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World Environment Day, 2005: World Mayors Pledge "Greener Cities"

Mayors from around the world signed the "Urban Environmental Accords: Green Cities Declaration," as part of celebrations marking this year's World Environment Day, observed June 5 in San Francisco, birthplace of the United Nations Organisation. The Accords list 21 specific actions to enable greener and healthier cities.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his opening statement kicked off the very graphic images of the dangers of untrammeled urban sprawl to the health of the planet painted throughout the observations. He projected that "by 2030, more than 60 percent of the world's population will live in cities, up from almost half now and just a third in 1950," and cautioned that "the San Francisco City Hall illuminated in Green on WED rising concentration of humanity in cities and towns means the world will not achieve the Millennium Development Goals unless environmental planning is incorporated into all aspects of urban management."

Echoing the Secretary General's caution, Klaus Toepfer, United Nations Under Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) added, cities "impacts stretch beyond their physical borders affecting countries, regions and the planet as a whole. So the battle for sustainable development, for delivering a more environmentally stable, just and healthier world, is going to be largely won and lost in our cities." Mayors pledged to "commit to build an ecologically sustainable, economically dynamic, and socially equitable future for our urban citizens; and we call to action our fellow mayors around the world to sign the Urban Environmental Accords and collaborate with us to implement the Accords." The Accords' 21 specific actions are organised along seven environmental categories called "proven first steps toward environmental sustainability": Energy Renewable Energy | Energy Efficiency | Climate Change Waste Reduction Zero Waste | Manufacturer Responsibility | Consumer Responsibility Urban Design Green Building | Urban Planning | Slums San Francisco City Hall illuminated in Green on WED. Courtesy: UNEP.

• Urban Nature Parks | Habitat Restoration | Wildlife

• Transportation Public Transportation | Clean Vehicles | Reducing Congestion

• Environmental Health Toxics Reduction | Healthy Food Systems | Clean Air

• Water Water Access and Efficiency | Source Water Conservation | Waste Water Reduction.

Setting out a target review date of World Environment Day 2012, cities were urged to work to implement as many of the 21 actions as possible, with a goal of three actions per year. At the end of the seven years, cities will be granted from four-star to single-star ratings in declining order, according to the extent to which they have been able to attain the implementation targets. Declared Klaus Toepfer: "The world is not short of inspiring answers to the questions raised by the urban millennium. Across the globe, and not just in the developed world, there are examples of communities, businesses and governments working to redesign the metropolis. Traffic-clogged city centres are being reclaimed for pedestrians, green spaces preserved and expanded, recycling schemes promoted, environmentally friendly buildings designed." "These examples are like seeds. The challenge is to nurture these seeds, propagate them, and spread them to the furthest reaches of the globe. Towns and cities are humanity's home and its future. Making that a future of peace, dignity and prosperity is the responsibility of all," he added. For more information on the Urban Environmental Accords and 2005 World Environment Day celebrations please visit UNEP's website at http://www.unep.org/wed/2005/english/About_WED_2005/. UNEP'S Executive Director, Klaus Toepfer at WED Closing Ceremonies. Courtesy: UNEP.

In her keynote address, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN-HABITAT reflected on the importance of aligning the slum dwellers target with the other MDG Targets. Mrs. Tibaijuka also said MDG Target 10 on halving the number of people without adequate water and sanitation, was no less important because human health and life depend on clean drinking water and proper solid waste and sewage management, and that a large part of the agency's work programme was centred on water and sanitation improvements in Africa and Asia: "As the developing world becomes urbanized, the struggle to achieve the MDG targets for slums, water and sanitation will have to be waged in human settlements – in our cities, towns and villages – where priorities are set and action can be coordinated and managed."

Prof. Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel peace laureate and Kenya's Assistant Minister of the Environment tasked delegates with the responsibility of "initiating measures and steering humankind towards action-oriented solutions on the challenges that we are facing relating to our built up environment." Governments and communities themselves had to take collective responsibility for protecting the built and the natural environment, she added: "The agenda of the man-made environment, or what you call human settlements, impinges on most of the priority issues of the day: Be it disaster and post-conflict reconstruction; poverty reduction strategies; democratic governance or financing urban development." Klaus Toepfer, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive-Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), stressed that: "The urban environment is one of the most extraordinary contributions that humankind has made to this planet. Cities are the engines of commerce and of trade due to the urbanization and localization economies of functional cities. They are the seats of government where big decisions are made. They are melting pots of cultures and places where the social hierarchies are blurred. Cities are the centres of science, technology development, of cultural identity as well as diversity. They are catalysts for ideas and for political movements. They are engines for sustainable development. But they are also a conundrum. Rather than places of wonder, of hope and of outstanding possibilities, many have become havens of misery, of fear, crime and of human degradation. --- The battle for sustainable development will be won or lost in the urban environment." Prof. Wangari Maathai. Courtesy: UN-Habitat.

