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Cities Alliance' 2006 Annual Report Focuses
on the Urban Environment
 The
first chapter of the just published Cities Alliance
2006 Annual Report discusses the poverty of the
urban environment, an examination made more
imperative by rapid urban growth, particularly in
developing countries, which has "resulted in
dramatic environmental deterioration, severely
affecting the growing numbers of the urban poor",
and has led to a crisis situation where "urban
environmental issues remain the most pressing
problems facing developing cities today."
Some major statistics:
Each year more than 450 cubic kilometres of
wastewater is dumped into streams and rivers that
are in many cases the sources of urban potable
water, and hundreds of thousands of urban dwellers
die each year from diseases attributable to unsafe
water or inadequate sanitation. According to the
World Health Organization (WHO), 3 million people
die annually as a result of outdoor air pollution
from vehicle and industrial emissions; millions of
children cross streams of raw sewage daily, in many
cases right at their own front door, while diarrhoea
is the second most common cause of under-five
mortality, accounting for some 1.3 million deaths
annually.
The City as the Solution?
Yet, the report argues, contrary to the conventional
wisdom that cities are threats to both global and
local environment, urban areas may actually proffer
the best hope for a sustainable environmental
future. However, both developing country cities, and
their development partners, need to place the urban
environment high on their respective agendas, and
target the linkages between urban poverty, urban
environment degradation and poor policy frameworks.
One roadblock to this has been getting public
authorities, particularly in the developing world,
to pay appropriate attention to prevent the next
generation of slums. Continuing denial about urban
growth and the refusal to plan for an orderly urban
expansion means such expansion will continue to take
place on land that should be left undisturbed, along
rivers and canals, with new slums lacking basic
amenities such as formal water supply, adequate
sanitation, waste collection, good governance,
sustainable energy, etc.
Time to Choose
City leaders and their development partners have a
clear choice on their hands - between current
policies in face of inevitable urban growth,
resulting in more slums, greater poverty and
environmental decay; or the institution of longer
term policies and legislative frameworks predicated
on an urban future and the protection of the urban
environment. Choosing the latter would mean
instituting policies to
actively plan for urban growth;
maximizing the positive impacts of urbanization;
reducing the environmental footprint of cities
through sustainable energy, transport and other
environmental measures; empowering cities and their
mayors, and; optimize opportunities for all
citizens, present and future.
Building a Sustainable City
The city development strategy (CDS) supported by the
Cities Alliance presents itself as a powerful tool
through which city leaders can successfully begin to
integrate environmental issues into local and
national planning processes. Action plans that
emerge from CDS processes can serve as framework to
guide and direct future city investments and donor
contributions to improve the quality of life for all
citizens. The CDS should particularly address the
interrelationships in city operations between land
use planning, transportation, energy, resource
management and economic development, since land use
decisions affect the efficiency of transportation
systems, infrastructure design, energy systems,
municipal service delivery and economic development
patterns
The task of building sustainable cities is not that
of city governments alone; it requires city
governments entering into partnerships with civil
society , NGOs, the business community, all sharing
a vision for the city's future and all willing to
dedicate their efforts and resources to the task
The special issue on the poverty of the urban
environment was prepared by the Secretariat in close
consultation with a team of environmental experts
drawn from both CA members and non- members alike.
It is interspersed with several case studies of
successful developing cities efforts at integrating
environmental issues into city planning to serve as
a guide to others.
Other highlights
The Cities Alliance in Action chapter which follows
updates the capture and dissemination of lessons
learned from Cities Alliance activities in CDS, Slum
Upgrading as well as Municipal Finance activities
for the year under review, while the Learning and
Communications chapter includes a special review of
the Alliance's successful participation at
Africities 2006 in Nairobi, Kenya. A cursory review
of the Financials reveals that in 2006, nearly 30
percent of core funds were approved for programmes
in Africa.
A first in the tradition of CA Annual Reports, one
which has so far drawn accolades from its members,
is the Members' Reports pages, presented in a
separate section in the middle of the report. This
is based on the response of 13 of 19 Alliance
members to three key questions posed to them with
respect to their activities during the year under
review, following the decision taken at the 2005
Consultative Group meeting held in Marrakech,
Morocco.
Read/download the Cities Alliance Annual Report 2006
in full or in sections:
 Download
Full Report
(100 pages, 2.2 MB PDF)
Download Annual Report by Section:
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