Urban World: Better City Better Life

September 2010

Volume 2 Issue 4

u r b a n WORLD

What the Shanghai Expo means for China Interview: Philadelphia’s Mayor reveals new strategic growth plan How ICT is transforming the lives of slum dwellers New UN-HABITAT Executive Director y Da t a bit a H ld or xpo W es hai E t a r g leb Shan e c AT t the T I B a HA UN

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u r b a n WORLD www.unhabitat.org © 2010 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

CONTENTS OPINION

ANALYSIS

4 A message for World Habitat

UN-HABITAT NEWS

BEST PRACTICES

EDITOR: Roman Rollnick EDITORIAL BOARD Anantha Krishnan Christine Auclair Daniel Biau Edlam Abera Yemeru Eduardo López Moreno Jane Nyakairu Lucia Kiwala Mariam Yunusa Mohamed El-Sioufi Naison Mutizwa-Mangiza Oyebanji Oyeyinka (Chair) Raf Tuts PRESSGROUP HOLDINGS EUROPE, S.A. Pasaje Dr. Serra, 2-6º-6ª 46004 Valencia, Spain Tel. (34) 96 303 1000 Fax. (34) 96 114 0160 E-mail: urbanworld@pressgroup.net MANAGING EDITOR: Vicente Carbona DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR: Jonathan Andrews ART DIRECTOR: Marisa Gorbe ADVERTISING: Liam Murray EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: Flossie Mbiriri, Tom Osanjo PUBLISHER: Angus McGovern 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.

25 A new approach to gender equality Lucia Kiwala and Emily Wong

Day 2010

5 Changing of the guard

28 How ICT is transforming the lives of slum dwellers Jonathan Andrews

COVER STORY Shanghai Expo 7 A dazzling Expo makes history Guillermo García

INTERVIEW 32 Philadelphia’s Mayor reveals

10 Better City, Better Life – future city?

Dr. Awni Behnam

new strategic growth plan Vicente Carbona

12 The Shanghai powerhouse Daniel Biau

16 Walking through the great pavilions Roman Rollnick

22 Using Chinese art for diplomacy Zhang Zifeng

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REPRINTS 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.

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Image © marI arIsa Isa gorbe and ChrI hrIst IstI stIan Ian LIndgren I

11 September 2010

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FOR A BETTER URBAN FUTURE

IN-FOCUS

URBAN WATCH

36 Africa

56 Urban economies

Kenya’s new constitution Daniel Biau and Alain Kanyinda News and project round-ups

42 Latin America and the Caribbean Brazilian city neighbourhood receives extensive upgrade Manuel Manrique News and project round-ups

Better cities, better economies Xing Quan Zhang

59 Conference briefings World Cities Summit Mayor’s Forum Asia-Pacific Housing and Urban Development Conference

62 New publications 63 Calendar of events

48 Asia-Pacific News and project round-ups

50 Middle East and North Africa News and project round-ups

52 Central and eastern Europe

32

News and project round-ups

54 North America and western Europe News and project round-ups

16 44 12-13

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Volume 2 Issue 4 September 2010

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OPINION

A message for World Habitat Day 2010

C

ities are the greatest legacy of humanity and the greatest achievement of our civilization. Around the world and through the centuries cities have endured and survived wars, famine, natural disasters, epidemics, crumbling empires, and the disappearance of the gods, kings and queens for whom they were built.

But we have to keep improving our cities, and doing that means making our cities better for those who live in them and for those yet to be born in a world that will be from here on forever urban. Today half of humanity lives in towns and cities, and the trends show that this figure will increase to two-thirds within the next two generations.

This is why the theme chosen for World Habitat Day, Better City, Better Life is so important to all of us. To that I would add the term smarter city, for it is only a smart city that can provide its citizens with a better life in our planet’s new urban era. It is an era we are entering with many unknowns, especially when it comes to the global impact of climate change.

We have all the tools at our disposal in good science to mitigate against most such problems. We also have the tools and knowhow for good governance, education – especially for women and girls – health services, toilets for all, or energy efficiency.

We are smart, but we have to be smarter. And World Habitat Day 2010 is an occasion to highlight five strategic steps that can be taken: l Improve the quality of life, especially for the estimated 1 billion people living in slums and other sub-standard housing around the world. Improved access to safe and healthy shelter, secure tenure, basic services and social amenities such as health and education are essential to a better life for every individual. l Invest in human capital. This is a condition for socioeconomic development and a more equitable distribution of the urban advantage. This will also enable cities and regions to implement policies more effectively and to ensure

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that they are properly adjusted to local needs. l Foster sustained economic opportunities. Cities can stimulate sustained economic growth for the poor through labour-intensive projects. These include primarily public works and the construction industry. Cities in the developing world are starting to provide social security to give better access to economic opportunities for those traditionally excluded. l Enhance political inclusion.

Today, more and more municipal and national authorities share the same basic philosophy: bringing government within the reach of ordinary people through enhanced mutual engagement. This means engaging people and their neighbourhoods in dialogue and participation in decision-making as a fundamental aspect of local democracy. l Promote cultural inclusion. Culture has historically been left out of the conventional international development agenda. More and more local development policies take into account the cultural dimensions of urban life, such as social capital, tradition, symbols, a sense of belonging and pride of place. This helps integrate ethnic minorities, preserve regional values, safeguard linguistic and religious diversity, resolve conflicts and protect the heritage.

As we move into a world of better cities with smarter policies, these are the five essential catalysts for success and a better life for all.

Inga Björk-Klevby

Officer-in- Charge of UN-HABITAT Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director

Changing of the guard

UN-HABITAT NEWS

UN General Assembly elects Joan Clos as new Executive Director of UN-HABITAT

T

he United Nations General Assembly on 25 August 2010 elected Joan Clos to a four-year term as the Executive Director of UN-HABITAT at the level of Under SecretaryGeneral of the UN. The former Mayor of Barcelona, Joan Clos, has had a long career in the Spanish Government both at the local and national level. Between 2006 and 2008, he was appointed Minister of Industry, Tourism and Trade under President José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Between 1997 and 2006, Joan Clos served two terms as Mayor of Barcelona. He was serving as Spain’s Ambassador to the Republics of Turkey and Azerbaijan when his UN appointment was announced.

On hearing the news, Mr. Clos said he was honoured to have been elected by the UN General Assembly as the new Executive Director of UN-HABITAT and thanked the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon for nominating him.

“I am deeply committed to my new task and look forward to building on the achievements of my predecessor, Anna Tibaijuka. I am a long time believer in sustainable cities that practise participatory urban governance and which provide shelter and basic services for all,” he said. “With over half of humanity now living in cities, we must prioritize both urban poverty reduction and environmental sustainability, especially as there are now

Mr. Clos and Mrs. Tibaijuka at a meeting earlier this year on the eve of the fifth tat / e. aPUt session of the World Urban Forum Photo © Un-habItat

almost 1 billion slum dwellers. Through collaboration and partnership with governments, local authorities, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and all Habitat Agenda partners, our urban areas can be environmentally, economically and socially sustainable. I look forward to making my modest contribution to the future of cities.”

Mr. Clos succeeds Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka who has headed UN-HABITAT since it was set up in 2001 to replace the former UN Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS). The agency is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.

Mrs. Tibaijuka welcomed the General Assembly decision: “Joan Clos is a committed advocate of the urban agenda. With his long and illustrious career in local and national government in Spain, he has a wealth of experience in managing urban renewal and development projects,” she said.

“As Mayor of Barcelona he became world famous for the way he turned around the fortunes of the city. Mr. Clos was also one of the first people to understand the need to strengthen international institutions and networks to support the work of local authorities everywhere,” she added. “I can think of no better person to build on what we have achieved so far at UN-HABITAT. He is the perfect choice to meet the future challenges of urbanization.”

On one of her last official missions, Mrs. Tibaijuka met former President Nelson Mandela when she attended the World Cup final in South Africa in July tat / J. mweLU Photo © Un-habItat

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ADVERTISEMENT Message from the Executive Director

Shanghai Expo

COVER STORY

A dazzling Expo that makes history – Shanghai’s showcase to the world and an urban future

Shanghai is taking the scale of the 2010 Expo to a higher level than ever before for such a world class event, says Guillermo García, writer and expert on world exhibitions. Expo 2010 Shanghai is the sixth he has visited. His latest work, Wode Shibo Yuan (Destination Expo), is the first time a Mexican has published a book directly into the Chinese language.

Inside the UN Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010

Photo © Un-habItat / ChrIstIan LIndgren

COVER STORY

Shanghai Expo

O

n both banks of the Huangpu River an astonishing exhibition has risen. There, visitors can explore more than one hundred pavilions while at the same time take part in a world-class event. Under the theme Better City, Better Life, this world exhibition offers a panorama of life in urban environments in the 21st century and how to raise the standard of living in them. The logo of the Expo is inspired in the ideogram ‘ ’, which signifies ‘world’ and is the first of three characters of the term ‘ ’ (Shibohui), which means, ‘Expo’ in Chinese.

The Expos are unique events of their kind, combining the latest science, technology and imagination to show the versatility and the progress of humanity.

The Shanghai 2010 Expo is very special for many reasons. It is the first to be hosted in a so-called developing country, yet at the same time it is the biggest ever, with an Expo site of almost 400 hectares.

Every day it draws an average of 380,000 visitors, making it feasible that it will achieve its objective of 70 million visitors during the six months of the Expo.

Shanghai 2010 is innovative because it addresses cities and urban matters as its central theme – a topic deemed particularly important given that nowadays roughly 55 percent of the world population is urban, and within the next two generations that figure is expected to grow to two-thirds.

In fact, apart from the domestic, international, corporate and institutional pavilions, Expos also have thematic pavilions; and their exhibits are referent to the concepts by which the Expo is accomplished. One of the most outstanding is the Urban Planet pavilion. It reflects on how excessive development seriously affects the environment. The most impressive aspect in this exhibition is a projection of the earth’s surface on a spherical screen 22 metres in diameter.

Other thematic pavilions are City Being, which offers an analogy between the city and living organisms; and the Urbanian pavilion, at which various aspects of the daily lives of six families in six different cities are compared.

The most emblematic and perhaps the most dramatic building at the Expo is that of the host country, China. It is a colossal inverted pyramid whose design is inspired

by Dougong supports, an element of traditional Chinese architecture. The building

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has a number of ecological mechanisms, for example, panels to capture solar energy, or rooftop gardens on the structure that houses the pavilions of the Chinese provinces. The final exhibition room, through which visitors pass, focuses on promoting a future of zero carbon emissions.

Of the international pavilions, South Korea’s offers a good balance between the illustrated and the entertaining: their exhibits include the urban regeneration projects in Seoul, and also Chorus City, a fantastic movie which mixes the virtual with the real. The pavilion finishes with a promotion area for the Yeosu international exhibition of 2012. Nearby is the Saudi Arabian pavilion, which is perhaps the most popular of the Expo. Its major attraction is the audiovisual experience which combines one of the biggest screens in the world with an exquisite soundtrack. On peak days, the queues for the Saudi pavilion are up to eight hours. Also in this zone is the Japanese pavilion, whose emphasis on sustainable development is expressed through samples on water purification, clean electricity generation and a movie of the joint work of China and Japan to reintroduce the crested ibis into the wild.

With respect to European countries, it is worth mentioning Denmark. Its pavilion exalts the bicycle as the best means of transport for cities, and, of course, it has a cycle track spiralling up to the roof. In the centre there is a pond with the original statue of Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid, especially shipped to Shanghai for the Expo. And her Shanghai pond shows how water once contaminated is now clean, thanks to a government effort to raise the quality of life.

Italy, host of the Milan Expo 2015, focuses on fashion and design. At the same time it does not neglect the importance of sustainable development. Its building is made of a new material called transparent concrete, which is appropriate for both thermal insulation and lighting. On one side of Italy is the United Kingdom pavilion, better known as ‘The Seed Cathedral’. The main structure is six floors high and covered by 60,000 transparent rods which contain seeds in one of its ends. The message is that seeds and plants have enormous potential to provide the necessary solutions to confront the ecological challenges of the planet.

One of my favourite anecdotes from the Expo 2010 is concerning parts of the Spanish and German pavilions. In the last room of

the German pavilion there is a spherical screen that moves according to visitors’ noise. Spain’s third room showcases Miguelín, a baby-shaped giant animatronic that represents the future.

There have been some people that get confused and clap and yell in front of Miguelín hoping to make him react. From the Spanish pavilion, it is also remarkable to mention the first room and its audiovisual exhibition, made by movie director Bigas Luna.

Of the Americas, the Mexican pavilion has a natural grass slope from which 125 kites, of various colours and heights, soar. The kites represent a common element between Mexico and China. The slope symbolizes the importance of public spaces, and beneath it is an exhibition that pays homage to Mexican art.

Chile’s ‘City of Relations’ pavilion is made entirely from ecological materials. Other countries of the Americas with self-built pavilions

Shanghai Expo

The United Kingdom’s ‘Seed Cathedral’ pavilion is a favourite

include Canada, the United States and Venezuela. Then come those of Argentina, Cuba, Peru, Colombia and Brazil, with rented pavilions, meaning they are not self-built by participant countries. The rest of the Americas is located together under the same pavilion, except for the Caribbean countries, which have their own joint pavilion.

Located in Puxi, on the eastern side of the Huangpu River, The Urban Best Practices Area (UBPA) is a major innovation of Expo 2010. Here cities have the opportunity to present their most relevant achievements with regard to solving problems, resource administration and improvement of the quality of life in the cities. There are 44 cities in the shared pavilions and 13 others with their own pavilion. Some of the most notable here are those of Madrid, Vancouver, Shanghai, Hamburg, Ningbo, Macao, Mecca, London and the Rhône Alps region.

Photo © g. garCIa CI

But not everything in the Expo is all about pavilions. The Shanghai organizers have been careful to incorporate many green areas. One of the most valuable is Houtan Park, located in Pudong, on the east bank of the Huangpu, in what was once a derelict, contaminated abandoned factory. Here, 14 hectares of land were converted into a park with functions like flood control, natural water treatment, food production, and environmental regeneration. Given that the treated water can be used in the Expo, except for drinking purposes, it has resulted in savings of USD 500,000.

Another favourable point of Expo 2010 is its strong emphasis on public transport, in particular the metro. The Expo Site has its own internal line connecting Puxi with Pudong. Indeed, in just 15 years Shanghai has built a metro network so large that soon it will overcome London’s underground.

COVER STORY

Moreover, apart from the investment in the metro and other transport infrastructure, the city of Shanghai has benefited from various regeneration projects and improvement of other facilities because of the Expo. All this in order to reinforce the Better City, Better Life ideal.

Of course not all at the Expo is perfect. Waiting times for the popular pavilions can be many hours long. For more exigent visitors it might be uncomfortable to cope with the crowds, the humidity and the heat in the summer months.

Fortunately, organizers made an additional ef effort to guarantee that not even in peak hours will visitors have to make long queues for the toilets.

Also, in order to give directions to visitors, volunteers are often seen with loud-speakers giving information in both Chinese and English.

Shanghai 2010 is likely to become my favourite Expo, given that I have had the opportunity of living it from the inside, working at the Expo site the whole six months. It is true that my memories from Seville 1992 are unbeatable; but the fact is that in Shanghai 2010 I have been able to further enjoy the interaction with people from all over the world.

The Expo is a unique setting, just like the Olympic Games or the World Cup, but within a cultural and social perspective.

This Expo is an excellent opportunity to appreciate the enormous cultural heritage and rich anthropology of our planet, at the same time describing the latest technological and scientific advances of our rapidly urbanizing world. Expo 2010, like its predecessors, offers a truly global perspective, in which a large number of countries from all five continents participate actively.

Bear in mind that this sophisticated approach is the product of a century and a half of evolution of the Expos.

Now that the first decade of the 21st century comes to a close, and both the communication revolution and the scope of globalization have become evident, it continues to be crucial that the forum is not virtual, where a wide variety of participants meet to treat a relevant theme in an illustrative and entertaining manner for visitors.

Expo 2010 has already changed Shanghai forever, which at the same time is revolutionizing China. If this country is going to be the most influential in the world throughout the 21st century, this Expo can be considered an example of what is to come. It’s because of all this that Shanghai, The Pearl of the Orient, makes history and shines more than ever as the host of a great Expo. u

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COVER STORY

Shanghai Expo

Better City, Better Life – future city city?

The dazzling state-of-the-art United Nations pavilion at the Shanghai 2010 World Expo has drawn nearly 2 million people since it opened in May this year. Indeed thousands of people queue for hours every day to get a glimpse at what the United Nations does and how it works.

Here, Dr. Awni Behnam, Commissioner General of the UN Pavilion, explains some of the hard reflection that went into showcasing the breadth and scale of this global mission.

U

nder the Expo 2010 theme Better City, Better Life, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, decided that the UN Pavilion’s own slogan, One Earth, One UN sends a clear message on the universality and unity of the UN system in meeting the challenges of building better cities and better lives.

The message of one earth is the inescapable notion that humans have to share in this one planet, in a sustainable relationship, as we go forward in preparing for better cities and better lives.

On many occasions, I have been asked as to what a future city would look like. The only answer I could think of was based on the design and concept of the UN Pavilion where the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the first indication to any visitor of the substantive content of the pavilion displayed on the wall. And that is a precursor of the content of the permanent exhibition where all the physical challenges are displayed, ranging from the environment, food security, disasters, education, economic welfare, health, and urban peace to good governance.

However, there is a special place in the UN Pavilion called the Creative Corridor where the human dimension and human ingenuity are displayed. That very focus on the human dimension in the UN Pavilion inspired my answer as to what a future city could be about.

Describing future cities is both a difficult and easy task. It is uncomplicated because

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Dr. Awni Behnam

Photo © Un-habItat

we all know the right words for what we wish a future city to be. We want ‘green’, ‘carbon free’ and ‘environmentally sustainable’ cities; cities with all the amenities within easy reach, from schools to hospitals, to markets and workplaces. We want accessible, frequent and reliable public transport and communications technologies to solve all of our needs. I could go on and on with a wish list for future cities, what I term the ‘motherhood design’. The challenging part however is the reality of our existence. Soon 80 percent of the world’s population will be living

in cities, and the pressures will grow larger and larger as time goes by.

Therefore, when addressing the idea of future sustainable urban cities, I will exclude the fantasies of the privileged few who dream of private underwater cities or floating artificial islands.

I will also exclude the model ‘dream city’ for which the technology has yet to be developed and resources harnessed; resources that few developing countries can ever deliver.

So what is the core issue? It is about urban sustainability that is human-centred. Cities that improve the relative quality of life of their people; cities geared towards the happiness and fulfilment of their citizens.

I believe that future cities with sustainable urban design will be a reflection of the people who will inhabit them. Such cities should therefore be judged by the content of their ‘character’ and not strictly by their physical endowment. Of what use is a city with the most sophisticated infrastructure that it is disengaged from the needs of its people?

A future city is a fair city that is inclusive, where all find in it equal opportunities and services without discrimination. A future city is one whose governance is at the hands of all stakeholders who share in the decision-making, where local communities have a voice in their governance.

A future city is also one that protects cultural heritage and does not divorce itself from

Shanghai Expo

Photos Š Un-habItat tat / ChrIstI stIan stI Ian LIndgren

The UN Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010

the traditional past, and enriches modernity through cultural diversity and creativity.

A future city is one that invests in the potential and expectations of its youth and facilitates their empowerment. A future city is one that does not distance itself and its communities from its rural roots where modern cities re-

COVER STORY

main closely linked with the values of rural life despite rapid urban development.

In summing up, the future city is a city of integration and communal harmony where society is living at peace with itself. This way we can look forward to a better city, a better life, and also, a better future.

That takes me to the last reference to the UN Pavilion, where at the very heart of the concept of it, is the Forum — a Forum for dialogue, a Forum for consensus building, a Forum for harmony, where human interaction and resolve for a better future is in the making as in the United Nations itself. u

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COVER STORY

Shanghai Expo

Infrastructure – foundations of the Shanghai powerhouse In 2010, Shanghai counts a population of some 16.5 million inhabitants, according to the United Nations Population Division. It is China’s largest city and the economic capital of a country that has experienced a growth rate of over 10 percent per year for more than 20 years. Here, Daniel Biau, Director of UN-HABITAT’s Regional and Technical Cooperation Division, shares his appreciation for the city and its awe-inspiring bridges.