President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya pointed to other challenges facing the continent - of civil conflicts and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which he said, was threatening to reverse previous gains in health and economic sectors: "I am gratified to note that one of the special themes during this session of the Governing Council of UN-HABITAT will focus on post conflicts and disasters mitigation. I hope that the outcome of the deliberations will contribute significantly towards reducing the impact of disasters particularly in developing countries," Mr. Kibaki said.

The UN-HABITAT Governing Council meets every two years to oversee UN-HABITAT and set its work programme for the 2006 – 2007 biennium. For more on the 20th Session of the UN-HABITAT Governing Council please visit www.unhabitat.org.

World Bank Urban Research Symposium examines paths to managing dynamic growth for cities

The challenges of rapid urbanisation and the attendant implications for poverty reduction and national economic growth have led to numerous treatises from cities and their donor partners and initiatives aimed at ameliorating the situation. These only serve to throw up further knowledge gaps on issues such as scaling up city development strategies and slum upgrading initiatives, the dynamics of informality and about translating urban research findings into workable policies.

The third Urban Research Symposium, co-hosted jointly by the World Bank Group and Brazil's Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) created a platform where these issues could be debated further. More than 300 participants at the symposium grappled with many pressing questions, including:

• How metropolitan governance can be improved in urban peripheral areas beyond established municipal boundaries;

• What the appropriate level of regulation of urban land markets is;

• The nature of informal land delivery systems, and just how pro-poor they are; and

• How the political economy of property taxation can be better navigated in the search for answers to more sustainable infrastructure financing.

Sir Peter Hall, Bartlett Professor of Planning at University College, London delivered the keynote address at the symposium. Hall spoke of three types of cities: those that are coping with informal hyper growth, notably in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent; cities that are managing dynamic growth - as in many middle-income and rapidly developing countries of East Asia, Latin America and the Middle East; and what he described as mature cities that are coping with aging. He focused on the second group—cities that are managing dynamic growth—and elaborated on ways in which such cities could address their needs for housing and transport.

He cited the Latin American cities of Bogota and Curtiba as examples of those that were taking steps to manage dynamic growth. These cities, he explained, were pursuing such practices as formalising or urbanising informal settlements for housing and infrastructure provision, and providing rapid bus systems for commuters.

Erminia Maricato, Executive Secretary to the Brazilian Ministry of the Cities, outlined the particular example of Brazil and her government's efforts to address the question she asked: "Is there really a place for the poor in our cities today?" Brazil, like the rest of Latin America, is already overwhelmingly urban. Most of the migrant or second generation urban poor have found the region's swelling cities ill prepared to receive them. Formal land and housing markets are so constrained by regulation and unrealistic development standards that they seldom yield anything within the reach of the poor. Poor urban dwellers often find basic infrastructure services hard to obtain. Meanwhile, crime and violence increasingly threaten not only personal well being and safety, but also the very competitiveness of cities as hosts of investments crucial to economic growth. Maricato said her government is committed to addressing the challenges of integrating the vast numbers of low income residents who are unable to afford available shelter under the formal systems, and who live in the expanding favelas, or squatter settlements, in major Brazilian cities. This year's symposium was held in Brasilia from April 4 to 6, 2005, and was primarily financed by donors including SIDA, GTZ, Lincoln Land Institute, Cities Alliance, the Federal Erminia Maricato, Executive Secretary to the Brazilian Ministry of Cities, at symposium. Courtesy: World Bank.

Government of Brazil through Caixa and the Federal District of Brasilia. Some of the research presented at the Symposium was also financed through Cities Alliance grants.

The MFTF is a joint effort by USAID and other multilateral and bilateral organizations - L' Agence Française de Developpment, the UK's Department for International Development, Caixa Economica Federale (Brazil), United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), Asian Development Bank and the World Bank - "to identify ways to increase the flow of domestic long term private capital to developing cities in support of their slum upgrading and city development strategies." It is to operate in an advisory capacity to the Cities Alliance members and others who wish to make use of their ideas and guidance, and serve as a focal point for collecting the experience and views of international experts on municipal finance and private capital mobilisation for use in formulating practical guidance to multilateral and bilateral donors, international local government associations, national and city governments.

