanding.

Similarly again, those cities that learn new ideas and concepts in conferences and on the web, Type 4 learners, might be said to be grazing on externalities of knowledge events, but enjoy little if any net effect on collaborative spirit and the construction of a soft infrastructure.

At the same time, prospective learners cannot ignore the potential value of grazing. All cities can benefit from accidental discoveries, but few cities can expect much in new knowledge and even less in soft infrastructure by engaging only in Type 4 learning. Accordingly, cities need to manage two types of learning connections, loose and strong.

Light on the shadow economy of learning in cities An informal survey of 27 cities throws additional light on the shadow economy of learning. A web-based survey conducted by the Urban Age Institute covered mostly

COVER STORY

cities in Asia and Latin America. The survey identified innovators in terms of self-declared “reformers” as opposed to “non-reformers”. To what extent are cities engaged in learning, what modalities are involved, and how to innovators differ from the others?

Intensity of learning: For starters, the survey found that innovative cities spend a lot more time learning than the rest. Respondents in reformer cities personally devoted an average of 3.6 weeks per year (upwards of 12 percent of the real working year) acquiring new knowledge in city to city exchanges, whereas the non-reformers spent only 2.8 weeks in this activity. These compare to national level investments in learning of 3 to 6 percent for OECD countries and to 5 to 7 percent of staff time in training in US corporations in 2008, respectively.

Modality of learning: When asked about the most effective form of learning, for instance, seminars, private sector sources, university courses, activities of associations and city-to-city exchanges, this latter category ranked first and was ranked much higher by the innovative cities.

Content of learning: Cities indicated priority interest in a surprisingly small number of substantive and policy areas. Urban planning and transport were each mentioned by half the respondents, followed closely by economic development and urban renewal and reconstruction. Utilities such as water, electricity, solid waste and housing trailed well behind. On management issues, respondents indicated an interest in finance, urban policy making and metropolitan governance, in that order.

Storage of knowledge: An important measure of learning activity is the extent to which learning is documented or tracked. Here the picture is mixed. Only a few respondents reported no record keeping at all. The rest made use of a blend of in-depth record keeping, follow-up, and monitoring. The question is important because of the issue of storage and ability of a city to build knowledge over time. Recall that the three cases of proactive (Type 1) learning cities described earlier suggest that both hard and soft forms of storage are important, but little is known about how these forms are blended and interact with learning or indeed, whether patterns or even strategies of learning are formed. u

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COVER STORY

Innovative cities

How innovation can drive economic recovery One way to deal with the global economic crisis is to invest in, and reinvent cities. President Barack Obama’s Plan to Stimulate Urban Prosperity which focuses on building sustainable communities through green urban policies and supporting innovation clusters, exemplifies this, writes Christine Auclair, Chief of UN-HABITAT’s Private Sector Unit.

Investment in cities can lead to positive change, especially for the poor

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Photo © Wee linG soh

Innovative cities

COVER STORY

N

ew housing and related infrastructure investments in cities can act as key engines for economic regeneration to restore the wealth of households and generate new demand. Ms. Jane Jacobs, the late Canadian urban visionary, was among the first to argue that cities are the true engine of growth and that innovation, in the long run, is what keeps cities vital and relevant. The question is: Will the financial crisis inspire innovation that will help cities reenergize their creative economies and generate sustainable solutions?

In the 1930s, at onset of the great depression a movement of planners came up with visionary projects, using new technologies and principles, which made up the modern city as part of a political project to reinvent societies.

In the United States, the New Deal produced gigantic infrastructure and housing projects.

War and recession, coupled with population increase and urbanization, pushed society at the time to reinvent cities.

Today’s economic downturn has brought some dramatic fiscal and revenue reductions in many cities, affecting investment, development and maintenance of infrastructure. Business is seriously affected in key manufacturing regions, cutting more and more jobs. In times of crisis, a CEO will tell you that customers are under stress. Yet some will disappear and others will emerge stronger. And the market, as it has done for the past 30 years, will return to growth – led by the companies that took advantage of the downturn to become even more valuable, to grow even faster. This time, for many, confidence in the market has vanished like a bubble burst before our eyes, calling for real new thinking.

In order to forge a vision for innovative cities, one has to go back to the basics and look at urban survival options in the most affected part of the world. Walking through a slum, the amazing number of small businesses is striking. These are businesses one would never think of: a visitor can find hand-made windmills, solar batteries and pumps to bring water and energy to homes, and retail shops selling repackaged products in easy sellable small quantities to cater for slum customers at amazing prices.

Innovation based on survival strategies can lead to smart ideas. One recent outstanding example is mobile phone money transfer system used by people without bank accounts.

They are now a huge market for cell phone

Photo © maha rashi

A victim of recession: an abandoned factory in Detroit

companies and such services clearly improve people’s lives. At the bottom of the pyramid, there are lessons to be learned. The simple and most economic solutions generated in tough times can be optimal at best, and replicable, even if they are not ideal or not what most people necessarily want.

Where will innovation lead in this double global financial and environmental crisis?

A simple answer might be where the talent exists. But matters are far more complex, with the likeliest beneficiaries being the strongest economic regions that work as engines of the global economy as well as talented and innovative centres that accompany their development.

Richard Florida, writing last month in the The Atlantic magazine on how the new downturn will reshape America argues that the financial crisis will create “great mega-regions that already power the economy, and the smaller, talent-attracting innovation centres inside them”.

Citing the United States as the example, he said that a reshaped America will be focused on these mega-regions and be “a landscape that can accommodate and accelerate invention, innovation, and creation”.

According to recent studies, the world’s 40 largest mega-regions produce two-thirds of global economic output an about nine out of 10 new patented innovation. They host only 18

percent of the world population. What is behind the strength of these mega-regions?

The Nobel laureate Robert Lucas, gives one explanation in the Journal of Monetary Economics suggesting that talent-clustering is a key driver of economic growth. Further, talent rich eco-systems benefit from an accelerated rate of urban metabolism said another study published by the Santa Fe Institute. It added that successful cities, unlike biological organisms actually get faster as they grow. They can overcome financial problems with more ease than others, keeping talents and absorbing growing and successful businesses. Hence, it seems that eco-systems most likely to suffer from the financial downturn are those which are at a distance from high finance and least connected to the strong economic hubs.

Along the same lines, a recent study of the world geography of innovation from McKinsey illustrated by a new Innovation Heat Map, has identified the factors common to successful innovation hubs – the business environment, government and regulation, human capital, infrastructure and local demand. The study shows that innovation hubs are characterized by broad portfolios of businesses and sectors and that diversification is the key to long-term survival.

In the end, those more likely to face the crisis and foster innovation are the great

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COVER STORY

Innovative cities

Entrepreneurs in slums could bring prosperity to their neighbours

mega-regions with a broad range of activities and clusters of talents.

How will the talented slum entrepreneurs flourish in this new equation? Some believe that at the bottom of the economic pyramid in slums and deprived urban areas, investments can lead to new business opportunities and enhance prospects for prosperity. For that to happen, the conditions for learning, creativity and sustainable innovation need to be boosted and assets, knowledge and resources have to be dramatically leveraged.

In any case, the double crisis of financial and climate change can be expected to reshape our cities and their economies. In the United States, the financial crisis has left cities of the Rust Belt, like Detroit, in an astonishing state, with a declining manu-

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facturing sector, a rapid population decline, empty houses and schools and a city unable to reinvent itself. The US has never questioned its suburban sprawl so much since the collapse of the mortgage system last year. Writing recently in the New York Times, two researchers defended the highly developed Indian slum of Dharavi as “perhaps safer than most American cities”, “pedestrian-friendly where children can play, in the streets.”

Also, the discovery that Mexican slums have been built with the waste of San Diego including aluminium windows and garage doors can teach us a lot. “Debris is building these slums,” said Christian Werthmann and Teddy Cruz as cited in the Boston Globe earlier this year.

Photo © oxford Gamer

They argue that a lot can be learned from the spirit of collaboration in informal settlements and the ingenuity in the use of space.

Where is innovation, between the slums and the high tech mega-city region hubs?

In the present scenario of global economic divide, we can expect different types of innovation, in two different worlds. This might not be the wisest way to go for future generations. Facing such a divide calls for collaboration and interactive learning.

In an increasingly interconnected world, spurred by digital innovation, the flow of information will increase, knowledge will be closer and learning made easier for everyone.

Reinventing cities might then become an easier game than we think. u

u r b a n WORLD Urban World is the leading publication for those responsible for the social and economic growth of the world’s cities, providing a unique source of practical solutions and information on sustainable development.

Each issue provides cutting-edge coverage of developments in: Water and wastewater Renewable and green energy l Transport and infrastructure l Financing urban development l Tourism and heritage l Disaster management l l

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Readers include government ministers, mayors, local government officials, procurement heads, urban planners, development bank officials, CEOs and CFOs of companies assisting urban development, commercial and investment banks, consultants, lawyers and NGOs. Urban World is published in English, Spanish, Russian and Mandarin.

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FOR A BETTER URBAN FUTURE

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ANALYSIS

Women at risk from poverty

A new strategy to close the gender divide The combined impact of rapid urbanization, climate change and global economic downturn is creating further inequalities between men and women in cities, especially among the poor, writes Emily Wong of UN-HABITAT’s gender mainstreaming department. Here she explains how the agency is seeking to remedy this through a new Gender Equality Action Plan.

Women and children in slums are being pushed further into poverty due to the economic crisis

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Photo Š evG v enia GrinBlo

Women at risk from poverty

ANALYSIS

I

n April this year, the 58 member States in the Governing Council that oversees UN-HABITAT backed a new strategy on promoting gender equality and empowering women. The Gender Equality Action Plan provides a road map for all UN-HABITAT programmes to address gender concerns in the course of pursuing a better urban future in a world where more than half of humanity lives in towns and cities.

Under the Millennium Development Goals, the global community made a commitment to achieving “a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers” by 2020.

However, the United Nations has calculated that the financial crisis, with high and volatile food and energy prices, has pushed at least 100 million people around the world back into poverty.

Both men and women in slums face problems associated with poverty, poor living conditions and lack of social safety nets. But research shows that women and girls are by far the worst af affected. Widows are robbed of land and property by their own in-laws, because in many countries traditional practices still override universal rights. Girls in slums have to choose between defecating in a plastic bag or risking rape should they dare venture outside to a dirty public toilet at night. Often women are left out of decisions on new homes after a disaster. Women eking out a living in the informal sector are the first to lose their livelihoods as the recession bites. Girls are often forced to sacrifice school to do household chores instead. Indeed, the list goes on and on.

This is why the Gender Equality Action Plan is an important tool to galvanize and focus ef efforts in closing gender gaps and raising living standards for the women and girls who are overrepresented among the poorest of the poor, plus the most disadvantaged.

UN-HABITAT’s 2008-2009 flagship report, the State of the World’s Cities shows that households headed by women suffer disproportionately from “multiple shelter deprivations”. These deprivations are defined as any combination of lack of durable housing, lack of sufficient living area, lack of access to water, sanitation, and a lack of security of tenure.

In Haiti for example, (see table) nearly 60 percent of households headed by women from three shelter deprivations, while in Kenya and Nicaragua, one-third of woman-headed households suffer all four deprivations.

In its recent report, Averting a Human Crisis During the Global Downturn, the World Bank

Photo © un-haBitat

Women are at greater risk of losing their livelihoods as the recession bites

stated that evidence from the East Asia crisis and others show that families suddenly faced with unemployment and lost wages often pull their children out of school, especially girls, and that they seldom return to class afterwards.

“Even when times are good, exercising their rights is one of the biggest problems faced by women, especially those living in poverty,” says Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UNHABITAT. “Whether it comes to securing a loan to build or renovate the home, or obtaining the title to inherited property, women always have more trouble. Gender equality and women’s rights and empowerment are pivotal components of sustainable urbanization in the face of the current economic, financial, and food crises, not to forget the increasingly frightening ravages of climate change.”

Accounts of the South Asian earthquake in 2005, also known as the Kashmir or Great Pakistan Earthquake, as described in UN-HABITAT’s latest Global Report on Human Settlements, revealed that women were largely dependent upon men for access to relief and that few women received tents or food. Neither did they come forward to participate in food or cash work programmes.

And yet women have vast knowledge as carers of children, the injured and the elderly, and as organizers in the home.

The potential of women to mobilize communities in preparing against disasters, whether by building stronger homes or organizing warning systems, is a valuable, but still largely untapped resource.

But there are exceptions. In UN-HABITAT’s post-disaster reconstruction work in Indonesia, project workers used an approach called the “People’s Process”, which places trust in community members, including women, to take the lead in planning and design of their homes and villages.

One of the Gender Equality Action Plan’s focus areas is around advocacy, which includes awareness raising around best practices to incorporate gender issues into urban development and housing work.

In developing and implementing the new action plan, UN-HABITAT has emphasized the importance of partners. These have included the woman’s organizations and civil society networks that have provided inputs into the plan and also training institutions and other UN partners, such as the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), with which UNHABITAT is working.

For example, UN-HABITAT has joined UNIFEM in the Global Programme on Safe Cit Cities Free of Violence Against Women. This is the first global effort to develop a safer cities model

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ANALYSIS

Women at risk from poverty

Percentage of Urban Households Headed by women with different degrees of Shelter Deprivation in Selected Countries Country %

% one shelter deprivation

% two shelter deprivations

% three shelter deprivations

% four shelter deprivations

Ghana (2003)

38

34

51

-

Kenya (2003

23

24

28

31

Madagascar(1997)

28

24

29

14

Senegal (1997)

27

23

25

Tanzania (1999)

28

28

15

14 -

Nicaragua (2001)

40

37

39

Haiti (2000)

52

50

57

33 -

Indonesia (2002)

13

14

17

-

0

14

19

-

30

38

17

-

Nepal (2001) 2 Armenia

Source: UN-HABITAT (2006) Urban Indicators Database, 2006. Additional analysis by Prabha Khosla.

Note: Shelter deprivations are defined as the absence of the following conditions: durable housing, sufficient living area, access to improved water, access to sanitation, or secure tenure.

of preventing violence against women — both at home and in public spaces — by combining practical measures by local authorities with efforts to empower women and mobilise communities.

The new gender strategy also includes further work with training institutions to build the capacity of architects, urban planners and local government workers to incorporate gender issues into their work. The intention

is that the design, budgeting, implementation and monitoring of city services must bring more equitable benefits to close the unacceptable gender gaps.

Improving gender equality in access to land and housing is another focus area of the Gender Equality Action Plan.

Past experience has proven that the private sector can also be strong partners in promoting gender equality together with UN agen-

Kibera slum where hundreds of thousands of women live in poverty

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Photo © un-haBitat

cies, either by offering funding or technical expertise.

The UN Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence Against Women was funded in part by private sector donors, including Johnson and Johnson and Avon.

UN-HABITAT has also worked with Akright Projects, a private real estate developer, to build affordable homes for low-income women and their families in Uganda’s Jinja district, about 80 kilometres east of the capital Kampala.

The homes were built on 50 plots of land donated by Jinja Municipal Council, another valuable partner that also provided technical assistance during execution of the project’s first phase.

UN-HABITAT is now working with the Uganda Women Land Access Trust on the second phase of the Jinja Women’s Pilot Housing Project, which involves a revolving fund and a credit guarantee scheme.

This enables poor women, who are normally excluded from the regular banking systems, to borrow money affordably to pay for better accommodation.

But despite these examples, the struggle is an uphill one.

“Women are still grossly denied the right to adequate housing and related rights such as land and water,” said Miloon Kothari, former Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing at the UN Commission on Human Rights. “We live in a world today where millions of women are homeless and landless.” u

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The gender gap is widening as women in poor urban areas are bearing the brunt of the economic downturn

July 2009

FEATURES

Photo Š t. rolf u r b a n WORLD

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ANALYSIS

Habitat Agenda update

Exercising political power - the Global Parliamentarians on Habitat At the Habitat-II conference in Istanbul in 1996, the Habitat Agenda adopted by 171 countries carried several commitments on adequate and sustainable urban development. Yet after more than a decade, writes Birte Leinius*, General Secretary of Global Parliamentarians on Habitat, supporters must weigh its impact. Have participating States acted to ensure that the principles of the Habitat Agenda are put into practice? One, if not the most important form of implementation, is the adoption of the agreed policy objectives into national legislation.

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Istanbul, the location of the Habitat-II conference in 1996

Photo Š liana Bitoli

Habitat Agenda update

I

n 2006, the European chapter of the Global Parliamentarians on Habitat (GPH) initiated a study to investigate how the objectives and principles of the Habitat Agenda were received in the legislation of five selected signatory countries in Europe.

Peter Götz, Member of the German Bundestag and President of the Board of Directors of the GPH and at the time President of the GPH-Europe, said it was particularly important that “in the countries selected for the study, not only the main laws which deal with sustainability of human settlements be identified, but also the instruments that promote the objectives and principles of the Habitat Agenda. The study should give parliamentarians from around the world valuable ideas on how to implement the Habitat Agenda in their home countries.”

The five selected signatory countries of the study are the Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Romania and Turkey.

From the investigation, it became apparent that the objectives vary according to the level of development of the country. Mature industrial countries such as Finland, the Netherlands and Germany have hardly any real need to catch up.

Given the appropriate policies, they can focus their attention on providing other countries, especially developing countries, with assistance in implementing the Agenda.

Countries with smaller economies like Ro-

ANALYSIS

mania or those on the road of political reform such as Turkey are particularly susceptible to external stimuli with which they are encouraged to implement the Habitat Agenda.

This may be by way of concluding international agreements or by incentives provided by economic assistance programmes.

With regard to the tools used to implement the Habitat Agenda by each country, two examples per country are cited here by way of example: 1. The Netherlands l Each year on the first Monday in October a widely-publicized Habitat Day is held. l In addition to the preparation of the annual Habitat Day, the Habitat Platform organizes conferences aimed at sharing experiences and runs Habitat projects in developing countries.

2. Finland l De Developers of potentially polluting projects have to take out an environmental insurance policy which covers the costs of restoration of the environment in case of damage. l At the regional level, Centres for the Collection and Exchange of Experience and Knowledge have been established.

3. Romania l The decentralization of government admin-

Laws to implement Habitat Agenda Photo © cristian PoPescu

Romania

The following laws have proved indispensable to the implementation of the objectives and principles of the Habitat Agenda in all countries subjected to the study: A. Specific laws l Laws on the planning of human settlements at local and regional level l Laws on urban regeneration and urban renewal l Housing construction laws, housing laws and laws on social housing l Nature conservation laws l Water resource management laws l Emission control and protection laws l Soil protection laws

l l l

Waste management laws Environmental assessment legislation Historical preservation acts.

B. Laws relating to the organization of the state l Laws on the decentralization of the public administration l Laws and decrees on the establishment of regions l Laws and decrees on the establishment of specialized agencies (e.g. with responsibility for regionalization, environmental protection, exchange of experience) l Laws on municipal self-government

l

istration and the ongoing regionalization are essential institutional prerequisites for sustainable settlement and housing.

The introduction and strengthening of local self-government is the basis for an effective participation of the public in decision-making processes.