The city of Shanghai: the old and the new

Photo © Un-habItat

Shanghai Expo

L

ocated in the Yangtze Delta, Shanghai is on the way to becoming the largest port in the world.

For centuries Shanghai was merely a large village on the west bank of the Huangpu River. It was fortified in the 16th century so as to hold back Japanese pirates. This location explains the name Shanghai: shang ‘ ’ meaning ‘rising towards’, and hai ‘ ’ meaning ‘the sea’, hence Shanghai being the place where the river reaches the sea, or ‘before the sea’.

Ancient Shanghai Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century in the aftermath of the Opium Wars (waged by the European powers against China so as to force the Chinese to consume opium exported from India), when it became the siege of the western concessions. In fact although Shanghai, a fishing town, was born under the Song Dynasty in the 11th century and became an administrative centre in 1291, the city was only founded in 1843 as the first Opium War came to a close. At the time, Shanghai had dozens of wooden and stone bridges, such as the Xin Zha bridge which straddled the Suzhou River.

The British were attracted by Shanghai’s ideal location for import and export trade.

They attacked the city in June 1842 and through the inequitable Treaty of Nanjing, they obtained the opening of Shanghai and of four other ports to their products.

Over the second half of the 19th Century, the first modern bridges appeared as industries and businesses rapidly developed around the Suzhou creek (this river links Shanghai to Suzhou, which is twinned with Venice). The first bridge was built in 1856 by the English engineer L.S. Willis. It was a toll bridge that sparked strong discontent among Chinese pedestrians, and the toll was therefore soon abolished.

In 1863 Shanghai was divided into three parts: the so-called international (BritishAmerican), the French concession, and the Chinese city. This division lasted until the Second World War. In 1900 the city numbered one million inhabitants, 350,000 of which lived in the concessions, 7,000 of these were foreigners. The Garden Bridge (Waibaidu Qiao), a modern metallic bridge, was inaugurated in January 1908 at the mouth of the Suzhou creek. With this bridge Shanghai entered the 20th century.

COVER STORY

In the 1920s Shanghai became Asia’s financial hotspot, the capital of businessmen and gangsters. Shanghai’s popular habitat was made up of adjoining houses, usually with two floors, which overlooked narrow streets.

These streets, which housed several dozen families, were called Li Long. For over a century (1880-1980) they formed the vast majority of Shanghai’s housing, a high-density habitat, 1,500 inhabitants per hectare, mostly made up of rental units. The buildings, called Shi Ku Men, combined brick, stone and timber. They provided different levels of comfort depending on the districts and rents. The Li Long always fostered a vibrant social life and close neigbourhood relationships that disappeared with the emergence of the vertical social housing of the 1970s. Most of the Li Long have since been demolished and replaced by the myriad skyscrapers that characterize Shanghai today.

New Shanghai The city grew from 6 million inhabitants in 1950 to 7 million in 1970, 8.2 million in 1990, 13.2 million in 2000, and 16.5 million in 2010.

Since the end of the 1980s, Shanghai has experienced an unprecedented economic explosion, as demonstrated by its tremendous population increase – doubling in the last 20 years, following 40 years of slow growth. As the city spread beyond its borders, the authorities decided to urbanize the completely rural east bank of the Huangpu river.

The lack of a bridge linking Shanghai to Pudong, ‘ ’, meaning ‘east bank’, was a significant obstacle to the city’s growth. As had been the case with the Neva in Saint Petersburg and the East River in New York a century earlier, it became urgent to bridge the Huangpu. Over the 1980s decisions were therefore taken to construct several large bridges over the busy river, with the help of cuttingedge technology. The first of these masterpieces was the Nanpu Bridge, inaugurated

by Premier Li Peng in December 1991, a year in advance of the planned opening date. The bridge was designed and built in three years.

The new Pudong Area was born and grew at breakneck speed. In the space of two decades, hundreds of sky-scrapers, wide avenues, and a giant television tower, the 468-metre Pearl of the Orient, were built.

The second bridge was the Yangpu Qiao, inaugurated in 1993, also a composite cablestayed bridge built of steel and concrete. The

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COVER STORY

Shanghai Expo

Bridge building has helped Shanghai overcome obstacles to growth

first two bridges were built by the Infrastructure Company of Shanghai Municipality. The Nanpu Bridge has a central span of 423 metres and a total length of 765 metres. It boasts seven lanes (four west-east and three east-west). Its two H-shaped pylons, built on the riverbanks, rise to 150 metres. To some extent this bridge is a more elegant version of the Alexander Fraser Bridge in Vancouver. The now-retired lead engineer of the Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design Institute (SMEDI) who piloted the project, Lin Yuan Pei, is highly respected by his peers. At a meeting in November 2006, his collaborator Yue Gui Ping told us that although the Yangpu held the world record for its 602 metre central span, the Nanpu Da Qiao was incontestably the most symbolic of Shanghai’s four great urban bridges. Since 1997, the Nanpu Bridge displays magnificent lighting at night.

The third bridge, Xupu Qiao, inaugurated in 1997, is also a cable-stayed bridge (590 metre span, again with pylons on the riverbanks). The fourth and last bridge, the Lupu Qiao, was inaugurated in 2003. It stands in the very centre of the Expo. As the arch technique of this 550 metre steel bridge had be-

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come obsolete because of its cost, the Lupu Qiao broke a world record held since 1932 by the Sydney Harbour Bridge and New York’s Bayonne Bridge. This engineering feat was intended to prove that by the 21st century China’s engineers could master every technology. Nevertheless, the dominant technique in China remains the cable-stayed bridge (as is evidenced by the Runyang Bridge, inaugurated in 2005, which straddles the Yangtze near Yangzhou).

Infrastructure – the foundation of economic growth The Asian Development Bank contributed a total of USD 155 million to help finance the first two bridges. The Nanpu Bridge cost USD 227 million, including a USD 70 million ADB loan. Of this sum, USD 91 million was allocated for the relocation of economic activities and thousands of residents. Traffic on the Nanpu Bridge quickly reached an average of 120,000 vehicles per day, far outstripping all forecasts.

Maintenance costs amount to USD 500,000 a year, and 24 cameras (linked to an ultra-modern control room operated by a young female

Photo © Un-habItat

engineer) enable the permanent surveillance of the bridge and of its traffic.

The toll initially established on the bridge was abolished in May 2000 and replaced by a vehicle tax. By 2002, Pudong’s GNP had risen to 20 times its 1990 levels, from USD 740 million to USD 14 billion! The population on the east (or right) bank of the Huangpu exceeds 3 million inhabitants and may soon reach 5 million.

Due to its importance in the financial, commercial and industrial arenas, the Pudong district now plays a key role in the Shanghai agglomeration. As housing, infrastructure and services are made available, many residents of Puxi (the opposite bank, Puxi, ‘ ’ meaning ‘West Bank’ on which Shanghai was born) are now settling in Pudong. This led Shanghai to build 430 kilometres of subway lines between 1995 and 2010, setting a world record.

Better linkages, better life The western access to the Nanpu Bridge boasts a very elegant spiral shape, which elevates the automobile traffic to 46 metres above the river within a minimum amount of

Shanghai Expo

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Shanghai’s population growing and growing Shanghai’s population will keep rising, reaching 21.4 million by 2015 and 22.5 million in 2020, according to the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission, writes Cai Wenjun in the Shanghai Daily News.

Nationally, China’s urban population is on pace to surpass its rural population for the first time in 2015, with the number of Chinese living in towns and cities set to top 700 million, reports the National Population and Family Planning Commission. It also says that China is likely to have 1.39 billion citizens by 2015, up from 1.32 billion at the end of 2008.

For over a century Li Long houses formed the majority of Shanghai’s housing

space. The surrounding area has been the target of an enormous urban renovation project, in order to host the 2010 World Expo. Shanghai thus counts four great urban bridges on the Huangpu – going downstream, these are the Xupu, the Lupu, the Nanpu and the Yangpu. The bridge names always refer to the two locations linked by each bridge: the first character of the west district (such as Nan, ‘ ’, or Yang ‘ ’, and the first character of the east district (the ‘Pu’ of Pudong, as Pu ‘ ’ initially meant river and Dong ‘ ’ means east).

Although tunnels, rather than bridges, are increasingly being built in high-density urban centres (as they require less demolition), the double-deck Mingpu Qiao is currently under construction upstream. The Hangpu’s bridges testify to the essential role of infrastructure in urban development.

Last but not least, we must mention the ancient Zigzag Bridge in the heart of Shanghai.

This footbridge, made up of nine orthogonal sections, was built in 1559-77 in the exquisite Yu Yuan garden. This is the lunch-time and evening meeting place for all tourists, both Chinese and foreigners. The Zigzag bridge

Photo © Un-habItat

is just some three kilometres away from the Nanpu Bridge.

China is a country of water, of rivers, and of deltas, and is therefore home to thousands of bridges. It is also a rapidly urbanizing country, with an urban population of 640 million people (47 percent of the total) in 2010 and 133 cities of over 750,000 inhabitants. As a sponsor of the first State of China’s Cities Report (2010-2011), UN-HABITAT fully recognizes the positive role of cities in the economic and social development of this immense country.

Words of wisdom Shanghai is often compared to Beijing, the political capital of China. Shanghai is a much younger city and does not boast the splendid historical monuments which rightly make Beijing renown. However a crucial difference is that Beijing has no significant river, only beautiful artificial lakes surrounded by manicured gardens. By contrast, Shanghai lives in symbiosis with the Huangpu River. Ms. Ling Bai, a Beijing-native married to my Shanghai-born colleague Jianguo Shen, succinctly summarizes this difference:

“Beijing is beautiful and orderly, while Shanghai is progressive, aggressive and always on the lookout for new challenges”. The municipal fiscal revenue of Shanghai reached CNY 254 billion (close to USD 40 billion) in 2009. Imports and exports through Shanghai customs reached USD 515 billion, accounting for one quarter of China’s total. This wealth may explain and justify Shanghai’s aggressiveness, a city which builds around 100,000 housing units per year.

Confucius once stated that “time flows like the waters of a river”. Another Chinese philosopher, Xun Kuang (250 B.C.) compared rulers to ships and warned: “a river’s water is like a country’s people, it can carry a ship but can also overturn it”. Rivers, large and small, have been at the heart of Chinese civilization for 3,000 years.

An old Shandong proverb known throughout China says: “If you want to be rich, you must first build roads”. This is similar to the French saying, “when the building sector is fine, everything is fine”. Many countries share the same wisdom. In the 21st century this Shandong proverb rings truer than ever. If you want to promote better cities, begin by granting them good infrastructure and related services in terms of transport, energy, water and sanitation.

This will prevent Xun Kuang’s ship from capsizing. u

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Shanghai Expo

A huge house of wonders Shanghai has skillfully used the 2010 Expo to remodel and remake itself as a 21st century gateway to the east, writes Roman Rollnick.

The China Pavilion, ‘Crown of the East’, uses building techniques that date back more than 2,000 years

Photo © C. g. garCía

Shanghai Expo

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here is no better way to start a visit to Shanghai’s huge house of wonders than to step aboard the world’s fastest train at the airport for a 430 km/h ride into town that takes just eight minutes.

Known locally as the Maglev train, it is the first revenue-producing, point-to-point, highspeed magnetic levitation train in the world.

Completed in 2004, the 30 kilometre line runs between Pudong Shanghai International Airport and the Shanghai Lujiazui financial district.

Another first is that this sleek, super-aerodynamic train, with a design speed of over 500 km/h and a regular service speed of 430 km/h, is the fastest railway system in commercial operation in the world. Other maglev lines are under consideration in China.

So smooth is the ride on this train that it feels more like a plane. At a price lower than most taxi fares, it gets downtown to the new Shanghai so fast that it makes this giant city and its outskirts seem small.

To the foreign visitor, another superlative is that the Shanghai Maglev is mainly operated by women – a matter worth pondering as one reflects on the Shanghai Expo 2010 theme, Better City, Better Life.

For here in the house of wonders that is modern Shanghai, every effort has been, and is being made, to live up to that theme, even if the going has not been as easy, or without dissent, as the Maglev ride into town.

Many groups have protested against the way the city relocated some 20,000 families, and removed 250 factories including the giant Jiang Nan Shipyard. All of this to clear 530 hectares of prime riverside land on both sides of the Huangpu River to make space for the biggest world fair ever staged. A corruption scandal five years ago led to the downfall of the city’s party boss and Expo champion, Cheng Liangyu.

But when it comes to the Habitat Agenda for better cities, China has improved living conditions by embracing economic reforms and implementing modernization policies that have used urbanization to drive national growth. It can be argued that pro-growth policies have focused on improving the lives of the urban poor. This has considerably reduced the number of slums.

Its programmes aimed at old, often dilapidated villages, within its fast expanding cities like Shanghai, have given a new lease of life to areas once written off as crime or poverty pockets.

The Expo has served to help give the city two new airports, many new roads and parks, and a

new metro rail system similar in scale to those of Paris, London, Moscow and New York. Yet compared to those cities, it is cheaper to use, far cleaner, better ventilated, better lit, and designed so carefully that a commuter never feels alone or in danger of criminals lurking in the trains or the many kilometres of pedestrian passageways below the city.

Opened in May, the USD 40 billion Shanghai World Expo 2010 has cost double the price tag of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. And once it is over, the city plans to build a giant international

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the official Expo website. “This theme represents a central concern of the international community for future policy making, urban strategies and sustainable development.” This thinking is depicted in the breathtaking 69-metre-high bright red China Pavilion, an inverted pyramid which will remain a permanent fixture after the six-month event draws to a close.

Known as the ‘Crown of the East’, the CNY 1.5 billion (USD 220 million) pavilion has a square roof made of traditional dougong, or brackets, which date back more than 2,000 years.

The Shanghai Maglev is the fastest railway system in commercial operation in the world Photo © dennIs KrUyt

convention centre with modern office and residential blocks to rival that of Hong Kong.

City officials expect the Expo to draw some 70 million visitors, a figure not unrealistic given that there are queues lasting several hours to get into the popular pavilions like those of China, the European Union, the United States or India, to cite some examples. The UN Pavilion, for which UN-HABITAT is the lead agency, had itself attracted nearly two million visitors by the end of August.

Indeed, Shanghai’s city planners have used the Expo to stimulate public spending, and strengthen its economy as the city grows and grows.

Thus the prospect of life in a very urban future is a subject of global interest, and concern to all countries, developed or less developed. This is why officials say they chose the theme, Better City, Better Life.

“The theme of Expo 2010 represents the common wish of the whole humankind for better living in future urban environments,” says

Into a time machine Getting inside after several hours standing in line is well worth it. The lights are dim to ensure that the visitors focus on a sloping wall along which they walk looking across an eerie river at their feet represented in wavy laser light. As if one has just stepped out of a time machine, on the far bank is an early Chinese city as represented in a scroll depicting the idyllic Riverside Scene during the Qingming Festival.

Every figure, all of them laser projections and almost perfectly three-dimensional, in this giant scroll is life size and all are moving independently; traders are haggling, a man displays a cart of vegetables, a dog sniffs around for a snack, parents play with their children, day turns to night and red lanterns come on. People can be seen eating their meals by the light of a flame. Seconds later as a night of long ago fades, the village wakes up to another day. And as the visitor leaves, it is like stepping out of the time machine back into the crowds of the Expo. Nevertheless

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Shanghai Expo

The urban experience at Expo 2010 The Urban Best Practices Area (UPBA) highlights the best cities have to offer, writes Li Xinzhu of the China Daily.

Shanghai has always been a city open to the influence of many culcul tures, combining the best parts of culture to create a city with its own unique features.

Expo 2010 has brought another great opportuopportu nity to satisfy its thirst for knowledge and influence.

The UPBA, a first-time feature of World Expos, has attracted many visitors since the Expo opened. The to UPBA is a platform for cities Ko n g Hong o rrIs from to exhibit and showcase their da m y In L g lo o o© n t h o c h P o p t te most successful initiatives of uld ad h a i co rd s a c l of a city, various urban experiences, all e S han g rav e it s t up da t especially for Shangof which focus on how to imim hai because of its size and ever-increasing prove the quality of life for residents. population.

“It’s a chance for cities to learn from Hong Kong, one of the most developed each other,” said Sun Liansheng, director cities in Asia, is highlighted by its residents’ of the UPBA. “Each city has its own level of convenient lifestyle. For example, the city’s development, and not all cities can share Octopus card, a rechargeable, stored-value and use all the same solutions.” smart card, allows holders to access more Many factors account for the modernthan 2,500 service providers, including pubization of a city. Not only does it include lic transport operators, convenience stores, a city’s industrial level, but also the retail outlets and fast food chains. conveniences provided to residents, in“We’ve spent more than 10 years developcluding transport and housing systems. ing the smart card system, which we believe These are some of the most important Shanghai can do in the future as issues for the sustained development

one leaves with the impression that time is standing still somewhere behind in a fourth dimension.

China also regards this Expo, according to its official website, as an important platform for displaying historical experience, exchanging innovative ideas, demonstrating esprit de corps and looking to the future.

It thus wants to give its people a good idea of life in other countries, of international trade, a window on other cultures. One of the most interesting pavilions in this sense is the

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small but very informative Portuguese window to the world. It was the only one of many visited by Urban World that drew spontaneous applause as the crowds moved through.

Drawing visitors into a glimpse of 500 years of shared history with China, it has a wonderful holographic globe of the known world at the time. Visitors learn that the country’s greatest poet, Luis de Camões (1524-1580), wrote his masterpiece, Os Lusiadas, while living in Macau on the south China coast. They learn too that the Portuguese were the first

it has such a great foundation,” said a spokesman for Hong Kong’s Case Pavilion.

Shanghai remains a city with many opportu opportunities attracting people from all over China and abroad. The city has also seen record-breaking housing prices from the influx of outsiders, leaving some unable to find affordable hous housing.

Just like Shanghai, Madrid also had the problem of providing efficient, af affordable housing. Madrid has relieved the strain on residents caused by the housing market by providing alternatives.

Buildings constructed using hightech, low-cost materials make effi efficient use of energy and provide comfortable housing to residents. Through these projects, Madrid has become famous for its excellent public housing system.

“I think it would be quite possible for Shanghai to adapt the model of our bamboo house project for social housing,” said Ignacio Nino, Commissioner General of the Madrid Case Pavilion. “However, this was built with Madrid’s climate and urban development in mind.”

In order to make this concept effective in Shanghai, it would need to be changed. “We keep in mind the need for building under sustainable principles, which can be applied to any dynamic and upwardly mobile society like that in China,” he said.

Europeans to import Chinese tea which they then introduced to the Western world from plantations in the Azores. Alongside ancient tea flasks, and other artefacts brought in from its museums, there is a display case with actual pages in Portuguese from the Treatise of things Chinese of 1569, and a letter in Chinese to the Chinese Emperor citing Lisbon’s interest in diplomacy and friendship.

All matters to which ordinary people can relate as they pass through the pavilion in their droves in a matter of 20 minutes before

Shanghai Expo

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The City List – Urban best practices at Expo 2010 The fascinating urban best practices at Expo 2010 are drawing record crowds. In this full list, cases 1-24 signify the Liveable City; 25-38 Sustainable Urbanization, and 39-44 Protection & Utilization of the Historical Heritage

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Business meets Lifestyle – Liveable City and Sustainable Development as Strategic Goals and Achievements of the State Capital of Düsseldorf

Dusseldorf

Complexe Environnemental De Saint-Michel (CESM) - Saint-Michel Environmental Complex

Montreal

Sustainable City Transformation: Urban Regeneration of the Olympic City of Amaroussion

Amaroussion

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30

Shanghai Expo

From Knowledge to Innovation: Urban Mobility Solutions

Bremen

Zaragoza

Valdespartera City Planning Cadastre of the City of Moscow as a Tool for Sustainable Urban Development

Protection and Utilization of Historical Heritages in Liverpool Protection and Utilization of Historical Heritage: Urban Best Practices in Venice.