RTI International is to assist the MFTF in bringing together the international experience in mobilising private capital for financing the long term capital requirements of cities by undertaking the following responsibilities:

• Provide technology support and day-to-day management needed to enable the MFTF to operate successfully as a "virtual team". This will be through the setting of a web site for the MFTF and maintaining it on a regular basis. The ownership of the web site will be with the Cities Alliance;

• Collect published case studies, discussion papers and tool kits prepared by multilateral and bilateral organisations, any other organisation or institution and such other relevant source, and upload them into the MFTF web site;

• Prepare six guidance/discussion papers on municipal finance issues based on guidance to be provided by the MFTF on the identification and selection of the issues and the content of the papers;

• Prepare four technical toolkits that provide generic scopes of work that can be used/adapted by city/national governments, donors, and multilateral development banks to procure services to (i) promote slum upgrading and (ii) mobilise long term private capital investment to bring tangible improvements to the quality of infrastructure in cities and to implement City

• Development Strategies;

• Four Case studies on cities that are in the process of accessing debt finance. The selection of the cities/countries will be done jointly by the MFTF and the implementing partner.

A Steering Committee comprising Cities Alliance members would guide RTI International in this process as well as to ensure quality control for the outputs prepared by RTI International. Details of the work of the MFTF and the new website will be posted as they become available.

Sr. City Strategy Adviser, Peter Palesch has left the Secretariat to take up a new assignment as GTZ's Director for Bangladesh. Peter oversaw the growth of the Alliance's CDS portfolio, organising the audiences, CDS learning agenda and several meetings and conferences where cities shared knowledge of their respective CDS, the most recent being the highly successful Hanoi CDS Conference in November 2004, hosted by the Government of Vietnam in collaboration with Cities Alliance members. Peter's contribution is probably best captured in the various accolades from task managers and city clients that have poured into the Secretariat following the announcement of his departure. One appreciated "Peter's help in getting our CDS portfolio well in shape in ECA (World Bank's East Europe and Central Asia region) and MNA (Middle East and North Africa region) has been outstanding. He always impressed all of us with his understanding of local contexts and real challenges facing Local Governments in writing good application and during implementation. He has always been there for timely help and excellent advice. He will be missed sorely."

Assuming Peter's duties as the focal point for CDS is Pelle Persson, who joins the Cities Alliance Secretariat from Swedish Sida, where he has been working for almost 20 years in different positions relating to infrastructure and development, the last 5 years as head of the division for Urban Development and Environment. In that position Pelle followed the development of the Cities Alliance since its start in 1999, and has been an active member of the Consultative Group. He has a degree in civil engineering and urban planning from the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology, and has lived in Mozambique, Tanzania and Namibia at various stages of his career.

  >> Upcoming Events

A high level plenary of the UN General Assembly will be convened at the United Nations headquarters in New York from September 14-16, 2005 to review the implementation of the Millennium Declaration (2000), and the integrated follow-up to the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields.

Member States at the summit will also deliberate the Jeffrey Sach's led Millennium Project's report on the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals titled, Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, presented to UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan in January this year, and on issues of peace and security, as well as UN reform. The MDGs themselves aim at a series of ambitious targets, ranging from halving extreme poverty, to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, to providing universal primary education, all by 2015, including the Alliance's Cities Without Slums action plan, (MDG Target 11),

Following a format similar to the first Millennium Summit in 2000, the high-level meeting would consist of a combination of plenary meetings and interactive roundtables. Member states are implementing open and inclusive preparatory processes that deliver consensus and results for the summit. UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan has said that the decisions to be taken at the meeting "may determine the whole future of the United Nations." He added: "Even more important, they will offer us our best – perhaps our only – chance to ensure a safer, more just and more prosperous world in the new century, not only for our own sakes but for those of our children and grandchildren."

The Assembly will also hold a High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development as a follow-up to the 2002 UN International Conference on Financing for Development, which was held in Monterrey, Mexico. The session will convene from 27 and 28 June 2005 in New York immediately prior to the ministerial segment of the 2005 substantive session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in order for the Dialogue's recommendations to be considered during the preparatory process for the Millennium review.

For more on the MDGs + 5 Summit, click here: http://www.un-ngls.org/MDG/unaction.htm.