4. Turkey l Self-commitment by accession to international agreements has led to significant progress in the implementation of the objectives and principles of the Habita Habitat Agenda. l The reinforcement of building safety, especially against natural disasters, is a prerequisite for sustainable housing.

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ANALYSIS

Habitat Agenda update

5. Germany l Recycling of waste disposal: The German Recycling and Waste Management Act is a very sophisticated solution to the waste problem. l The identification of substandard building materials with uniform symbols in the European Community simplifies building and increases building security.

Overall, the study councluded that it is worthwhile to continue to develop the ability and the willingness of the national Legislatures, to learn from each other, even across language barriers.

In 2008 the Global Parliamentarians on Habitat initiated the second part of the study. This was released in early 2009.

Its aim was to identify the existing approaches in the new Eastern European member states of the European Union to the implementation of the Habitat Agenda and to raise

awareness for sustainable urban and human development. The study was extended to include the countries of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

At two workshops held in Bucharest, Romania, in April 2008 and in Berlin, Germany, on World Habitat Day in October 2008, experts exchanged views about whether the Eastern European states possess the necessary instruments in their legislation to implement the Habitat principles. The agreed that many of the identified legislative instruments for the implementation of the Habitat Agenda are already being used by these countries.

However, deficits in the following areas were discovered:

Urban planning and settlements - Often as a result of scarce public funding in the countries investigated, the public sector is dependant on cooperation with the private sector. Only two of the countries of the study have a legal basis to regulate public-private partnerships. In the other countries, the sectors often cooperate anyway.

Adequate shelter for all and sustainable settlement development - the financial support of activities with money from the European Union in both these areas is of great significance. In the future, national peculiarities should be given more attention in the funding guidelines. The principle of subsidiarity should continue to be respected because it is a crucial prerequisite to the implementation of the Habitat Agenda.

Housing - In principle, each citizen is encouraged to use their own initiative to find housing. People with low or without income need governmental assistance.

Environmental protection - Due to EU directives, most of the instruments of the agenda for environmental protection have already been implemented. Occasionally there

The Habitat Platform in Holland runs projects in developing countries

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Photo Š irum shahid

ANALYSIS

Habitat Agenda update

is need for action regarding the introduction of recycling in waste management, the promotion of environmentally friendly transport and the regulation of fees for road use.

natory states. It is only when one has determined whether, how and with which instruments, the principles of the Agenda are being implemented, that one can bring changes in national laws or develop instruments at international level. u

Energy policy - In this area, measures concerning the promotion of energy conservation, the production of renewable resources and the creation of incentives to use them is necessary. Germany is a good example to follow in this respect.

Socially sustainable settlements development - The majority of countries already have tools in place to promote projects such as the employment of physically or mentally impaired people.

Distribution of the funds - In general, research institutes focusing on urban and regional development require stronger financial support.

Strasbourg River

Photo © manuruch

Participation of civil society - Civil society is gaining in importance. Especially the Baltic countries have a high participation level.

Small loans can also contribute to the activation of private initiatives.

The results of the habitat studies of 2006 and 2008 are an essential step in the review of the implementation of the Habitat Agenda in the sig-

Germany is almost on schedule with implementing the Habitat Agenda

The habitat study was funded by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The project was led by the Deutscher Verband für Wohnungswesen, Städtebau und Raumordnung e.V. Berlin. Prof. Dr. Gerd Schmidt-Eichstaedt and Dipl.-Ing. Thomas Zimmermann from Planung und Recht GmbH, Berlin, were responsible for its implementation. The project leader for the Global Parliamentarians on Habitat was Dr. Anneke Assen, President of the Former Parliamentarians on Habitat. The European GPH presented the findings at the 5th European Forum of the GPH in May 2006 in The Hague, the Netherlands, and at the World Urban Forum III (WUF3) in June 2006 in Vancouver, Canada. For copies of the study contact Peter Goetz MP, directly (peter.goetz @ bundestag.de).

Photo © stefanie scheider

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BEST PRACTICES

Field report - Africa

Giving revenue collection a big boost in Somaliland Somaliland’s declaration of independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991 ushered in an era of relative stability in the former British protectorate, putting distance between the northwest and the war-ravaged south-central region. However, it is in the new century that Hargeisa has truly blossomed, write Antony Lamba, Asia Adam, and Edward Miller*. Here, they explain how a new taxation system using GIS satellite technology has boosted public coffers to bring much needed urban improvements.

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A view of Hargeisa

Photo Š un-haBitat

Field report - Africa

F

rom a hilltop on the edge of the city, Hargeisa is a sprawl of shiny tin roofs. New single-level dwellings and scrub brush line sandy roads and overlook wide, dry riverbeds. Sprinkled throughout are buuls,, the makeshift huts of displaced families and the city’s poor. This capital of Somaliland and its financial and political centre, keeps growing and growing.

Bomb explosions at a UN compound in Hargeisa in 2008 provided grim reminders danger does exist and led to the temporary relocation of international staff. But Somaliland has always been a relatively secure place for international agencies.

Though daily life in Hargeisa necessitates caution, the pace is slow and the city is quiet.

UN staff based there enjoy an overabundance of spaghetti and goat meat and are able to stroll around markets, some of which have been rehabilitated through UN-HABITAT projects.

New taxation system It was in this context that United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UNHABITAT brainstormed on ways of making a difference. The result: a Geographic Information System (GIS) was established in Hargeisa Municipality with technical assistance from UN-HABITAT that has boosted annual property tax revenues by a whopping 250 percent, from USD 169,062 in 2005 to USD 588,754 in 2008.

With funding from the European Commission and the UNDP, the project started in 2004 as part of the UNDP Governance and Financial Services Programme and continued in 2005 under the UN-HABITAT Urban Development Programme for the Somali region.

Hargeisa’s problem was daunting: low municipal revenue meant overstretched services and weakened infrastructure could not be improved. Where to start? First and foremost, UNDP and UN-HABITAT had to devise a cost-effective approach to collecting up-to-date household-level data for the whole municipality.

However, the system had to provide quick, visible results to attract political support. It also had to be simple and use on-the-job training so municipal staff could easily operate and maintain it. A building-based geographic database with a limited number of relevant variables for each building would be a perfect fit.

BEST PRACTICES

The first step was to build a spatial database – basically, a customized map that shows the location of each and every building in the municipality, as well as other key features such as main roads, rivers, and airports – to do this, a high-resolution satellite image of Hargeisa was digitized to produce a base map. The process created a record of all the buildings on the base map in a table that also generated unique numbers to identify each building. After three weeks, step one was complete.

The second step was to build a database of property characteristics. The base map was used to guide a household-level survey to collect attributes on each property.

Handheld computers were used to collect the names of occupants, building floor area, plot area, number of floors, building material and quality, service connections, and property type.

During the property survey, a massive undertaking that lasted eight months, the spatial database information was also verified, while ground-level digital photographs were taken of every building.

The third step was to integrate the two databases (the spatial database and the characteristics database) to produce one geographic database that links each building in the base map and its location with a corresponding set of attributes.

For immediate access to a picture of any building on the base map, the ground-level property photos were hyperlinked to the geographic database. The results showed that there are 59,000 buildings in Hargeisa, 63 percent of them residential.

The fourth step was to generate unique identifiers for each building. Hargeisa Municipality is divided into five districts, 24 sub-districts, 77 neighbourhoods, and 384 sub-neighbourhoods. After the boundaries for these administrative units were identified and integrated into the base map, the units were used to develop a unique five-part code (district; sub-district; neighbourhood; sub-neighbourhood; building number) for each building.

The fifth and final step was to determine property tax rates and generate property tax bills for the year 2006. Altogether, 47,300 properties in Hargeisa were found to be taxable. A special computer programme was written to automate property tax bill production.

Taxpayer-friendly property tax bills are produced that clearly indicate the building

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Field report - Africa

Hargeisa Property Database and Taxation Total number of properties = 59,000 • 78 percent formal, 22 percent informal • 68 percent residential, 12 percent commercial, 20 percent other Number of taxable properties in the old system: 15,850 (34 percent) Number of taxable properties in the new system: 47,334 (80 percent) Property tax revenue collection: 2004 → USD 144,417 (municipal records = 15,850 taxable properties) 2005 → USD 169,062 2006 → USD 241,983 (GIS-based database = 47,334 taxable properties) 2007 → USD 412,179 (represents 24 percent of total municipal revenues) 2008 → USD 588,754

code, property tax calculations, and tax payable for each property, together with a digital photograph of the property.

Positive results In 2006, Hargeisa Municipality opened a GIS support office to handle the new property tax system. The office delivers hard copies of property tax bills and neighbourhood maps once a year to each of the five municipal district offices. Trained municipal district staff continually verify bill information in the field. When it is wrong, the GIS support office corrects it in the geographic database.

Overall, the results have been astounding.

In 2006, when the new GIS-based property tax

system became operational, property tax rev revenue for Hargeisa Municipality rose by 43 percent to USD 241,983, with less than 40 percent of the taxable properties actually paying the tax. In 2007, the local council conducted a media campaign to improve compliance, and various community meetings were held. Property tax revenue increased by 70 percent to USD 412,179 in 2007 and USD 588,754 by the end of 2008 – an increase of 250 percent between 2005 and 2008.

“I think this new system is better than the old one: every bill has a picture of the property, and the amount payable is reported right on the bill,” says long-time property owner Abdirahman Ismail Faraah. “The sys-

tem is therefore more efficient and unlikely to have many mistakes – in the past, the amount payable was not indicated in the demand letter and property records were not kept properly. When I paid this time, I also received a receipt.”

The increased revenue has inspired further action. In 2007, Hargeisa Municipality started a public infrastructure and services capital investment programme together with business-minded Hargeisa residents.

Through this programme, the municipality has for example spent USD 320,000 to rehabilitate two roads and USD 80,000 to construct a bridge.

Hargeisa is expanding rapidly, and maintaining and updating the property database is costly. However, with continued technical support from development partners, the local council will need only a small percentage of the increasing property tax revenues to pay for these costs. u

* Antony Lamba is a UN-HABITAT Land Mangement Officer who has been based in Hargeisa for the past three years. Asia Adam has served as a GIS expert with UNHABITAT in Hargeisa for the past two years.

Edward Miller is a Nairobi-based editor and writer specializing in the region.

Abdirahman Ismail Faarah – Hargeisa resident “I have owned this house for a very long time. I held the property title until 1994, when it got lost in the civil war. At the moment I do not have any ownership documents for my house, but there is no dispute and I have always been paying taxes on it. I received the property tax bill for 2006 last July. The new bill has a picture of my house and all the property details are correct. I especially liked the photograph. The amount on this bill is higher than those of previous years. I used to pay SOS 32,814 (approximately USD 4) and now I pay SOS 51,275 (USD 6.40), but the amount is still affordable.

“I came to know about the new property taxation system when the bill was de-

livered to my house by municipal staff last July. I saw the TV debates where the participatory budgeting system was being advocated along with the new property taxation system. I think it is a good idea that can work, and the municipal authorities must give it a chance. If the authorities fail to listen to taxpayers, then the taxpayers should stop paying such taxes.

In my opinion, the increased revenues should be used for projects that benefit the community directly, like garbage collection and road maintenance. I think 30 percent of the revenues should be used for districtbased projects, while the rest should go to Hargeisa Municipality.”

Abdirahman Ismael Faraah Photo © un-haBitat

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Sustainable development

BEST PRACTICES

A Chinese ecodevelopment model: Anji County When your declared aim is to become known as the Most Beautiful Countryside in the Nation, you set yourself the highest possible standards. This is the ambition driving China’s central government in Anji County, says Li Yu, Director at the International Centre for Planning and Research at the Cardiff University School of City and Regional Planning.

A view of Anji County

Photo Š Bethany carlson

BEST PRACTICES

Sustainable development

Urban-rural integration The Anji County Comprehensive Plan (20062020) for integrated urban and rural development provides for an ecological hinterland as well as a recreation and holiday resort, together with a special manufacturing zone on the Yangtze River delta.

In this region 200 kilometres south of Shanghai with a population of 450,000, rural tourism and value-added, green agri-food processing are the designated engines of local economic growth. Under this grand plan small towns act as local gateways and hubs servicing rural areas.

Another priority is poverty reduction, including the gap between urban and rural areas.

As far as basic infrastructure goes, significant progress has already been made in Anji District.

All roads in rural settlements are paved and bus services are now available, as is tap water. Primary schools, kindergartens and clinics have been established in all main villages, as part of plans to enhance collective living standards.

These have been found to be very effective in a survey of 60 main villages (Table 1).

As far as human settlements are concerned, the spatial layout of Anji District includes one centre, five major towns and 60 main villages.

The centre, or gateway, is Dipu together with Xiaofeng, a nearby economic sub-district. The five major towns acting as hubs include two industrial towns to the north and three others specialized in eco-tourism, food and bamboo processing respectively. As for the 60 main vil-

Table 1: Public Service Provision in Central Villages

lages, their population ranges between 1,000 and 4,000 (500 in remote areas).

Any sustainable town must by definition be accessible – a challenge, in an area where the majority of local residents cannot afford private motor cars. This is why Anji County authorities provide regular, frequent bus services between the gateway, hubs and more remote villages, for the sake of better urban-rural integration. The network effectively assists labour force conversion from the agricultural to manufacturing and other sectors, as encouraged by local authorities for the sake of higher income generation in the villages.

In the district’s five designated hubs, the two industrial towns make significant contributions to tax revenues, on top of demand for consumer goods and housing and so on. The combined industrial zones provide consumption capability and demands for retail, housing and other urban activities. Urban functions have been developed in a rational way, with the northern part of Anji District more urbanized than others. In the south, service standards and capacities are lower in the three core towns, in line with comparative economic competitiveness.

The survey has uncovered a further contrast within Anji District: in northern industrial towns, tax revenues are stronger than aggregate personal income, whereas a reverse pattern prevails in the tourist-oriented southern towns.

Under the plan, main villages are typically close (i.e. within 10 kilometres) to industrial

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Source: Anji Statistical Bureau (2008)

July 2009

Anji’s green economy In the past decade Anji County has managed to diversify its industrial and service sector base under the plan. (This includes a strong tourism sector with over 3.3 million visitors in 2006). Between 2001 and 2006, gross agricultural and manufacturing output rose from CNY 4.7 to 7.5 billion, with the annual fiscal revenue doubling from CNY 62 to 130 million.

In the past five years, aggregate gross personal income also increased in both urban

Figure 1: Average income of urban and rural residents

Item % of villages Solid waste treatment 93.8 Eco-sewage treatment 56 Self-raising fund plus subsidies 90 Self-raising fund 10 Bus services to central villages 100 Tap water supply 60.5 Clinic 100 Kindergarten 88 Primary school 46 High school 8 Free school bus service 10 Tap water supply 60.5 Clinic 100 Kindergarten 88 Primary school 46 High school 8 Free school bus service 10 Source: Author

parks, with public facilities and services provided to urban standards along with 3.5 metre wide roads. Basic amenities include primary schools, kindergartens, culture centres, clinics and conventional shops – all designed to attract rural populations and familiarize them with urban living standards.

Since first proposed in 1996 the concept of an Ecological Garden of Metropolises has been a development objective for Anji District. This led to the closure of 64 polluting industrial sites, while another 74 were forced to adopt appropriate human waste treatment systems at a cost of CNY 80 million (USD 11.7 million).

Inward productive investment matters as much as it does to any other local authority in China. In Anji, though, every project must go through environmental assessment by seven distinct departments, and can be vetoed on pollution grounds.

Sustainable development

Figure 2: income between urban and rural residents

Source: Anji Statistical Bureau (2008)

and rural areas (Figure 1), with the differential ratio between these regressing to 1:1.97 in 2008, compared with 1: 2.12 in 2003 (Figure 2) and a nationwide ratio of 1:3.

Renewables and recycling As part of environmental protection policies, Anji County government grants subsidize up to 50 percent of the value of individual projects, including large public solid waste and sewage treatment projects. Extension of basic utility services is helping with both recycling and renewable energies. Once collected in villages, solid waste is taken to the nearby town and burnt in the local power station.

As for sewage treatment in rural areas, Anji District authorities use a green alternative instead of otherwise costly systems. This simple eco-sewage treatment is based on plants and sand. Sewage is discharged by gravity through covered channels from each household to a pond and treatment device at the lowest point of a village. In some cases, the system can be complemented with marsh gas power stations that produce energy for local households. Bio-filtration is available for more remote households.

Anji’s renewable energy policy also relies on the district’s abundant water resources. Thanks to 113 small hydro-power stations, power outages belong to the past, local development and income generation thrive, while carbon dioxide emissions are reduced.

Bamboo Long renowned for its bamboo groves, Anji’s bamboo processing industry and its products are environmentally friendly. The district’s 10,000 hectares of bamboo forests support

BEST PRACTICES

1,600 processing companies spread over five industrial parks. The 130 largest firms employ over 10,000 people and overall the bamboo industry contributes as much as 61 percent to average rural income per head (and CNY 9.9 billion to local GDP).

The importance of bamboo processing to Anji’s eco-friendly economy is best understood through an outline of the whole production chain. Villagers take care of the cutting and initial raw treatment. They sell the treated material to commercial companies, agents or branches of processing firms in small towns. The larger firms in turn make and sell a variety of products. The largest firms sell as much as 95 percent of production (especially bamboo floors) abroad, and overall the industry collectively earns an annual CNY 1.2 billion from exports.

Anji actively encourages eco-tourism, and in 2007, as many as 4.4 million Chinese and 43,000 foreign tourists visited Anji District, generating a CNY 1.2 billion income.

The effects on the livelihoods and well-being of the population are obvious, and in turn further the the Most Beautiful Countryside in China objective. This successful experience can now be replicated elsewhere in the country. u

Photo © revati uPadhya P

The bamboo groves in Anji County are an important asset

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Innovation and news from North America

Energy Satellites to capture solar power from space Two Californian companies are set to change the world of renewable energies by aiming to capture solar energy from space and then beam it down to earth to be used as electricity.

The companies, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) and Solaren Corp., are seeking approval from state regulators to turn this scientific dream into reality. Once the deal has been approved, the manufacturer Solaren, must then raise billions of dollars to design, launch and operate the satellite and receiver station.

Once built it will be the world’s first Space Solar Power (SSP) Plant. Capturing energy would involve placing solar panels on a satellite to generate electricity that is then converted to radio frequency. The receiver on the ground then converts this to energy and feeds it into the power grid.

While a system of this scale and exact configuration has not been built yet, Solaren CEO Gary Spirnak argues that the underlying technology is already established and is based on existing communication satellite technology.

“For over 45 years, satellites have collected solar energy in earth orbit via solar cells, and converted it to radio frequency energy for transmissions to earth receiver stations,” says

Water Revitalizing Roman technology TreePeople, a Los Angeles (LA) based environmental group, has revived the use of water cisterns by building its own at its headquarters in an LA city park, recently collecting a desperately needed 817,000 litres from rainfall.

Rainwater harvesting technology has existed for thousands of years, with cisterns common in Rome and Sumeria. Rainwater is collected from a surface, such as a roof, and then directed towards a barrel or underground chamber. A gravity fed hose is all that’s needed to make the water useable.