Porto Marghera, Arsenale ’minor’areas

Moscow

Liverpool Venice

Source: Expo 2010, Shanghai

pausing at the exit for a glass of Portuguese wine, and outside again into the crowds of our very urban world.

Already half the global population lives in cities, and in the next generation that figure is forecast to reach the 70 percent mark.

Back to the future Thus the prospect of life in a very urban future is a subject of global interest, and concern to all countries, developed or less developed, and their people. Being the first world exhibition on the theme of the city, Expo 2010, also gives a wonderful representation of what the future holds.

To see this, any of the thousands of young guides clad in white will direct the visitor in excellent English to take a ferry across the Huangpu to the various urban themed pavilions.

Enter the Urbanian Pavilion, and go up the stairs alongside bamboo scaffolding, that ever present symbol of construction sites in the Far East. The idea, says the guide inside, “is to show visitors that attempts to build future cities are only steps in the long journey of history, be it in the past, the present or the future! Thus imagining the cities of the future, is imagining the future of our cities…”

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Over the next four decades, we learn that urban areas will absorb all population growth.

It depicts the possibility of cities built on the oceans and even in giant orbiting space contraptions. But much more realistic, as the guide is quick to point out, is the city of the immediate future, around the year 2050.

This it is forecast will be the era of the ‘intelligence city’, a place of high-rise living and working dwellings, a place with pedestrianscale neighbourhoods where one can get around easily by foot and a place rich in social relationships.

In the ‘intelligence city’, energy efficiency is embraced and integrated into every aspect of life. People will be able to choose their own work environment and those with whom they work through connected social networks.

They will live in buildings that are aware and track the patterns of people’s lives from their eating and heating habits, to their choice of reading, listening or entertainment. The buildings will keep track of waste discarded.

Every aspect of it will be aimed at sustainability.

Conceived as an integrated organic being, the city of the near future will have a huge computerized central nervous system that

governs every aspect of urban life rooted in six key areas: accessibility, safety, energy efficiency, governance, education and health.

It will be a city of instant digital diagnosis of health problems, new face recognition technology, fridges that keep track of one’s preferences and order new items when the shelves run low, e-newspapers, books and magazines, robots, laser projection television, and quiet ultra-economic cars, buses and trains.

Back to reality If the security cameras everywhere in Shanghai are already a fact of life, as they are in other big cities around the world, face recognition might be closer than we think. And the police are everywhere.

Yet it feels safe and friendly. There always seem to be clean public toilets nearby in Shanghai. And just try to count the handful of cities anywhere in the world, like Shanghai, where the police do not carry guns.

And contemplating the wonderful nightly laser light shows up and down buildings and along bridges, think of the Shanghai Maglev again: Which other country in the world would allow a young woman to drive its fastest, most expensive and prestigious train? u

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Shanghai Expo

Choosing the ultimate Chinese symbol for the Expo – the quest for a ‘universal language’ for public diplomacy Using the Shanghai Expo 2010 to show China’s best face to the world, the Expo Chief Planner, Zhang Zifeng explains how that great symbol of Chinese culture, the ancient stone signature seal, has been transformed into a wonderful emblem of the country’s new public diplomacy drive.

Photo © CoUrtesy of Hong Kong Wen Wei Po

Shanghai Expo

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t this year’s sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference ((CPPCC), the new term public diplomacy became a catch phrase.

The meetings also gave rise to a new journal entitled Public Diplomacy which said that the year of the Shanghai World Expo should be the year for developing China’s public diplomacy.

So what is this? On the one hand, public diplomacy refers to non-governmental organizations instead of the government. It fosters mutual understanding among ordinary people from different countries and regions. On the other hand, it is via the culture and art of immense aesthetic appeal that the idea promotes a peaceful dialogue between different civilizations, in which the language of art is employed throughout as a ‘universal language’.

Xu Bo, Assistant to the Commissioner General of Shanghai World Expo 2010, raises many pertinent points in his book entitled, The Good Performance of Public Diplomacy at the Shanghai World Expo. He characterized the Shanghai World Expo as a historic opportunity for showcasing China’s 5,000 years of culture.

Paging through the documents of every expo past, we came to the realization that the history of an expo is simply an accumulation of its cultural heritage passed down to later generations.

The challenge for us therefore was to produce something that was universally understandable and at the same time something very symbolic of China’s long history and the occasion of the Expo.

The Shanghai World Expo 2010 is a giant event for China. What special gifts would therefore be appropriate for us as the host country with 5,000 years of civilization? What could we give to so many distinguished guests, and political leaders paying a visit to Shanghai?

Much hard and painstaking thinking went into this before we finally came up with the idea of producing a specially bound set of books presenting the portrait seals of political leaders.

This was the kind of ‘universal language’ we were looking for.

Though the Chinese seal is accepted as a symbol of the world’s heritage, very few nonChinese can read the character or characters on a seal, and indeed some are also very difficult for a native Chinese to understand. In order to address this matter, the producers decided to opt for portrait seals, rather than the standard

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stamp or chop with its character-based signature. Indeed, this idea makes our seals universally comprehensible and serves to promote the development of the special Chinese art of the seal.

During two years of hard work, a team of over 20 specialist artists and expert craftsmen, produced portrait seals with the faces of 195 leaders around the world.

The set of portrait seals, which are all made of semi-precious lazurite, one of the top four stones in China, carries the portraits of the political leaders of 192 participating countries and regions.

All the seal-cutting craftsmen, many of them famous and many of them masters from the Xiling Society of Seal Arts, produced a set of books that are unique in that their pages are made up of soft, smooth silk, stamped with the portraits hewn from rock-hard lazurite.

The project of creating those seal portraits has been fraught with difficulties.

Some political leaders that were expected to visit Shanghai, had to step down or retire due to a coup or sudden death making our task very complicated. For example, the President of Kyrgyzstan was forced to retire, while the country’s temporary government nevertheless decided to participate at Shanghai Expo 2010. Since a new president had not been named, we decided to remove the former president’s portrait seal and leave a vacancy for the new president. In another example, Poland’s president died in an air crash on 10 April. Though no new president was elected in time, we opted to keep the late President’s portrait seal within a black frame.

Likewise the black border around the Nigerian presidential portrait seal, in acknowledgement of his death 4 May just days after the Expo of officially opened.

San Marino was another special case where we decided to opt for the portraits of both its co-leaders.

It has not been easy for our team to keep constantly abreast of such developments up to the Expo opening on 1 May in every country and territory around the world and to maintain the principle of equality among different nations with a thorough understanding of the diplomatic policy of the Expo through our works.

We therefore solicited all parties to show their understanding here and to point out any problems to us so that we could rectify these.

We approached this huge task humbly in a spirit of friendship and with the courage to

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Shanghai Expo

The portrait collection The publication of this article and the photographs accompanying it has been made possible by the Chinese-language daily newspaper, Hong Kong Wen Wei Po. UN-HABITAT expresses its appreciation to the newspaper’s Hangzhou-based editors for their support in enabling us to share this with our distinguished international readership.

The portrait collection was first publicly displayed at the Shanghai Library on 18 June 2010, and afterwards transferred to the United Nations Pavilion at Expo 2010. It will then go on a world tour before being consecrated to the permanent collection of the United Nations headquarters in New York. It is a point of interest that the very Yung Kee Silk on which these portraits are stamped was itself first introduced to the world by the Shanghai merchant, Xu Rongcun, who won the Gold Medal at the first World Expo in London in 1851.

The China Seal, usually engraved with standard Qin-dynasty calligraphy, first appeared during the 11th century B.C. Made of clay, it evolved into a popular artistic signature stamp or chop used to sign everything from commercial and political deals to works of art. The logos of

Beijing Olympic Games 2008 and Expo 2010 Shanghai all carry the seal.

The lazurite stone used for the world leaders was mined in Qingtian, Zhejiang Province.

Mr. Wang Shucheng, President of Hong Kong Wen Wei Po, one of the bodies which first came up with idea of this symbol for the Expo, told guests at the UN Pavilion: “The staging of a successful Expo is not only the mission of our government but also the obligation of every Chinese citizen.” Other distinguished guests of United Nations Commissioner General Awni Behnam and his team at the presentation in the UN Pavilion included Gong Xinhan, former Vice Minister of the Central Propaganda Department; Tu Jie, Secretary General of Asia Pacific Art Committee of Communications Committee for the UN; Chen Qiwei, Spokesman of Shanghai Government; Lu Jianchu, Vice Minister of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee; Lu Ziyue, Mayor of Lishui City; Shou Guangwu, Vice Chief Editor of Liberation Daily; Yue Zhenwen, Executive Director of the Shanghai Painting and Calligraphy Institute; Chen Zhenlian, Vice President of Xilin Society of Seal Arts; Wu Ying, Vice President of China Sigillography Museum; and Wang Tonglin, Secretary of the CPC Qingtian County Committee.

accomplish it to the best of our ability as something very special for our very special guests.

Art knows no national boundaries. Thus, this set of Portrait Seals of Political Leaders belongs to the whole world and to the people of all countries. Besides the exhibition of our works in the Expo and the donation of some of the works through the transfer from the Shanghai Peace Museum to those ambassadors, we also plan to hold touring exhibitions around the world after the Expo, expecting to open a new page of China’s public diplomacy.

The aim of these exhibitions is to spread Chinese art as public diplomacy, along with the concept of an extended family of the Expo and a new symbol of the ancient Silk Road.

Of the many who contributed with such dedication to this work, our gratitude goes in particular to Chen Qiwen, for his initial inspiration and proposal to create the set of books; to Lu Ziyue, Mayor of Lishui City, Zhejiang Province, for his initial favourable response and support for the creation of these works; and to those seal-cutting artists and craftsmen for their painstaking and very exacting work.

We are also grateful to the sponsors, Chen Liangjun, General Manager of Qingtian Dingshen Construction Projects Co. Ltd., and Li Jianhua, President of Wensli Corporation for their generous financial support.

It is our common aspiration that what we have done will foster understanding and support from people both at home and abroad. u

Additional research and reporting: Grace Liu.

Photo © CoUrtesy of Hong Kong Wen Wei Po

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Gender equality

ANALYSIS

A new approach to gender equality The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action revolutionized international approaches to advance women’s rights in 1995. But as the world reviews progress on its 15th anniversary, women in slums deserve much more attention, write Lucia Kiwala, Chief of UN-HABITAT’s Gender Unit, and Emily Wong, a consultant with the gender team.

Photo © Un-habItat

Discussing gender matters at the Fifth session of the World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro earlier this year

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ANALYSIS

Gender equality

I

n September 1995, the most comprehensive global policy framework to achieve gender equality and empower women was adopted in Beijing, at the Fourth World Conference on Women.

Although the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action acknowledges that there are many poor women living in urban areas, policy makers in developing countries have tended to pay more attention to the Platform’s assertion that “the plight of women living in rural and remote areas deserves special attention.”

In 2010, the prioritization of rural poverty, over urban poverty, needs review. In many countries, it may not be the best way to achieve progress towards gender equality or to empower women. A more balanced approach to development is needed.

Since 1995, the world’s population has become and will remain predominantly urban.

Already half the global population lives in towns and cities, and that figure is projected to reach the 70 percent mark by 2050.

As we celebrate World Habitat Day this year from China, a matter worth pondering – as one reflects on the Shanghai Expo 2010 theme, Better City, Better Life – is that the greatest impact for new advances in empowering women will be in cities.

Prioritization of gender policy The spirit of the Beijing Declaration is as relevant now as ever before. Women – as well as the children and vulnerable adults in their care – still suffer the worst effects of poverty, all of which are made worse by gender discrimination.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, recently stated that social, political and economic equality for women is integral to the achievement of all the Millennium Development Goals.

“Until women and girls are liberated from poverty and injustice, all our goals – peace, security, sustainable development – stand in jeopardy,” he said.

And so the need for a paradigm shift is not about shifting away from promoting gender equality, but about viewing gender matters from a lens that makes sustainable urban development a clearer target – not at the expense of rural development, but alongside it.

Without adequate interventions to improve conditions for poor, urban women, the number of slum dwellers in the world will continue to grow rapidly.

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Gender initiatives need to focus more on urban areas, particularly in Asia, as it increasingly urbanizes I reCa Ia C LCat Ca LC atI atI Photo © ILarIa

Already, the population of slum dwellers around the world continues to grow at around 10 percent every year, and the number of slum dwellers is close to 828 million, according to UN-HABITAT’s 2010-2011 report, State of the World’s Cities: Bridging the Urban Divide.

It is encouraging news then, that some countries are making clear efforts to incorporate gender perspectives into urban development plans, as well as urban perspectives into national plans of action on gender equality.

“The Government of Brazil is one of the few countries in the global South which has gender equality and the empowerment of women duly covered in their national gender plan,” said Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, former Executive Director of UN-HABITAT. Brazil’s National Plan of Policies for Women discusses sustainable development in both urban and rural areas, covering topics such as food safety and land and tenure rights.

“If we want more democratic cities, women who are half of the world, must have half of the power and half of the earth,” said Ms. Nilcéa Freire, Minister in charge of the Special Secretariat of Policies for Women in Brazil, which co-hosted a ministerial seminar with UN-HABITAT during the July meetings of the United Nations Economic and Social Council in New York.

In Brazil’s Women for Peace Programme, women in poor, urban communities have been supported by the national and local

governments to lead community peace and mediation efforts in favelas (slums) where guns, violence and drug crime are rife.

Of all the regions in the world, Latin America and the Caribbean have the highest level of urbanization, so it is perhaps not surprising that countries such as Brazil have gender equality initiatives that are urban-based.

According to the latest estimates for 2010, from UN-HABITAT and the United Nations Population Division, 79.4 percent of people in Latin America and the Caribbean live in urban areas.

A far greater challenge is for countries in Africa and Asia, which are expected to become mainly urban by 2030 and 2023 respectively.

In the 15th anniversary reviews of progress on implementing the Beijing Platform for Action (called Beijing+15 for short), the regional reviews for Africa and Asia continued to make explicit references to rural poverty among women, without any acknowledgement of urban poverty.

Acknowledging urban poverty To be fair, none of the regional Beijing+15 reviews make any references to slums or informal settlements, but at least the review by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean makes use of urban data, revealing that one third of women in urban areas of the surveyed countries still live in poverty.

Acknowledging urban poverty in gender analysis and policy is important because compared

Gender equality

ANALYSIS

UN-HABITAT works with governments around the world to convert such policies into practice and to improve policy frameworks even further. In water and sanitation projects in India, Nepal and Pakistan, UN-HABITAT is supporting gender training for staff in government and water companies.

Similar initiatives are in place in African towns and cities.

In South America GLTN works with local women’s groups to train them in community initiatives Photo © herIberto herrera

to rural poverty, its effects can be equally or even more damaging. A Beijing+15 review cited Jamaica as one of the Caribbean countries where women in urban areas can access better basic services and healthcare than rural women.

While many Jamaicans may have left rural areas to search for a better life in cities, many have ended up unemployed and squatting in crowded informal settlements where crime is high. Good housing in secure and well-serviced areas is generally beyond their means and often remains so for their children. The most recent UN-HABITAT estimates show that 60.5 percent of Jamaica’s urban population lived in slums in 2005.

High levels of poverty in slums and informal settlements are often accompanied by high levels of urban inequality. This can give rise to crime, violence and poor security.

It separates poor women and their families from the opportunities – economically, socially, politically and culturally – that are enjoyed by wealthier urban residents, putting such opportunities in sight, but out of reach.

Schools in some slum areas of Africa and Asia are as overcrowded as rural schools, and too many still lack separate-sex toilets. Time and time again, studies on girls’ education have shown that girls are less likely to attend school after the onset of puberty if girlfriendly learning environments, including separate-sex toilets, are not available.

Urban poverty – combined with overcrowding, fierce competition for land and

housing, poor access to clean water and a lack of sanitation or power in many slums and informal settlements – makes it difficult for many women in poor urban settings to survive, let alone to live healthy lives or to fulfil their dreams and ambitions.

Reviewing progress In some respects, the omission of urban poverty in the Beijing+15 regional reviews is surprising because it fails to give due credit to countries – even in the less urbanized regions in Africa and Asia – that are already ensuring that action on urban poverty is included in gender equality programmes and policies.

Namibia’s latest review of progress on the Beijing Platform speaks of a need for balanced development between rural and urban areas and for poverty alleviation in both rural and disadvantaged urban areas. This is a marked improvement from Namibia’s 1999 review, which emphasised great disparities between rural and urban areas without acknowledging great disparities within urban areas themselves.

As early as 2001, India’s National Policy for the Empowerment of Women already made specific mention of the need for women’s perspectives to be included in policies for safe and adequate housing, both in rural and urban areas. The policy actually refers to urban slums and “special attention…to the needs of women in the provision of safe drinking water, sewage disposal, toilet facilities and sanitation within accessible reach of households.”

UN-HABITAT’s gender strategy UN-HABITAT’s Gender Equality Action Plan (2008-2013) provides a strategy for incorporating gender perspectives into all policies and programmes through ‘gender mainstreaming’, an approach endorsed throughout the United Nations, and adopted within the Beijing Declaration.

Gender mainstreaming places the principle of gender equality at the heart of all work, instead of paying lip service in token projects with little widespread impact.

UN-HABITAT is helping governments to incorporate gender perspectives into their own urban planning.

Gender-responsive programming UN-HABITAT’s work with the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) is helping grassroots women to lead community-based projects and studies on land reform and slum upgrading in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Recent work includes a project in Lima-Callao, Peru, where informal settlements are often vulnerable to landslides. GLTN is working with local women’s groups and community networks to train them on community hazard assessments, community-led planning and how to engage with government agencies.

Efforts like these to help urban women fight poverty will help families and communities enormously. It is an opportune time to consolidate these efforts. In July, the UN General Assembly voted unanimously to form UN Women, a new agency that will merge four existing UN agencies and offices focusing on women and gender equality.

UN Women is well positioned to guide the international development community towards a more balanced approach to achieving gender equality, one that still strives for targets in the Beijing Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals, but that addresses the needs of both rural and urban women. u

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BEST PRACTICES

Information Communication Technology

How ICT is transforming the lives of slum dwellers As Information Communication Technology (ICT) plays an ever more important role in our lives the pressure is on ICT not to leave slum dwellers behind. Here Jonathan Andrews reveals some pioneering programmes that are helping to improve the lives of slum dwellers through innovative uses of ICT.

In Nairobi, Kenya, slum dwellers are able to make payments via their mobile phones

Photo Š safarICom

Information Communication Technology

T

aiwo Olayinka had little knowledge of the Internet before he began an ICT training programme through Ajegunle.org Capacity Building Exercise. Ajegunle is a notorious slum in Lagos, Nigeria, where three million people, from tribes all over West Africa, have settled. The name, Ajegunle, cruelly translates to ‘residence of wealth’. In the past the only means for slum dwellers of Ajegunle to improve their lives was through prostitution or a talent for football or music.

“Boldness, courage and improved communications are my major gifts from Ajegunle. org,” said Taiwo. “Anytime I now see opportunity, I smile because I know that the skills acquired and the experience I have, working as an intern, will put me ahead of others.”

UN-HABITAT recognizes the role that ICT can make in improving the lives of slum dwellers. Former Executive Director, Anna Tibaijuka, emphasized this when she signed a landmark agreement to help avail ICT to the inhabitants of the Kibera slums in Nairobi, Kenya.

“To be credible … any national programme [that aims] to reduce poverty must include the application of ICTs across the economy,” she said. “This reality was underlined at the World Summit on Information Society, and the Millennium Development Goals explicitly refer to the need to apply ICTs to the task of poverty reduction.”

“ICT cannot be excluded,” added Professor Oyebanji Oyeyinka, Director of the Monitoring and Research Division, UN-HABITAT, “otherwise how can we achieve the goal of inclusiveness? Everyone says we are a global

Taiwo Olayinka

Photo © aJegUnLe.org

village but we also know that many people are completely cut off.”

The Ajegunle programme aims to extend this inclusiveness by offering 25 students, like Taiwo, every other month the chance to learn ICT skills and entrepreneurship training for free. At the end of the six-week training period they are expected to start their own business and compete for internships and special training slots when available. While the training is entirely free, graduates are expected to return 10 percent of their income over six months to help sustain the project.

