The seventh Cities Alliance Consultative Group meetings which held in Marrakech immediately following upon the sixth Public Policy Forum was significant in a number of ways: It was the best attended CG meeting of the Alliance, with the proactive participation of Brazil and South Africa; it followed on the heels of the fifth anniversary celebrations of the launch of the Alliance in Berlin in 1999, and afforded an opportunity for members to take stock of the past five years and deliberate on steps moving forward for the next five years; and, it was the last CG meeting to be hosted by outgoing Cities Alliance Programme Manager, Mark Hildebrand.

Co-chairs, Maryvonne Plessis-Fraissard, World Bank Director for Transport and Urban Development, and Lars Reutersward, UN-HABITAT Director of Global Division, deployed their considerable management skills to presiding over a meeting that saw members pledging to work to strengthen the Alliance’s mandate to respond to: (i) increasing global urbanisation and the need to more forcefully position the urban agenda on the development radar screen, (ii) the need to strengthen the Alliance’s support to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and the special roles developing country members of the Alliance can play in this regard.

In his keynote presentation Mark Hildebrand noted that while cities currently account for 80 per cent of global economic growth and are to a large extent, the loci for poverty alleviation and prevention, this is seldom reflected in donor-inspired Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs), let alone in development agencies' policies and priorities. Cities Alliance remains committed to its role as a learning alliance to help leverage national economic growth through pro-poor urban policies.

Based on experience to date, five of the Alliance’s established funding criteria stand out as being of particular importance in enhancing the quality of Alliance-supported activities and prospects for sustainable change, namely:

• Government commitment, at all levels;

• Linkage to investment follow up, where government commitments are on budget and investment partners are involved in the design process;

• Coherence of effort and partnerships, vital for citywide scales of action;

• Positive environmental impacts, realised by factoring environmental costs and services into CDS and citywide upgrading; and

• Moving beyond pilot projects to systemic interventions at citywide and nationwide scales of action.

Unleashing the potential of cities will require:

• Higher quality CDSs and policies predicated on the growth of cities;

• Engaging organised local government in the national PRS process and supporting CDSs as local poverty reduction strategies, incorporating MDG targets and indicators;

• Developing city-level investment climate assessments and tools to promote local economic development and informal sector inclusion strategies;

• Supporting systemic changes to strengthen financial devolution through dialogue and partnerships between local government associations and Ministries of Finance; incentives for improved performance at local level and city creditworthiness; and encouragement of cities to be proactive developers of urban infrastructure to prevent the growth of new slums and mobilise domestic capital.

The keynote presentation was followed by the Secretariat reports on the alliance’s slum upgrading, CDS and urban finance activities, which in the main highlighted the findings of both field and desk evaluations of activities, reported new knowledge and trends in urban, and recommended priority areas of focus in the coming year. In his summary of Cities Alliance’s upgrading activities, William Cobbett, senior upgrading advisor, noted that savings, subsidies (public sector) and credit (private sector) remain at the core of sustainable slum upgrading; while the evaluation of upgrading activities highlight the costs of parallel markets created by policy failure, be they increased costs of services, lost revenue, protracted governance problems or the services premium paid by the poor, and reinforce the need to prevent new slums. Pelle Persson’s, senior programme officer’s presentation on CDS activities was an opportunity to brief members on the flagship CDS Guidelines document under preparation, designed to help make CDSs as productive as possible.

Members were also updated on initiatives to strengthen local economic development (LED) components within CDSs and slum upgrading activities through the Bank-Netherlands Partnership Programme, local investment climate assessments, and a regional facility for LED in Latin America. Rajivan Krishnaswamy, senior urban finance advisor’s presentation highlighted current investment trends: (i) Public expenditure still accounts for around 70 per cent of funding for infrastructure; (ii) Bilateral and multilateral development assistance for infrastructure has declined, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of total aid commitments; and, (iii) Private sector funding has fallen since 1997, instead of compensating for the declining donor assistance and public funds as expected. These trends reinforce the need for cities to be proactive facilitators of infrastructure and services, rather than passive service providers. This transformation requires empowerment: the authority to raise resources, create and maintain infrastructure and pay for their costs over time.

The Policy Advisory Board report to the CG made various recommendations on the way forward for the Alliance, highlights of which include: Ensuring that all Public Policy Forums are open to all city stakeholders; that the Secretariat should pay greater attention to building a network of cities that have undertaken Alliance activities; the Secretariat should prepare a template on the pre-requisites of a successful CDS, to facilitate implementation; and, strengthen the environmental dimensions of CDSs and Cities without Slums strategies.