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New ways of harnessing the sun’s power are being developed

Photo © takje

Spirnak. “This is the same energy conversion process Solaren uses for its SSP plant.”

The advantage of SSP is that energy can be harnessed at all times, day or night – avoiding any weather or seasonal problems and is completely carbon free.

Once approval has been given, Solaren is contractually obliged to begin commercial operations in 2016. “The geographical difficulties and financial costs – once overcome – would lead to an endless supply of cheap energy for all,” believes Spirnak. u

“For decades, government agencies have viewed rainwater primarily as a flooding hazard and as a water quality issue, rather than as liquid gold that falls from the sky,” explains Andy Lipkis, founder of TreePeople. “Recognizing this tremendous waste, we saw the potential in harvesting rainwater by mimicking the sponge and filter functions of a tree.”

California is currently going through a statewide drought emergency; Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is urging people to cut water usage by 20 percent. As more and more people move to California, demand is already outstripping supply.

Utilizing more cisterns would also have benefits for the bigger environmental picture in California. A tremendous amount of energy is used for water-related uses such as

transporting and treating water: 19 percent of the state’s electricity and 30 percent of its natural gas.

“Securing a local, reliable water supply would thus not only save on energy costs, but would also decrease the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere,” emphasizes Lipkis.

The systems can range from inexpensive and low-tech, all the way up to technical engineering projects with complex computer automated treatment programmes. Lipkis says this makes them perfect to be adopted in less-developed countries.

“Many countries around the world have long utilized this technology out of necessity, so we should look to them for inspiration,” he adds. u

Innovation and news from North America

BEST PRACTICES

Transport California set to become US electric car capital The San Francisco Bay Area is set to develop the USA’s first electric-car infrastructure system. The pioneering company, Better Place, seeks to provide, through its USD 1 billion business plan, stations to re-charge batteries, and it will offer battery exchange electric vehicles which can operate on the network by 2012.

A mixture of public and private investment aims to reinvigorate California’s competitive advantage in innovative technology helping the state to become the electric vehicle capital of the US. “We are already a world leader in fighting global warming and promoting renewable energy,” says California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. “This type of public-private partnership is exactly what I envisioned when we created the first ever low carbon fuel standard and when the state enacted the zero emissions vehicle programme.”

Better Place’s CEO and founder, Shai Agassi says the network will help the environment, boost the technology sector and provide an impetus to the country’s big three car manufacturers.

“We hope that by the time we deploy, we’ll see Renault, Nissan and the three US manu-

LA recognizes the value of rain water

California is leading the way on electric car use

facturers developing cars that have a plug, and have the ability to drive around the city and charge as they go,” he adds.

Better Place hopes to finalize approvals for the Bay Area by the end of 2009 and begin the infrastructure development in 2010. As more electric cars enter the market, the tech-

Photo © roBerto marinello

nology and infrastructure will be fine-tuned over the following years.

The Bay Area will serve as the first region of California to make the switch from carbon-based transportation to sustainable mobility and joins Australia, Israel and Denmark as world leaders in reducing their oil dependence. u

Photo © muhammad omran rainWater W Water

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Innovation and news from Europe

Energy Recycled waste heat to power London homes A new GBP 80 million data centre will transform generated waste heat into free heating for local communities in East London.

Due for completion in 2010, the nine-storey, 19,000 square metre facility from Telehouse Europe will export the heat from the building’s cooling systems to provide up to nine megawatts of power for the local neighbourhood, which equates to providing hot water and heating for 90,000 households.

Data centres are sometimes referred to as “necessary evils”, creating eyesores on the landscape and spewing out wasted heat. The Telehouse project is trying to break that image based on a range of innovative green schemes that it and the WSP Group, a London-based international sustainability and engineering consultancy, have put into action. These include green-energy systems and high-efficiency chillers to reduce carbon emissions.

“We recognize that any attempt to address the lack of space within the data centre industry has to be undertaken with a level of environmental awareness,” says Bob Harris from Telehouse Europe. “By making good use of the waste heat from the facility, we can minimize the environmental impact and provide a

Environment Garden plots growing back into fashion Garden plots in the United Kingdom’s inner cities are undergoing a resurgence that hasn’t been seen since the Second World War. All over the UK up to 250,000 allotments dot the landscape alongside railway lines and old manufacturing sites. They vary in size from small vegetable patches to football pitches.

Products cultivated range from flowers, carrots and potatoes to honey from bee keeping.

A legacy from the industrial revolution, the plots were almost lost in the 1970s and 1980s as the valuable inner city land was swallowed by

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The new data centre will heat local communities in East London

Photo © telehouse euroPe

valuable resource to the local community.”

The technology is nothing new, but the innovative application of this wasted heat is what’s catching the attention of city planners.

The heat can be exported to surrounding areas, not just to households adjacent to the centre and will be available for free to any third party that wants to take advantage of it.

As the technology is quite basic, Martyn Bishop, senior technical director from WSP Buildings believes that the potential around the world is high. “What we’ve demonstrated with this scheme is that it won’t impact on a data centre’s critical services and operation. It’s one of the few ways ahead that data centres can give back to the environment,” he says. u

development. In the 1990s ‘grow your own’ became popular again and demand has increased dramatically throughout the UK. Most local councils, who have a statutory duty to provide allotments by law, now recognize that allotments not only provide an opportunity for people to grow high quality, local food, whilst keeping healthy and active, but that allotments also provide valuable green spaces for local communities and a haven for wildlife.

“New allotment sites are starting to pop up with an opportunity to get growing,” says Deborah Burn from the Allotment Regeneration Initiative (ARI). “Many people who have never gardened before are finding that allotments are a great place to make friends, take the kids for fresh air and learn where food comes from and

of course grow delicious food for themselves and their family,” she adds.

Internationally a similar solution has been reinvented in cities across sub-Saharan Africa, where people grow vegetables in unused spaces for their own consumption and also to sell them.

Richard Wiltshire from ARI believes that, “they are every bit as much survival gardens as the originals were for the ‘Dig for Victory’ plots during the Second World War. As most people are recent migrants to cities in the sub-Sahara, they have the knowledge at least on how to grow food for themselves – as did the early urban allotment gardeners in the UK.” The ARI is pushing further for new allotment sites to be developed and older ones to be protected, as “we are still aware of many groups that have had difficulty in getting land.” u

Innovation and news from Europe

BEST PRACTICES

Transport Spain leads the way in high-speed rail development The success of the new high-speed rail link between Barcelona and Madrid is catching the attention of cities all over the world, including the Middle East, China, South Africa and even North America.

When the line linking Spain’s two biggest cities opened last year it carried two million passengers in the first 10 months; it continues to whisk businessmen the 500 kilometres between the two cities in under 2.5 hours.

Spain’s high-speed network is still quite young, but it’s hoping to expand to 9,000 kilometres over the next 10 years. Trains are winning environmental points too, with much lower carbon emissions per passenger compared to flying. The new high-speed networks also free up existing lines for cargo, keeping trucks off the road.

US President, Barack Obama, recently announced a USD 13 billion for the development of a high-speed train network. In a country that has largely shunned rail travel in favour of driving and flying he faces an uphill battle.

“My high-speed rail proposal will lead to innovations that change the way we travel in America,” says Obama. “There’s no reason

Spain’s trains are fast, green and efficient

why we can’t do this,” he says, noting such a system would be cheaper and cleaner than building new highways or adding to an overburdened aviation system.

Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are closely watching the development of Spain’s highspeed rail network. Many are now planning their own high-speed train lines as they pre-

Photo © javier lóPeZ e orteGa eZ G Ga

pare for a post-oil future, built around services that require infrastructure.

High-speed trains seem to tick all the right boxes for medium distance travel between cities – their ability to resolve transport problems and the prestige attached to the launch of a shiny new train, look set to secure the interest of several large cities worldwide. u

Photo © maGda Zych

The UK’s citizens are taking more interest in growing fruit and vegetables

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IN-FOCUS

Latin America and the Caribbean

Mexico City rides a new wave Mexico City is one of the most densely packed cities on earth giving rise to problems of pollution, crime and traffic. But since 2006 Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has been at the helm tackling these issues through conventional means as well as through offers of free Viagra, iceskating rinks and kissing promotion days. Jonathan Andrews talks to this atypical mayor as his city undergoes a major transformation.

Photo Š mexico city mayor’s office

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard

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Latin America and the Caribbean

Your father was an architect. Do you think he instilled in you from an early age an appreciation of how buildings, transport, housing and infrastructure should all compliment each other, and function well together in a city?

Certainly. Much of the vision that I have for the city and that we reflected in our General Development Programme 2007-2012 in terms of urban infrastructure distribution and functionality was inspired by my childhood.

Obviously, this city has grown and changed dramatically in the last three decades and many of the foundation needs have not been fulfilled as they appear, so one of the priorities of my Administration is to cope with these infrastructure gaps.

The challenge, however, is to implement a very ambitious infrastructure programme in a way that its different components, namely housing, transportation, water and sewage systems, hospitals, schools and road infrastructure are compatible with the idea of rescuing the concept of public space. This is a very important concept for us and it has to do with deploying all the necessary groundwork that the city and its citizens need, and at the same time increasing green areas and reducing excessive visual pollution from advertising infrastructure. To guarantee this, I have created the Office of the Public Space Authority, which coordinates with both the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, and with the Ministry of Environment.

When you first became Mayor in 2006, what were the main issues and problems you faced?

When I first came into office I made a commitment to lead Mexico City into a new path of equity, welfare and economic growth. This meant facing up to issues such as public security, improving the economic and environ-

Biography Mayor Marcelo Ebrard Born in 1958 in Mexico City Holds a degree in International Relations from the College of Mexico Studied public policy at the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA) in Paris, France

mental conditions of the city and a better utilization of the city’s comparative advantages.

This has been undertaken in accordance with the General Development Plan 2007-2012, which is based on seven main axes: political reform, equity, security, a competitive economy, intense cultural movement, sustainable and long term development and new urban order. All of this with the purpose of improving the quality of life of all the members of the community.

One of the first actions you implemented was to improve the historic Zocalo Square, by making the area more pleasant for visitors to walk around without hassle from street vendors and hawkers. How have you helped relocate the street vendors, or supported them in their microenterprises?

We made an agreement with the street vendors and informal sector business leaders in which we would help them institute their businesses in an established building or market if they would relocate from the streets.

This allows them to have better and more secure business conditions while also allowing visitors and tourists to visit Mexico City’s historic downtown in a friendlier environment. These actions helped increase the flow of tourists in the historic down town area, which totalled more than six million in 2007.

Actually, the success of the model was such, that we are using it to relocate vendors from other areas in the city in order to implement our vision for a new urban order.

What have been the main achievements in your two-and-a-half years?

We have reinforced and developed social programmes to change the conditions that generate social inequity, protect the most vulnerable groups of society, guarantee the expansion of social welfare programmes and accelerate public and private investments to maintain economic growth. We have implemented a social policy that includes pensions for the elderly, protecting the unemployed through unemployment insurance and giving scholarships to elementary and high school students. Also, we established a new law that protects the handicapped, made the protection of human rights a priority, improved the

IN-FOCUS

mass transit system through a new Rapid Transit System and a new subway line and of course we’ve implemented projects such as the Proyecto Bicentenario, or Bicentennial Project, which includes the installation of 8,000 cameras that will ensure the security of the city’s population, and the Plan Verde, or Green Plan, that will put the city on a path to sustainable development. The focus, amidst the current economic crisis, is on maintaining the rhythm of economic activity through an increase of public investment, which will account for 27.4 percent of the city’s budget.

Is Mexico City seeing an increase in tourism as a result of this policy and also in cleaning and improving historic areas in the city, such as Zocalo Square?

Indeed, in 2008 Mexico City received more than 11.5 million tourists and even though there are still some security concerns, the reality is that the problem has been greatly magnified through the media and it’s not based on specific facts. Following a series of measures such as the restoration of downtown buildings; the formation of the Mixed Fund for Tourism Promotion, which combines public and private resources with the objective of promoting Mexico City as a world class tourist destination; and the creation of the tourist police, whose goal is to protect the safety and well-being of tourists, there are a growing number of tourists that visit the city.

And even though the perception of insecurity and pollution still exists, the annual survey undertaken by the Ministry of Tourism shows that in general, tourists appreciate the kindness of the city’s people, the affordable lodging prices, the restaurant and entertainment options, and the security and safeness of the city.

Mexico City holds a special place in the country as the cultural, industrial, business and political heart of the entire nation. Is there a difficulty in maintaining and improving Mexico City as an attractive location, yet at the same time, keeping the city sustainable?

As I mentioned before, we see this as a challenge, certainly a complex one. However, we have designed our policies and strategies bearing this in mind at all times. The

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IN-FOCUS

Latin America and the Caribbean

partnerships offer are that they go beyond the annual-investment scheme so that there is legal certainty and guarantees for long-term projects, they make the city an active partner of the economic and social benefits, they increase the value of the city’s assets and there is no public debt involved. This last aspect is key to accomplishing two of our public policy priorities, which are to maintain healthy public finances and increase the quality of the city’s infrastructure and provision of public goods and services.

Through the promotion of several amendments to our legal framework and the identification of potential infrastructure and public goods and services provision that could be exploited by the private sector, we have structured a public private investment portfolio which is over USD 10 billion for the next three years.

Mexico City has invested in infrastructure and transport

creation of the Office of the Public Space Authority is one of our quality control instruments to guarantee that as we deploy our infrastructure programme and our competitiveness policies, the city not only maintains its sustainability, but also enhances the quality of its public spaces. A very important element that I would like to highlight to reinforce the enhancement of both competitiveness and sustainability is that our economic, cultural, and educational orientation is to position Mexico City as Latin America’s knowledge capital. The strategies to achieve this goal are 100 percent compatible with both enhancing competitiveness and sustainability through the development and promotion of high-value added economic activities that require highly qualified human resources and soft infrastructure. We are confident that through the implementation of this vision we will keep, and even enhance, our position as the cultural, economic, and political heart of the country.

We have seen social programmes your government has implemented to improve citizens’ quality of life, such as free Viagra for the elderly and the Besame mucho, or kiss me a lot, day for St Valentines, how important do you rate the social aspects of a city compared to managing the infrastructure and transport?

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Photo © alex steffler

Mexico City’s development plan has three main pillars; they are healthy public finances and efficient fiscal policy, infrastructure and services, and higher investment in human capital. This last one incorporates the social factors, such as organizing concerts or allowing free access to historical exhibitions in museums that are very important to the residents of Mexico City because they add to the skill and talent of the population and improve their quality of life. These factors allow the city to play a key competitive role in the new conditions of the global economy. Also, through the implementation of these programmes, we have proved that people benefit from not only the fulfillment of basic needs such as nutrition, health, and housing but also from the qualitative needs such as entertainment. Through the fulfillment of these qualitative needs, we are addressing a key component of quality of life for our citizens.

With the credit crisis gripping the world, how do you value public/ private partnerships to achieve the city’s goals?

They are very valuable because they utilize the comparative advantages of the public and private sectors and help satisfy the city’s investment requirements through an increase in domestic and international capital flows.

Some of the advantages that public/private

What initiatives have you implemented with the private sector and multilateral organizations?

Because of the different investment requirements that the city has, various local laws were amended resulting in a whole new investment regime that multiplies the possibilities of financing public works and services through dif different financing schemes such as Public-Private Partnerships, Real Estate Infrastructure Trusts and Technology Transfer Agreements, among others. Among the projects developed trough these investments schemes are the Superhighways of Mexico City, Multimodal Transfer Stations, a Tramcar in the downtown area and four Knowledge Cities.

Also an agreement was signed with the InterAmerican Development Bank to create a Public-Private Partnerships Unit in collaboration with Mexico City’s Ministry of Finance.

Mexico City is renowned for its pollution. What does your new environmental plan incorporate?

Mexico City’s Plan Verde, or Green Plan, is the government’s strategy that will put the city on the path to sustainable development. Among the actions and strategies it considers are the better management of traffic flows, improvement in the emissions quality of the public transportation fleet and encouragement of alternative means of transportation such as walking and cycling.

It is also a communications plan that will allow Mexico City’s citizens to know the environmental issues that the city faces and the actions taken by the government to solve these issues.

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Working jointly, the government and different social organizations will analyze, improve and constantly enrich the plan to ensure its correct implementation.

Are citizens supporting the programmes and ideas from this plan?

The citizens of Mexico City have been involved in this plan since the early stages of its development during which a citywide survey on environmental issues was conducted so that the population could identify and express their environmental concerns. This information, along with the input of experts on this field, was used to design the programmes and ideas behind Plan Verde. Also the population knows that the improvement of the city’s environmental conditions offers them and future generations a better quality of life, so they have been very supportive and involved in the implementation of the plan.

You yourself take part in riding your bike to work along with thousands of other public officials on the first Monday of every month, as part of the Plan Verde. How important is it for officials to practice what they preach?

It’s very important because in order for the plan to be successful, every citizen, be it a public official, a student or whoever, has a responsibility to improve the environmental conditions of the city that will put us on the path to sustainable development. It is very important for us to set an example and show that we are committed to the Plan Verde.

Do you think cities, citizens and businesses are appreciative of the need for sustainable development?

What more can be achieved to highlight the importance?

I think that society as a whole is very conscious of the need for sustainable development, but people don’t always realize just how much power they have in the process and that they are an integral part of the problem and the solution.

What matters is to inform everybody of the environmental consequences if we continue on the same road and that future generations will live in a much grimmer environment if we don’t implement sound measures today.

Before cities used tax incentives or lax labour laws to attract businesses

Photo © dennis Poulette

Environmental conditions are improving in Mexico City

and their corporate headquarters. Do you think there is now pressure for a city to show its green credentials and environmental stewardship to attract business?

Yes, those factors are very important because an investor has to consider all factors, not just economic factors, but also political, social, and of course environmental factors. In the case of Mexico City, we were previously an industrial city, but in the last 30 years the local GDP has gone from being 51 percent industrial and 23 percent service sector to 14.3 percent industrial and 50 percent service sector. These characteristics make it vital for the city to offer better green credentials and better living conditions for current and potential business employees

than other cities. Because of this, besides the Plan Verde, we have also created fiscal incentives for businesses that are committed to the environment. We also believe that companies around the world are more and more committed to corporate responsibility.

What’s next for Mexico City?

In terms of ecological development, we will focus on renewable energies, emission-free transportation, efficient combustion systems and cleaning fuels. We will also focus on the improvement and development of the city’s infrastructure such as the airport, landfill, water treatment facilities, subway, public vehicles renovation and information technologies and telecommunications infrastructure. u

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CLIMATE Buenos Aires launches fight against climate change A special government team has been established in Buenos Aires to draw up strategies for fighting climate change. There will be an assessment of how vulnerable the city is, how well it can cope with the effects of climate change, how individual homes might be affected and the cost of potential adaptation measures. Special attention will be given to energy efficient design in buildings and the city also hopes to launch its first hybrid bus by the summer.

SECURITY UN-HABITAT strengthens Latin-American Safer Cities programme Priority was given to the Latin-American Safer Cities programme at the 22nd UN-HABITAT meeting of the governing council in April.