Ugo Nwosu, Programme Manager for Ajegunle.org, believes that ICT is a leveller, providing simple tools that will fastrack development in slums. “Our graduates do well in business and are able to better express themselves, thus opening up more opportunities.”

The graduates support their education and families from their earnings, either from internships or small businesses. According to Mr. Nwosu they have also become bolder

The Rocinha favela has benefited from the Viva Favela media project Photo © Jonathan andrews

BEST PRACTICES

and go on to tackle life issues without the feeling of insecurity.

The benefits not only help the trainees integrate better into society, through job and ICT skills, but also improve the image of the community through the Internet.

For this reason a group of favela (slum) residents in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were so fed up by negative media coverage, they established, in 2001, their own small website to link themselves directly to media directors and provide them with an alternate source on life in favelas, rather than just via the police.

The goals of Viva Favela were to democratize information. Firstly to provide news about the favelas from an insider’s perspective, and secondly to serve as a mechanism to reduce social exclusion by providing amateur journalists, cameramen and web technicians from the favelas, with the tools and training to empower them with opportunities to become professionals.

“This media project was developed to change the way society receives information about favelas,” explained Maya Jucá, Project Coordinator for Viva Rio, the NGO behind Viva Favela. “We wanted to remove the stigma that people associate with favela residents and remove the fear to highlight, through ICT, the creativity and innovative solutions that residents are achieving, from education, sports, culture and economics.”

From an initial base of 20 raw recruits covering 20 communities the website was updated last year to accommodate new forms of ICT, such as multimedia phones, in both video and audio recordings, and has opened

Viva Favela provides a voice to slum dwellers who were previously ignored by the mainstream media Photo © VIVa IVa faVe V La

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BEST PRACTICES

Information Communication Technology

M-PESA saves time and money for slum dwellers

itself to a wider audience, to include those residents who aren’t wholly literate.

“Now we have more than 400 registered correspondents who provide us with content in the shape of videos, photos and articles,” explained Mrs. Jucá. “These come from favelas all over the country, not just in Rio.” Landa Araujo, 26, was selected in 2005 to become a community correspondent for Viva Favela and has since moved on to become a spokeswoman for the Social Welfare office of the Rio de Janeiro Municipality.

“I still produce content for Viva Favela and live in Rocinha [one of Rio’s better known favelas],” she said proudly. “Through Viva Favela I was able to practise as a journalist, make contacts, give a positive image to Rocinha, and gain the confidence to become a professional journalist without going through traditional NGOs.” Landa believes that the fact she is still living

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Photo © safarICom

in the favela helps break down the prejudice from those outside and provides a confidence boost to other residents.

Self-esteem isn’t increased just for the trainees but also for the residents accessing the website.

Partnerships with mainstream popular newspapers have been developed and when reports from Viva Favela are included in newspapers they are almost always sold out in the local area.

The success and penetration of Viva Favela has been assisted by the state and national government’s promotion of broadband.

Some of the largest favelas are provided with free wireless broadband, telecentres and Internet cafes, known locally as lan houses.

Up until July 2009 more than BRL 1.1 million (USD 620,000) had been invested in the project and this looks likely to be extended to link the entire population of Rio to wireless broadband.

Many of the slums around the world, however, do not yet have reliable Internet access, but instead depend on the ever-increasing penetration rates of mobile phones to access ICT. In Kenya, mobile phone banking has shown that when the formal sector fails the poor and marginalized, ICT can come to the rescue. Three years ago, Safaricom, the largest mobile communications provider in Kenya, and Vodafone, launched M-PESA. Pesa means money in Swahili and is an innovative mobile payment solution that enables customers to complete simple financial transactions by mobile phone.

In just over three years M-PESA has grown to reach 10 million users. Financial Sector Deepening Kenya undertook a survey last year and found that in urban areas only 32 percent of Kenyan adults have a bank account whereas 80 percent of urbanites have a mobile phone, 20 percent up from 2006.

“Just because you don’t have access to a bank account doesn’t mean you don’t have financial needs,” said Pauline Vaughan, Head of M-PESA business operations. “The success of M-PESA was that there was a need in the market which we were able to fill.”

M-PESA has helped improve the lives of slum dwellers in Nairobi by providing a safe virtual place to keep money for short periods of time.

“Quite often there are fires in the slums, and normally you would lose what money you had,” added Mrs. Vaughan. The service is also saving people time and money.

“We did some research last year where people saved three hours of time per transaction as they didn’t need to travel to a bank and spend money on transport. This worked out to be a saving of USD 3 per transaction.”

Within the slums kiosk owners and similar outlets act as agents where people can collect or send their money. In the slums of Kibera 40 agents handle this, in Masari 50 and in Korogocho 10.

“This is important as there are no bank branches at all in the slums,” said Mrs. Vaughan. “Banks just aren’t willing to set up branches, whereas for the M-PESA agent it’s much easier.”

Originally intended to provide basic payment transfers, Safaricom is seeing many innovative ways that businesses and customers are using M-PESA. Grundfos LIFELINK, a water pump provider, teamed up with M-PESA to provide

Information Communication Technology

Working with young people living in poverty With the recognition that knowledge It is a network that connects people from and information can mitigate risk and all over the world to help bridge the gap beimprove the livelihoods of the poor, tween rich and poor with micro-financing, UN-HABITAT has developed new cenbusiness partnerships and information extres to provide key services for youth-led changes. The organization is working with initiatives. These Urban Youth Centres 15 youth groups from the slums and low-inhave been established in collaboration come neighbourhoods of Nairobi, which are with local governments, NGOs, youth part of UN-HABITAT’s Urban Entrepregroups, and other strategic partners neurship Programme, in Kampala, Uganda, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and in Nairobi, Kenya.

One of the key functions of these centres is the empowerment of youth through ICT literacy. Cities in Nigeria, Ghana, Lesotho, Zambia and Namibia have asked for similar centres.

Getting equipped for a better life. Young people training at the In post-conflict tat / J. mweLU UN-HABITAT Urban Centre in Nairobi Photo © Un-habItat cities, We Are the Future Centres have been established on a similar approach serving which trains young people and encourages a similar function in places like Nablus, the development of socially responsible Palestine, Freetown, Sierra Leone and small businesses. in Kigali, Rwanda.

Promoting ICT access in slums to adHundreds of slum youth pass through dress information poverty is a win-win these centres for various types of servstrategy for youth employment. The ices and information. For example, in knowledge value of expanded ICT acthe last quarter, 1,105 and 344 youths cess supports increased social awareness, have been registered at the Dar es Saavailability of educational opportunities, laam and Kampala centres respectively, and access to information on employment while 188 youths have completed trainopenings. At the same time, fostering the ing in ICT at the Kigali Urban Youth development of ICT facilities, such as inCentre. ternet cafes and computer training centres Said Millicent Auma Otieno, who can provide high quality jobs within the lives in a Nairobi slum: “When I was reslums themselves. cruited to join the ICT training, I did not If combined with direct employment promoknow how to operate computers. After tion programmes, such as the UN-HABITAT the training I started using my IT skills Urban Youth Centres suggested above, ICT in networking and finding business initiatives can act as a springboard for signif signifpartners with whom I can work to start icantly improving the lives of slum dwellers. a business enterprise from the business idea that I got from the training.”

UN-HABITAT is also joining hands with Additional reporting: Paul M. Wambua, ProMicrosoft Research of India and the gramme Officer, Partners and Youth Branch, Environmental Youth Alliance of Can- UN-HABITAT. For further information, visit ada to create a new Mobile Movement. www.unhabitat.org and check the youth pages.

BEST PRACTICES

water systems to communities. Payments for the water and the loan are made via M-PESA where each water user contributes.

NGOs that operate in the slums of Kenya are also using the service to make social payments to slum residents. “Concern and Oxfam are using M-PESA to disperse funds to 5,000 recipients living in slum areas,” said Mrs. Vaughan. “It is working very well and gives the recipient a lot of convenience.

It allows them to collect their payments when they want, and spend it on what they want.”

The success of the service has grabbed the attention of other countries, banks and mobile phone service providers, and has so far been launched in Tanzania, Afghanistan and Fiji.

Despite all the improvements in slum dweller’s lives there are still many limits for them to access ICT. Within Kenya, Mrs. Vaughan from Safaricom said that 44 percent of Kenyans older than 15 still don’t have a phone of their own, mainly due to the cost of handsets. Many households have to share a handset or simply borrow a phone when need be.

While cost is a major impediment for slum dwellers to access ICT, the other is to implement education alongside it. Professor Oyeyinka from UN-HABITAT is a fan of ICT but argued that it is has limits.

“One can easily go to the Internet and see vast amounts of information, but information is different from knowledge,” he explained.

“You can have a huge database, but it is meaningless to someone who is not educated in mathematics or statistics. Once people have basic education then you are able to better use ICT.” Back in Nigeria Ajegunle.org is attempting to break this divide between ICT and training by opening more innovation centres, where graduates once trained are required to use their knowledge to train five new students. Assistance from NGOs, like Korean Internet Vounteers, is greatly valued, whereby many students stay in touch online with their trainers.

Now slum dwellers, like Taiwo, see a brighter future thanks to their ICT training.

“Whenever I sit to think about the future,” he said with hope, “I feel relaxed and my thought is always positive because of the skills I have acquired.” u

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Management Mayor of Philadelphia INTERVIEW Disaster

A life-long Philadelphian Philadelphia, USA, was one of the first cities to sign up to the new 100 Cities Initiative, launched at the Fifth World Urban Forum in March. Vicente Carbona talks to Mayor Michael Nutter about the importance of knowledge sharing as he undertakes a comprehensive growth plan for his city over the next 20 years.

Mayor Michael Nutter with solar thermal installation at Riverside Correctional Facility

Photo Š tony webb

Mayor of Philadelphia

How is Philadelphia currently working with other cities?

We are constantly engaging with other cities through a number of networks, both formal and informal. We have sister cities around the world who regularly help us to gain insight into what is happening in other countries. On the national level, I am deeply involved with, and committed to, the US Conference of Mayors. Members of my administration similarly work with professionals in their fields. For example, our Director of Sustainability is a member of the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, which provides a forum for over 60 government sustainability leaders from around the country to talk and work together.

Closer to home, I have joined with the executives of the four other counties in Southeastern Pennsylvania to form the Metropolitan Caucus to identify and work on shared issues.

How would you rate the importance of cities sharing knowledge worldwide?

Mayors and other city managers are constantly seeking new information about the best ways to develop policies and programmes, make important capital investments, deliver services efficiently, and so on. Here in Philadelphia, we talk a lot about not wanting to redesign the wheel. We certainly do not think that we are the only ones to have a smart idea every now and then. We want to know everything that is going on out there in the world and see what we can bring back to Philly. This kind of knowledge sharing can be truly powerful and elevate creative thinking, while most effectively deploying resources.

Which scheme, currently in development in Philadelphia, would be most beneficial for other cities to emulate?

Our Greenworks Philadelphia plan has gained a good deal of attention already in its first year as a model for its structure and approach to integrated sustainability planning – setting specific goals, targets and programmes across a broad range of sustainability. I hope that it can be a valuable document for other cities as they develop their own frameworks and implementation strategies. We certainly looked at what other cities had done when we were drafting our plan and got a lot out of it. Also, the Philadelphia Water Department is responding to the challenge of stormwater

INTERVIEW

What are some of the things smaller cities can learn from larger ones like Philadelphia? And vice-versa?

I think the most important things that cities – large or small – can learn from each other are principles of how to approach a problem or promote an issue. At the end of the day, we are all primarily concerned with improving the quality of life for residents.

Mayor Michael Nutter and Pat McBee at Friends Center LEED Platinum dedication Photo © tony webb

management with an innovative USD 1.6 billion green infrastructure plan, Green City, Clean Waters, which will use greening, rain gardens, green roofs, pervious pavements, and trees to manage, recycle and reuse rainwater.

We are taking the problem of combined sewer overflow, and the related mandates we must meet, and turning those requirements into an opportunity to invest in the greening of our city, the benefits of which will be enjoyed by generations of Philadelphians.

Why is joining the 100 Cities Initiative beneficial for a member city?

The 100 Cities Initiative allows cities such as Philadelphia to share its innovative projects and, in turn, to learn from other cities of the world.

What do you hope Philadelphia will gain from the Initiative?

I welcome the opportunity to share some of our work with the rest of the world as we develop relationships with other city leaders who are working on similar issues.

How have the World Urban Campaign initiatives helped to bring cities together?

As the World Urban Campaign was only recently announced in March, I think we are only at the beginning of a movement that will bring cities together over time into unique partnerships. I look forward to seeing how this convening matures.

How important is it to empower citizens at all income levels to become stakeholders in their city’s future?

Simply stated – very. Philadelphia is fortunate to have an incredibly diverse population and all of us are richer for the broad range of backgrounds and life experiences of our residents. More than 1.5 million life situations come together to make up our city’s character.

But we struggle with the fact that 25 percent of our population lives at or near the poverty line. That is a deep reality that we face and are challenged to change. But no matter how much money you do or do not make, you are a member of our community and we have the right and responsibility to one another to all be a part in determining the future of our city.

What do organizations such as the Penn Institute for Urban Research and others in the public, non-profit and private sectors bring to the table?

We simply cannot have a sustainable city without the full participation of all sectors of civil society. As a city government, we not only seek to provide but also are dependent on collaboration with the private sector and non-governmental organizations – ranging from community-based groups to anchor institutions like universities and hospitals to promote sustainability and resilience in our cities. We are working with all sectors on the six initiatives that we are sharing through the 100 Cities Initiative. Specifically we are working with the Penn Institute for Urban Research who is acting as our ‘champion’ and will help to facilitate and oversee our participation in this effort.

What exciting initiatives do you currently have in the planning stage?

We are currently engaged in developing a new comprehensive plan for the City that will guide our growth over the next 20 years. Forty years

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INTERVIEW Mayor of Philadelphia

Photo Š LUCIano UCI adragna

The most famous view of Philadelphia

have passed since we undertook our last plan.

Conditions in the city have changed dramatically in the past four decades – we have a different population, a different economy and we have a newly articulated set of goals related to sustainability that we will reflect in this plan. We are constructing this plan over a number of months. We are listening to our citizens through extensive outreach activities and we are applying the best technical skills from our city departments, notably the City Planning Commission.

What are you most proud of as Mayor of Philadelphia?

I am proud of the resiliency and creativity of Philadelphians who, despite these tough economic times, continue to do incredible things. l Neighbourhoods planting urban gardens and sharing their bounty with those in need. l West Philly High School students making it to the finals of a 100 miles per gallon

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(2.35 litres per 100 kilometres) car competition, beating out multi-million dollar companies and Ivy League colleges. l Young people getting involved in poetry slam competitions to educate their peers about the negative effects of litter on our community. l City employees teaching children to read and helping students apply for financial aid in their spare time.

These are just a few examples of the things that I have the privilege to see each and every day and that make me so proud, not only to be Mayor of Philadelphia, but to be a life-long Philadelphian.

What would be your message to other mayors around the world?

We are excited to be part of the 100 Cities Initiative. We are looking forward to the sharing and learning process that is encompassed in this effort. I hope that what we are doing here in Philadelphia will be of help to others and

I cordially invite you to come to Philly to see and discuss what we are doing. u

100 Cities Initiative The Initiative will involve citizens whereby their cities and communities will gain exposure to a global network of partners that are promoting cutting edge practices in sustainable urban development. These practices include new private-public partnerships, new governance approaches as well as new models for investment. A 100 Cities Summit is planned in mid2011 once a testing period of about a year is completed and preliminary results evaluated.

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Disaster Management

ANALYSIS

Green Growth

and Sustainable Development for Rwanda

Rwanda the ‘country of a thousand hills’ has embarked on a very ambitious development agenda: the long-term strategic vision of the country is to move towards a knowledge based economy in order to improve the living standards of its citizens and become a middle income country by 2020. However, being the most densely populated country in Africa, the Government of Rwanda, has committed to move ahead a low-carbon, green growth path that will leave a healthy natural and social environment to future generations.This is even more important considering that most Rwandans today are still dependent on the natural environment for their income.

In order to power businesses, services, communication and industries, and provide reliable and affordable energy services, the sustainable development trajectory, will place a strong focus on renewable energies, energy efficiency and lowcarbon solutions, as well as a careful utilization of biomass resources.

Rwanda has been pioneering the development of biogas plants in Africa, not only in rural pastoralist households for the replacement of wood fuels for cooking, but also in public institutions such as prisons and schools. But biogas plants are not only providing energy for cooking and lighting, it is also

rived from the distribution of 200,000 compact fluorescent, energy efficient light bulbs that will allow the country to save electricity for productive purposes.

At the same time local energy resources are being explored and extracted: the most prominent one being methane gas resources in Lake Kivu, that is shared by Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo and has a potential of generating at least 700 megawatts sustainably for more than 50 years. This resource is unique in the world as the gas is dissolved at the bottom layer of the lake. The first pilot plant, built by the Government of Rwanda has been online since November 2008.

Beyond that we are currently cooperating with Kenya for the development of the national geothermal resources in the vicinity of the Virunga chain of volcanoes. So far surface exploration shows positive results and indicates a high temperature reservoir. Wind patterns are also being surveyed to determine where small turbines can be installed to serve rural communities.

Being endowed with a thousand hills, Rwanda also possesses a thousand rivers, and at least 333 identified potential hydro power sites. Eight of them are so far producing power for the grid as well as rural electrification and 23 more sites are

The ‘Sustainable Energy Development Project’ that is supported by the Global Environment Facility and the Africa Renewable Energy Access Trust Fund through the World Bank, and for which financing agreements have been signed in Kigali on the 8 February 2010, will put even more emphasis on the market development for renewable energies such as solar energy, or hydropower and will provide support for the local private sector to increase their participation. It will also fund the development of coherent renewable energy strategies, action plans and investment programmes to provide a coherent framework for intervention of different development partners. To incentivize small-scale energy production, a system of transparent tariffs, institutional mechanisms, terms and conditions will be developed.

The first component to be implemented shall be the establishment of a solar water heater subsidy scheme that will reduce costs for beneficiaries and peak electricity demand for the utility. An audit of the electricity network will identify technical losses and aim at improving grid performance.

The project will also look at disseminating improved stoves in both urban and rural areas, at improving charcoaling techniques in order to in-

offering solutions for hygienic sanitation and producing high quality fertilizer.

Recently Rwanda has signed the first Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement in the framework of the Clean Development Mechanism with the Community Development Fund of the World Bank Group.This agreement is based on carbon credits de-

currently under development, three of them by private sector companies.

Installed on a hill just outside Kigali is one of Africa’s biggest solar power plants that is providing 250 kilowatts to the grid, while smaller installations are lighting health facilities and schools already.

crease efficiency and at replacing biomass through the promotion of other sources of energy such as papyrus and peat briquettes or LPG. With all these initiatives and activities ongoing and in the pipeline, we are confident to achieve not only 35 percent electrification by 2020, but also a sustainable, low-carbon development for a brighter future.

IN-FOCUS

Africa

Kenya’s new constitution – a progressive framework for decentralization

On 4 August 2010, a new constitution was approved by two-thirds of registered Kenyan voters in a national referendum held as part of a ‘peace accord’ sponsored by the international community, and brokered by the Panel of African Eminent Persons led by former UN SecretaryGeneral Kofi Annan. The accord is widely believed to have prevented further bloodshed in the aftermath of the general election violence in 2007, write Daniel Biau and Alain Kanyinda.

Pushing hard to vote in Kenya

Photo © aLLan gIChIgI/IrIn

Africa

K

enya’s new fundamental law has 18 chapters on very practical matters related to the management of the country as a sovereign Republic ranging from its Bill of Rights to national security. It also lays down the principles on which a modern order should be established by enshrining rules essential to establishing a democratic society.

The new constitution reaffirms what it calls the ‘sovereignty of the people’. A major innovation is the establishment of a devolved system of governance to promote the democratic and accountable exercise of power.

While strengthening national unity by recognizing diversity, Kenya’s new political system gives powers of self-governance to the local level to enhance the participation of the people in making decisions affecting them. It also recognizes the right of communities to manage their own affairs and to further their economic development, including the provision of basic services.