The substantive discussion on next steps for the Alliance included the following recommendations: The Cities Alliance should

• Strengthen its role as a learning alliance, codifying and disseminating more systematically the knowledge learned from its activities;

• Strengthen its focus on the least developed economies;

• Reinforce the importance of citizen participation at all stages of activity;

• The environment should be a part of CDS and slum upgrading initiatives;

• Cities are to take the lead in the execution of grant funding;

• The Alliance to be more of an “Alliance of cities and not an Alliance of governments”.

The meeting was also a platform for recognising the immense contributions of founding programme manager, Mark Hildebrand, to the growth of the Alliance. Variously labeled an “institution” and a “colossus” that will be hard to replace, members recalled humorous incidents from their individual relationships with Mark, agreeing that he brought a rare mixture of intelligence, creativity and fun to the work and growth of the Alliance.

All the 2005 CG presentations are available to members by logging onto the members’ page on the CA website.

HABITAT JAM, December 1- 3, 2005: Thousands Make Their Contributions to the Global Urban Debate

From internet cafes in the slums of Nairobi, New Delhi and Lima to flashy office blocks in Europe and north America, thousands of people from around the world beamed into the Habitat Jam for a global internet discussion of urban problems aimed at bringing fresh ideas from ordinary people to leaders and experts preparing for the third session of UN-HABITAT’s World Urban Forum in Vancouver next June.

Even people who could not read or write used township meetings arranged by UN-HABITAT to get their points across. “You mean that even though I am 65, I don’t speak English and cannot write, I can make my voice heard?” asked a woman in the sprawling Nairobi slum of Kibera. Young people at hand helped her bridge the digital and literacy divide that is so great between the northern and southern hemispheres.

The jam started on Thursday December 1, and ended on Sunday December 4 with participants raising their concerns as well as suggesting solutions to global problems facing human settlements. At the event’s close at 1500 GMT on 4 December, there were 25, 706 registered users from 193 countries, led by Canada with 6,321 participants. Next came Kenya with 3,796, the United States with 2,722, Senegal 1,534, India 1,440 and South Africa 1,265.

“The Habitat Jam helped bring to the fore the concerns of the urban poor, especially in developing countries,” said Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT and co-chair, Cities Alliance Consultative Group. “The concerted efforts of all UN-HABITAT’s partners have meant that for the first time many slum dwellers were given access to Internet facilities. They made their voices heard”, she added.

Participants posting comments were as varied as their countries and backgrounds. Government officials, students, professionals and ordinary people, young and old, joined in. Comments were received from across continents, from countries as far flung as the United Kingdom, India, Canada, Congo, Senegal, Bangladesh, Brazil, Australia, and The Netherlands, to name a few.

The final scorecards showed that those most active in the jam were slum dwellers in poor countries. “The fact that thousands have been willing to patiently wait in line here, sometimes for hours, to be able to contribute to this debate has been a profoundly moving experience for me. The fact that the debate on slums has moved from the academic world to the streets of cities such as Nairobi, Dakar, Cape Town and Mumbai, Rio, Lima and Manila is in and of itself a powerful signal to world leaders on the need for concerted action,” Mrs. Tibaijuka said.

(Source: UN-HABITAT)

World Bank/IDA Approves $20 million Grant to Support Rwanda's Decentralisation and Urban Management Programme

Rwanda’s on-going decentralisation strategy and urban management Programme has been given an additional boost with the World Bank’s approval of an International Development Association (IDA) grant of US$20 million to support a Rwanda Urban Infrastructure and City Management Programme. Aimed at improving urban infrastructure and service delivery in the capital city, Kigali, and two secondary cities, the programme is also expected to contribute to the local economic development and employment generation by providing economic infrastructure, to enhance productivity and competitiveness.

“The provision of adequate infrastructure and services to cities will enable them to strengthen urban-rural linkages and ensure that they play a more active role as a market-city for the surrounding rural areas”, said Sylvie Debomy the World Bank Task Team Leader for the project, adding that, “by improving living conditions and social services in poor areas and slums and targeted HIV/AIDS prevention activities, the Programme will, in addition, contribute to the human and social development objective so central to Rwanda’s Vision 2020 development priorities and the Bank’s Country Assistance Strategy”.

The programme will support economic development, improve the urban environment and facilitate the functioning of the three cities involved. It will focus on large investments that are beyond the sole responsibility of the city, including roads, drainage and solid waste management but also district level infrastructure. There will also be a slum upgrading and prevention component.

An institutional development component of the Urban Infrastructure and City Management Programme will also support sector studies, and the implementation of selected activities in the fields of service delivery and maintenance, urban environment management resources mobilisation, urban planning and financial management.