Thirty-eight representatives from Latin American countries attended a meeting to discuss a new plan helping to combat crime and insecurity in their cities. The meeting featured the presentation of the Guide for Local Governments in Latin America: Local Prevention Towards Social Cohesion and Citizen Security Policies developed by the University of Alberto Hurtado, Santiago, Chile and UN-HABITAT. HOUSING Argentina to benefit from investment in housing The Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, Mrs Anna Tibaijuka, has signed six agreements with partnering countries aimed at encouraging investment in housing for the poor. The agreements were finalized in April and Argentina is one country which will benefit from the Experimental Reimbursable Seeding Operations (ERSO) initiative along with Bangladesh, Kenya, Nepal, Tanzania and Uganda. ERSO is a system where UN-HABITAT provides loans to financial institutions who then give loans to the urban poor for home renovations and infrastructure upgrades.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT New cooking stoves save Brazilian forests Rural populations in Caatinga in north eastern Brazil are no longer cutting down hundreds of valuable trees to fuel their ovens because they have been given efficient new stoves.

Until now, more than 80 percent of the area’s woodland has disappeared. The project to provide new ovens was initiated by the NGO, IDER - Brazil’s Institute for Sustainable Development and Renewable Energy, with funding from the Global Village Energy Project (GVEP). The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) provided the cash for the project’s second phase.

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Energy Uruguay to become leader in Latin American renewables

Wind energy will power street lights in Uruguay

Uruguay is taking a giant step in moving away from its heavy reliance on hydroelectric energy and fossil fuel by incorporating a new wind energy project into its energy plan as it aims to become a leader in renewable energy in Latin America.

Since 2005 Uruguay has been advancing its renewable energies industry by giving concessions from 10 to 20 years to private investors to produce renewable energy, including wind power. The plan also features incentives for homeowners to use mini-wind turbines to create their own energy.

The first wind park, Nuevo Manantial, in operation since October by a private company, produces 20 megawatts – a sizeable amount in comparison to the city of Montevideo which uses 12 megawatts to illuminate its streets.

Five more wind turbines will be added by June that will increase total energy production by 10 megawatts and could supply all the energy needs

Photo © laura ulloa

of San Carlos, a town of 25,000 residents east of Montevideo.

By 2015, the government hopes to increase this total to 500 megawatts leading to closures of old power stations fuelled by gas or coal, that would still take into consideration an increase in energy demand.

Other methods of generating energy are being evaluated, including installing mini-turbines for households. According to the National Energy Department this could reduce demand from the grid by 30 percent. The mini turbines could also in return feed the grid, giving homeowners a reduction on their bills.

If the projects are achieved, 6 percent of the country’s energy will be renewable, well above the government’s goal. It would also put Uruguay at the forefront of renewable energy use in Latin America. u

Sustainable tourism Dominican Republic takes action to protect biodiversity The Dominican Republic (DR) will invest heavily in infrastructure for further sustainable development of its tourism industry.

At its recent annual tourism conference, Minister of Tourism Francisco Javier Garcia stressed that the government’s investment will include building the Atlantic Boulevard in Puerto Plata, the revitalization and development of major highways and roads, and an “even deeper commitment to ensuring that

the natural beauty of the DR is sustained for generations to come”.

Garcia announced the DR’s long-term commitment to developing pleasing, well-lit urban spaces where tourists can walk among shops and restaurants while experiencing the culture and lifestyle of Dominicans.

A special approach to sustainable tourism developments in the DR’s southwest region is being undertaken, as the area is the most

Latin America and the Caribbean: News

Water IDB funds to clean up Medellin River The city of Medellin in Colombia will complete an ambitious new programme to rehabilitate a vital river to improve the quality of life for local communities and the surrounding natural habitat.

The USD 450 million financing will help turn Medellin into one of the first large Latin American cities to adequately treat nearly 100 percent of the wastewater it collects. The loan provided by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), will finance the Medellin River Sanitation Programme, to be executed by Empresas Públicas de Medellin (EPM), which already provides water and sewer collection services to 99 percent and 98 percent, respectively, of the people in its service area.

The first phase of the programme began eight years ago on the completion of the San Fernando Wastewater Treatment Plant. By removing harmful organic material and toxins from approximately 20 percent of the wastewater flowing into the Medellin River, the plant has already eliminated the odours that used to emanate from the river in the southern part of the city. As a result, new parks have been built and more housing, as the private sector has invested in areas that were previously shunned.

“Medellin is a powerful example of how investing in water and sanitation can yield benefits that go far beyond public health and the environment,” says IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno.

“These projects have become a key driver of Medellin’s emergence as a dynamic, inviting and socially progressive metropolis.”

In addition to reducing waterborne diseases and

bio-diverse territory in the Caribbean. There are plans for an educational institution near Baharona that will study the wealth of species, fauna and flora in the southwest with over USD 900 million being invested into innovative sustainable tourism developments in the southwest that could serve as global models.

The DR is taking a multidisciplinary approach to tourism, business and environmental issues. “The public and private sector are working hand-in-hand creating new projects that make sense for our environment, businesses and especially our families’ and visitors’ well-being,” concluded Garcia. u

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INFRASTRUCTURE Honduras receives World Bank funds to rebuild roads The World Bank has granted USD 25 million to Honduras for repairs needed after a tropical storm. Tropical Storm No. 16 caused massive damage to road infrastructure in Honduras – more than 700 kilometres of roads were impacted. Sixteen bridges are also being reconstructed and the money will be used to enhance procedures and policies for natural disaster mitigation and prevention strategies.

ENERGY New agreement for energy efficient buildings in Mexico The public-private Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) brought together major energy efficiency stakeholders in Mexico in April to sign a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) committing to the formation of a joint action plan. The aim is to implement energy efficiency in buildings at state and municipal level across Mexico. The National Commission for Energy Efficiency (CONUEE), The National Network of State Energy Commission (RENACE) and The Association for Energy Efficiency in Buildings (AEAEE) all signed the agreement and hope also to influence similar initiatives in other Latin American nations.

Water quality will improve in Medelin Photo © fernando diaZ

unpleasant odours, the new plant – due to be built at the northern end of the city – will enable local municipalities to plan new riverside parks and residential and commercial properties. By its completion in 2012, 95 percent of Medellin’s wastewater will be treated and will even enable local companies to use treated wastewater for some industrial applications. u

The Dominican Republic is protecting its bio-diversity Photo © GaBriel Bulla

TOURISM New online tool to measure impact of tourism The Inter-American Development Bank has released a new Tourism Sustainability Scorecard, an interactive tool developed to ensure that the Bank’s investments in private sector tourism projects maximize social, economic, cultural and environmental benefits for local communities and destinations.

Tourism brings in substantial revenue and alleviates poverty and the World Travel and Tourism Council estimates that tourism will contribute as much as USD 217 billion to the Latin American and Caribbean economies in 2009. Using the scorecard, the bank will be able to give priority to projects that demonstrate potentially positive impacts.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Mexico signs sustainable development agreement with UK Mexico and the UK have signed a commitment on sustainable development and climate change. Progress under the previous sustainable development partnership programme, which began in 2006, was discussed as were future priorities under the new UK-Mexico programme, which continues until 2010.The project to reduce Mexico City’s transport emissions was deemed as a success, as it has led to the creation of a zero emissions corridor along one of Mexico’s busiest roads.

Mexico hosted World Environment Day in June and has committed to reduce its carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2050.

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Asia and Pacific

Can India lead the global market for solar power?

India has stated its intention to bring solar energy into the homes of millions of its citizens.

Kirsty Tuxford examines the merits of the government’s plan and outlines the benefits solar power can bring for India’s poorest inhabitants.

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ahatma Gandhi once said: “The earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” India’s government has heeded these wise words with the launch of the National Action Plan on Climate Change which sets out India’s programme to promote and invest in sustainable energy.

The Plan announced in June last year consists of eight separate missions including the National Solar Mission, which aims to “significantly increase the share of solar energy in the total energy mix”. With 5,000 trillion kWh each year from long hours of sunlight, Shyam Saran, the PM’s Special Envoy on climate change, has stated that India wishes to become the leading solar nation in the world.

Critics say the Indian electricity sector is not ready for solar and is beset with a number of problems such as major transmission and distribution losses, poor generation and end use efficiency, and very low renewable energy uptake (see the February 2009 report of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change: There is little hope here). But the benefit of solar power as outlined in the National Solar Mission is that its deployment can be done independently of the national grid and integrated when needed. The Action Plan states that “transmission and development losses are very low in decentralized systems” which is precisely why solar power could be the way forward for India.

Incentives to turn to solar Although there is the potential for major expansion of the solar industry, there remain clear obstacles to India becoming a world leader.

Jaideep Malaviya from the Malaviya Energy Consultancy in India says: “There is a lack of attractive incentives and lack of awareness over the climate change issue, which is poorly understood.”

The government has reacted by putting in place financial incentives to convince people and industry to turn to green energy. Financial assistance for new and renewable energy projects is being offered by the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), which is a public limited government company under the administrative control of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. The Agency operates a revolving fund for the promotion, development and commercialization of new

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Indian government’s National Solar Mission plan at a glance Target: Install 20,000MW capacity by 2020 2009-2012 – Expand ongoing urban, rural and off-grid projects: Public buildings and residential building of 500 square metres or more to install solar heating; micro-financing for solar lighting expected to light up three million homes.

2012-2017 – Commercial use of solar thermal power plants: Developing storage options; promoting solar lighting and heating on a large scale; possible micro-finance available.

2017-2020 – Achieve tariff parity with conventional grid power: Reach installed capacity of 20 gigawatts (Gw); install one million solar rooftop systems; reduce the cost of solar projects.

Milestones for increased capacity are envisaged for the years 2030 and 2050

and renewable sources of energy as well as providing financial support to energy efficiency and conservation projects, The Agency is running three programmes in the field of solar energy: the solar photovoltaic market development programme, the solar thermal programme and the solar water pumping programme.

In December 2008, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy announced the implementation of schemes to promote solar energy across the country. The scheme began with the installation of solar lighting in the form of home lighting, lanterns and street lights, solar-powered pumps and 5.2 MWp of off-grid

and grid-connected solar power plants. A 25 hundred-thousand square metre solar thermal collector area was created and solar cookers were installed. Eight thousand remote villages and hamlets were also linked up to solar energy systems.

On a micro level, specialist Akshay Urja shops (solar shops) have been set up across the country by the Ministry in a substantial effort to promote the consumption of solar energy.

The plan is to establish one shop on each district of the country. The solar shop scheme aims to encourage private entrepreneurs and NGOs to set up and operate the shops. Applicants

Photo © Patrick moore

Solar power is India’s answer to its energy deficit

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Selco’s solar energy benefits the poor

Lighting will improve quality of life for poor communities

are eligible for loans of up to Rs. 10 hundredthousand (EUR 154,550) at 7 percent interest rate through designated banks. In addition, there are grants and incentives up to a possible Rs. 10,000 (EUR 154) per month during the first two years of operation. The scheme is operated through State Nodal Agencies and the Renewable Energy Development Agency.

The Ministry admits that despite the fact that the production of solar energy devices and systems is on the increase, the initial high cost of these energy systems is a barrier preventing their use on a large scale. Other constraints stem from the inherent intermittent nature of renewable energy sources, which the Ministry claims leads to low capacity utilization ranging from 17 percent to 70 percent, depending on resource and location, grid synchronization limitations and the fact that higher capital investments are required compared to conventional power projects. The solution put in place by the Ministry involves the application of preferential tariffs and fiscal concessions to boost the commercial attractiveness of solar power. The Renewable Energy Ministry has for example developed a generation-based incentive plan for grid interactive solar power generation projects.

The aim of the plan is to achieve a reduction in the cost of grid-connected solar systems and solar power generation, as well as to develop and demonstrate the technical performance of grid interactive solar power generation.

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Photo © vivek chuGh

The Ministry says that significant achievements have been made as a result of the incentives. More than 13,700 MW grid-interactive power generators – 9 percent of the total installed capacity of the country – have been established. Rural households have also benefitted from 5.5 million off-grid renewable energy systems, which includes solar photovoltaic lighting systems that are functioning to serve homes with energy for cooking and lighting.

Private sector involvement helps the poor Even if the financial incentives work and the obstacles are overcome, what’s in it for India’s economy and people if the switch is flicked to solar? India already boasts the second-fastest growing economy in the world and Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, in his speech launching the Action Plan predicted a vast pooling of scientific, technical and managerial resources to make use of solar energy which will “power the economy and transform the lives of our people”. Jaideep Malaviya agrees: “[Implementation of solar power will] make the economy strong since it will be able to displace an equivalent amount of fossil fuel usage which is by and large imported.”

Enterprises such as SELCO Solar are capitalizing on opportunities now available to the private sector not only to develop and sell solar technology to big companies but also to

Photo © selco

enhance living conditions for the poor and rural populations in India. SELCO has played a critical role in persuading commercial and rural banking institutions to provide financial backing for solar lighting and sustainable energy for the most deprived communities. The company manufactures its own solar panels and fluorescent light bulbs – keeping costs down – and the 75,000 households which now benefit from SELCO’s solar power can spread the cost of the solar panels over five years through weekly payments.

Sharing knowledge India is also looking to other countries’ experience with renewables. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is focused on interacting with developed and developing countries in terms of sharing experiences, taking up joint research, design, development, demonstration and manufacture of new and renewable energy systems. Memoranda of Understanding have already been signed with the Ministry of Climate and Energy in Denmark, the Department of Energy in the Republic of the Philippines and the Cuban government, amongst others. Collaborations with other nations – both developed and developing – will be a positive step to help India rise to the forefront of the solar industry. But what does being a world leader mean to India? A leader in terms of production? Or in terms of R&D, economic growth or the percentage of the population hooked up to solar power?

Perhaps the definition of ‘world leader’ is best embodied in Ghandi’s words so being a leader in solar energy means simply: “Satisfying every man’s needs.” For the sake of future generations, it is to be hoped that that is the road India’s government will chose to take.u

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After the quake: how self-build is the key to Sichuan’s recovery A devastating earthquake in Sichuan, China, last year left five million people homeless. Yet for many, more than a year later the rebuilding process is still in its initial phases. Maya Alexandri, a writer based in Beijing who recently visited the area of the quake, takes a look at progress made so far, and how an outside non-governmental organization, Build Change, is making a major difference to the survivors of one of the most devastating quakes in recent memory.

Residents get involved in rebuilding their homes

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n the remote, rural villages near Wenchuan, the quake’s epicentre, many obstacles have slowed the rebuilding process. Some towns lack adequate roads, making the delivery of necessary building equipment and materials impossible, and forcing many to wait for road repairs first.

Elsewhere, people have been waiting for the government to pay promised rebuilding subsidies.

“I thought the government would rebuild my house for free,” says Xiao Qianghui, a resident of Minle, Sichuan. “But then I heard that the government would be giving each of us 20,000 renminbi [about USD 3,000] instead.”

While some Minle villagers, like Wei Qingli, whose husband is a construction worker and whose uncle is a contractor, were able to begin building their houses themselves, the homeowner-driven approach has created problems for other villagers, like Xing Dayan: “We knew nothing about housing construction,” she says.

All aspects of the process, from signing contracts to supervising the construction, were foreign to many of Minle’s residents.

“I don’t even know what layout my contractor used to dig the foundation,” says Yang Shifu.

The response In Minle, the Chinese government responded to this challenge by partnering with Build Change, a non-profit social entrepreneurship enterprize that provides technical assistance to homeowners in developing countries who are rebuilding after earthquakes and other disasters. Having rebuilt houses in Indonesia, after the 2004 tsunami, Build Change has experience with the homeowner-driven model for reconstruction.

“If you don’t engage homeowners over the layout of the house and the architectural design, the homeowners won’t be confident that the house is safe,” says Build Change founder, Elizabeth Hausler. As a Fulbright fellow in India after the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat, Ms. Hausler spoke to people who had been excluded from the reconstruction process by the NGOs that had rebuilt their houses.

“These people were sleeping outside because they didn’t trust that the house wouldn’t collapse on them,” she explains.

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The homeowner-driven model has another benefit over the alternatives: sustainability. Houses built by donors tend to use imported materials, like the lightweight steel-frame house design that has been proposed as an earthquake-resistant solution for Sichuan. The design has proved unpopular with locals and, once the donor withdraws from the area, future houses will not be built in that design. Other donor-driven reconstruction efforts around the world have included houses built from timber not resistant to local pests, as well as homes that are inappropriate to the climate.

A new partnership for the people Since December 2008, the Chinese government has been attempting to build local capacity through its partnership with Build Change. Build Change has trained villagers about proper construction techniques and how to manage contractors. Mrs. Xiao, who participated in the training, is confident: “Whoever builds my house, I’ll be able to supervise the quality.”

Drafting home layouts is another form of technical assistance that Build Change is provid-

ing in Minle. Before the drawing process begins, Build Change staffers interview villagers to hear their preferences.

“Homeowners should make the decisions about colour, materials, size and where the toilet goes,” says Ms. Hausler.

Build Change then drafts layouts that incorporate the homeowners’ preferences into a design that includes earthquake resistant features. “The layout was good and easy to understand,” says Mrs. Wei, whose family members built a house themselves based on Build Change’s design.

“Drafting the layouts also helps us to estimate costs,” Ms. Hausler explains. Cost-estimation for homeowner-driven reconstruction is critical.

Asked why, Ms. Hausler recalls how Indonesian tsunami and earthquake survivors had often spent too much of their rebuilding subsidy on the foundation of their new home. By the time the contractor had to connect the vertical tiecolumns to the horizontal ring-beam at the top of the house – a connection of more importance to the earthquake-resistant function of a singlestory house than the foundation – the homeowner had run out of money.

Once budgetary issues have been taken into account and construction begins, Build

The Build Change organization is helping quake survivors

Photo © Build chanGe

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UN-HABITAT shares knowledge to help quake survivors According to figures provided by the official Xinhua Chinese news agency, the huge 12 May earthquake claimed more than 60,000 lives in Sichuan Province and other affected regions in the country. Nearly 30,000 people were reported missing, and nearly 300,000 others were injured in the earthquake. The China Seismological Bureau (CSB) revised the magnitude of southwest China earthquake from 7.8 to 8.0 on the Richter scale. Chinese President Hu Jintao who visited the scene of the devastation expressed gratitude to foreign countries and NGOs like Build Change for coming in to help. UN-HABITAT’s Executive Director, Mrs. Tibaijuka, visited two Sichuan towns last year with senior Chinese officials. She expressed her deep sympathy and solidarity with the victims and pledged support for recovery and reconstruction work in the area. Touring a temporary shelter, she said she was happy that victims had been given adequate attention and commended the Chinese Government and people for taking quick action to relieve suffering, ensuring that almost all the displaced survivors were sheltered. “Natural disasters cannot be stopped. What is important is to minimize the impact and build back better,” she said. UN-HABITAT is mandated to take the lead in disaster prevention, mitigation, and preparedness and post-disaster rehabilitation with regard to human settlements. In countries recovering from war or disaster around the world, it fulfils this mandate by supporting national governments, local authorities and communities in strengthening their capacity in managing disasters.