By devolving power from the centre to 47 counties, or governance entities, the new constitution thus builds upon the principle of subsidiarity, which is the underlying rationale of decentralized governance. It stipulates that the establishment of ‘county governments’ be based on the separation of powers. It recognizes that they must have reliable revenue to enable them to govern and deliver services effectively. It also stipulates that no more than two-thirds of the members of representative bodies shall be of the same gender.

However, the new constitution unfortunately overlooks the municipal level and does not distinguish between urban and rural areas. Municipal councils and mayors seem to have disappeared while local authorities are only briefly mentioned in the constitution.

This shortcoming will hopefully be addressed by future national legislation.

Kenya’s new constitution further transforms the country’s legislature into a bicameral system by establishing a parliament comprising a national assembly representing the people in the various constituencies nationwide, and a senate representing the counties.

Better governance More importantly, there shall be a real democratic practice at the county level with a local government consisting of a county assembly

IN-FOCUS

and a county executive. Political power at the county level will be in the hands of an executive committee.

Kenya’s new decentralized governance system also provides an appropriate institutional framework for local economic development, as the new fundamental law will also reform the current budgetary system, which has not been favourable to local and urban development over many decades in the country’s history.

The new constitution provides clear principles and a framework for the management of public finance, which promotes openness and accountability, including public participation in financial matters, as well as equitable sharing of national revenue and taxation powers.

The new law also provides for an ‘equalization fund’, into which shall be paid 0.5 percent of all the revenue collected by the national government to be used for the provision of basic services including water, roads, health facilities and electricity to marginalized areas. This should help lift the quality of those services to better levels generally enjoyed by the rest of the nation.

Better public financing This attempt to reform Kenya’s fiscal system is most welcome. Even more significantly, the new constitution has introduced a completely new public finance management system to reduce the upper hand and discretionary powers of central governmental bodies, such as the Ministry of Finance and the Treasury, by creating new constitutional offices with new roles and responsibilities. This is translated in practical terms into the establishment of a ‘Commission on Revenue Allocation’. This commission should be responsible for making recommendations on: “equitable sharing of revenue raised by the national government between the national and county government, as well as among the county governments”. Most specifically, the law stipulates for every financial year that the share of the revenue raised nationally, which shall be allocated to county governments “shall be not less than 15 percent of all revenue collected by the national government”.

Indeed, each county government is empowered to prepare and adopt its own annual budget. The national parliament is expected to guarantee through legislation that county governments have the support necessary to

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Africa

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The parliament complex in Nairobi

perform their functions. Kenya’s constitution also forbids the delay of the share of national revenue due to the county, except when the transfer has been stopped for financial control.

On the other hand the relationship between county governments and other local authorities, be they cities or urban municipal councils, will require careful analysis, particularly to clarify the role and position of mayors and councilors vis-à-vis county governors and county assemblies. Should local authorities and county governments exist together, as implied in the new constitution, it will be important for parliament to delineate the areas of jurisdiction and the functions of each level of local government and to update the Local Government Act. Kenya’s new constitution is good news for the country and could provide a model for Africa. The Bill of Rights provides a framework for social, economic and cultural policies, which further recognizes the right of Kenyan citizens to accessible and adequate housing, and to reasonable standards of sanitation and water. The endorsement of the new constitution by a vast

Photo © olivia Moore

majority of the people in Kenya signals a crucial rebirth for the country.

UN-HABITAT support It is also good news for the international community assembled within the United Nations system. UN-HABITAT is not only a partner of the Kenyan Government, but it is one of the two programmes of the United Nations headquartered in Nairobi. As the city agency of the United Nations, UN-HABITAT has been supporting the efforts of the Kenyan Government to engage in the ongoing reforms, which aim at promoting the urban and housing development sectors for the benefit of disadvantaged Kenyan populations.

It is a positive development that Kenya’s new constitution recognizes the “equitable access to land” as a fundamental principle of its land policy. It also states, “all land in Kenya belongs to the people of Kenya collectively as a nation, and as individuals”.

Kenya’s new constitution further echoes the work of the Governing Council of

IN-FOCUS

UN-HABITAT, which approved the International Guidelines on Decentralisation and Strengthening of Local Authorities in 2007 to assist policy reforms and legislative action at the country level. The guidelines recommend the acknowledgement of local authorities in “national legislation, and if possible, in the constitution, as legally autonomous sub-national entities with a positive potential to contribute to national planning and development”.

UN-HABITAT’s guidelines on decentralization set out a number of principles which are well reflected in the Kenyan constitution. They aggregate different dimensions of democratic practice combining representative and participatory democracy. The notion of democracy involves giving citizens the authority to take part in the decision-making process and strengthening local governments so that they can conduct the business for which they are elected. The principles of ‘subsidiarity’ and ‘proportionality’ underlie the relations between various spheres of government.

Finally, the fiscal and human resources necessary to support local autonomy as stipulated in the guidelines have been recognized by the Kenyan constitution with some principles that allow local authorities (county governments) to fulfil their tasks and maintain their autonomy, even when grants are transferred from central budgets.

UN-HABITAT focuses on three components to fast track the implementation of the international guidelines on decentralization: (i) advocacy and partnerships at the national level, (ii) capacity development, and (iii) monitoring and reporting on progress.

A strengthened partnership between the city agency of the United Nations and the Government of Kenya within the context of the country’s new constitution would be useful to other countries interested in the implementation of the international guidelines on decentralization and the promotion of local democracy for sustainable urbanization. u Daniel Biau is the Director of UN-HABITAT’s Regional and Technical Cooperation Division.

Alain Kanyinda has been Coordinator of UN-HABITAT’s Programme on Decentralisation since 2002.

The Kenyan capital, Nairobi, is the seat of the UN headquarters in Africa – the home base of UN-HABITAT and its sister agency UNEP, the UN Environment programme.

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Africa: News

WATER AND SANITATION Lake Victoria Region An agreement has been signed between the East African Community Secretariat, UN-HABITAT, the African Development Bank and the governments of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda, which will set the stage for the expansion of the Lake Victoria Region Water and Sanitation Initiative. Under the terms of the agreement, the second phase of the initiative will extend water, sanitation and solid waste management services to over 850,000 people living in 15 secondary towns, three in each of the five East African Community Countries.

SOLAR ENERGY Mozambique Mozambique is to begin work on the construction of a solar panel factory in the country’s Beluluane Industrial Park, at an estimated cost of USD 10 million. With the help of investment from India, the Mozambican authorities hope to be producing photovoltaic systems in the near future, contributing to the reduction of the cost involved in importing this equipment from abroad. The construction will also aid the government of Mozambique in providing access to energy sources across the country, which has already doubled over the past five years.

EMPLOYMENT South Africa OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurria, urged South Africa to use the positive impacts of the World Cup to improve living standards by increasing job creation and exports, at the launch of the OECD Economic Survey of South Africa in Pretoria. As part of an employment strategy Mr. Gurria encouraged the implementation of youthspecific measures, including increasing job search assistance for young people and differing minimum wages according to age and extending probation periods for employees below a certain age.

YOUTH Nigeria Nigeria’s Minister of Youth Development, Akinlola Olasunkanmi, has announced plans for a Youth Development Fund and eight youth centres in six regions across the country. Senator Olasunkanmi made the announcement during the Fourth National Council of Youth Development, which ran under the theme, Nigerian Youth: The Challenges of Unemployment and Restiveness - The Way Forward. Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Governor of Osun State, told representatives that engaging youth positively must be a priority as they are the leaders of tomorrow.

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Youth World Cup Final sees the launch of UN-HABITAT’s ‘Youth for a Safer Africa’ Just hours before the historic FIFA World Cup final got underway in South Africa, the first on African soil, UN-HABITAT and its partners launched a major initiative aimed at making Af Africa’s youth more productive and keeping them away from delinquency.

The initiative, named ‘Youth for a Safer Africa’, was launched at the Garankuwa township, a few kilometres from Pretoria (Tshwane City). The event was hosted in a playground by Tshwane City and saw many of the local youth turn out in large numbers to lend their support to the programme.

The young people highlighted their talents with an impressive show of vuvuzela blowing, cultural dancing, as well as a symphony orchestra.

“Much as the vuvuzelas are a symbol of unison, urging us to victory – as this historic event comes to a close, the FIFA World Cup has indeed inspired us all to meet the challenges that this continent faces and showed us how young people can spearhead the way forward, not only for Africa but the whole world,” said former UN-HABITAT Executive Director, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka.

During the launch, the city of Tshwane was praised for its efforts in renovating and upgrading the Garnkuwa stadium, made possible through a partnership with UN-HABITAT and a contribution of USD 10,000 from the agency.

‘Youth for a Safer Africa’ is an initiative that brings together UN-HABITAT and its partners,

Water Ghana to improve wastewater facilities The African Water Facility (AWF) has approved a USD 660,000 grant to the Water Resources Commission in Ghana to finance a project that aims to increase efficiency in wastewater facilities.

The project will introduce a planning approach that simultaneously closes the water and nutrient loops, called ‘Design for Reuse’, in order to effectively capture the economic

Mrs. Tibaijuka presenting the cheque to the City of Tshwane Photo © Un-habItat

SCORE, Right to Play and Coca-Cola, to work in tandem to help youth in Africa. A particular highlight from the programme was the sponsorship of 20 young people from East Africa, who travelled down to South Africa and teamed up with an equal number of local youth for activities on the sidelines of the FIFA World Cup, including workshops and team building skills.

“Inspiration, enthusiasm, and vision are all generated by giving these young people an opportunity to participate first-hand in such an energy-filled event like the FIFA World Cup Final,” said Mrs. Tibaijuka, expressing her hope that the Final would provide inspiration for African youth to participate more in sports and realize the benefits that this could entail.

In a speech read on her behalf, the Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Gwen Ramokgopa referred to UN-HABITAT’s State of the Urban Youth Report and emphasized the need for young people’s access to good quality education. u T.Osanjo

value of wastewater and faecal sludge nutrients to help finance, operate and maintain treatment facilities.

Results from a study undertaken by the International Water Management Institute show that the 55 existing wastewater treatment plants and the seven municipal faecal sludge treatment plants in Ghana have a design capacity to serve about 25 percent of the urban population, but less than 10 percent are operating according to design.

As a consequence, more than 85 percent of wastewater and faecal sludge is discharged into the environment without any effective treatment.

Africa: News

Waste management Uganda leads the way in reducing harmful emissions Uganda has become the first African nation to successfully register a Program of Activities (POA) that will reduce dangerous methane emissions into the environment, by the launch of a Municipal Waste Compost Program. The project is being carried out under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol.

“This POA, the first in Africa, is important not only because of its greenhouse gas mitigation potential, but also because it serves as an example for many other African countries to design and implement large scale mitigation activities. Although the process is complex, it has been an extremely useful learning experience, which we hope to replicate all over Uganda,” said Mr. Henry Aryamanya Mugisha, Executive Director of the National Environmental Management Authority.

The Uganda POA is the first of its kind in the world, and encourages solid waste composting in urban areas in an environmentally friendly way. The composting of waste has numerous advantages over landfills, the most common method in Uganda and many other countries.

Composting returns the much-needed organic matter to the soil, prevents land degradation, and significantly reduces methane emissions.

The new programme aids Ugandan municipalities in setting up waste composting facilities

Due to this inefficiency diarrhoeal diseases are rated as the second greatest public health problem after malaria for most communities in Ghana. Consumption of food contaminated with polluted irrigation water is one of the most common modes of disease transmission.

In an attempt to combat these pressing issues, the Water Resources Commission submitted a grant proposal to the AWF to finance a project aimed at calculating the value of effluent and nutrients in order to sustain the operation of sanitation facilities. The goal of the project is to improve the long-term operation and efficiency of wastewater and faecal sludge treatment plants in urban Ghana.

IN-FOCUS

HOUSING Chad UN-HABITAT has pledged to strengthen ties with Chad after a visit to the agency by Tahir Goni Brahima, Director State Housing Company, the Société de Promotion Foncière et Immobilière (SOPROFIM) in Chad.

UN-HABITAT, in partnership with the government of Chad, is implementing a programme for the improvement in housing and urban development, focussing on access to land and affordable housing and strengthening capacity of national and local government, with funding coming from UNDP and the Chadian Government.

Landfills are the most common form of waste disposal in Uganda Photo © roberto bUrgos s. s

that are financially sustainable, due to the revenues generated from the sale of both compost and carbon credits. Nine municipalities have already been identified for this purpose, but it is expected other cities will request that similar projects be included in this registered programme.

“With the threat of global warming, there is an urgent need to scale up climate change mitigation, shifting from project-based to programmatic approaches. This is the Bank’s first Program of Activities under CDM and we are very happy to see Uganda spearhead such a programme and serve as an example for the rest of Africa,” said Mrs. Joëlle Chassard, Manager of the Carbon Finance Unit, World Bank.

The nine initial projects are using carbon finance to generate resources for social and community activities while also trapping the equivalent of an estimated 750,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide over the next 10 years. u

The scheme is based on the design for reuse model, which is an attempt to establish the sanitation sector as an active and prominent contributor to local economies. It is hoped that results should produce key impacts such as the reduction in the frequency of waterborne diseases, improvement of access to sanitation services, and improved operational and financial sustainability of wastewater treatment plants and faecal sludge treatment plants.

In addition, the project will include capacity building, achieved through developing and publishing planning protocols, and hosting interactive training workshops. u

RENEWABLE ENERGY Cape Verde A regional centre aimed at developing renewable energy and promoting workforce development in the 15 countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has opened in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Austria, Cape Verde and Spain all supported the creation of the Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE), which will research and develop renewable energy and energy efficiency markets in West Africa.

WATER AND SANITATION Cameroon The African Development Bank and Cameroon have signed loan and grant agreements for a water and sanitation programme. The loan and grant will help in the implementation of projects in four regions of the country – North West, West, South West and South. It is hoped the population will hugely benefit from the training and sensitization campaign on hygiene and ultimately lead to a significant reduction in the spread of diseases. The grant resources will come from the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI).

URBAN GROWTH Liberia The Government of Liberia, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and UN-HABITAT helped support a workshop, in September, on local economic development in Gbarnga. Over 50 participants from three counties gathered to learn how they could make better use of local resources to stimulate growth in their respective towns and cities. So far six of Liberia’s 15 counties have developed a series of short-term action plans which will be judged through a competitive process. The winners will benefit from further support and training, involving Liberia’s nascent private sector.

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Latin America and the Caribbean

From a pigsty to a housing complex with tenure and citizenship

Improving poor and environmentally degraded areas allowed for neighbourhood recovery and raised the self-esteem of citizens long forgotten by the three levels of the Brazilian government. Manuel Manrique, UN-HABITAT’s Information Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean, took a closer look at the reality of the Francisco Coelho neighbourhood in the heart of the Amazonian rainforest.

New housing and a nine-metre embankment are part of the neighbourhood improvements

Photo Š Un-habItat/m. manrIqUe

Latin America and the Caribbean

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N-HABITAT’s Local Agenda 21 Programme is no longer running. But a byproduct of its work was the recovery of the Francisco Coelho neighbourhood in Marabá – where the city originated. Situated in Brazil’s northern state of Pará, Francisco Coelho, with its 1,120 families now enjoys proper sanitation, thanks to a new water supply and sewerage system, and organized solid waste and garbage collection.

The upgrading also includes 80 new housing units, recreation areas, food markets in the most vulnerable parts of the district, a boat repair ramp, and a nine-metre embankment to prevent flooding during the MarchMay rainy season.

“This work started in 2005 with a city consultation process in which UN-HABITAT, the local government and the Ministries of Cities and the Environment met with various civil society groups to identify urban environmental problems. It led to a new Urban Pact, to guide the work of the three spheres of government,” said José Raiol. The current Secretary of State for Urban and Regional Development in Pará, he had served as a technical partner in Local Agenda 21.

The Urban Pact, along with the countless meetings held between government authorities and civil society, led to the development of Marabá’s Master Participatory Plan. This Plan became a federal law that dictates and directs all urban public policies for cities with more than 20,000 people. Marabá has 195,ooo.

One of the recommendations was the recovery of Francisco Coelho, also known as cabelo seco – dry hair in Portuguese. Francisco Coelho was a merchant who in 1898 set up a store at the meeting point of the Tocantins and Tacaiunas rivers where he sold coffee, rubber and sugar. Other merchants soon came to the area and put down the roots of today’s city.

Its citizens constantly urged civil society and government meetings to bring basic services and curtail or control the annual flooding. And the improvement came with a USD 7 million fund from the Department of Urban and Regional Development of Pará, bringing a fresh water supply to over 100,000 families, new drainage systems, new homes in the the Pontão area with security of tenure, market areas, recreation and sporting facilities. And with it came the new dyke.

“With the dyke, the river will no longer flood our homes, or force us into shelters,” said María Souza de Lima, a 60-year-old laundress who already lost count of the number of floods she had endured.

The locals always knew when the floods would begin because birds start nesting higher and higher, and fish begin to swim upstream.

In the flood season families have to be taken to shelters or schools where they receive healthcare to determine if they have skin or other infections caused by contaminated water or rodent urine, also known as leptospirosis.

“People don’t really understand the extent of the dangers and there are no set emergency plans for these situations,” said José Barreto,

IN-FOCUS

While the dyke and apartments were being built, youth and adults participated in workshops on road safety, consumer rights, domestic violence, sexual abuse, child abuse, speech, and fund-raising, among other things.

They were also taken to see the grounds.

“When the government told us about the project we thought it would be yet another unfulfilled promise, but when they took us to see where they were building the houses, I realized they weren’t lying,” recalled a fisherman who earns between USD 240 and USD 730 per month.

As time went on, the relationship between the staff and families improved. As they began

Families were allowed to select their neighbours and even the colour of their home Photo © rosangeLa gUsmâo

40, a firefighter and president of cabelo seco’s neighbourhood association since 2009.

Community participation When the department of Urban and Regional Development began identifying the families who would move into the new apartments in Pontão, a team of social workers cited two issues: a lack of belief in the project, thus reluctance to move out of their old homes, and a lack of hygiene.

“It took a while to gain their trust, but in the end they agreed to leave their homes, receive a two-year rent stipend, and participate in the thematic workshops,” said Nazilda Pacheco, project coordinator for the department.

to openly discuss things, one of the results was the idea of being able to choose your neighbour.

“I was shocked they were letting us choose these things, since normally they just come and impose things on you. Now it was different,” exclaimed 50 year-old Dulcineia Mendes who has her sister-in-law as a neighbour.

Families were also allowed to select the colour of their new home, the name of the residential complex, the identification of each block, and the type of vegetation for the building, among other things. “These things encouraged me. They never before let me choose important things like that. It was like a dream,” said housewife Eliane Ribeiro

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Latin America and the Caribbean

Social workers organize training for households aimed at increasing their income

Mendes, 35, who bought a new living room set, and kitchen cabinet. “My mother also made her dream come true in having a chessboard floor.”

Health and income One of the great challenges for the social workers was changing the hygiene habits of those who would receive the homes. For many years the land on which they lived served as a space where pigs were raised and killed. Over time, the volume of garbage increased as the number of houses also increased.

People would dump the garbage in the river or would leave it near their homes. “My house stood over a huge drain pipe. Every day the stench was terrible. It was difficult to eat and even sleep,” recounted Maria das Graças de Souza, 60, a mother of 13 who could not wait to leave.

Health matters apart, generating new income opportunities and providing training are important components of the improvement plan, and the department has set up cooking classes, courses on food handling

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(especially fish), sewing, manicure, crafts and wall painting.

“Through this training, we will create production units in the housing complexes for people to increase their income. There are laundry rooms with washers and dryers, and fishermen will have an area where they can fix their boats and try to sell their catch. Cooks and artisans will have a common area to market their products and women stylists will have a beauty salon,” said Mr. Raiol, the Urban and Regional Development Secretary of Pará.

This effort aims to promote a sense of belonging in people where they live. It is common that after houses and titles are given, some people will sell their property and move somewhere else. The set up of the complex and the activities set around are an attempt to strengthen the local sense of belonging, but also to connect cabelo seco to the rest of downtown.

“Given the environmental degradation and precarious conditions of the cabelo seco region, it was long perceived as a slum.