Vancouver, Melbourne and Vienna Named World’s Most Liveable Cities

Vancouver, Melbourne and Vienna are the world ‘best’ cities to live and visit, according to London-based Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Liveability Ranking, part of the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey. The survey, published in October 2005, shows cities in Canada, Australia, Austria and Switzerland as the most ideal destinations, thanks to a widespread availability of goods and services, low personal risk and an effective infrastructure.

"In the current global political climate, it is no surprise that the most desirable destinations are those with a lower perceived threat of terrorism," said Jon Copestake, editor of the report.

At the other end of the spectrum is Papua New Guinea’s Port Moresby. Algiers, Algeria, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Karachi, Pakistan, and Lagos, Nigeria, also ranked poorly. The EIU said 10 cities -- all in Asia, Africa or the Middle East -- had aspects of daily life that "present challenges." By contrast, the EIU said 63 cities fell into the top livability bracket. "This reflects the fact that many global business centers have a developed infrastructure and widespread availability," the report states.

"Still, the overwhelming majority of cities in the top livability range are based in western Europe and North America." Canada, "with low crime, little threat from instability or terrorism and a highly developed infrastructure," is the most livable destination in the world. Alongside Canada, Australia is has some of the most liveable places in the world. Melbourne is ranked joint second overall with a rating of just two per cent. Perth, Adelaide and Sydney join Zurich, Toronto and Calgary in joint 5th place with ratings of three per cent.

"Although higher crime rates and a greater threat of terror puts U.S. cities below those of Canada, U.S. cities are still among the world's most livable." Cleveland and Pittsburgh had the highest American scores. Only three cities in eastern Europe fall into this bracket along with 13 cities from Asia, the EUI said.

The EIU’s Worldwide Cost of Living Survey assesses living conditions in 127 cities around the world by looking at nearly 40 individual indicators grouped into five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Across the survey a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data are used, which are combined to give an overall Quality of Life Index rating. Each indicator is given a rating of between one and five, where one means there is no impact and five means the factor is extremely challenging. These are then weighted to produce an index, where 0 per cent means a city is exceptional, and 100 per cent means it is intolerable. A rating of 20 per cent is where real problems are seen to begin - anything over 50 per cent places severe restrictions on lifestyle.

Jo'burg's Air Quality Management Plan Receives National Award

The city of Johannesburg’s blueprints for dealing with air quality management are so good it has received the Local Authority Award from the National Association for Clean Air. The award was presented to the city during the Association's annual conference in Cape Town. Association members include academics, government officials from local, provincial and national government, environmental and air quality consultants, industry representatives and ordinary citizens.

Urbanasia 2006: Investing in Asia's Urban Future, 27-28 February 2006, Manila, Philippines

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), in cooperation with the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) will host an international conference on the sustainable development of Asian cities and city regions, with the theme, “Investing in Asia's Urban Future,” from 27 to 28 February 2006 at its Manila headquarters.

Key issues expected to be discussed include:

• Effective urban development strategies and actions to improve the living conditions of urban dwellers, especially the poor;

• The elaboration of strategies for sustainable urban development in Asia, such as further development of innovative financing instruments and assistance models, and their implementation;

• Exchange of information on strategic good practices of city region development to show that issues cutting across various aspects of urban development can be addressed successfully;

• Funding mechanisms for city region development and harmonisation of technical and financial donor support to Asian city regions.

Expected conference outcomes include:

• A high-level declaration supported and adopted by participants addressing major strategic challenges and making recommendations to governments, urban authorities and donors on the actions required;

• The development of guiding principles for the elaboration of sustainable urban development strategies in Asia including the further development of financing and assistance arrangements;

• The enhancement of information exchange on enabling framework conditions and best practices;

• Commitment for a programmatic follow-up process to implement conference recommendations, to include agreement on effective institutional arrangements and cooperation.

Conference participants are expected to include representatives from national and local governments, city mayors, civil society, private sector, academia, international organisations, bilateral and international donors and established networks.

For further information on please click here: http://www.urbanasia2006.org/conference.html

ICLEI World Congress 2006: Out of Africa: Local Solutions for Global Challenges, 27 February – 3 March 2006, Cape Town, South Africa

ICLEI’s 2006 World Congress will take place in Cape Town, South Africa, the first time ever in the south, from 27 February – 3 March 2006. The Congress, with the theme, “Out of Africa: Local Solutions for Global Challenges”, will review progress with Local Action 21, and learn about best practice experiences with local governance; building resilient, peaceful and secure communities; alleviating poverty; protecting global environmental goods such as biodiversity, water and the global climate; sustainable procurement and sustainability management instruments.