This applies both to the prevention and mitigation of disasters as well as the rehabilitation of human settlements. It creates awareness among decision makers and communities on mitigation and adequate rehabilitation in human settlements. It bridges the gap between relief and development by combining the technical expertise, normative understanding and lessons learned through UN-HABITAT field operations. “We are sharing our experience of working in post disaster reconstruction in other countries such Indonesia and Pakistan,” she said. In May, the agency opened a new disaster mitigation office in Tehran, Iran, to operate at the national and regional level in a part of the world also prone earthquakes.

Change conducts daily, on-site inspections to ensure that contractors are adhering to safety standards. Among other tasks, Build Change staff test the quality of bricks being used and check the ratio of dirt and gravel to cement that the contractors use when mixing the concrete.

Encouraging people to take charge Build Change also encourages homeowners to take control of the building process. Mrs. Xing, who knew nothing about construction when the rebuilding process started, was able to persuade her contractor to add four tie-columns to her house and reinforce the concrete lintel beams over the doors and windows. “After my neighbours saw my reinforced lintel beam, they all wanted the

same thing on their own houses,” she says.

If the homeowner-driven reconstruction process in Minle continues apace, its villagers should soon enjoy both the confidence of living in an earthquake-resistant house and also the enhanced capacity of being able to build such houses in the future.

However, the key to success of homeowner-driven reconstruction models, in Sichuan and worldwide, is a combination of rebuilding subsidies and technical assistance of the kind Build Change provides.

A refinement of the homeowner-driven reconstruction model would include such technical assistance with the governmentgranted rebuilding subsidies. Luckily for villagers in Sichuan, the NGO world is filling that gap. u

Build Change staff ensure that locals are happy with the design Photo © Build chanGe

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SANITATION Singapore to host World Toilet Summit The topic of creating a sustainable sanitation marketplace will be under discussion at this year’s Ninth World Toilet Summit from 2 to 4 December. This is the second time the Summit has been staged in Singapore, and it’s receiving strong support from the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), the Restroom Association in Singapore and the Singapore Exhibition and Convention Bureau.

Energy Laos to build dam to fund environmental protection

ENVIRONMENT Indian cities win awards for environmental performance Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Bhopal have been recognized for their performance on environmental and sustainability issues in a ceremony at the International Workshop on Improved Urban Environment in March of this year. ICLEI South Asia granted the awards, and has also launched an initiative – together with the National Institute of Urban Affairs – to document cities’ good practices on the ICLEI website.

ENERGY Hong Kong government funds energy efficiency in buildings The Environment and Conservation Fund (ECF) has backed USD 450 million Building Energy Efficiency Funding Schemes. ECF Committee Chairman Professor David Lung said that the funding schemes will encourage building owners to take concrete action for enhancing the energy efficiency performance of buildings. The funding schemes provide subsidies to encourage building owners to conduct audits regarding energy usage in their buildings.

TRANSPORT New WBCSD report says city mobility is not sustainable The World Business Council for Sustainable Development has released the results of a twoyear study on public transport in four rapidly developing cities: Bangalore, Dar es Salaam, São Paulo and Shanghai. The study finds that streets are becoming more congested, transport-related health and safety risks are a problem, as is the poor state of roads and vehicles, and inexperienced drivers are causing deaths and injuries. The report calls for more integrated planning, public consultation and education for transport users.

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The new dam in Laos will bring revenue to the poor

Photo © frédéric Gloor

Laos will set the standard for the construction of ‘good dams’ with its new USD 1.25 billion Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project (NT2), set to be unveiled in December. It aims to address environmental and social impacts and will steer revenue to the country’s neediest people.

Situated in the Nakai Plateau in Khammouan province, the dam is surrounded by some of the most natural and pristine mountain ranges in south east Asia. The innovative financing partnership brought together 27 dif different financial institutions – both public and private – from around the world.

“With a total project cost equivalent to more than 80 percent of the country’s annual GDP, this is the single-largest foreign investment in the Lao PDR’s history,” says John Cooney, a former director of Infrastructure for the Asia Development Bank. “But this is also the world’s project, with partners from around the globe.”

Ten percent of the project’s cost will go toward funding environmental protection and social safeguards. More than 6,000 people in 16 villages have been resettled. New houses,

new roads, clean water, schools and regular health check ups, including agricultural land have been built and set aside for the 1,240 households.

More than 300 consultations and workshops were conducted with the local people to ensure that the resettlement reflected the peoples’ wishes.

Extensive public consultations on the environment and social impacts were undertaken, to gain the investment and to live up to the stringent guidelines set forth by the World Commission on Dams.

NT2 will export about 5,354 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually to Thailand and provide revenue to the Lao PDR through taxes, royalties and dividends and will provide up to 7 to 9 percent of the government’s annual national budget.

“Implementing the project has been a challenge for development professionals,” says Cooney. “We hope that ‘good dams’ of the future can become a powerful tool for fighting poverty while addressing critical energy needs.” u

Asia and Pacific: News

Water New technology brings clean water to Indonesia People in Jakarta, Indonesia now have a cheaper alternative method of obtaining clean drinking water. Air Rahmat or Gift Water, is a new water purification technology that is cheaper, faster and safer than boiling water.

Previously many families would have had to buy expensive bottled water or use a lot more heat, energy and time to boil water for drinking and food preparation. Air Rahmat means water is clean and ready to use half an hour after adding the solution.

Over 100 million people in Indonesia lack access to safe drinking water and more than 70 percent of the country’s 220 million population rely on water obtained from potentially contaminated sources.

The Indonesian Government has introduced Air Rahmat after being developed through the Aman Tirta public-private partnership. Members include CARE, the John Hopkins Centre for Communication Programmes and the United States Agency for International Development.

Water for thousands of people Photo © stePhen davies

The name refers to a liquid, 1.25 percent sodium hypochlorite solution, which is effective in deactivating microorganisms such as E.coli in water.

Rahmat itself stands for economical, easy to use and healthy.

The product is already used in more than 25 countries and worldwide more than two million households use similar products to Air Rahmat Rahmat.

“By introducing this,” says Soetodjo Yuwono, Secretary, Coordinating Ministry for People’s Welfare, “we are offering a simple and sustainable solution to the lack of access to safe water”. u

Transport “People’s car” achieves record sales in India The new Indian built car, Tata Nano, the cheapest car in the world, is beating the gloom that has overcome other car manufacturers throughout the world by achieving record sales in its first month. The tiny price tag of USD 2,500 matches its small proportions yet the sale figures for its first month have hit 203,000 worth USD 510 million.

Nicknamed the “people’s car” the Tata Nano aims to provide cheap, safe and fuel efficient transport to millions of Indians, who want to upgrade their motorcycles and older more polluting vehicles that plague India’s city streets.

As India develops further and its cities continue to grow, environmentalists are concerned that the Tata Nano would only further add to the problems of congestion and pollution.

“Tata Nano is the least polluting car in India,” counter claims Tata chairman, Ratan N Tata. “It provides safe, affordable, four-wheel transportation to families who previously rode

Tata Nano

Photo © eddy thnu

motorcycles or drove older cars.”

Until recently only two cars were available to Indians, both based on models that had not been overhauled since the 1950s. The Tata Nano aims to drastically change the manufacturing industry in India but also to improve urban mobility to all citizens through its affordability. u

IN-FOCUS

GOVERNMENT Radical restructuring for Chinese Municipal Government Ceremonies were held in May in Tianjin, one of the four province-level municipalities of China, to inaugurate several new government agencies. The ceremonies signify the structural reform of the Municipal Government, which aims to streamline policy making and execution. Previously, overlapping responsibilities of different agencies and departments has caused confusion.

TRANSPORT Cycling and ecomobility promoted in Asian cities The Sustainable Urban Mobility in Asia (SUMA) initiative, together with GTZ SUTP and Interface for Cycling Expertise (I-Ce) have launched a handbook on how to develop cyclefriendly policies, facilities and transportation systems. The book: Cycling-inclusive Policy Development: A Handbook, is aimed at engineers, planners, community leaders and advocates and contains crucial information regarding the development of cycle-friendly policies. SUTP members can download the handbook online.

GOVERNMENT Indian local government accused of resistance to new ideas Chairman Sam Pitroda of India’s National Knowledge Commission (NKC) – a body set up

by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2005 to facilitate transformation into a knowledge society – has stated that some levels of government are resistant to new ideas, transparency and accountability. Pitroda blames “rigid organizational structures” and says that community participation at a local level is needed in order to create and implement effective programmes for change.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT UNEP approves environmental standards set at Beijing Olympic Games An environmental assessment completed by the UN Environment Programme has found that China adhered to, and in some areas, actually exceeded sustainable development goals for the Beijing Games. The evaluation measured air quality, transport, energy, ecosystems, water and waste and Olympic sites and venues. UNEP were particularly pleased to see that approximately 90 percent of the city’s wastewater is now treated, and the report concluded that: “a lasting environmental legacy has been left in terms of new, energy-efficient and eco-friendly buildings and venues”.

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Field report from South Sudan Communicating and maintaining the best urban practices is not easy even when conditions are optimal. But trying to make change for the better in a remote and tense corner of Africa takes a lot of hard thinking and careful, sensitive consideration. Here the Chilean architect, teacher and illustrator, Eduardo Feuerhake, brings some wisdom from his native wind-swept Tierra del Fuego to the Juba district, capital of South Sudan, via Mozambique.

Photo Š shannon varis

Girls in Sudan have to walk long distances to fetch water

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n November 2008, UN-HABITAT called on Mr. Eduardo Feuerhake to raise community awareness of local needs and good governance practices and produce material for immediate, everyday use. His mission: to make it understandable to everyone whether literate or illiterate, policy maker or school girl.

The best way to start, he felt, would be by walking about to get a feel for the place and taking some photographs.

“But after decades of civil war out here, I quickly understood that pointing a camera at someone is like aiming a gun at them. People do not like it and are nervous, so it always takes a lot of careful consideration and getting to know and understand people,” he says.

“You have to bear in mind all the time too that for at least two generations people here have had no schooling, so in creating awareness of our work and what we are trying to do to help the communities uplift themselves, we have to get down to basics.”

The Chilean architect, who has also worked on assignment for UN-HABITAT in Mozambique for six years, was aware too that the concepts he had to convey were perhaps

more complex than could be explained in local radio broadcasts – the main means of public communication in Juba and its surroundings. The radio carries programmes on peace building, schooling, HIV-AIDS, and much news in a part of the world where fear and paranoia still have a grip on the public psyche. Many people still wonder whether the war really is over, let alone whether an election on creating a new country will ever lead to that goal.

“I had to begin somewhere, and so I decided to start in schools where there is a wonderful, interesting mix of pupils of all ages very keen to learn even though there are practically no text books,” he says.

The more Feuerhake walked about the local neighbourhoods, the more he saw and understood the problems confronting people in every walk of life: Outdoor defecation, children unused to playing because of conflict trauma, and many forced to work after classes, with the girls always expected to trudge a long way to fetch water and help cook for the family. Other problems such as muck in the streets, the lack of drains, dangerous driving, poor building practices, poor hygiene,

insufficient water and sanitation, also prevailed. And not to be forgotten – the large numbers of disabled war victims without special support or services.

“And so I had to start somewhere, to show that where these problems exist, there are solutions. And then to convey the fact that the key here is the concept of maintenance in a place where nothing had been maintained for years,” Feuerhake says.

“I therefore decided on the card game using the drawings, some of them with photographic material incorporated. When people play, no matter what age they are, they automatically discuss the images, and that’s the whole idea,” he added.

And from this work, the card game was derived, with each set of two drawings showing the problem and the solution. Using as little text as possible they are tailored to convey best practices in management of settlements and basic services and even architectural innovation to people still learning to read.

The card game, with this booklet and the posters published by UN-HABITAT are now among the first materials freely available in South Sudan schools. u

In the 10 southern states of Sudan, the United Nations Development Programme, working with the Government of South Sudan, is engaged in what is called in UN parlance a Rapid Impact Emergency Project to build urban services such as abattoirs, market places, public toilets, roads, drains and other sectors managed by the Ministry of Housing, Physical Planning and the Environment. The project is financed through the Multi-donor Trust Fund for Southern Sudan and the public awareness component is managed by UN-HABITAT.

A card games illustrating problems have solutions

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Africa: News

HOUSING Migrants fight for shelter Migrants who had been living in a Methodist church in Johannesburg have found more permanent shelter. The relocation was triggered when local merchants in the area began legal action to evict the migrants, claiming that the people sleeping rough were causing unhygienic conditions. Initially the accommodation will be for three months.

Skills training is also being given.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT East African ministers back UN-HABITAT initiative for Lake Victoria The UN-HABITAT project to reverse environmental deterioration of Lake Victoria and improve living conditions in the lake basin will be expanded thanks to backing from East African ministers for water. UNHABITAT originally formulated the project at the request of the Kenyan, Tanzanian and Ugandan governments. Benefits felt from the work so far include the rehabilitation and expansion of dilapidated and inadequate water supplies and sanitation infrastructure, and improvements to drainage and solid waste management systems. The project is complimented by a comprehensive capacity building programme.

HOUSING Zimbabwe looks to foreign investors for new housing Zimbabwe’s government has outlined housing as a priority issue within its new Short Term Recovery Programme. National Housing and Social Amenities Minister Fidelis Mhashu says that Zimbabwe needs USD 10 billion in investment in order to make a full recovery from the deep political crisis and historical inflation rate it has suffered recently. Zimbabwe has invited international investors to inject funding into the housing sector, promising that investors would be adequately covered and guaranteed security of tenure.

HOUSING Mauritania government forces move on slum dwellers Nine thousand slum-dwelling families from the outskirts of the capital, Nouakchott in Mauritania are being relocated to another poor community known as Kosovo. The national senator for Kosovo is against the relocation because he says there are not enough medical facilities, food or water for the existing residents and the addition of 24,000 more people would aggravate an already fragile situation. The National Agency of Urban Development, the government agency responsible for the move, argues that the need for additional services has already been taken into consideration.

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Sanitation New portable toilet bag to help fight contamination

The Peepoo bag offers a solution to urban sanitation Photo © PeePooPle

A new sanitary bag, designed for use as a portable toilet, is due to be released in 2010. The bag aims to reduce the presence of contaminated water in urban areas where sanitation systems are lacking.

The Peepoo bag is a personal single-use toilet that sanitizes human excreta thereby preventing the faeces from contaminating water sources and the surrounding environment. Lined with urea, the bag breaks down the contents and renders them harmless within two weeks, as compared to two years if untreated.

Many people who live in fast growing urban slums lack adequate sanitation. According to Peepoople project manager, Camilla Wirseen, 25

percent of the world’s urban population, or 560 million residents, lack adequate sanitation.

“To build toilets, not to say suitable toilets, in dense informal settlements is difficult, almost impossible, among other things due to lack of space, lack of secure tenure or floods,” says Wirseen.

“Often people have to resort to open defecation.

The Peepoo bag offers a choice and is individually sustainable,” she says.

The Peepoo bag also has value as a fertilizer due to the increase of urban agriculture. The used bags can be sold to be utilized in semi-urban farming such as horticulture gardens, tree nurseries, small plot allotments or flower gardens.

The Peepoo bags have undergone testing in Nairobi, Kenya with support from GTZ Germany and Jean African Consultants. Camilla Wirseen hopes to see the bag available from 2010 and says its cost should be less than EUR 10 per person a year.

“We are very concerned that Peepoople cooperate with the right partners and are currently in negotiations with foundations first and foremost, but also normal venture capitalists,” she adds.

“This project offers a sanitation solution adapted to user need.”u

Transport Students unveil ‘new’ car for Africa Eleven students from Makerere University in Uganda have unveiled what they believe to be the poor man’s car for Africa. The prototype is not yet at the stages of development, and looks more like something cobbled together from the scrap heap, but the potential to provide rural and urban Africa with affordable transport is within reach.

Whilst not pleasing on the eye, being made up of sheet metal and wooden seats, the beauty is in the ingenuity the students had in reinventing and improving old materials. The diesel engine was ripped from an old cotton mill and tweaked to give fuel performance that matches the newer and much more expensive Indian car, the Tata Nano.

The car would especially benefit rural and urban populations who need to ferry their crops and goods into the centre of town to the

market. While the first car cost USD 4,500 to produce the students believe that its costs would reduce significantly and are seeking financial backing from the public and private sector. u

A car for Africa

Photo © dr . yasin naku ZiraBa B

Africa: News

Housing New report says Islamic charitable trusts could help reduce poverty in Africa A new report from the London School of Economics in the UK – Financing Social Infrastructure and Addressing Poverty through Wakf Endowments: Experience from Kenya and Tanzania – has examined the development and activities of Islamic charitable trusts, or Wakfs in East Africa and determined that given new endowments to fund credit schemes and training programmes, employment opportunities could be created and poverty reduced.

Wakfs have religious origins and historically they have been responsible for funding many social projects. Properties backed by Wakfs provide affordable housing and premises for business and community activities. A Wakf functions to allow Muslims to place their assets (usually property) into a trust for the benefit of others. As a result social and religious facilities can be built using funds and there is support for the family and descendants of the asset holder.

The report says that in East Africa Wakfs have contributed to public infrastructure and social harmony. Libraries, universities, public spaces and cemeteries, as well as schools, health centres and hostels for homeless people have all been constructed with funds from Wakfs.

Firm regulations governing Wakfs have resulted in their increased credibility in the public eye.

In Kenya for example, the Wakf Commissioners of Kenya (WCK) look after Wakf properties and issues. Thanks to this increased administration the report summarizes that there is considerable potential to raise more revenue from Wakf endowments; but the necessary professional expertise and political will is currently lacking.

The report’s author, Saad S Yahya, writes: “The East African coast is rich in examples of housing, schools, health centres and other urban facilities that have been financed through endowments known as Wakfs, created by citizens concerned with community well-being and security of next of kin. From its early religious origins, the practice has developed into a durable economic institution capable of enriching and expanding approaches for mobilizing resources for poverty reduction.”

Yahya argues that the value of Wakfs is not being realized. Wakf properties could bring in higher rental yields and vacant plots could be developed, but the administrative bodies governing Wakfs lack the knowledge and expertise to invest in the urban property sector. u

IN-FOCUS

ENERGY World Bank funds USD 50 million electricity project in Cote d’Ivoire The World Bank is backing a USD 50 million project to rehabilitate the electricity network in Cote d’Ivoire in Africa. The Urgent Electricity Rehabilitation Project consists of three components and aims to improve the availability, reliability, efficiency and financial viability of the region’s electrical power. The initial phase of the project will repair and expand the distribution network; following this, preparations will be made for future investments in the transmission network, and thirdly, funding will be made available for an institutional training programme. There will also be a revolving fund to pre-finance electricity hook-up charges for low-income households.

HOUSING Red Cross to help forgotten people of Burundi An informal settlement on the outskirts of the capital, Bujumbura, has been home to 3,000 displaced people for as long as 15 years in some cases. There are only two pit latrines and no clean water supply. Site leaders say they have received no assistance from the government or aid agencies. A representative from the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, Bo Schack, said that UNHCR did not previously know about the site. Burundi’s Ministry for National Solidarity said that they too had no knowledge of the site, but are now distributing food. The National Red Cross Society is also sending an assessment team.