Photo © rosangeLa gUsmâo

Marabá was born here and instead of destroying it we must develop it. Everything that is being planned is very positive, and has all the elements for success,” said Carlos Vinicius Azevedo Brito, a civil engineer and architect for Marabá’s Planning Department and local technical team member of the Local Agenda 21 Programme.

For him, any kind of training and empowerment is important. “We have to prepare people for the large projects coming to our region,” Mr. Brito said in reference to the planned construction of a steel plant by the country’s largest mining company, Vale.

Meanwhile the team of social workers will team will continue to organize music lessons, environmental education, waste recycling, conservation of the Tocantins and Tacauinas rivers, disease prevention and health promotion, toy-making from plastic bottles, and personal hygiene, among other things.

There is no doubt that the work done in Marabá goes nicely with the theme of World Habitat Day 2010, Better City, Better Life. u

ber 2010 Sept em

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Wha t the Shan Inte rvie w: Ph ghai Ex How po m ilade ICT eans lphi is tr New a’ for Ch UN-H ansform s Mayor ina ABIT ing reve th AT Ex al ecut e lives of s new st ive D rate slum gic irect dwel grow or lers th pl an

y at Da Habit World rates ai Expo gh T celeb ABITA the Shan at UN-H

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.

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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, Arabic, Spanish, Russian and Mandarin.

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FOR A BETTER URBAN FUTURE

IN-FOCUS

Latin America and the Caribbean: News

TRANSPORT Haiti The Inter-American Development Bank has approved two grants totalling USD 54 million for Haiti to repair highways and improve secondary roads. Transport is a key sector in the Haitian government’s economic recovery plan following the destruction caused by the earthquake in January. USD 29 million will aid completing rehabilitation work on RN1, one of the busiest stretches of the country’s principal highway, while USD 25 million will finance work to improve the secondary road network in Haiti’s southern peninsula.

HYDRO POWER Chile French transport and energy infrastructure company, Alstom, has signed a contract worth USD 123 million with Chilean utility Colbun for the supply of three turbines for the Angostura hydropower project being developed in Chile. As part of the agreement, Alstom will provide Colbun with two 136 megawatt (MW) turbines and one 48 MW turbine. The 320 MW Angostura hydropower project is planned for Chile’s Biobio River in southern region VIII. Colbun expects the USD 420 million project to be completed in early 2013.

WIND ENERGY Honduras A consortium consisting of Gamesa and Iberdrola Ingeniería y Construcción has been awarded the contract to build a wind farm in Honduras, known as Cerro de Hula. The wind power project will have 102 megawatts of installed capacity. Gamesa, who will control 76 percent of the venture, will manufacture, supply, transport and erect the wind turbines, as well as providing supervision and the start-up of the turbines.

Iberdrola Ingeniería, with the remaining 24 percent of control, will design and build the wind turbine foundations, access roads and construction platforms.

RENEWABLE ENERGY Nicaragua Nicaragua will ll attempt to transform its energy matrix and expand access to electricity among the poor with the help of a USD 30.5 million concessional loan from the InterAmerican Development Bank. Nicaragua’s National Sustainable Electrification and Renewable Energy Program will take on projects under the programme over the next four years with the main objectives of addressing the country’s lack of electricity in rural areas, insufficient transmission and grid infrastructure, systemic inefficiencies, high dependence on fossil fuels and lack of investment in renewable sources.

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Geothermal energy St. Lucia set to exploit its geothermal energy potential Emerging renewable energy company, Qualibou Energy Inc., has announced its plan to develop as much as 170 megawatts (MW) of geothermal energy on the Eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia.

The island is part of a volcanic arc known as the Lesser Antilles. Surface manifestations of geothermal activity are centred in the Sulphur Springs area and include hot springs, steam fumaroles and boiling mud pools. The resources have been extensively explored since the mid 1970s and nine wells have been drilled to date. Steam was found in five of the exploratory boreholes with one of the deeper wells returning steam and water at 235 degrees Celsius, creating ideal conditions for electricity generation.

“The resources on St. Lucia have proven reserves of 30 MW and probable reserves of an additional 140 MW,” said Stephen Baker, President and CEO of Qualibou. “In oil terms, the proven and probable reserves are 60.1 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), representing a very significant asset for Qualibou.”

Production drilling plans are underway and a drilling schedule will be announced in the near future. “We plan to generate 120 MW of power from this resource with the first phase being 15 MW,” added Mr. Baker.

Qualibou will deliver all electricity from phase one of its geothermal power project to St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited (LUCELEC), the sole electric utility of the

Solar power Health clinics in Haiti set for solar electrification SolarWorld has awarded a grant of solar panels, totalling 100 kilowatts (kW), to the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) to support the solar electrification of five health clinics for Partners In Health (PIH) in Haiti.

The clinics, operated by Zanmi Lasante (ZL), are located in the remote mountain highlands of Haiti and have no access to the electric grid.

In the aftermath of the January earthquake in Port-au-Prince, the facilities experienced a rise in demand for health-care services, countered by dangerous fluctuations in fuel supplies needed to operate their generators.

“A doctor can’t work without electricity and energy. You need diagnostic capacity, you need light to examine a patient, you really do need electricity to do the kind of work we’re doing,” said Dr. Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners In Health. “Given that you can’t do modern medicine without power, and that modern medicine is able to save lives, and that we need a safe and environmentally friendly alternative, that brings us to solar power.”

Solar Electric Light Fund completed the first 10 kW solar-diesel hybrid system at a

New solar panels will help Haiti’s healthcare services to recover from the devastating earthquake atIons Photo © UnIted natI

clinic in Boucan Carré, Haiti, in September 2009. Monthly fuel costs have since decreased by 64 percent and in response to the recent disaster, SELF accelerated its timeline to provide solar energy systems to nine remaining clinics in Haiti.

“We were very pleased to have been chosen

by SolarWorld as a grant recipient,” said Robert Freling, Solar Electric Light Fund’s executive director. “This very generous support will go a long way to saving lives by providing the clinics with a stable, 24-hour power supply, and at the same time it will help PIH reduce their operating expenses.”

The solar electrification projects will play a key role in Partners In Health’s three-year recovery and rebuilding plan, which includes expanding capacity for clinical services needed to care for earthquake survivors, as well as building and renovating public health infrastructure. u

Latin America and the Caribbean: News

Geothermal energy will help significantly cut St. Lucia’s carbon footprint

Photo © John harrIs

island since being founded in 1964. St. Lucia has a peak electricity demand of 56 MW and LUCELEC currently generates all of the electricity consumed on the island through diesel generation. Geothermal power will cut St. Lucia’s carbon footprint significantly, while enhancing its reputation as an exotic destination.

“We recently finalized a Term Sheet for the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with LUCELEC which contains all principal commercial terms under which power will be delivered,” said Mr. Baker. “The PPA will follow in due course. Initial revenues are anticipated to be USD 12 million growing to over USD 100 million as the project is fully developed.” u

Sustainable development Rio de Janeiro to get USD 1 billion loan to aid sustainable growth

provements in revenues and greater efficiency in social security expenditure. It will also expand access to family health and emergency care services, and will improve the quality of child and basic education programmes in lowincome and high violence areas, while promoting systemic improvements in learning results in general. Additionally the initiative will support reforms to the business start-up process, seeking greater efficiency to stimulate entrepreneurship and job creation.

“Through this operation, the World Bank recognizes the importance of the work carried out by the city in areas of public expenditure efficiency and medium- and long-term strategic planning,” said Makhtar Diop, World Bank Country Director for Brazil. “Furthermore, this loan will help the municipality coordinate policies with the State and the Union, increasing the impact and the results of its policies and investments.”

Some of the goals supported by this loan include: doubling the coverage of family health programmes to 12 percent by December 2011; annual reductions in school dropout rates; increasing child and preschool education enrolment by at least 3,000 per year in low-income communities; reducing the number of days needed to open a business from 20 to 12.5; and measures to make the municipality’s retirement system more sustainable. u

The World Bank has approved a USD 1.045 billion loan for the City of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which will support initiatives aimed at bolstering economic growth in the municipality and improving the quality and coverage of social services, especially in low-income areas. This is the first World Bank loan for the City of Rio de Janeiro and is the biggest loan to date provided by the institution directly to a municipality.

“Rio has been nurturing the foundations for sustainable growth, one that responds to its unique urban and social challenges, and taking into account the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games,” said Eduardo Paes, Mayor of Rio. “This programme with the World Bank, the first one of its kind with a municipality, is a giant step in that direction, supporting the city’s investment programme and bringing with it the knowledge and best practices from abroad.”

The project will help create additional resources for public investment through im-

IN-FOCUS

EDUCATION Colombia The World Bank has approved USD 25 million in financing for the Science, Technology and Innovation in Colombia Project, which is aimed at improving human capital for the knowledge economy and for research, development and innovation. The project looks to promote the circulation of science, technology and innovation in mainstream society. Increasing awareness and disseminating knowledge among the public and private sectors will contribute to achieving this goal. It is estimated that the project will benefit around 1.2 million people.

HYDRO POWER Brazil The Brazilian Mines and Energy Ministry has added two small hydropower plants and one solar power plant to the government’s special infrastructure development incentives programme, Reidi. The hydroelectric projects are the 9.6 megawatt (MW) Cascata Chupinguaia hydro plant located in the northern state of Rondonia and the 10 MW Agua Branca hydro plant in the central western state of Mato Grosso.

The solar plant has a capacity of 5 MW and is located in the northeastern state of Ceara.

WATER AND SANITATION Argentina A USD 200 million loan from the InterAmerican Development Bank is to help Argentina embark on a major programme to improve the quality and coverage of water and sanitation services in its major cities and suburban areas. The loan will finance improvements to the sewerage service in the Greater San Juan metropolitan area and upgrade the water service in the central and western sections of the city of Salta. Both urban areas are located in northwestern Argentina, and the projects are expected to benefit around 600,000 people.

RENEWABLE ENERGY Dominica The European Investment Bank has agreed to provide a USD 10 million line of credit to the Dominica Agricultural, Industrial and Development Bank to ensure continued availability of public and private sector finance and investments in renewable energy. The credit will help promote growth, employment, competitiveness and economic diversification on the island, with projects in the manufacturing, industrial, agricultural, infrastructure, health, education and tourism sectors all benefiting from easier access to finance. Renewable energy and energy efficiency projects will benefit from a dedicated USD 1.3 million component.

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Asia-Pacific: News

WORLD EXPO China The United Nations welcomed visitor number 1 million to the UN Pavilion at the World Expo, Shanghai, in July. In a surprise ceremony the lucky young lady, a student from Hebei Handan, was presented with a signed certificate from the Commissioner General, Dr Awni Behnam and a five-day trip to New York. During the visit she will have the opportunity to visit the UN Headquarters and to meet UN Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki-moon. The Pavilion currently receives more than 10,000 visitors a day.

TRANSPORT Nepal A USD 20 million loan will help the reorganization of the public transport network in Kathmandu and the introduction of two pilot bus routes. The loan, from the Asian Development Bank, will also promote the usage of electric or low-emission vehicles and help reduce pollution on the roads. Making heritage routes pedestrian-only and improvement of facilities will make the Kathmandu city-centre more pedestrian-friendly. Traffic management works and measures, such as junctions’ improvement and monitoring, will help solve congestion on a short-term basis.

INFRASTRUCTURE China Guangxi Southwestern Cities Development Project have received a USD 150 million loan to help build roads and other urban infrastructure in the cities of Fangchenggang, Chongzuo, and Baise. The Asian Development Bank loan will, aside from constructing over 53 kilometres of roads in the three cities, build bridges, water supply and drainage and sewerage systems. Dykes for coastal protection will be built in Fangchenggang, and dredging, bank rehabilitation, and other improvements will be carried out in and around the Chongzuo Shuikou Lake.

DISASTER MANAGEMENT Indonesia The Australian and Indonesian Governments have launched the Australia Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction. The Australian Government will provide expert staff and AUD 67 (USD 60) million over five years through its international development agency AusAID and the Indonesian Government will provide counterpart staff, services and support arrangements. Australia and Indonesia will manage the new facility, working closely with ASEAN, APEC, the United Nations and Indonesia’s government departments, communities, private sector and non-government organizations.

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Transport Delhi metro wins award The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has won a civil engineering award as the countdown begins for its second phase completion before the Commonwealth Games in early October.

The DMRC was cited by The new metro cars are helping to modernize Delhi’s infrastructure the Asian Civil EngineerPhoto © bombardIer ing Coordinating Council The extended area includes 16 million infor the promotion and adhabitants. DMRC believes that once the Phase vancement of the science and practice of civil II extension is completed it will prevent up to engineering for sustainable development in 500 tonnes of CO2 emissions per day. the Asian region.

India is set to see its urban population exThe award follows an additional order of plode to 590 million by 2030, according to a 40 Bombardier MOVIA metro cars which will new McKinsey Global Institute study. India mean the DMRC will run a fleet of 538, one of needs USD 1.2 trillion in infrastructure in- the largest in the world. cluding railways and metros to accommodate The shiny stainless steel metro cars are these new arrivals, the report states. well looked after once delivered as DMRC The Phase II expansion aims to transport has placed strict rules of behaviour on its up to 2.5 million passengers every day, renetwork. These include no spitting or sitting ducing their journey time and alleviating the on the floors, as is custom on India’s overheavy traffic congestion and pollution prevacrowded train journeys, and no eating or lent in the city. The Phase II expansion ex- drinking. tends the existing network to a total of 165 Bombardier currently supplies metro cars kilometres covering all major destinations in to New York, Montreal, Toronto, Paris, Lonthe east-west and north-south corridors of don, Berlin, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, transthe city, including the airport. porting over 7 billion people a year. u

Sustainable urbanization Chinese eco-city project gets boost from Global Environment Facility China’s drive to develop cities that are more energy and resource efficient was boosted with the approval of a grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for the Sino-Singapore Eco-City Project (SSTECP) in Tianjin Municipality in the country’s north-east.

With a grant of USD 6.16 million from the GEF, the World Bank will assist the local au-

thorities to create the policy, regulatory, institutional, financial and monitoring mechanisms for the eco-city which is expected to be home to 350,000 people by 2020.

The Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, located in Binhai New Area of Tianjin covers an area of 34.2 square kilometres and is designed to become a model of energy and resource efficiency while maintaining economic viability and social harmony.

With transport, especially cars, being the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, the project will help promote green transport such as public transport, walking tracks and bicycle pathways. It will also support the construction of green buildings through the introduction of energy efficient

Asia-Pacific: News

Informal settlements Former Executive Director stands firm with Dhaka slum dwellers On a visit to Bangladesh in June, former UN-HABITAT Executive DiFormer Executive Director Mrs. Tibaijuka with members of rector Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka appealed the Korail community in Dhaka, Bangladesh to authorities there not to evict slum UPP ProJ roJeCt bangLadesh /Un-habItat Photo © UPPr dwellers but rather resettle them if the shanties erected by influential local people. The land they currently occupy is to be used UN does not support arbitrary eviction, as such for other purposes. steps would not solve the problems of the gov“Eviction is not the solution, it is the reseternment, because these people would create an tlement,” she told reporters during a visit to informal settlement, said Mrs. Tibaijuka.

Korail slum at Mahakhali in the city.

“If you are going to use the land, you canHer remarks came as eviction fear prevails not do it at the expense of the poor, because among slum dwellers following an initiative takwe are fighting poverty, not the poor. We are en by the Science and ICT ministry to establish fighting slums, not slum dwellers,” she said. an Information Technology village on the site She said part of the land could be used for as part of government efforts to build a ‘Digital resettling the slum dwellers by constructing Bangladesh’. Mrs. Tibaijuka listened attentively high-rise flats or they could be relocated for to the slum dwellers as they expressed fears of a their betterment. possible eviction drive by authorities to accomEarlier, the slum dwellers told Mrs. Tibaimodate the planned project. juka how a project called ‘Urban Partnerships Slum dwellers have been residing over the for Poverty Reduction (UPPR)’ in Korail was last three decades in the Korail slum on 100 helping improve their living conditions. acres of land belonging to the science and ICT The United Nations Development Proministry, Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB), and Public Works Depart- gramme (UNDP) and Department for International Development (DFID) run the project ment. About 100,000 people, mostly victims of in the Korail slum and 29 other towns. u river erosion and poverty, have been living in

building standards that are higher than the national standard.

The Chinese Government has recognized that rapid growth needs to go hand-in-hand with clean growth. Tianjin, China’s third largest city with a population of 11.76 million is developing the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City in collaboration with the SingaThe model of the proposed eco-city pore Government. A Framework Photo © sIno-sIngaPore eCo-CIty ProJ roJeCt Agreement was signed between the two governments in Novemcritical role in contributing global knowledge ber 2007. and cutting edge technologies on sustainable “While the financial contribution of the urban development,” said Mr. Hiroaki SuzuGEF is a small part of the total costs of the ecoki, World Bank’s Lead Urban Specialist and city development, the World Bank will play a task team leader for the project. u

IN-FOCUS

WATER Mongolia The Government of Mongolia will provide USD 6.8 million to help improve urban infrastructure and services in the booming mining and border towns in Southeast Gobi.

The project will fund needed infrastructure improvements increasing connections to piped water supply and reducing system leakages. Funding will also be provided to increase wastewater collection, boost wastewater treatment capacity, and enhance other sanitation services.

SANITATION Indonesia The two Indonesian cities, Yogyakarta and Medan, are set to see their sanitation facilities improved due to a USD 35 million loan from the Asian Development Bank. The two cities have a combined population of around 4.5 million people. The loan will be used to build around 280 communal sanitation facilities in poor areas in the two cities, as well as two wastewater treatment systems for low-cost housing development projects in Medan. Sewerage systems will be rehabilitated and expanded with up to 28,000 additional household connections.

WATER The Philippines Pall Corporation, a global leader in filtration, separation and purification systems and technologies, has won a USD 14.7 million municipal water contract for the design and installation of a Pall Aria™ integrated microfiltration/reverse osmosis membrane water treatment system in Manila. The 100 million litres per day project will be the Philippines’ first large-scale membrane filtration plant.

The low maintenance, energy-efficient system will begin processing brackish water from Laguna de Bay Lake that will meet regulatory requirements in 2010.

TRANSPORT China A new report commissioned by the World Bank points out that the high-speed rail network in China will soon be larger than the rest of the world’s put together. Currently under construction, the network is the biggest single planned programme of passenger rail investment there has ever been in one country. The report High-Speed Rail: The Fast Track to Economic Development indicates that by 2012, China will have built no less than 42 passenger lines with maximum train speeds in excess of 250km/h, and will offer high-speed rail travel on 13,000 kilometres of route.

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Middle East and North Africa: News

EMPLOYMENT Tunisia The World Bank has approved a USD 50 million loan to help support Tunisia’s employment development programme. Tunisia is taking decisive steps to reduce the national unemployment rate, which currently stands at 14.7 percent. Of this national percentage, 23 percent are higher education graduates and this number is likely to increase as a result of a growing labour force, insufficient demand, and a dysfunctional employment intermediation system. The overall objective of this loan is to achieve more effective and efficient job entry in Tunisia.

DISPLACEMENT West Bank and Gaza The Khalifa Bin Zayed Foundation, working alongside the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), has funded two projects in Gaza and the West Bank to assist poor Palestinian refugees through the distribution of hot meals and meat. In Gaza, UNRWA will distribute hot meals to approximately 90,000 people. The project will be implemented through the Agency’s community-based organizations (CBOs), which include nine women’s programme centres and six community rehabilitation centres as well as six youth activity centres.

PUBLIC SERVICE Morocco Morocco has signed a USD 128 million agreement with the African Development Bank to support the financing of the country’s public service reforms. The objectives of the project are to improve governance and the effectiveness of public services with a view to enhancing human development and providing quality services in line with international standards. It is hoped that the signing of this agreement will also contribute to efforts to achieve employment and salary harmonization in the public service.

WIND POWER Egypt GL Garrad Hassan, a leading renewable energy consultancy, is to provide wind speed measurements for the 250 megawatt Gulf of Suez Wind Power Project. The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company signed the contract with GL Garrad Hassan to provide an energy assessment for the project.

The initiative is part of Egypt’s plan to generate 20 percent of the country’s electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Egypt has significant potential for wind power and it is hoped that the current 550 megawatts of wind capacity will increase to 7.2 gigawatts by 2020.