Other objectives include:

• Strengthening co-operation between cities and local governments worldwide and in particular local governments in the African region;

• Reviewing progress, studying the challenges and discussing effective strategies for the future implementation of ICLEI's campaigns and Programmes and delivery of ICLEI services;

• Assessing progress made by local governments in implementing the Millennium Development Goals and the Plan of Implementation of the 2002 UN World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg;

• Providing a platform for interaction between ICLEI member local governments and United Nations agencies, governments, financing institutions, donors, businesses, NGOs and other partners working towards achieving local sustainability;

• Adopting ICLEI's Strategic Plan 2007-2012.

Founded in 1990 as the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, ICLEI—Local Governments for Sustainability is an international association of local governments and national and regional local government organisations that have made a commitment to sustainable development. More than 475 cities, towns, counties, and their associations worldwide comprise ICLEI's growing membership. ICLEI works with these and hundreds of other local governments through international performance-based, results-oriented campaigns and programmes.

For further information about the conference click here: http://www.iclei-europe.org/index.php?id=1351

Increasing urbanisation, particularly in developing cities, and the trend towards decentralisation of government and services, has meant more challenges for city administrators and urban management officials, with local governments scrambling to develop the resources they need to deal with this growth. Systems for identifying streets, buildings, and plots for example, have remained inadequate and simply unable to keep up with the pace of urbanisation. As a result, 50 percent or more of the city streets in developing cities have no names or addresses, with the problem being most acute in the poorest neighborhoods.

This only compounds an already difficult situation. With no system of coordinates and no baseline information, how do you find your way around a constantly growing city? How do you dispatch ambulances, firefighters, and law enforcement personnel quickly? How do you send mail and messages to homes? How do you locate urban facilities and infrastructure and maintain them? How can municipal services be provided? How do you pinpoint breakdowns in water, electricity, and telephone systems? How do you improve on-site collection of water and electricity bills? How do you set up an efficient system for local taxes?

Street addressing is the most logical and efficient means to resolve these questions. It is defined as an exercise that makes it possible to identify the location of a plot or dwelling on the ground, using a system of maps and signs that give numbers or names to streets and buildings. In addition to buildings, other types of urban fixtures such as public standpipes, street lamps, and taxi stands also get addresses with a functional street addressing system.

Street addressing has several key objectives for city stakeholders, including:

• For the general public, it makes the city more user-friendly by improving the system of street coordinates, enabling people get around the city more easily, facilitating the delivery of emergency health, fire and police services, and enabling the locating of urban facilities;

• For local governments, it increases principal revenues, and improves urban management through the use of tools for planning and managing municipal services by technical departments, and tools to improve local tax collection;

• For the private sector it enables utility concessionaries to manage their networks more efficiently.

Produced jointly by the World Bank and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the book reviews the role of street addressing within an array of urban management tools and explores the links between addressing and civic identity, urban information systems, support for municipal services, tax systems, land management and tenure issues, slum upgrading, support for concessionary services, and economic development. It also outlines current and future applications, highlights practices in many African countries, and offers a methodological guide for implementing street addressing initiatives that can be used in any country.

Villes en Développement, No. 69, September 2005 on "Financing City Infrastructure" – Number Carried Out Within the Framework of the Partnership Between Cities Alliance and ISTED

The latest edition of Villes en développement news bulletin, a publication of the Institut des Sciences et des Techniques de l'Equipement et de l'Environnement pour le Développement (ISTED), is a special edition devoted to financing city infrastructure, also the thematic thrust of the Cities Alliance 2005 Annual Report. The eight-page bulletin features articles on the topic by city finance experts such as Juanita Amatong, former secretary of Finance of the Philippines, Jason Ngobeni, City Treasurer of the city of Johannesburg, David Vetter, a Consultant specializing in city infrastructure finance issues, and Rajivan Krishnaswamy, former CEO of the Tamil Nadu Urban Development Fund and now Cities Alliance senior urban finance advisor.

In the foreword to the newsbulletin, Kathy Sierra, co-chair, Cities Alliance Consultative Group and Vice President for Infrastructure at the World Bank, notes that, “while much international debate has focused on increased development assistance and debt relief, insufficient attention has been paid to local sources of investment funds for infrastructure in the towns and cities where the urban poor live”. Helping cities become proactive facilitators of infrastructure is a critical development task which requires “partnerships between cities, national governments and their development partners.”

The English and French versions of the special edition of the Villes en développement can be downloaded from the ‘Of Current Interest’ section of the Cities Alliance website at http://www.citiesalliance.org. Limited hard copies are also available - send an email to cakporji@worldbank.org