WATER Tunisia launches support programme with World Bank aid The Tunisian government and the World Bank have signed a loan for the equivalent of USD 30.6 to support a plan for investments in the Tunisian water sector. The country faces increasing demands, but shrinking supplies, and has therefore developed a water sector support programme. The plan addresses integrated water management and conservation; economic efficiency of water use in agriculture; and institutions restructuring and capacity building in the water sector.

HOUSING Malawi unveils new National Housing Policy Malawi’s capital Lilongwe played host to a meeting of 65 housing experts in April.

The focus of the talks was to devise ways to provide housing for the poor as part of a new National Housing Policy. UN-HABITAT has spent six months supporting specialists in urban development while they conducted field surveys and housing sector studies. Those present at the talks included representatives from national and local governments, utility companies, NGOs, civil society, traditional leaders, donor organizations, private sector housing developers, financial institutions, professional institutions and academia.

Housing could be improved if charitable trusts are well utilized

Photo © un-haBitat

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Middle East: News

UN-HABITAT UN-HABITAT opens new office in Iran Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, UN-HABITAT’s Executive Director applauded the opening of a new UN-HABITAT Disaster Mitigation office in the Iranian capital Tehran in May. Speaking at the inauguration ceremony she congratulated the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development for showing initiative in opening the office “at a time when disasters are causing more and more destruction and casualties all over the world”. Also present at the opening ceremony were the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Manoucher Mottaki, and the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Mr. Mohammad Saieedi Kia. AWARDS Winners of Dubai Awards unveiled The Dubai International Awards for Best Practices took place in May and 12 winning cities received USD 30,000 in cash, a gilted wind tower and a certificate in recognition of their work towards building sustainable development. The winners were from Burundi, China, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Mexico, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, and the United States for the Best Practices category, and two winners from Palestine and Pakistan also received awards in the Best Practice Transfers category.

Water Low-cost technology reduces odour at UAE wastewater plants Ajman, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has successfully incorporated the first of a new generation of odour control systems at one of its sewer and wastewater pumping stations.

Ajman, with a population of 260,000, is the smallest of the seven emirates making up the UAE in the Arabian Gulf. Recently a new sewer network and wastewater treatment works for the city was built and as part of the new network, one of the pumping stations was located in a built up area, where odours needed to be controlled.

The odour control system uses the novel combination of a catalytic iron-roughing filter followed by a carbon-polishing filter using the latest water regenerative carbon technology.

Thanks to the regenerative carbon, the operating costs of the system are 75 percent lower than an odour control system using conventional impregnated carbon.

ERG, a UK based company, recommended the design using catalytic iron in the first stage filter to reduce hydrogen sulphide levels by 50

percent or more, followed by the water regenerative carbon filter, which has been proven at the site to reduce odour below detectable limits.

The one tonne of carbon media in the second stage filter is designed to perform for up to six months, after which it can be regenerated. The carbon will last for up to eight regeneration cycles giving four year’s performance. This compares with a traditional caustic impregnated carbon filter, which would be spent after only six months and would need to be completely replenished.

Richard Hanson, Middle East Director for ERG, adds: “Water regenerable carbon is an ideal technology for the Middle East where reduced running costs and minimal operator involvement are so important in technology selection. We expect it to become widely adopted, especially as the climate is so completely suited to the regeneration cycle of warm water washing and drying. Already we are evaluating this technology for other pumping stations in the region.” u

CONSTRUCTION New report reveals lack of disabled access to buildings in Lebanon A report released by UN-HABITAT in May has revealed a shocking lack of access for the physically disabled to private and public buildings and public spaces in southern Lebanon. The report’s full findings were presented at a seminar entitled “Towards a Barrier Free Environment”, organized by the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities, UN-HABITAT, the Lebanese Physical Handicapped Union and the unions of municipalities of Tyre, Jabal Amel and Bint Jabeil.

WATER Innovative water plan launched in Jordan Raed Abu Al Saud, Jordan’s minister for water and irrigation, and the minister for planning and infrastructure, Suhair Al Ali, have sealed plans to launch a new partnership initiative for Jordan’s water.

The stimulus came from the recent World Economic Forum at the Dead Sea, and has formed into a project which will bring public, private and civil society stakeholders, academics and development organizations together to build innovative water projects, learn how to make the most of resources and attract private and public finance.

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The pumping station no longer emits odours

Photo © erG

Middle East: News

Transport Saudi Arabia aims to become high-speed rail centre of Middle East Railway lines for commuters and long distance travellers are set to increase in the Middle East with Saudi Arabia announcing an ambitious rail programme and Dubai nearing completion of its first metro line.

The USD 5.3 billion dollar north-south line, from Riyadh to the Jordanian border, is one of three separate developments intended to create a railway network for Saudi Arabia, estimated to cost USD 25 billion, that will increase its rail network nearly fivefold.

A new railway will be built from Dammam and Jeddah, linking east to west, from the Red Sea to the Gulf, easing congestion on busy roads between two of the largest urban areas in the Kingdom.

“We have the money from the second oil boom, and clearly the intention of the government is to invest in infrastructure,” says Rumaih Alrumaih, the deputy chief executive for Saudi Railways Organisations. “Sandy deserts of this size and magnitude have never been crossed by rail before. It’s very challenging,” he adds.

Travel to Mecca is now easier Photo © G.m farooQ

Pilgrims could also be riding the rails faster, on trains that travel up to 360km/h, to holy sites in Mecca and Medina as early as next year, easing busy and sometimes dangerous roads.

All this has brought the attention of European and Canadian train manufacturers to a region that had previously shunned public transport and where urban dwellers saw the car as king.

These investments aim to make commuting a more enjoyable option, with the Gulf Co-operation Council aiming to join the national networks into a regional network. u

Environment Campaign launched to save Jordan River The Jordan River, famous for its religious importance to Muslims, Christians and Jews, is becoming more famous for its contamination and dropping water levels, according to environmental group Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME).

Israel, Syria and Jordan are diverting over 90 percent of the Jordan River’s historical flow for domestic and agricultural use. A five-year drought and political tensions haven’t helped say FoEME. In response to the degradation of the Lower Jordan River, FoEME has recently launched a campaign to identify the means by which water transfers to the river can take place and help create the political will to make them happen.

“The 300,000 residents of the Jordan Valley are losing livelihood opportunities due to the poor state of the river,” says Munqeth Mehyer, FoEME’s Jordanian Director. “We call upon our

The Jordan River is being depleted Photo © samantha villaGran

governments to bring the Lower Jordan River back into the lives of communities alongside its banks through a cooperative regional rehabilitation plan.”

The river originates in the mountains of eastern Lebanon and passes through Syria. It flows south into Israel’s Sea of Galilee and into the Jordan valley, forming the border between Jordan and Israel, including part of the Palestinian territories.

The campaign calls upon all governments to meet their commitments to rehabilitate the Lower Jordan River, as specified in Article II of the 1994 Peace Treaty between Israel and Jordan. u

IN-FOCUS

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT A new self-sufficient ecocity for Dubai Earlier this year, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce authorized the development of a zone called Food City. A green landscape and architecture company, GCLA, came up with a master plan to develop the area into a self-sustainable ecocity. The plan includes: vertically stacked landscape surfaces, artificial roof gardens, renewable energy systems, aquatic farms and thermal conditioning.

The proposal includes several measures to slash energy use by using concentrated solar collectors and covering towers in thin-film photovoltaic cells. GCLA claim that they want to utilize nearly every urban sustainability initiative from the past few years.

ENERGY The Dow Chemical Company unveils new solar technology The Dow Chemical Company has revealed new Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology at the CSP, CPV, Thin Film Solar Summit in Abu Dhabi. DOWTHERM™ A is a mixture of Diphenyl oxide and Biphenyl that have the high temperature stability which enables the sun’s energy to be harnessed. The energy can then be transported to a power generating station that converts water into steam which in turn drives turbines to make electricity. The Dow Chemical Company is in the process of supplying enough DOWTHERM™ A globally to generate over 500 megawatts of electricity from the sun.

PRIVATE SECTOR Schindler opens branches in the Middle East Schindler has opened branches to sell, install and service elevators and escalators in the Emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Previously Schindler operated in the two Emirates through local firms, which sold, installed and maintained Schindler products. The local firms will continue to carry out all installations sold prior to the opening of the new Schindler branches, with support from Schindler, who will now take over their own sales and installations.

WATER State-of-the-art desalination plant for Kuwait City The Kuwaiti Ministry of Electricity and Water has awarded Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction the contract to construct a desalination plant that will provide drinking water for 450,000 residents in Kuwait City.

The plant will process 136,000 m3/day (36 million US gallons per day (MGD)) and will be Kuwait’s first seawater desalination plant using RO technology. Doosan will design and build the plant, which is to be constructed near Shuwaikh port, as well as supply equipment and materials. The project is scheduled for completion in September 2010.

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Central and Eastern Europe: News

URBAN PLANNING New EU-funded project for sharing data Best practices in urban planning and design can now be easily shared across Europe, thanks to Plan4All, an online forum launched in May. The site exists within the framework of the eContentplus program, and the makers say that investors and decision makers will now find it easier to find out about building laws across the continent.

WATER Global reserves under threat, says Istanbul’s Mayor Urbanization, population growth and climate change are all placing water reserves under threat, according to Kadir Topbas, ‚ Mayor of Istanbul and Co-President of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). Topbas‚ was speaking at the World Water Forum held in Istanbul during March. The consensus reached at the Forum was that mayors and local authorities have a key role to play in the governance of water and action has to be taken on a local level.

Transport EBRD loan boosts Serbian rail industry Serbia is set to receive new financing to improve the quality of service and increase the competitiveness of the Serbian rail sector.

New rolling stock will be purchased with a EUR 100 million loan from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), to replace the ageing passenger fleet and improve service frequency and quality.

Together with the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Reconstruction and Development Bank will finance a programme of track renewal that will include an upgrade of the main rail track running from Croatia to Hungary and its connection to Montenegro, and the line connecting the Serbian capital Belgrade with the port of Bar in Montenegro.

The money will help improve the overall performance of the passenger business, increasing passenger numbers. At the same time, the project hopes to contribute to the restructuring

of the Serbian rail sector, which will ultimately deliver the wider benefits of enhanced competition and private sector participation.

“The EBRD is committed to helping Serbian Railways improve the standards of transport infrastructure,” says Thomas Maier, EBRD business group director for infrastructure.

“Like the wider Serbian economy, the rail sector is experiencing the effects of the global economic recession and the Bank sees it as vital to provide long-term funding to Serbian Railways to help weather the crisis. Continued investments to boost the company’s operating performance will aid the process of restructuring of the rail sector in Serbia and promote the overall economic growth of Serbia,” he says.

This latest loan builds on improvements already achieved. In 2001, electric locomotives were refurbished and a railway-restructuring programme was initiated. u

OLYMPICS IOC to promote development through sport The Olympic movement has committed to using its influence to promote peace and development through its sporting events. The International Olympic Committee met with UN agencies at the International Forum on Sport, Youth and Development on 8 May in Switzerland. The IOC’s president, Mr Jacques Rogge, emphasized the need for stronger support from governments in order to build a better urban future for impoverished cities.

DISASTER REDUCTION Romania and Greece to invest more in earthquake-proof buildings The UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) says that buildings are the main killers when earthquakes hit. A UNISDR report released in May says that more than 100 million people worldwide are exposed to earthquakes and Europe, Romania, Greece, Italy and Turkey are the most at-risk areas.

ISDR Deputy Director, Helena Molin-Valdes says that earthquake resistant features should be applied to new buildings in quake zones, as the cost of investing is minimal compared to reconstruction and loss of life after a quake.

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Serbia will benefit from railway funding

Photo © alex anyan

Central and Eastern Europe: News

Infrastructure Ukraine issued warning over soccer facilities Both Poland and Ukraine were given stern warnings that their cities vying to host finals of the UEFA Euro Cup in 2012 still need to improve stadiums, transport and hotel accommodation.

Most cities in Poland received ticks of approval, yet the Ukranian cities Donetsk, Lviv and Kahrkiv have “important shortcomings” in their infrastructure, according to UEFA. A statement from UEFA reads: “The comprehensive review showed important shortcomings regarding infrastructure in all Ukranian cities in question. Significant work must be undertaken to meet minimum requirements for an event of the size of a final tournament of the UEFA European Football Championship.”

The final match will only be held in Kiev if specific conditions with regard to the stadium, airport, regional transport and accommodation are met by 30 November.

Sporting events are normally key drivers for countries and cities to improve their infrastructure rapidly, through funding from the private sector and, in this case, funding from the Euro-

pean Union. The risks of failing and international embarrassment are extra motivations.

Part of the rationale for UEFA awarding the tournament to Poland and Ukraine was for those reasons, and to reach out to Eastern Europe.

UEFA will closely monitor the progress of preparations in all of the cities and will make another assessment in December 2009. u

The location of the UEFA Euro Cup is still to be chosen Photo © steve Woods

Energy Turkey to build largest ever wind farm A new 135-megawatt wind farm is to be built in the eastern Turkish region of Osmaniye. It will be the largest wind farm under development in Turkey and will aim to reduce electricity outages by using renewable energy sources.

Turkey is intent on becoming an emerging market destination for wind power investments. It is the sixth-largest electricity market in Europe and one of the fastest growing globally.

European Investment Bank (EIB) will provide EUR 30 million to finance the project, which is part of a larger consortium.“The use of wind power resources will improve energy security and lower greenhouse gas emissions for electricity generation,” says EIB vice-president Matthias Kollatz-Ahnen. “The project is therefore fully in line with the EU climate change policy.”

The provision of electricity and the development of Turkey’s renewable energy potential contribute to the growth of Turkey and its urban areas. It will meet rapid demand increase in Turkey using economically viable and sustainable wind resources. u

Turkey is increasing its reliance on wind power Photo © maria Gurka

IN-FOCUS

ENERGY New Turkish wind farm backed by Siemens Siemens are supplying 13 of their new SWT2.3-101 wind turbines to the Turkish EnerjiSA Power Generating Company. The machines are destined for a wind farm in north-western Turkey and their installation is due to be finalized in 2010. Selahattin Hakman, the Group President of Sabanci Holding Energy, says that renewable energy will represent 10 percents of EnerjiSA’s portfolio.

ENVIRONMENT Bulgaria pledges to reduce methane emissions The international climate change initiative, Methane to Markets (M2M) welcomed Bulgaria as its 29th member in May. Methane is 20 times stronger than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, making it a powerful greenhouse gas. Bulgaria’s contribution to methane prevention will be to promote landfill projects to capture methane emissions for beneficial uses. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates the M2M programme could prevent the equivalent of 180 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in methane release. The M2M partnership is formed by more than 900 public and private sector organizations, as well as countries, including the European Commission.

WATER St Petersburg wins wastewater funding from EBRD St Petersburg in Russia will benefit from a new project to reduce the discharge of untreated sewage by 6 percent. At the moment 85 percent of effluent discharged is biologically treated, but the remainder is pumped raw into the Baltic Sea. The project is financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the international community, the Russian budget, the local government and the city’s water utility. The goal is to treat 94 percent of sewage by 2012 and eventually eliminate all untreated waste in order to protect the Baltic Sea. ENERGY New gas pipeline to serve Eastern Europe Nabucco Gas Pipeline International will begin construction of an EU-supported gas pipeline project in 2011, according to the company’s managing director Reinhard Mitschek. Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey are signing an intergovernmental agreement to collaborate. The aim of the project is to decrease the EU’s dependence on Russian gas.

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URBAN WATCH

People

“Young people are the forgotten majority” A donor speaks out

U

small- and medium-sized grants that can make a difference.

N-HABITAT is at the vanguard of a movement to recognize youth, their talents and their concerns, as a global resource for a better world. We listen to their voices at the Youth Forum held every two years on the eve of the World Urban Forum.

At the most recent Forum in Nanjing China, in November last year, the agency launched its new Opportunities Fund for Urban Youth-led Development. Here Louisa Gikonyo of UNHABITAT speaks to the man behind the idea, Erik Berg, Senior Advisor at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose government is making it happen through an annual grant of USD 1 million.

Why youth?

We have seen it again and again. During the last 50 years the youth and student movement has stood up against in the Indo-China war and made it stop, fought the apartheid system in South Africa and promoted de-colonization and national independence in Africa and Asia. Youth still fight for human rights against unjust political and economic systems all over the world. Youth have been and will always be a lead change agent globally, nationally and locally.

So what’s new?

We are in an unprecedented demographic situation: young people under 25 comprise half of the global population and 85 percent of the world’s working age population.

The average age in the 10 least-developed African countries is 16 years or younger. In times of economic crisis, as we now face, young people are the ones who bear the brunt of rising unemployment. In international development assistance the resource focus has been on early childhood. Much less attention has been given to the situation of young people. We have to redress this situation and increase resources to all vulnerable groups be they children, youth or old people. The new Youth Fund is just one tool to promote this inter-generational dimension. In development, young people are the forgotten majority when it comes to receiving resources.

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And the resources?

Development resources for youth led development are scarce. One of the Fund’s main purposes, particularly in its initial phase, will be to leverage resources for youth led development to scale up promising development initiatives.

New international development players such as the Gates Foundation, Microsoft, and Kelloggs are of particular interest. The international finance institutions such as the World Bank and the regional development banks will also be challenged to contribute as well as progressive bilateral donors.

Eric Berg

Photo © un-h haBitat

What youth organizations have you in mind, and why do this?

Youth led non-governmental organizations are those that are fully led, managed and coordinated by young people. It means that staff and members are all below a certain age and work on a variety of issues from a youth perspective.

Youth led organizations are in a unique position to develop and implement initiatives that address matters from a youth perspective and offer solutions that respond to the diverse realities of young people. Currently, almost half the world’s population is under 25, that’s three billion people. To put it bluntly: We cannot neglect the potential of three billion change agents? Can we?

What is the Fund’s purpose?

The prime purpose is as I see it is to promote and develop models for youth-led development. No fund will ever have sufficient resources to eradicate today’s poverty among youth. The Fund will therefore have to focus on identifying and disseminating efficient and relevant models for development. Interventions that focus on doing something with the causes of poverty and injustice will be given particular priority through

How do we get it going?

Youth organizations will define their needs in accordance with the regulations of the Fund. A Youth Advisory Board will be set up within UNHABITAT to assess all applications and advise the Executive Director. She will weigh who gets the support of the fund. u

Grant applications Is your organization working on an innovative and sustainable project that will improve your community and the lives of those around you? Is your organization youth-led? If you answered “yes” to these questions, your organization could be eligible for a grant.

The Opportunities Fund for Urban Youth-Led Development managed by UN-HABITAT supports innovative projects that promote employment, good governance, adequate shelter and secure tenure, with particular emphasis on urban youth. Single, youth-led development projects are eligible for grants of up to USD 25,000.

The date for applications has passed, but see www.unhabitat.org/opfund for information.

UN-HABITAT thanks the Government of Norway for its generous support in establishing the Fund.