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Housing Charity pledges USD 50 million to increase housing in Gaza The Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation (GICDF) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) have signed a USD 50 million agreement to rebuild 1,250 refugee homes in the Gaza Strip.

“Twelve thousand refugees are still waiting for their homes to be rebuilt, living in miserable, cramped and often expensive conditions in rented houses or with relatives or camping in the open,” said Peter Ford, the Representative of UNRWA’s Commissioner-General.

“This generous donation should enable UNRWA to make a real difference to the lives of hundreds of families.”

A second agreement, worth USD 500,000, to support poor refugees in Gaza, was also signed on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan. The project will mean that approximately 110,000 of the poorest people in Gaza will receive hot meals, which they could not otherwise afford.

Peter Ford expressed the concern that the pace of Israeli approval for UN projects must increase considerably if more people are going to receive aid. “We have a huge backlog of projects which have been held up, some of them for more than three years,” said Mr. Ford. “If the Libyans have secured an increase in the amounts of construction materials being allowed to enter Gaza, backed up by large

UNRWA is to rebuild 1,250 refugee homes in the Gaza Strip Photo © mohammed shaKer K

funds to procure those materials, then that is a significant and very welcome achievement, for which they deserve our sincere thanks.”

The two agreements were signed by Executive Director, Dr. Youssef Sawani, of the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation.

Peter Ford added that although the USD 50 million grant and the Ramadan pledges were highly welcome, these contributions will unfortunately not help UNRWA to bridge the USD 85 million deficit in its core budget, since the funds would be earmarked for Gaza housing and meals only. UNRWA is facing a gap in its core budget because of the growing burdens being placed upon the agency, as well as factors such as inflation and the world economic recession. u

Youth World Bank to support NGOs fighting drug abuse in Yemen The World Bank’s Civil Society Fund awarded six Yemeni Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) financial support for civic engagement in the fight against the local plant qat.

The plant is classified by the World Health Organisation as a drug of abuse.

With the participation of Yemen’s Social Fund for Development, media, and the World Bank staff in Yemen, the winning NGOs were honoured for their innovative ideas in combating the consumption of qat in Yemen, especially among the young.

“For NGOs, the modest funding can go a long

way in creating an environment that meets communities needs for raising awareness among students and youth of negative aspects of qat consumption,” said Mohamed Noman, Director for the Yemen Center for Human Rights Studies.

The Government of Yemen is engaged in renewed efforts to address the qat phenomenon and its challenges, and has affirmed its commitment to establish alliances with key partners including civil society and the media, the private sector and aid agencies.

The efforts to reduce qat consumption could result in a significant improvement in the eco-

Middle East and North Africa: News

International relations Mrs. Tibaijuka praises good relations with Saudi Arabia Former Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, paid tribute to the good relationship between the organization and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but asked for even further support, as she received the credentials from the new Saudi Permanent Representative to UN-HABITAT, Mr. Ghorm Said Malhan.

Mrs. Tibaijuka acknowledged that the Committee for the Palestinian People Relief (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) provided USD 6.3 million for improving housing and living conditions in Palestinian occupied territories – a project being undertaken in collaboration with UN-HABITAT – and whose objective is to improve the livelihoods of poor women and their families through the construction of 100 housing units and income-generating projects in Hebron.

In another agreement between the Committee for the Palestinian People Relief and UN-HABITAT, the committee provided USD 1.59 million for the establishment of the technical and vocational centre in Hebron.

Despite these projects, the former Executive Director called on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to increase its core support for UN-HABITAT. She noted that, while Saudi Arabia is a great supporter of the United Nations System and has very high standing within the international com-

munity, sadly, this was not being fully extended to UN-HABITAT. Mrs. Tibaijuka informed the envoy that UN-HABITAT’s Governing Council had been calling on countries to adopt the voluntary assessed contribution and appealed to Saudi Arabia to follow suit.

The departing Executive Director congratulated Mr. Malhan on his appointment and wished him a successful tenure, while urging Saudi Arabia to fully support UN-HABITAT’s Urban Safety Programme, its youth activities, and the hosting of the Sixth Session of the World Urban Forum, to be held in the Kingdom of Bahrain in 2012.

Mr. Malhan assured Mrs. Tibaijuka that he would take up the issues raised with his Government and pledged his country’s continued support to the projects in the Palestinian Territories.

He also informed the former Executive Director that his country has a new committee charged with the responsibility of building houses for all citizens and added that they were also working with the private sector in this area. u

nomic and social well being of the Yemeni people. One of the World Bank’s interventions has been in the implementation of the proposed National Qat Demand Reduction Agenda Support Project, which aims at improving the quality of life of the most affected and vulnerable groups (women, children and youth), low-income communities and the general public.

“NGOs’ closeness to communities allows them to be instrumental in fighting poverty and helping communities to help themselves.

The work NGOs do often complements government initiatives because of the reciprocated trust and direct relations with communities and the public at large,” said David Craig, World Bank Country Director for Egypt, Yemen and Djibouti.

Qat is a flowering plant native to tropical East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula,

which, when consumed, induces mild euphoria and excitement. The drug can have a pleasuring effect to the same degree as ecstasy, with individuals becoming very talkative and possibly appearing to be unrealistic and emotionally unstable. Qat is a particular problem in Yemen, as it is estimated that 80 percent of males and 45 percent of females in the country chew qat daily for long periods of their life.

The total amount shared among the six winning NGOs was USD 41,500, with ideas ranging from producing advocacy materials such as brochures, sketches, songs, posters, caricatures, TV flashes and documentary films, to working with students in schools to increase awareness as well as training youth on forming anti-qat groups. u

Former Executive Director, Mrs. Tibaijuka, with new Saudi Permanent Representative to UN-HABITAT, Mr. Ghorm Said Malhan Photo © Un-habItat

IN-FOCUS

GREEN ENERGY Saudi Arabia ABB, a leader in power and automation technologies, is to provide its KNX intelligent building and control system to the Princess Noura Bint Abdulrahman University in Saudi Arabia. The KNX-based technology allows automated and remote control of lighting and shading through one single interface, enabling reductions in energy usage. The Princess Noura Bint Abdulrahman University hopes to further the drive for significant cost savings and a lower carbon footprint and be a benchmark for other universities looking to establish green campuses.

SOLAR POWER Israel Enerqos Spa, Italy’s leading turnkey supplier of large-scale solar plants, has signed a contract for the construction of a joint venture, GEM Solar, in Israel, in co-operation with two other major local companies active within the photovoltaic and plant design sectors, Ginergia Ltd and Menorah Group.

The project aims to harness the opportunities offered by the Israeli market due to local feed-in tariffs aimed at furthering development within the solar sector and utilizing the favourable climate of the country with its high volume of sunshine.

SANITATION Iraq The city of Fallujah, about 60 kilometres west of Baghdad, has been starved of a functioning sewage system for the past six years, with waste pouring onto the streets and seeping into drinking water supplies. Fallujah’s infrastructure was in ruins after fierce battles between US forces and Sunni militants in 2004, but the construction of a new sewage treatment plant began in July of that year. Due to continuing violence and design changes, the costs ballooned and residents still depend on underground septic tanks, while communicable diseases are rife.

CIVIL SOCIETY West Bank and Gaza The World Bank Board has approved a grant of USD 2 million to support non-governmental-organizations in the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian NGO IV project supports groups providing valuable services and advocacy for the poorest Palestinians, while the grant is part of the World Bank’s efforts to engage with civil society and support community-based initiatives. The project is designed to strengthen institutional capacity and improve the quality and sustainability of social-service delivery. The World Bank has been supporting Palestinian NGOs since 1997 and long-term engagement has contributed to institutional development.

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Central and eastern Europe: News

WIND POWER Hungary Iberdrola Renovables, the global leader in wind power, has become the leading developer in Hungary by building four new wind farms, which will take its combined installed capacity in the country to 158 megawatts (MW). This capacity will enable the company to generate enough energy in Hungary to supply 220,000 households, while reducing yearly carbon dioxide emissions by 130,000 tonnes. Iberdrola Renovables has commissioned Csoma I, a wind farm in the northern Hungarian province of Komárom-Esztergom and has a further three sites under construction, with a total capacity of 70 MW. HYDRO POWER Russia Russian power generation company, Irkutskenergo, plans to invest around EUR 24.7 (USD 31.6) million for the upgrade of the Ust-Ilimskaya hydro power plant in the Irkutsk region by 2014. Irkutskenergo has started a long-term programme to upgrade the hydro power plant, which involves the replacement of old transformers, thyristor excitation systems and protection relays.

The Ust-Ilimskaya hydro power plant has a capacity of 3,840 megawatts and an average annual output of 21.7 billion kilowatt-hours.

Irkutskenergo owns hydro power and thermal power plants, thermal power distribution networks, coalmines and transport companies.

SOLAR POWER Czech Republic Siemens Energy is to construct a large ground-based photovoltaic plant in the Czech Republic. The plant, with a rating of 4 megawatts peak, will be erected in Dobré Pole, around 50 kilometres south of Brno, the second-largest city in the Czech Republic. After completion, scheduled for end of 2010, the solar power plant will provide nearly 1,000 households in the Czech Republic with environmentally friendly power.

Siemens Energy will supply solar photovoltaic inverters, transformers, medium-voltage equipment as well as the control system.

CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS Turkey The International Energy Agency (IEA) has encouraged Turkey to continue to reform its energy sector and move further towards a low-carbon economy. Energy related carbon dioxide emissions in Turkey have more than doubled since 1990 and are likely to continue to increase rapidly over the mediumand long-term future, in parallel with energy demand. IEA Executive Director, Nobuo Tanaka, has urged Turkey to intensify efforts to further develop its approach to combating climate change, and consider setting a quantitative overall target for limiting emissions.

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Biogas Ukrainian company powered by 4,000 cows The Ukraine has opened its first biogas cogeneration plant, where cow manure is being converted into energy. The facility, which is powered by 4,000 cows and a General Electric Jenbacher gas engine, has recently completed nine months of successful operation at the Ukrainian Milk Company Ltd., located near Kiev.

“The disposal and treatment of biological waste represents a major challenge for the waste industry. Our Jenbacher biogas-fuelled gas engines improve waste management while maximizing the use of cow manure, an economical energy supply,” said Prady Iyyanki, CEO, gas engine division for General Electric Power & Water.

The Ukrainian Milk Company, which produces milk for baby nutrition products, received the license for selling the excess power to the grid based on the ‘green’ tariff, which is being approved by the Ukrainian authorities. According to the law, the ‘green’ tariff is a special tariff for electricity generated at the power plants with use of alternative energy sources.

The new combined heat and power (CHP) plant is powered by a General Electric Jenbacher containerized cogeneration model gas engine and is capable of substituting the equivalent of 1.2 million cubic metres of natural gas annually and is projected to reduce the equivalent of 18,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide. Once

Renewable energy Turkey to further invest in renewable energy The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (ERBD) is to provide Turkey’s DenizBank with a EUR 15.6 (USD 20) million loan to aid local companies and households that are undertaking energy efficiency investments. The loan is part of the EBRD’s EUR 156 million Turkey Sustainable Energy Financial Facility (TurSEFF).

Ukraine’s first biogas cogeneration plant Photo © generaL eLeCtrIC IC ComPany P

converted into biogas, the manure from the cows produces 625 kilowatts (kw) of electricity and 686 kw of thermal output.

This is General Electric’s first order from the biogas plant construction company ZORG and was sold through General Electric’s distributor and service provider in the Ukraine, SINAPSE. “Based on the top service provided by SINAPSE during the commissioning and operation of the new GE CHP plant, we look forward to working with them again and using GE’s Jenbacher products for future projects we have planned,” said Igor Aksyutov, commercial director of ZORG Ukraine.

Biogas offers several advantages by providing an alternative disposal of dung, liquid manure and organic waste, while simultaneously harnessing them as an energy source. It also has high potential for reduction in greenhouse gases and is highly efficient for combined onsite power and heat generation. u

“Promoting energy efficiency is one of the EBRD’s key priorities and we are pleased to expand our cooperation with DenizBank in such an important area,” said Michael Davey, Country Director of Turkey for the EBRD. “This project will support Turkish companies and households helping them to reduce their energy consumption and cut costs.”

DenizBank is one of the leading banks in Turkey, offering a wide range of services to corporate and retail customers. It is one of the four banks in Turkey participating in the EBRD’s Turkey Sustainable Energy Financial Facility. The loan will be used to finance energy efficiency and small-scale

Central and eastern Europe: News

Wind energy Hungary set to develop its wind energy potential The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) and the Hungarian Wind Energy Association (HuWEA) have urged Hungary to install at least 1,200 megawatts (MW) of wind energy projects by 2020, a goal that would provide 5 percent of the country’s electricity demand. The time taken to connect wind farms to the grid, and the high costs of doing so, are the main barriers to wind energy development in Hungary at the present time.

“Costs and long lead times are not the only problem,” said Jacopo Moccia, EWEA’s Regulatory Affairs Adviser. “Insufficient grid capacity and an unstable decision making process for granting building permits are also deterring investors. Things must change if Hungary is to reach its 2020 renewable energy target, and that will not be possible without a substantial contribution from wind energy.”

Grid connection takes an average of 45 months in Hungary, and 10.6 percent of total project costs are spent on getting it. However, the new government is promising new plans to help reach the 2020 targets.

“Hungary needs to reach 13 percent renewable energy by 2020, and the new government is looking into how to exceed this target,” said Péter Olajos, State Secretary for Energy and Climate Policy in the Ministry of National Economy. “Our aim is to create new jobs, re-

renewable energy investments such as industrial energy efficiency, thermal rehabilitation of buildings, small scale renewable investments, including geothermal, solar, biomass and biogas.

“Ensuring energy efficiency, which is the fundamental pillar of economic and social development, is one of the most important factors for the development of the Turkish economy,” said DenizBank Board Member Wouter Van Roste. “We are delighted to be part of this framework and to finance sustainable energy investments and energy ef efficiency projects, thus helping to improve the country’s economy in terms of energy efficiency.”

IN-FOCUS

WASTEWATER Macedonia The European Investment Bank has agreed to provide a loan of EUR 50 (USD 64) million to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia for the financing of water and wastewater investments in the country. The loan will cover 50 percent of the total cost of the project, which is designed to increase the water supply in rural areas and improve wastewater disposal throughout the country.

The programme loan concerns investments in most of the country’s 84 municipalities in the period 2009-2013.

Wind energy projects will have to be installed in the Hungarian countryside if the 2020 targets are to be met Photo © ConstantI onstantIn JUrCUt

duce energy dependence on fossil fuels, and support rural development. Renewables are one of the means to reach these goals.”

At the end of 2009 Hungary had just above 200 MW of installed wind energy capacity and EWEA and the HuWEA want this increased to at least 1,200 MW by 2020.

“In order to achieve the 2020 targets, 80 percent of investments must come from private investors. For this we need to create an attractive environment: resources, which we have, grids improvements, which we can do, and a regulatory framework, which the government intends to do,” said Mr. Olajos.

Wind energy could provide up to 17 percent of the European Union’s electricity demand by 2020. This would create a reduction of 333 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, equal to 29 percent of the European Union’s greenhouse gas reduction target. u

The initiative is supported by technical assistance grants provided by the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and the European Union in collaboration with the Turkish Treasury. The additional funds will be used to support the participating banks in developing financing instruments for energy efficiency projects, to help sub-borrowers design and implement such projects, and to increase the awareness about the benefits of sustainable energy investments.

The EUR 156 million Turkey Sustainable Energy Financial Facility is a continuation of the EBRD’s efforts to help countries reduce their energy intensity and similar facilities exist all across Europe. u

THERMAL ENERGY Slovenia The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has approved a EUR 200 (USD 257) million to the Slovenian state-owned thermal power plant, Termoelektrarna Šoštanj, to co-finance its modernization programme. The Šoštanj Thermal Power Plant accounts for one third of Slovenia’s electricity production, playing a vital role in the country’s security of supply. The loan will support the construction of a new state-of-the-art coalfired unit with a capacity of 600 megawatts that will replace five existing low efficiency and high-carbon intensity units.

RENEWABLE ENERGY Poland The European Investment Bank is to supply a loan of EUR 50 (USD 64) million to co-finance projects promoting Poland’s objectives of increased use of renewable energy and improved energy efficiency. The funding will support improved electricity production and heat generation from biomass and biogas-fired plants, while improving energy efficiency through the refurbishment of public buildings. This will contribute to the implementation of Greening Plans developed by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOSIGW) in conjunction with Green Investment Schemes.

URBAN DEVELOPMENT Bulgaria The European Investment Bank has signed an agreement with the Bulgarian government to establish a JESSICA (Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas) Holding Fund.

This will focus on revenue-generating and urban development projects, including the rehabilitation of deprived urban areas in seven big cities across the country. It will also allow for the implementation of Bulgaria’s 2007-2013 Regional Development Operational Programme, which has a strong urban development focus.

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North America: News

Technology California to advertise on licence plates The US state of California has cleared the way to start developing electronic advertising on vehicle licence plates as an innovative way to raise money for the USD 19 billion debt-ridden state.

The design would look like a normal licence plate when the vehicle is in motion but would change to advertising once stationary for more than four seconds, whether in notorious LA traffic or at a red light.

The bill, put forward by state senator Curren Price, gives the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) the authority to investigate the emerging technology and seek partners in Silicon Valley to begin ‘real world’ trials.

“State governments [in the US] are facing unprecedented budget shortfalls, and are

actively rethinking the use of existing state assets to create new ongoing revenue opportunities,” said Mr. Price.

In a state renown for its love of cars, with the side effects of pollution and traffic, Mr. Price believes that it won’t be an added distraction, like neon billboards and mobile phones, but will actually keep drivers’ attention facing forward.

He also noted that the new technology could further increase safety by sending critical real-time traffic and public safety information to the plates. This information could then lead to smoother traffic flows and less pollution as drivers could re-route their trip or postpone it altogether.

Licence plate advertising could help reduce California’s USD 19 billion debt Photo © brett L.

Already one start-up company is developing the idea. Smart Plate holds a patent on the technology, and will work with the DMV to release their testing results by 2013.

“We’re just trying to find creative ways of generating additional revenues,” Mr Price added. “It’s an exciting marriage of technology with need, and opportunity to keep California at the forefront.” u

Sustainable transport Canada plugs-in to new sustainable mobility Vancouver, British Colombia (BC), took another step in its aim to become the greenest city by 2020 by taking delivery of one of five new Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid (PHV) cars that will begin testing across Canada.

Based on the world’s best-known hybrid vehicle, the Toyota Prius PHV is designed to deliver a range of more than 20 kilometres and a top speed of almost 100km/h on battery alone, which Toyota believes will cover the majority of trips. In addition, an onboard Atkinson-cycle gasoline engine enables the vehicle to revert to hybrid mode and operate like a regular Prius.

A flap opens at the front of the car which permits the user to top-up the car’s battery packs from a typical 110-volt outlet by simply using a three-prong extension cord fitted with a connector plug for electric vehicles.

“With Vancouver aggressively promoting electric vehicle infrastructure on our streets and in our buildings, the Toyota Prius Plugin is a welcome addition to our city,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “We’re aiming for 15 percent of all new vehicles to be electric or

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Toyota’s BC partners plug-in to the Prius PHV

hybrid over the next decade, which is part of our goal to make Vancouver the greenest city in the world by 2020.”

The Toyota Prius Plug-in achieves a fuel consumption of just 1.75l/100km and CO2 emissions of 41 g/km under specified driving conditions (combined electric vehicle and hybrid vehicle modes).

“Partnerships that bring the public and private sectors together to spur innovations like plug-in hybrids also bring us one step closer to a low-carbon economy in this province,”

Photo © toyota Canada

said John Yap, Minister of State for Climate Action. “We expect that coupling BC’s clean energy resources with the cutting edge technology of plug-in hybrids will lead to a real impact on lower greenhouse gas emissions in this province.”