Cities Alliance Annual PPF/CG – Marrakech, Morocco, November 7 – 11, 2005

The city of Marrakech will host the next Cities Alliance Public Policy Forum and Consultative board meetings from November 7 to 11, 2005. Preparations are in full gear with both the government of Morocco and local authorities to ensure a successful event, which will also afford the government an opportunity to showcase its Villes sans Bidonvilles programme. Details of the event will be posted on the Events page of the Cities Alliance website as they become available.

  >> Publications Announcement

One Planet Many People: Atlas of our Changing Environment – (London and Nairobi, United Nations Environment Programme, 2005)

A new atlas launched to mark World Environment Day (WED) brings into sharp focus the dramatic and, in some cases, damaging environmental changes sweeping planet Earth. Produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), One Planet, Many People: Atlas of our Changing Environment compares and contrasts spectacular satellite images of the past few decades with contemporary ones, some of which have never been seen before.

The huge growth of greenhouses in southern Spain, the rapid rise of shrimp farming in Asia and Latin America and the emergence of a giant, shadow puppet-shaped peninsula at the mouth of the Yellow River are among a string of curious and surprising changes seen from space. They sit beside the more conventional, but no less dramatic images of rain forest deforestation in Paraguay and Brazil, rapid oil and gas development in Wyoming, United States, forest fires across sub-Saharan Africa and the retreat of glaciers and ice in polar and mountain areas.

Produced in collaboration with organisations including the United States Geological Survey and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the atlas highlights the explosive growth and changes around some of the major cities of the world such as Beijing, Dhaka, Delhi and Santiago, the destruction of farmland, the clogging of river beds, the draining of water supplies and many others.

Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's Executive Director provided the context for the publication of the Atlas and its simultaneous launches in London, Nairobi and San Francisco thus: "People living in San Francisco (which hosted the commemorations for WED 2005) or London may look at these images of deforestation or melting Arctic ice, and wonder what it has to do with them. That these changes are the result of other people's lifestyles and consumption habits hundreds and thousands of kilometres away. But they would be wrong. Cities pull in huge amounts of resources including water, food, timber, metals and people. They export large amounts of wastes including household and industrial wastes, wastewater and the gases linked with global warming. Thus their impacts stretch beyond their physical borders affecting countries, regions and the planet as a whole," he added.

So the battle for sustainable development, "for delivering a more environmentally stable, just and healthier world, is going to be largely won and lost in our cities." He hoped the atlas and its images will concentrate the minds of mayors, governments, private business, non governmental organisations and the private individuals on our changing environment and on how globalisation is driving local and regional change.

Copies of the Atlas can be obtained from Earthprint at http://www.earthprint.com/show.htm??url=http://www.earthprint.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=592462&prmenbr=27973.

The Millennium Declaration: An Urban Perspective (UN-HABITAT/The World Bank, 2005)

September 2005 will witness an all important five year review of progress on the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals, agreed to by world leaders in 2000 in New York. The Review process has already been initiated by the Jeffrey Sachs-led UN Millennium Challenge in its 3,000-page report by report titled, Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, which was presented to UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan in January this year. To set the upcoming review of the Cities Without Slums Action Plan developed at the launch of the Cities Alliance in 1999, and adopted by Heads of State in 2000 in context, UN-HABITAT and the World Bank have published a short and user friendly note capturing the urban perspective to the UN Millennium Declaration, in English and French translation.

In their foreword, Cities Alliance' co-chairs, Anna Tibaijuka, UN Under Secretary General and Executive Director of UN- HABITAT and, Kathy Sierra, World Bank Vice President for Infrastructure which hosts the Cities Alliance Secretariat see the adoption of the Cities Without Slums action plan target of improving 100 million lives by 2020 as a "first step towards addressing one of the key challenges of our urban millennium." They hope the "review of the implementation of the Millennium Declaration gives the international community the opportunity to re-affirm and update this target, and to re-iterate its commitment to slum dwellers."

The Note provides a set of 12 structured arguments and declarations around the Cities Without Slums Target 11 of the MDGs, which could be used by delegations and partners to the September meetings to contribute effectively to the review:

1. Reiterating Our Commitment: A reminder to world leaders' commitment to"promote the upgrading of slums and regularization of squatter settlements, within the legal framework of each country. In particular, we reiterate the aim of the Cities Without Slums initiative to make a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020."