People

A new UN-HABITAT office for eastern Congo

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N-HABITAT opened an office in the eastern Congolese border town of Goma in May as part of a joint United Nations programme to assist tens of thousands of people forced to flee during years of conflict in the Lake Kivu district. The office will work to help resolve land disputes.

Working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN peacekeeping mission in Demo-

cratic Republic of Congo, the programme is part of the UN Security and Stability Strategy Plan, which this year will focus on establishing mediation mechanisms to address land disputes in North Kivu and in Ituri with the aim of extending to South Kivu as soon as possible.

Land problems are at the heart of much of the violence in the two provinces of North and South Kivu. Immediately after conflict, access to land is the main obsta-

UN-HABITAT officials brief UK legislators

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wo senior UN-HABITAT officials, Paul Taylor and Michael Mutter made presentations on urbanization and poverty to members of the British parliamentary International Development Committee this May. At the end of the almost two-hour session, the chairman of the House of Commons Select Committee on International Development, Mr. Malcolm Bruce, admitted their previous lack of awareness of the importance of urban is-

sues and the large scale urbanization of poverty around the world. Mr. Bruce said that most of the evidence previously presented to the Committee concerned rural poverty.

“We are concerned with the apparent anti-urban bias and will raise this with others who will be giving evidence before us, including the Minister for International Development,” he said.

The two UN-HABITAT officials noted the historically important role of the Department for International Development (DFID) in support-

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cle to the return of refugees and internally displaced persons. The fact that the 1973 land law is not widespread, and the fact that a large majority of land transactions or disputes are settled through customary law, has also exacerbated the tensions.

The immediate objective is to create the conditions for an estimated 40,000 people to come home by establishing housing, land and property mediation mechanisms in North Kivu and Ituri during a first phase, and subsequently in South Kivu, Orientale and Katanga.

The long term objective is to help the Ministry of Land Affairs develop a sustainable policy and legislative framework on land administration and urban spatial development. u

ing UN-HABITAT. They also expressed the desire for stronger engagement in the future given the seriousness of the issues to be addressed and the potential contribution by the United Kingdom’s strong resource base in universities and civil society.

Key issues which the inquiry sought to address included: how effectively developing country governments and donors, particularly the DFID, are addressing the challenges presented by urban poverty; and DFID’s contribution to meeting Target 7 of the Millennium Development Goals which seeks to improve the lives of slum dwellers and the provision of basic services and infrastructure in slums, including energy, housing, transport, sanitation, water, health and education. u

Obama administration to host World Habitat Day

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he Obama Administration will cohost with UN-HABITAT the global celebrations of World Habitat Day in Washington, D.C. on 5 October 2009. Cabinet Secretary Shaun Donovan, who heads the US Department for Housing and Urban Development, said he welcomed the event as an opportunity to foster collaboration between the two agencies.

A group of 15 policy institutes, NGOs, and

foundations will join the Department for Housing and Urban Development and UN-HABITAT in organizing a number of high-level events on the occasion of WHD 2009.

An occasion celebrated on the first Monday in October each year, World Habitat Day this year will focus on the theme of improved urban planning so that our cities can manage and reduce the impacts of climate disruption, the economic crisis and urban poverty around the world. u

World Habitat Day will be in Washington DC Photo © susan maxWell W

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People

UN-HABITAT reveals Business Award winners

By Jake Julian

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ive companies have been awarded the highest accolade at the first ever UN-HABITAT Business Awards which will be presented at July’s Habitat Business Forum in Delhi. The winners of the Best Practice Awards include: Mexico’s CEMEX; WIPRO Ltd of India; China Merchants Property Development from China; and Kenyan companies Adopt a Light and Safaricom (see boxes).

The awards recognize those companies that have improved the urban environment through responsible business practices.

The selection committee, comprised of an international jury from countries including China, USA, India, France, Kenya and Russia

assessed each submission according to four primary criteria: impact, sustainability, innovation and affordability.

The Adopt a Light and Safaricom innovations stood out in particular for their effect on reducing crime, a key element in UN Habitat’s goal to promote sustainable city development.

Executive Director of UN Habitat, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka says: “The incidence of crime, robbery and gang violence, as well as gender based domestic violence, undermine both macro and micro economic growth and the productivity of a country’s development, as well as societal and individual well-being.”u

Lighting streets reduces crime

Photo © adoPt a liGht G Ght

Best Practice: Affordable Housing Solutions Winner: CEMEX (Mexico) CEMEX, the world’s largest construction supplies company, which grossed over USD 21 billion in 2008, won the award for Affordable Housing Solutions with their Patrimonio Hoy and Productive Centres for Self-employment (Community Blockers) initiatives. The Patrimonio Hoy scheme, which is marketed as “build your house and get empowered”, gives low-income families living in urban and semi-urban access to loans, services, training and building materials in order to build their own homes. The families receive weekly instalments of MXP 200 (USD 14,80) with MXP 165 (USD 13,00) covering the cost of construction materials while the remaining MXP 35 (USD 1,80) covers services such as access to consultants, fixed material prices for 70 weeks, one year of material storage, home delivery of materials and improvement of public schools’ in-

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frastructure. Under the Community Blockers programme, people enrolled on the Patrimonio Hoy scheme are taught how to make the materials to build their houses. CEMEX provides training, equipment and supplies for the fabrication of the materials (cement, aggregates and steel rods) People in these communities not only learn new skills but are given the opportunity to pay back the loans by selling surplus materials through CEMEX’s network. As a result of these initiatives, the living conditions of more than one million people have improved. The selection committee said: “In the face of a major housing crisis in Mexico, Patrimonio Hoy presents an innovative scheme that allows low-income families to build their homes through micro-credit saving mechanisms, coupled with access to affordable materials and technical assistance.”

Photo © cemex

It is now easier for low-income families to build their own homes Photo © cemex

People

Best Practice: Sustainable

Water, Sanitation, Waste Management and Urban Infrastructure Winners: WIPRO Ltd. (India) and Adopt A Light (Kenya) WIPRO Ltd, an IT company based in Bangalore, won the award for its design and construction of energy-efficient buildings.

By using local and regional building materials it has lowered energy consumption with an 18 to 30 percent saving in electricity use, and an 18 to 20 percent saving in water consumption.

Adopt a Light, a Nairobi based privatepublic partnership with Nairobi City Council, launched a scheme in 2005 to light the streets and slums of the Kenyan capital. The simple action of installing lighting reduces the crime rate by up to 40 percent, accord-

ing to independent research conducted in the UK. So far, the company has installed over 3,000 streetlights in the city, and 33 high-power, wide-coverage floodlights in the slums where 60 percent of the Kenyan work force live. The company funds installation by finding sponsors to adopt a light by buying advertising space alongside the light. The revenue raised covers operational and maintenance costs. The initiative has additional benefits to reducing crime in that not only are there fewer road accidents, but also business and domestic activities can continue after dark.

Best Practice:

Innovative Information and Communications Technology Solutions

Winner: Safaricom (Kenya) With mugging, carjacking and armed robbery rife in areas of Kenya, secure transit of money is a serious challenge. Conventional means of transferring funds are expensive and slow.

But Safaricom, seeing that the majority of the population had a mobile phone, or at least access to one, saw the opportunity to launch M-PESA, an innovative mobile phone-based transfer system. The service, with over 10 million users, was primarily set up to help the four million Kenyans who do not have access to a bank account but with over 5000 agents across the country, the programme now supports many businesses too. The model is sim-

ple: mobile phone users visit an agent and upon proving their identification are registered. They hand over money and the agent transfers an equal e-value through the MPESA system onto the customer’s handset.

The customer then uses this e-value to send money to another registered user. People can use M-PESA to send, receive or withdraw money, buy airtime, pay bills or save it in their account. People who previously could not easily transfer funds, are now able to send and receive money, all from their phone. The Selection Committee described the system as “fast, secure, efficient and cost effective”.

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Best Practice:

Clean Urban Energy Solutions, Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change

Winner:

China Merchants Property Development Co (China) China Merchants set out to build a community with low carbon emissions, clean water and low waste output by using 65 percent less energy and efficient water and wastewater treatment techniques.

The Selection Committee was impressed with the Green Hills project and praised it by saying that it had “made a considerable investment in exploring sustainable development models and generating a new approach to sustainable life styles and urbanization for China”.

Renewable energy plays a big role in the Green Hills project Photo © miGuel saavedra

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People

Giant steel clock marks countdown to Expo 2010

By Katja Makelainen and Maria-Jose Olavarria

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he one-year countdown to the Expo 2010 started 1 May at a special ceremony in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, where a giant clock is now ticking off the seconds, hours and days to go to the great exhibition due to be held in Shanghai.

The countdown gained fresh momentum after United Nations agencies met for a week in March to finalize plans on how they will showcase their work at the glittering United Nations Pavilion. Each agency in the UN system will have a week next year to showcase its work at a specially designated UN pavilion.

The Shanghai World Expo is being coordinated by UN-HABITAT. “With half of humanity now living in an urban environment, the world is at the dawn of a new urban era,” says the Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon. “Expo 2010 in Shanghai, under the theme Better City, Better Life, is the first global exposition dedicated to the

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potential — and the problems — of urban living in the 21st century.”

“The United Nations pavilion at Expo 2010, with the theme One Earth, One UN, will showcase the wide-ranging efforts of the UN system to help the world to achieve sustainable urban development,” he continues.

“The exhibitions will display not only our knowledge and best practices, but also our unity of purpose advancing this crucially important agenda.”

The United Nations pavilion will be widely broadcast to our large global network of partners. Marketing of the pavilion will include press releases, constant web updates, flyers, regular newsletters, websites, Google Ads, events programmes, placards at the Pavilion and magazines – including a special UN edition available to Expo visitors.

All UN bodies are encouraged to share the information on sponsorship packages with their partners. Supporting the UN Pavilion

will enable all sponsors to show their commitment to sustainable urbanization and to the work of the United Nations around the world.

UN-HABITAT also announced that Crystal CG will sponsor the United Nations pavilion at the Expo Online. Crystal CG is an experienced multimedia provider. It was, for example, responsible for creating the magnificent virtual worlds and design for the Beijing Olympics.

Crystal CG will partner with the United Nations pavilion team to bring our pavilion to virtual life and provide an unforgettable experience to all those around the world who cannot attend the Expo. The United Nations team has also recently assigned an in-house contact for Expo Online.

E-mail: shanghaiexpo2010@unhabitat.org to reach the team. See the UN-HABITAT website at www.unhabitat.org for further details. u

New UN-HABITAT publications

UN-HABITAT’s new Annual Report was launched in Nairobi at the 22nd session of the Governing Council. For copies of these and other publications, see our website www.unhabitat.org

The agency has updated the booklet that tells the UN-HABITAT story and how the agency works. It is now available in all six languages of the United Nations.

UN-HABITAT P.O.Box 30030, GPO Nairobi 00100, Kenya Tel. (254-20) 762 3120 Fax. (254-20) 762 3477 www.un-habitat.org

FOR A BETTER URBAN FUTURE

URBAN WATCH

Book review

Medinas 2030

By Thierry Naudin

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From Morocco to Syria, old walled cities epitomize the exceptional heritage that characterizes the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Over centuries, these medinas thrived off many cross-currents of a cultural, religious, social and economic nature, as testified by their remarkable urban and architectural features.

The paradox is that in the present global age their prospects may be coming under threat, warns a forthcoming book*.

With its 31 old walled cities, five of which feature on the UNESCO World Heritage list, Morocco provides an apt illustration of the dilemmas and hard choices facing medinas today – or so suggest French architectural and urban planning experts Lucien Godin and Gérard Le Bihan in a contribution to the book.

Like the largest and best known among them – in Marrakesh, Fez and Meknes – many Moroccan medinas today find themselves in the throes of ‘riyadh fever’: traditional patioed residential buildings are turned into second homes or upmarket hotels by affluent foreigners, effectively driving out low-income populations and small local businesses. This goes to show that, as in many historic city centres across the world, demographic and economic crosscurrents play a defining role in Morocco.

The medinas today are home to only an estimated 700,000 people, including 1,300 foreigners, compared with Morocco’s 17 million total urban dwellers. At the same time, the fact that 70 percent of those urban dwellers live in cities that have preserved their medinas highlights the important role they can still play in local economies.

In Moulay Idriss, a major pilgrimage centre, the medina is host to as much as 40 percent of the whole population, compared with only 1 percent in the business capital Casablanca on the Atlantic shoreline. Between them, with 20 percent (including 400 foreigners), stands the famous medina of Marrakesh.

Morocco’s old walled cities today are mainly host to poor rural migrants in search of better

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opportunities. They gradually took over from merchants and civil servants from the 1950s to the 1970s. As these migrants have found out, even dilapidated areas in medinas offer better housing than slums on the periphery, with the souks and small traditional businesses providing all sorts of low-qualified jobs in what often remain vibrant city centres.

In this sense, as stressed by the authors, “me “ dinas provide a very important vector of economic and social integration”” at local level. On the other hand, their exceptional heritage value is dragging them into a process of integration into the global economy through the forces at play in the tourism market.

In the medinas poor, illiterate households cram into rented abandoned buildings in various states of disrepair (50 percent are considered unhealthy); but property speculation is rife as foreigners invest in spacious old mansions, bringing alterations at odds with the local historic style. At the other end of the housing spec-

trum lie buildings on the verge of ruin (about 10 percent of the total stock). In all cases, architectural and planning rules and regulations are blithely disregarded, and as a result the heritage value of the medinas is eroding on the back of creeping social disintegration.

No wonder then that, as noted by the authors, the words “repulsive” and “kitsch” are both used to characterize the current state of Moroccan medinas. With their overall population due to shrink further by close to 50 percent by 2030 (on current trends), this awkward contrast may be there to stay – if nothing is done.

As the title suggests, the book envisages a number of scenarios. One can only hope that these will act as a wake-up call for public authorities: so far, weak and poorly coordinated initiatives have not matched the discourse on cultural heritage preservation, while the World Bank, UNESCO and often fledgling local conservation societies can only do so much.

As a result, in Morocco as in other countries, the available options for the future of the medinas have basically remained the same for the past 25 years, as noted by Marcello Balbo in his introduction to the book. In the meantime, however, the threat of what the authors refer to as ““an unscheduled undoing” of the medinas has become more distinct in Morocco.

Based on an analysis of the situation in Azemmour and Meknes, Godin and Le Bihan map out two basic scenarios for Moroccan medinas. In the first, market forces are allowed to take their course unfettered, opening up two opposed alternatives. Should the ongoing global credit crunch ease in a reasonably short term, local owners would continue to sell their medina properties to foreign investors. Current low-income residents and their small businesses would be driven away with nowhere else to go, and rehabilitation would be left entirely with private operators. The medinas would be turned into gentrified enclaves for upmarket or mass tourism; instead of social integration with the

Book review

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Photo © serGi G montaner

Traditional souks in the heart of the medina

Ancient buildings could be left for Moroccon residents or developed into hotels Photo © salva BarBera

surrounding conurbations, Morocco’s old walled cities would largely depend on tourist circuits and the presence of vast hotel compounds and resorts in the vicinity.

Conversely, a prolonged global credit crisis would put an end to property speculation in Morocco’s medinas. The tourism sector would grind to halt, newly-built accommodation would remain idle and current plans for more would be abandoned. Thousands of existing or prospective low-qualified local jobs and other opportunities would be wiped off. Rural migration to larger towns would resume, with migrants from harder-hit sub-Saharan countries adding to the inflow. Dilapidated buildings in the medinas would again become a shelter of choice for the poorest segment of the population. Mass squatting would discourage any efforts at rehabilitation and scarce government funds would be diverted to other priorities, with insecurity driving out any remaining foreigners.

Although the authors stop short of such coarse characterization, market forces – if left unfettered in Moroccan medinas – only seem to pave the way for a game where the (foreign) rich, push the (local) poor out, or conversely,

all on the back of dominant global economic trends. Kitsch or squat? In both cases the surrounding metropolitan area stands to lose.

The second, preferred scenario would combine the development of tourism and revitalization of the medinas. In what the authors call ““a multiple-function medina””, social diversity would be maintained through proper housing rehabilitation. On top of architectural renovation and reconditioning, the overall quality of the heritage would be preserved, as well as the socio-economic and religious roles of the medinas. This, the authors add, would be “in recognition of a distinctive feature of Moroccan towns and cities as the central locus for exchange and specific functions.” Proper infrastructure in and around the medinas would restore them as the historic cores of many towns and cities.

Elaborating on this scenario, they warn that it is dependent on four distinct conditions: lSpecific social housing and urban revival policies must be designed for the medinas.

This must include improved housing conditions and promotion of a greater social mix through appropriate housing supply and improved amenities. lBetter integration of the medinas within the larger urban areas that have developed around them must be encouraged. In Morocco as in other countries, old walled cities typically play a triple role in towns and cities: as residential areas, as traditional centres (particularly for trade and culture) and as touristic landmarks. lTogether with legal and institutional frameworks, financial resources must be aligned with medina revitalization policies. The funding of operational schemes can no longer rely on government subsidies and the year-to-year vagaries attached to

them. The sources of funding must be diversified, taking advantage of the potential associated with existing policies (renovation, public-private partnerships, etc.).

Regulations on unhealthy buildings and those on the verge of ruin should be fully enforced. lLocal re-appropriation of the medinas, some of which have become externalized.

This tough, inescapable challenge must be met if these age-old urban fabrics are not to turn into rich- or poor-only areas, and instead play their own role in local urban development.

For all their diversity, Morocco’s 31 medinas, and the cities around them, would obviously stand to benefit from such a revitalization programme. As Balbo notes, “a medina can only contribute effectively to the development of the city as a whole if rehabilitation is seen as an opportunity to promote social inclusion, itself a precondition for sustainable spatial inclusion.” This is why he insists that political will must come before proper policies if medinas are to survive.

In the present and foreseeable economic conditions, this can be a challenge. Short of rising up to it, though, the cross-currents at work in the global economy today will undo the medinas built over so many centuries. u * *Marcello Balbo (ed.) Medinas 2030, to be published in French (L’Harmattan, Paris), Arabic (Groupe Yamama, Tunis), and English.

The book is based on a seminar on the future of Southern and Eastern Mediterranean medinas held in 2008 at UN-HABITAT partner university IUAV Venice (Italy) with support from the European Investment Bank. Thierry Naudin is a London based writer and editor.

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Calendar of events

Urban Research Symposium 28-30 June 2009 Marseille, France http://www.urs2009.net/

The symposium focuses on the theme of Cities and Climate Change: Responding to an Urgent Agenda and aims to push forward the research agenda on climate change from a city perspective. The event is structured around five broad research clusters which represent the most relevant issues faced by cities and peri-urban areas on climate change. Following the event further information will be available in two publications.

The first will contain the most relevant and cutting-edge research papers directed towards academics and researchers. The second will be a handbook aimed at decision makers of 40 short papers on the practical applications of dealing with climate change in cities. There will be a side event on 1 July.

Habitat Business Forum – Innovative Cities: Showcasing and Debating Urban Challenges and Solutions 7-9 July 2009 Vighan Bhawan, New Delhi, India www.ficci-habitatbusinessforum.com

This is the first Habitat Business Forum focusing on cities that have demonstrated planning and development innovation. The forum will provide a platform to debate urban challenges and solutions. The private sector, as a key driver of innovation, will showcase best practices and debate new solutions to housing, infrastructure, energy, transport and ICT needs in cities.