Partners include the BC Institute of Technology (BCIT), BC Hydro, City of Vancouver, Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources and the University of Victoria’s Institute for Integrated Energy Systems (IESVic). u

Western Europe: News

IN-FOCUS

Culture Sixty-kilometre picnic table brings motorway to standstill One of Germany’s busiest motorways came to a halt as part of RUHR.2010 European Capital of Culture. Three million visitors, including 1 million cyclists, took part in the world’s biggest picnic in the Ruhr Metropolis. Sixty-kilometres of Europe’s busiest motorway – the A40/B1 – were transformed into a stage for different cultures, nations and generations.

The motto of the event was: “The table is your stage”. Anybody was able to showcase their band, their hobby, their club or their group of friends. While it wasn’t necessary to register, all participants were asked to come up with a fun programme to present. Visitors took advantage of the normally busy motorway where cars rush past in excess of 130 km/h, by walking along one side of the motorway where the tables were, or by riding on anything with wheels, but no motor, on the opposite side.

“The incredible range of contributions clearly proves the Ruhr Metropolis’ creative poten-

Sanitation Sanitary device that says goodbye to female toilet queues A device that allows women to urinate whilst standing has been steadily growing in popularity in Europe and could one day help increase sanitation in less developed countries.

Inventor and entrepreneur Samantha Fountain developed her idea, called the Shewee, initially as part of her degree at university, the idea coming to her while backpacking around Europe.

“It struck me how much easier it was for a guy to go to the toilet in a place where there were no facilities or nowhere to squat behind,” explained Mrs. Fountain, “so I came up with a way of effectively urinating like a man.”

Mrs. Fountain claims that it can overcome the problems of uncomfortable squatting,

Three million people took part in cultural offerings along the closed motorway I dUs U Chne C Photo © rUhr.2010 / matthIas

tial,” said RUHR.2010 Chairman Fritz Pleitgen.

Dancers, singers, actors, sports and cultural clubs represented themselves, including football players, and chess experts.

More than 7,000 groups said, “we’re a part of it”, after securing their tables via a lottery from table allocations.

Among the groups putting on a show for the world’s longest table were Star Wars fans from across the Ruhr Metropolis who took advantage of the opportunity to hold their monthly meet-

ing on the motorway. Lebenshilfe Duisburg, an organization helping mentally disabled people, held an art exhibition at its table. Bospo(Ruhr) us – a group of people with German, Turkish and Greek roots with a flair for the culinary - of offered delicacies at its table.

The event was part of a wider cultural festival celebrating the Ruhr region. It was chosen by the European Union this year as a European Capital of Culture 2010 – the first time the distinction went to an area rather than a city. u

unhygienic toilets, or embarrassing bare bottoms. The device is completely re-useable with a liquid repellent surface ensuring no drips. Originally designed for women who were travelling, in the outdoors or music festivals, Fountain says that interest has been coming in from distributors in Th India, but cost is still an eS hew ee de impediment. v i ce “We see that Shewee could have a position everywhere in the world that would definitely give women a higher level of hygiene,” she said. “At the moment we are producing 100,000 units a year, but we would need to get it up to about 500,000

units to bring down the manufacturing cost to make it cheaper.”

Mrs. Fountain believes that in slum areas, where sanitation is lacking, the Shewee would enable women to urinate into a bottle and dispose of their urine in an appropriate place.

The company has ee Sh e w also developed the SheweePh o t o © inel, which enables women to use their Shewee in a urinal. The bank of urinals are more discreet than men’s, providing dividing curtains, and have been successfully used in festivals and marathons, enabling women to avoid lengthy portable toilet queues. u

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URBAN WATCH

Urban economies

Better cities, better economies

By Xing Quan Zhang, Chief of the Urban Economy and Finance Branch, UN-HABITAT

The city of Shanghai, with 1.2 percent of the population, generates 2.9 percent of GDP

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he world reached a turning point in 2008, for the first time in history, more than half its human population, 3.3 billion people, now live in urban areas. The world’s urban population grew from 220 million to 2.8 billion in the 20th century. The next few decades will see an unprecedented scale of urban growth. By 2030, this is expected to expand to about 5 billion. Such rapid urban expansion will be particularly notable in Africa and Asia where the urban population will double between 2000 and 2030. By 2030, the towns and cities of the developing world will make up 81 percent of urban humanity.

Economic growth and urbanization are often positively linked. Cities are the driving force for economic development. Economic growth also stimulates urbanization. Such a positive relationship is clear in many countries. However, urbanization can also occur in the absence of economic growth. For example, in some subSaharan African countries, urbanization has occurred to a large extent independently of economic development. Urbanization processes and patterns are also differentiated by institutional settings and policies from country to country and region to region.

Despite the growing importance of cities in world affairs and national economic development, the position of the city is regarded as marginal to current debates and development controversies. The negative impact of over-urbanization is often over-emphasized such as the concentration of poverty, slums and social disruption in developing cities.

However, cities do represent the best hope for growth and opportunities as engines of national economic development.

Cities provide large efficiency benefits, which result in unprecedented gains in productivity and competitiveness. They are the centre of knowledge, innovation and specialization of

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production and services. They facilitate creative thinking and innovation. A high concentration of people in cities generates more opportunities for interaction and communication, promotes creative thinking, creates knowledge spillovers and develops new ideas and technologies. They provide more opportunities for learning and sharing. They facilitate trade and commerce by providing super market places. They serve as production and services centres because the production of many goods and services is more efficient in a high-density urban environment.

They provide consumers with more choices of goods and services. They are the agents of social, cultural, economic, technologic and political changes and advancement.

These advantages make cities more productive than rural areas. No country has achieved sustained economic growth without the growth of cities. Cities are the driving forces of national economies. They generate a disproportionately higher rate of economic growth than rural areas. In developed countries, statistics show that cities have higher productivity per capita than rural areas. For example, Tokyo has 26.8 percent of the national population and produces 34.1 percent of national GDP. London has 20.3 percent of the population and accounts for 25.4 percent of GDP. Paris, with 16.2 percent of the national population, accounts for 26.5 percent of the national GDP. Dublin with 25.9 percent of the population generates 32.8 percent of GDP. Auckland, Vienna and Helsinki generate about 50 percent higher GDP than their respective population share (see next page).

Engines of migration Cities in both developed and developing countries play crucial roles in driving national economic development. Statistics show that cities are much more productive than rural areas in developing countries than in developed countries. However, this does not mean that cities

Photo Š srIdhar VedaLa

are more productive in developing countries than in developed countries. In fact, the productivity in cities is generally higher in developed countries than in developing countries.

But it also reveals the fact that the productivity gap and inequality of development between cities and rural areas are much larger in developing countries than in developed countries. The large economic productivity gap and imbalance of development between cities and rural areas in developing countries lead to the enlarged income gap between urban and rural areas, which in turn drive rural population to migrate to cities to search for better opportunities and prosperity. The influx of massive rural population to cities creates shortages of resources to provide housing and services for all citizens in cities. Therefore, the engines of economic development become the engines of migration. The over-paced migration over economic development turns into the engine of slum formation. This is why Manila, Karachi, Nairobi, Dhaka and Mumbai are the engine of economic development on one hand and they are also cities of slums on the other hand.

National economic growth The contribution of cities to national economic growth is very significant in developing countries. The economic future of developing countries depends much more on cities than even before. However, cities are seriously underresourced to fulfill their potential as drivers of national economic development and prosperity.

Cities face many challenges, from accelerating growth, influx of massive rural migrants and deteriorating infrastructure, to environmental degradation, social exclusion, violence, underinvestment, lack of fiscal freedom and policy choices. Municipal governments often lack financial means to address the vast challenges facing them. For example, of the total government revenues in Canada, the federal government

Urban economies

Share of national population and GDP in key cities in developed countries in 2008

Source: Based on data of PriceWaterHouse Coopers; International Monetary Fund; and National Statistics.

Share of national population and GDP in key cities in developing countries in 2008

Source: Based on data of PriceWaterHouse Coopers; International Monetary Fund; and National Statistics.

URBAN WATCH

Significant economic contribution of cities in developing countries The central role of cities in national economies is more significant in developing countries than in developed countries. For example, Sao Paulo has 10.5 percent of the population and generates 19.5 percent of GDP. Shanghai, with 1.2 percent of the population generates 2.9 percent of GDP. Buenos Aires, with 32.5 percent of population produces 63.2 percent of GDP. Mumbai, with 2 percent of the population, accounts for 6.3 percent of GDP. Nairobi, with 9 percent of the population, generates 20 percent of GDP, Dar es Salaam, with 7.9 percent of the population, accounts for 14.9 percent of GDP. Cities like Shanghai, Manila, Brasilia, Cape Town, Karachi, Nairobi generate more than 100 percent higher GDP than their population share. Dhaka, Yangon, Chittagong, Khartoum and Mumbai generate more than 200 percent higher GDP than their population share.

Addis Ababa generates more than 360 percent higher GDP than its population share. Hanoi produces more than 460 percent higher GDP than its population share. Kinshasha and Kabul generate more than 500 percent higher GDP than their population share (see graph).

receives 39 percent; provincial governments receive 50 percent and municipal governments only get 11 percent. Municipal governments in most countries have less than a quarter of total government revenue. In many countries such as Afghanistan, Armenia, Australia, Chile, Cyprus, El Salvador, Greece, Honduras, Iran, Jordan, Lesotho, Malta, Mauritius, Mongolia, Morocco, Paraguay, municipal governments are allocated less than 10 percent of the government revenues (see graph). The international development community also ignores the needs of cities. For

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Urban economies

Local governments’ share of total government revenue in 2008

Source: Based on data of IMF, World Bank.

example, the total urban assistance to developing countries from 1970 to 2000 was about USD 60 billion, about USD 20 per capita. It was less than USD 1 dollar per capita per year.

In order to maintain the vital economic growth power and competitiveness of cities, it is essential that: (1) cities should have the power to generate revenues and make development decisions; (2) cities should have

sufficient investment to provide adequate infrastructure and services, such as transport, communications, power supply, water and sanitation, housing, and financial and business services; (3) develop and attract high quality human resources for technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and knowledge development; (4) an enabling national environment for market development.

Tokyo city region in Japan

Source: http://web-japan.org/region/pref/tokyo.html

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Should we focus our attention on the development of cities and ignore the development of rural areas? The answer is no. The huge disparity and divide between cities and rural areas in terms of productivity and wealth distribution are often the signs of under-development. Experiences in developed countries show that they have more balanced development between cities and rural areas when national development reaches a higher level. Cities work better if they have betweencities efficiency but also in-cities efficiency.

City regions City regions have merged as the most important growth poles. The improvements in transport and communications technologies, in terms of cost and quality, stimulate the rapid development of city regions. Modern products and services become increasingly sophisticated. Producers and services providers gain significant advantages from their close location in transaction networks. These networks facilitate exchanges of information on products, services, technologies and markets, and help to foster economic creativity and innovation. Firms and actors participating in these networks receive tremendous boosts to their efficiency by being part of tightly-linked and spatially-concentrated clusters. These networks and production and services modes foster the development of urban agglomerations and city regions.

Today, city regions merge as one of the most evident driving forces for economic development in many countries. For example, Tokyo city region in Japan consists of more than 40 cities and towns and has a population of 33.2 million, and generates more than 34 percent of national GDP (see graph). Pearl River Delta city region in China has a population of 30 million. New York city region has a population of 22 million; Sao Paulo, 17.7 million; Mexico city region, 17.4 million. Changjiang River Delta in China has emerged as the world’s largest city region with a population of about 100 million, generating 26 percent of national GDP. Cities and city regions are the key source of economic vitality and innovation for nations. Innovative activities and high efficiency are increasingly linked to the ability to associate economic activities in city regions. The comparative advantages of cities and city regions make them become the drivers of national economies and global economies. Therefore, the better cities are, the better regional and national economies are. u

Conference briefings

URBAN WATCH

The first Mayors’ Forum creates a community of best practices in sustainability The inaugural World Cities Summit (WCS) Mayors’ Forum was convened successfully on 30 June in Singapore with the announcement that new partners will aim to make the forum into a truly global network.

Babatunde Fashola, Governor of Lagos, Nigeria, speaking at the forum

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he Centre for Liveable Cities (sponsors of the WSC) will partner with UN-HABITAT, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to develop the WCS Mayors’ Forum into a global network that promotes best practices and peer-to-peer learning among cities based on key objectives.

Firstly it will provide a strategic platform for mayors to converge and discuss challeng-

es faced by cities, share lessons learnt, and deliberate possible joint solutions. Secondly, it will facilitate the learning of best practices on leadership and governance, and to identify solutions that are practical, scalable and replicable to build sustainable and liveable cities and foster harmonious and sustainable communities. Lastly, it will identify key areas for further study and collaboration between cities.

Photo © worLd CItI t es sUmmIt t 2010

Over 40 mayors and governors gathered at the forum to discuss the most pressing issues faced by cities around the world today.

Many global cities face challenging economic concerns, population growth, climate change, growing needs of the community, and related issues brought forth by urbanization. The forum witnessed engaging discussions on the importance of good governance and leadership in guiding cities through the present,

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Conference briefings

priorities for cities in the new century, and the possibilities for cities to achieve high growth while remaining eco-friendly and liveable.

Delegates also discussed how global platforms such as the WCS Mayors’ Forum could provide opportunities for the development of peer-to-peer learning networks that explore exchanges, showcase and share knowledge and best practices, to create liveable cities in a systematic way.

“It’s important for city leaders to converge and discuss important issues arising from urbanization,” said Mr. Andrew Tan, Director of the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC), one of the organizers of the WCS. “It is even more crucial for city leaders to mindshare best practices and identify common interest to collaborate. One of CLC’s work is to facilitate the sharing of best practices and learning among cities in the region and globally through conferences, forums, seminars and workshops. The WCS Mayors’ Forum is one such avenue. We are happy to see that cities are supportive to develop the WCS Mayors’ Forum into a learning network of cities and delighted to partner UN-HABITAT, World Bank and ADB in this new initiative.” u

Bilbao wins first World City prize

The Mayor of Bilbao, Iñaki Azkuna, presenting a token to Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore Teo t es sUmmIt t 2010 Chee Hean Photo © worLd CItI

The Spanish city of Bilbao was awarded the inaugural Lew Kuan Yew World City prize for its integration and reinvention in urban transformation, at a banquet during the World Cities Summit.

The award focuses on the four key pillars of liveability, vibrancy, sustainability, and

quality of life. Bilbao was chosen as the jury felt that it demonstrated all of these in its radical transformation from a post-industrial city to a vibrant metropolis.

Member of the Nominating Committee for the Prize and CEO of URA, Mrs. Cheong Koon Hean, commented: “Bilbao City Hall’s strong leadership and commitment to a systematic and long-term plan has rejuvenated a post-industrial city and transformed it into a definitive cultural landmark in Spain and Europe. Bilbao is an exemplary city that continually re-invents and evolves itself amidst dynamic changes. Cities all over the world will be able to draw inspiration and learning points from its success.”

Mayor of Bilbao City Hall, Dr Iñaki Azkuna accepted the award from Singapore’s first Prime Minister and present Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew at the Lee Kuan Yew Prize Award Ceremony and Banquet on 29 June. The prize comprises of SGD 300,000 (USD 222,000) cash, a gold medallion and an award certificate, all sponsored by Keppel Corporation. u

The third Asia-Pacific housing and urban development conference

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he 3rd Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development (APMCHUD) was held in Solo, on the Indonesian island of Java in July.

It called on governments to share lessons and best practices to ensure that plans to tackle housing needs and urban development are carried through in the world’s most populous region.

The meeting was formally opened by Mr. Bibi Waluyo, Governor, Central Java, who called it a strategic conference for the Asia Pacific Region.

Keynote addresses were delivered by Mr. Sunil K. Singh, Chief Coordinator, APMCHUD Secretariat in New Delhi, Mr. Daniel Biau, Director,

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Regional and Technical Cooperation Division, UN-HABITAT on behalf of the Executive Director, Mr. Ali Nikzad, Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Iran, Mr. Djoko Kirmanto, Minister for Public Works, Indonesia, and Mr. Budi Yuwono, Director General of Housing and Urban Development, Ministry of Public Works, Indonesia.

“In our view, the coming together of all countries that constitute the Asia-Pacific region is a very important initiative in our field of expertise. As you all know, this region in its totality represents 60 percent of humankind.

Moreover, Asian cities are home to nearly

Photos © aPmChUd

half the urban population of the world,” Mr. Biau said in his presentation.

The meeting later adopted the Solo Declaration. u

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New UN-HABITAT publications

Annual Report 2009:

Land and Natural Disasters:

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Climate Change Assessment for Maputo, Mozambique

United Nations Pavilion Magazine

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State of the World’s Cities 2009/2010 – Cities for All: Bridging the Urban Divide

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FOR A BETTER URBAN FUTURE

Calendar of events

URBAN WATCH

World Habitat Day 2010 4 October 2010 Shanghai, China www.unhabitat.org

The United Nations has designated the first Monday of October every year as World Habitat Day. The idea is to reflect on the state of our towns and cities and the basic right of all, to adequate shelter. It is also intended to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat. The United Nations chose the theme Better City, Better Life to highlight our collective vision of a sustainable urban world that harnesses the potential and possibilities, mitigates inequalities and disparities, and provides a home for people of all cultures and ages, both rich and poor.

Solar Power International 2010 12-14 October 2010 Los Angeles, USA www.solarpowerinternational.com

Solar Power International (SPI), previously called Solar Power Conference and Expo, was created in 2004 when the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) joined together in partnership.

With an industry growth rate of more than 40 percent per year, there was a need for a single event where the industry could come together with potential customers, policymakers, investors, and other parties necessary for continued rapid growth.

More than 1,000 companies will exhibit at SPI 10, including cell and module manufacturers, inverter and other component manufacturers, material and equipment manufacturers, installers, integrators and investors.

The World Green Energy Symposium 21-23 October 2010 Philadelphia, USA www.worldgreenenergysymposium.us

New and green energy alternatives are the responsibility of all mankind. The 2010 World Green Energy Symposium and Exposition will bring together government leaders, business leaders, businesses, innovators, university and college students, and consumers at large in an atmosphere conducive to information exchange on new and alternative green energy possibilities and opportunities. The World Green Energy Symposium’s topics include current policy information, new policy ideas and world policy views. It will focus on green technology options available and those already succeeding.

International Renewable Energy Congress 5-7 November 2010 Sousse, Tunisia www.irec.cmerp.net

The International Renewable Energy Congress provides a forum for both researchers and practitioners around the world on recent developments in the fields of renewable energy. The congress will consist of plenary sessions, oral sessions and poster presentations. All papers will be peer reviewed on the basis of full manuscripts and acceptance will be based on quality, originality and relevance.

Presented papers will be published in the congress website. The best-presented papers will be selected for possible publication in referred international journals.

Seventh meeting of the Global Research Network on Human Settlements (HS-Net) Advisory Board 8-10 November 2010 Mombasa, Kenya www.unhabitat.org

Prepared by UN-HABITAT under a mandate from the United Nations General Assembly, the Global Report on Human Settlements is the most authoritative and up-to-date assessment of conditions and trends in the world’s cities and other human settlements. One of the key functional organs of HS-Net is its Advisory Board, which consists of multidisciplinary human settlements experts representing the various geographical regions of the world. The primary role of the Advisory Board is to advise UN-HABITAT on the substantive content and organization of the Global Report on Human Settlements and various other activities of HS-Net. The Board had its inaugural meeting in November 2004 followed by subsequent annual meetings.

Third International Conference on Women’s Safety: Building Inclusive Cities 22-24 November 2010 New Delhi, India www.unhabitat.org

UN-HABITAT is a supporting partner of the Third International Conference.

Organized by Women in Cities International and the Indian non-governmental organization Jagori, the event brings together diverse organizations that work to promote safer cities for women, women’s rights, and the prevention of violence against women in urban communities, both in the global North and South. Other conference partners include the Huairou Commission, UNIFEM and ‘Red Mujer y Habitat de America Latina’.

Gender and Local Governance: Training course for Local Government Trainers 28 November – 12 December 2010 Haifa, Israel www.unhabitat.org

UN-HABITAT with the Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center (MCTC), and Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Agency for International Development Cooperation (MASHAV), will organize a training course on Gender and Local Governance. The objective of the course is to strengthen gender equality in local government through training of trainers. The course targets local government trainers from government affiliated training institutes and NGOs.

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