Multilayered Cities and Urban Systems 30 July – 9 August Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India http://www.multilayeredcities.com/

The conference proposes to present research on and debate several themes including: Urban Structures and Systems; Resources and Urban Requirements – Water, Energy, Services, Other Infrastructure; Security and Conflict – for the economy, the people, the environment; and Urban Infrastructure.

10th Asia Urbanization Conference 16-19 August 2009 University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China http://www.hku.hk/asia2009

The conference will address the following themes: Urban population change including migration; Urban systems; Quality of life; Sustainable development; City marketing and economic development; Social justice; Urban governance; Transportation; Applications related to GIS; Comparative urbanization; and Environmental conditions in Asian cities. The event is organized by the Asian Urban Research Association (AURA), which is a non-profit and private research organization whose primary purpose is to promote the study of urbanization and urban growth in Asian regions.

15th International Sustainable Development and Research Conference 5-8 July 2009 Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands http://globalchallenge2009.geo.uu.nl/

The conference follows the theme of Taking up the Global Challenge: Analysing the implementation of innovations and governance for sustainable development. The focus will be on the key factors explaining successes (and failures) in the practices of implementation of innovations and governance for sustainable development from all over the globe. The event is organized by the International Sustainable Development Research Society (ISDRS), which aims to foster and communicate the importance of sustainable development in a global society. The society is a coalition of academic researchers, teachers, government, non-governmental organizations and industry.

World Water Week 16-22 August 2009 Stockholm, Sweden http://www.worldwaterweek.org/

Hosted and organiz ed by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), the World Water Week in Stockholm has been the annual focal point for the planet’s water issues since 1991. The forum provides a place for the exchange of views and experiences between the scientific, business, policy and civic communities. It focuses on new thinking and positive action toward water-related challenges and their impact on the world’s environment, health, economic and poverty reduction agendas. There will also be an award ceremony to celebrate projects already making a difference towards saving water.

Global Mayors Forum 15-18 September 2009 Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China http://www.g-mforum.org/English/default.aspx

The First Global Mayors Forum, themed: High Growth Cities: Meeting the Challenges for Sustainability. A total of 1,000 international guests are expected, including outstanding mayors, city administrators, leaders from the United Nations and international organizations, and experts on urban development. There will be a number of activities, including a plenary session, parallel sessions, roundtable sessions and exhibition fair.

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Conference briefing

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Cities at the climate change frontline UN-HABITAT’s Executive Director and former US President Bill Clinton joined delegates from cities around the world in May to press home the message that action on climate change has to be implemented in cities.

Photo © soPhie P Phie montreal

Cities should lead the way in reducing emissions

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he third C40 Large Cities Climate Summit drew together mayors and executives from 40 cities and 17 af affiliate municipalities across the globe. In his keynote address, the former US leader, whose Clinton Climate Initiative develops programmes to help cities cut the emissions blamed for global warming, warned of dire consequences if cities did not enact policies to mitigate the problem.

Mr. Clinton said the good practices shared among the C40 members would advance the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions adding that in the current economic crisis, it was crucial to invest wisely.

According to Mr. Clinton, in the United States, for every USD 1 billion invested in building and construction, 870 jobs are created. It was possible today for economies to grow without emitting greenhouse gases, and the world must act now to cut emissions before it is too late, he said.

“We know that if we don’t reduce greenhouse gases by somewhere in the range of 80 percent by 2050, bad things are going to happen,” Clinton said in a keynote speech at the third C40 Large Cities Climate Summit, held this year in Seoul.

“Global warming could lead to a drop in food production and access to water, creating new dangers to public health,” Mr. Clinton warned.

“It is absolutely certain if we let the worst happen, then the consequences will be so severe that we won’t be able to save the planet for our grandchildren,” Clinton said. The former president, who now runs the Clinton Climate Initiative, joined mayors and leaders from 70 cities around the world for the three-day conference to trade advice and share experiences on ways they have gone green.

In her speech Mrs. Tibaijuka said it was no coincidence that global climate change had become a leading international development issue at the same time as the world has become urbanized.

“The way we plan, manage, operate and consume energy in our cities is the key driver behind the phenomenon of global warming.

Seventy-five percent of global energy consumption occurs in cities. Roughly half of this comes from burning fossil fuels for urban transport,” she said.

“In fact, urban transportation is the planets fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. As most cities manage urban transport, this is the single most important area where wisely invested city budgets can make the biggest contribution in continued climate change mitigation,” Mrs. Tibaijuka said.

She said that under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, many UN agencies had worked hard to reduce impacts of the climate change and raise the public awareness. “I appreciate the participating mayors’ commitment and kindly ask for their further cooperation to join our activities,” she added. u

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SPECIAL FOCUS

International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP)

Low carbon cities

Sponsored statement

A message from ISOCARP about its 45th World Congress to be held in Porto, Portugal between 18 -22 October 2009

Photo © University of Porto – facUlty of engineering

Old Porto riverside

Message from the Presidents 2009 will be an extremely important year in terms of the political decisions that are needed to combat climate change. The world’s governments will be meeting in Copenhagen this December to discuss and, we sincerely hope, agree upon a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which in 1997 started the faltering attempts to curb emissions of greenhouse gases. The summit, COP 15, will be the most important global climate change meeting ever because there is so much at stake for the future of our planet, its human populations and all the other life forms that live on it.

The science is now clear about the link between man’s activities, the build up of greenhouse gases and the warming of the climate system.

With their increasingly sophisticated modelling systems, climatologists are now able to predict, with a reasonable degree of confidence, the likely future effects of this warming within the different regions of the world.

However, the effects are already becoming clear, as is evident from the massive shrinkage of polar sea ice, the rapid retreat of the world’s glaciers, and the rising mean sea levels which threaten many of our largest cities. They are manifest too in the extreme weather patterns and events that are being experienced in dif-

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Pierre Laconte President of ISOCARP

ferent parts of the world, for example, the devastating drought in south eastern Australia.

We have reached this present position in just 10 human generations. The sober scientific evidence suggests that we have a maximum of 10 years to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that would avoid potentially catastrophic climate change. We face this threat at a time of continuing population growth that is coupled, on the one hand, with rising material expectations but, on the other, with growing concerns about the ade-

Paulo Pinho President of the Local Organising Committee

quacy of food and water supplies, as well as other key resources. At the same time, the deforestation that reduces the earth’s capacity to absorb carbon dioxide continues on a massive scale. The present trends are in the wrong direction.

There is thus a huge weight of responsibility on the leaders who will be attending COP 15. To achieve the drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that are needed, we will have to act on a range of fronts combining technological solutions with the pursuit of new and less

International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP)

resource intensive paths for human development. We must move rapidly towards a low carbon economy in which those emissions are a fraction of what they are now.

Five critical themes Porto 09 builds upon the results of ISOCARP’s Congress on urban sprawl held last year in Dalian, China. In sustainability terms, the unrestrained, land consuming patterns of much urban growth – the manifestations of sprawl – are the opposite of what we need to achieve.

Encouragingly, speakers at that Congress were able to point to numerous examples of schemes where planning has been able to shape cities that are more respectful of the environment in its widest sense. Through its five discussion themes and its plenary sessions, the 45th Congress continues the debate. It asks how in practical terms should low carbon cities be planned, designed and delivered?

Theme 1: Tackling the effects of climate change on our cities and urban regions – today and tomorrow According to the climatologists, there is a high level of confidence that already dry areas – for

Theme 2: The role of strategic land use planning The link to planning for low carbon cities is through the concept of sustainable development. However, while we can readily recognize urban sprawl as the antithesis of sustainable development, it can be more difficult to define city structures that work well in those terms. So a key question for the Congress is how at the strategic scale we should shape our cities and urban regions as sustainable, low carbon places and how we should formulate and implement our plans to that end.

In any one place, there may be a number of options. From a European perspective, the conventional planning wisdom is that a reasonably high density, a mix between housing and employment uses, and a degree of self containment are among the pre-requisites for low carbon areas. But how universally valid is such a vision? Also, given that sustainability has economic and social, as well as environmental dimensions, how should we set the priorities, or are there genuine ‘win win’ strategies

Integrated public transport in Zurich, Switzerland Photo © chris gossoPP, isocarP

that provide clear routes to low carbon cities?

There is then the question of how necessary growth should be channelled. Is land recycling automatically the best option in terms of carbon emissions or can planned urban extensions or new settlements perform as well, given the right designs? What does practical experience tell us?

And where the needed emphasis is on restructuring or upgrading of older places, how can we best achieve this in ways that also lead to improved energy efficiency and reduced carbon emissions?

Theme 3: Integrating transport, community energy, and waste/ recycling strategies Land use planning cannot on its own guarantee low carbon cities and high environmental quality; a spatial planning approach is vital, whereby land use considerations can be integrated with infrastructural planning.

Thus, efficient public transport systems, and measures to manage or restrain the unbridled use of the private car, can play a major role in limiting carbon emissions. Local energy planning, providing for energy efficient building layouts and designs, efficient local electricity and heat generating plant, and the widespread use of renewable technology, has also a substantial part to play. And effective waste planning, through waste minimization, recycling, and composting, as well as energy recovery in appropriate cases, makes better use of resources, and limits landfill disposal and emissions.

The Congress will look at planning approaches for these sectors. Thus, on transport, it will address demand management to reduce the need to use the car, for example through pricing and car parking policies, while Porto’s award winning metro system indicates what can be done to foster the use of public transport. On energy, Porto 09 will explore the concept of community energy

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An emphasis upon the cities Over half of the world’s population now lives within cities. Because they concentrate people and activities, they place a particular burden upon the world’s resources. Their future is crucial in the search for sustainability and, if we are to put the world on a lower carbon path, action based upon the cities will form a major part of the solution.

Spatial planning and effective city management will be crucial in bringing this about. ISOCARP’s 45th World Congress to be held in Porto, Portugal this October explores the role of planning and of all those involved in the planning and development process, in the drive to achieve less resource intensive, low carbon cities. As this special supplement describes, the Congress provides a major opportunity to disseminate and share experience about strategies and practical approaches to the planning and design of low carbon cities. This will be achieved through a combination of keynote presentations, technical seminars, workshops, technical tours and other events, providing much scope for debate and the reaching of conclusions regarding best practice.

As a final note, we are delighted that UN-HABITAT has agreed to play a major role in our Congress.

We look forward to welcoming you to Porto this autumn!

example the Mediterranean Basin, the western USA, southern Africa and north eastern Brazil – will suffer a further decrease in water resources due to climate change. By contrast, areas in high latitudes that are already wet will receive even more rainfall. Worldwide, sea level rise threatens the integrity of many coastal cities while extreme weather events will increase in their intensity. On the other hand, some regions might benefit in the medium term, in terms of crop yields, for example, before negative effects become more general.

The Congress seeks to address the realities for cities and urban regions in different parts of the world. What is the right way forward for specific cities? Should they adapt to observed and anticipated climate change, or should the emphasis be on mitigation, to tackle the causes of climate change, as part of the collective effort to reduce the build up of greenhouse gases? The view of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is that, globally, a mix of strategies that includes both mitigation and adaptation is required, but which ingredient should be prioritized in any specific city, or are both equally important?

There is also the challenge of how we can best foster and plan for new technologies aimed at saving energy or reducing resource depletion. In particular, there are immense opportunities for the development of renewable energy industries, amongst which wind power is the most mature.

Renewables, energy efficiency and green industries generally have the potential to create many millions of jobs worldwide and to transform city economies. Will green industry be the sign of a successful city in the 2020s?

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International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP)

Solar housing in Freiburg, Germany Photo © chris gossoPP, isocarP

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strategies, as well as action to combat the growing incidence of heat islands in dense cities where the priority is to keep the city cool. Porto’s own sustainable energy action plan will provide an important case study.

Theme 4: Design for low carbon cities Planning, by itself, has often been too ‘broad brushed’ to cope with the necessary detail for a quality living and working environment.

That is the domain of urban design. Good design is the key to creating successful places that are sustainable in the broadest sense.

There is a growing recognition of what constitutes good design and there are numerous examples from around the world of successful places that both function well and are attractive in architectural and landscape terms.

But the new dimension is the need for those places to be low carbon as well.

The Porto Congress will address the ingredients of low carbon design. As a key question, what are the characteristics of an energy efficient, resource conscious, building layout and how can these best be secured within both new developments, and within existing ones, often the more difficult challenge? And, underlying this, what standards of energy efficiency should we be aiming for?

Good, low carbon design also implies places that are well connected but where there is a reduced dependence upon the car. Also, open space and landscaping are vital as a balance to intensive built development; they are crucial to human health and well being, to biodiversity and to moderating the urban climate. There is another dimension too, in terms of local food production; this can have both economic and social benefits as well as reducing ‘food miles’.

Theme 5: The management and delivery of low carbon cities The move towards low carbon cities will place immense burdens upon those responsible, from the public authorities and related agencies, to

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the developers who will carry out the work, and to the communities that will be directly affected.

Spatially, there will be two elements to this, the new developments that will be planned and designed following low carbon principles and the remodelling of older areas. There is also the question of skills, in what for many will be an entirely new area of work.

So who should take the lead in this process, central or local government or other agencies?

How should the low carbon city be financed and who should be the financiers? What monitoring schemes are needed to measure environmental performance over the longer term? The switch from present practices to low carbon cities is going to require considerable management skill, and a great willingness to innovate. We believe that participants in our Congress will gain many useful ideas.

ISOCARP – knowledge creation and sharing ISOCARP is a global association of experienced professional planners. It was founded in 1965 to bring together recognized and highly qualified planners. Today, the ISOCARP network consists of both institutional and individual members drawn from more than 70 countries. It is a non-governmental organization recognized by the United Nations (UNCHS) and the Council of Europe and it has formal consultative status with UNESCO. The objectives of ISOCARP include the improvement of planning practice worldwide.

ISOCARP encourages exchange between planners, promotes the profession in all as-

pects, stimulates research, and improves awareness on major planning issues. Its main event is its World Congress held annually in a different city each year. Other activities include its Urban Planning Advisory Team and Young Planning Professionals programmes.

The Porto Congress will include presentations on both of these (see below).

The Society’s publications include the ISOCARP Review which is produced annually in conjunction with the Congress. This attractive book features many of the most notable case studies presented at that event. Other publications include the International Manual of Planning Practice (IMPP), a unique compendium of, and commentary upon, the world’s planning systems. The Society also runs a number of awards; these include its Awards of Excellence which are conferred annually in recognition of exceptional urban initiatives.

Advisory teams The Urban Planning Advisory Team (UPAT) Programme seeks to assist individual cities and regions in the pursuit of specific planning projects and programmes.

A UPAT gathers a select group of expert international planners, members of ISOCARP, in a multi-skilled, fast response team that works on a specific urban or regional planning issue. Within one week, the UPAT generates a report that provides the commissioning local authority or other body with recommendations that may serve as a basis, or as guidelines, for design strategies for the target city or area. A group of students and/

Photo © isocarP-sitges ii

International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP)

There will be a presentation of the results of the most recent UPATs at the Porto Congress.

ISOCARP would welcome further invitations for UPATs from individual cities and regions.

Young planners The Young Planning Professionals (YPP) Programme is a crucial component of ISOCARP’s dedication to promote and enhance the planning profession. The objective is to provide emerging professionals with an opportunity to work in a multi-cultural setting and share their experiences. Since 1991, ISOCARP has been organizing YPP Workshops, bringing together young planners from all parts of the world. The workshops are brief, but very intense, brainstorming planning and design exercises in which our young colleagues work on real-life planning problems in the host city in an area defined by the local authority or university departments.

Over a concentrated period of three to four days, the YPPs work in closely-knit international teams, exchanging ideas and learning from each other. The workshops, thus, provide a synergetic platform where new ideas and creative solutions to complex and multifaceted urban issues are produced. The tangible results are then published in a Workshop Report. The intangible ones, however, stay in the hearts and minds of the participant YPPs, who not only learn from each other but make life-long friends.

YPP Workshop in Dalian, China Photo © Jiang ling, china

The Douro YPP Workshop will take place just before the Porto Congress. As befits the theme of the Congress, it will focus upon the benefits of using sustainable energy in the built up areas of the Douro Region, the world’s oldest demarcated wine region, now listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The YPPs will then present their main findings to a special plenary session of the Porto Congress. Just after the main Congress, there will be a second presentation and public discussion back in the Douro Region. This will involve Portuguese experts, technicians and politicians.

Young Planning Professionals from all over the world are invited to take part in future YPP Workshops which are planned in conjunction with the annual ISOCARP Congresses. For further information please visit: www.isocarp.org

More about the Congress The Congress will be held at the University of Porto, which is well served by the city’s metro system. The programme is a very rich one which includes the following: n Plenary speeches by: l Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, Vice Chair of IPCC l Richard Rosan, President of the UrbanLand Institute l Professor Eduardo de Oliveira Fernandes, President of Porto’s Energy Agency l Professor Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency l Paul Taylor, Head of Urban Development, UN-HABITAT n Technical seminars covering: l Energy, transport and the environment l Low carbon cities – today and tomorrow n Parallel workshops addressing the five critical themes n Technical tours, choices to include: l The metro project

The Porto metro Photo © University of Porto – facUlty of engineering l Urban regeneration l Environmental

improvement of Porto’s waterfront l Contemporary architecture and cultural events n UPAT and YPP presentations n Porto planning presentation For more information about the Congress and about ISOCARP’s many other activities, visit www.isocarp.org u

How to register

ISOCARP welcomes city and regional planners from all over the world. The Congress is open to any interested individual, party or organization, young planning professional, expert and interested professional from other related disciplines (ISOCARP members and/or nonmembers).

Carbon offsetting We have calculated the anticipated emissions from this event and are offsetting these through Climate Care. The cost of the offset is included in the registration fee. Climate Care will fund projects in energy efficiency and sustainable energy around the world to reduce global carbon emissions on our behalf.

Registrations are handled online at www.2009.isocarp.org, via the link to ‘Registrations’.

Early bird registration is open until 31 July 2009.

Late registrations can be accepted until arrival at Congress.

ISOCARP accepts all major credit cards and/or bank transfers.

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or young planning professionals from the locality complements the team.

The UPATs hosted so far are: l 2004 La Rioja, Spain Regional, social and economic development l 2005 Sitges, Spain (I) Urban regeneration along the railway corridor l 2006 Cancun, Mexico Disaster management l 2006 Schiphol, The Netherlands Masterplan for neighbouring authorities l 2006 Sitges, Spain (II) Historic centre pedestrianization l 2007 Rijswijk, The Netherlands New functions for an urban hub l 2007 Schwechat, Austria Airport area masterplan l 2007 Sitges, Spain (III) El Garraf regional plan l 2008 Cuenca, Spain Upgrading of the historic centre l 2008 Lincoln City, USA City masterplan l 2008 Guadalajara, Mexico Appraisal of the 2001 Panamerican Games Masterplan l 2008 Zurich, Switzerland Regional plan l 2009 Szczecin, Poland Metropolitan region development

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