2. Updating the Target: This becomes necessary in view of growing urban challenges which could see slum population increase by 400 million over the next 15 years and the absence of national and local action plans for slum upgrading.

3. Making all Cities Engines of Sustainable Development: Cities are indeed engines of rural development. They absorb excess rural population, and offer markets for farm produce and other rural product. They provide services and amenities – universities and hospitals – that may not be available or feasible in rural areas. So sustainable development requires first and foremost sustainable urbanisation policies designed to facilitate – and not to hinder – the current urban transition.

4. Maximising Urban Opportunities, Minimising Urban Risks: In 2006 the world's population will be predominantly urban for the first time in human history. Successful implementation of the MDGs will rest largely on the ability of cities to maximise economic benefits to improve the present and future living conditions of urban dwellers while reducing risks for citizens.

5. Motivating Leadership at all Levels: Successful cities are those with the vision, the commitment and the resources to bring all actors together to " providing political and economic opportunity, improving services and quality of public space, planning for future needs, expanding local sources of revenue=e, attracting investment – in active cooperation and dialogue with all citizens, especially slum dwellers, both women and men"

6. Funding Large scale Slum Upgrading: Total costs for improving the lives of 100 million slum dwellers estimated by Task Force 8 of the Millennium Challenge has been put at US$67 billion. Cost of decent settlements for the estimated 400 million new poor, notwithstanding regional and economic differences between 2005 and 2020 is estimated at US$ 300 billion. Domestic resource mobilisation as well as international support is critical to the investment needed to deal with the challenge.

7. Ensuring Accountable Urban Governance: Participatory urban planning approaches are key to good urban governance while the promotion of efficient and accessible land markets is a prerequisite to stopping the growth of new slums

8. Promoting the Leading role of Local Authorities: Strengthening local authorities and promoting their leading role at the local level are essential to achieving the MDGs. The recently formed United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and its regional chapters are uniquely placed to create a global network of Millennium Cities.

9. Supporting Decentralisation and Local Democracy: Local authorities should be assisted by other spheres of government to determine local policy and strategic frameworks within the parameters set by sound national policies. Where central governments devolve powers to them they should be guaranteed the resources necessary to exercise these powers.

10. Building Partnerships to deliver basic services: Improving access to basic services requires the adoption of a broad based partnership approach involving governments, local authorities, civil society organisations and the private sector.

11. Empowering the urban poor: The urban poor are not a problem. They are a resource. Their right to the city must be recognised and protected. Forced evictions that are contrary to the law should be particularly combated. The forced demolitions of urban slums has never reduced poverty, it creates poverty. Forced evictions have never reduced slums; they simply move slum formation elsewhere. Forced evictions represent gross violations of human rights. Barring exceptional circumstances deriving from irreversible environmental hazards, informal settlements must be protected from forced evictions and regularized with the consent and active participation of the interested populations.

12. Developing innovative financial systems: Mechanisms that have been adopted by governments and local authorities for financing the upgrading of infrastructure and services in different parts of the world have not been adequate to meet the challenges. New options should be explored based on public-private partnerships and self-help approaches. Well targeted public subsidies should be part of the response, combined with optimal cost recovery on marketable services such as water and electricity supply.

Copies of the Note are available by emailing: infohabitat@unhabitat.org, or info@citiesalliance.org.

Enabling Strategy for Moving Up to Scale in Brazil – CD-ROM (Washington DC: The Cities Alliance Secretariat, 2005)

This collection of ground-breaking studies, financed by the Cities Alliance and managed by the World Bank, provides one of the most comprehensive bodies of analytical work regarding urban land markets and urban slums in Brazil. The volume includes three CDs and is organized by the topics: (i) Enabling Strategy for Moving Upgrading to Scale in Brazil; (ii) Assessing housing stocks, needs and demand; (iii) Informal housing analysis and evaluation of urban upgrading programs; (iv) Assessment of urban land markets in Brazil; and (v) Land use management in Brazil.

If you would like a copy of this collection of studies, please send an email to Dean Cira (dcira@worldbank.org).

Cities and towns present unique challenges and opportunities in the fight against HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS has the potential to undermine the considerable investments by cities and towns, national governments, donors and civil society organisations in the core areas of municipal management, municipal finance, local service delivery (particularly to the poor) and local economic development. As more people are infected with HIV/AIDS, a city will see decreases in labour productivity, increased demand for services, lower capacity of users to pay for services, increased household vulnerability and increased numbers of absolute poor (e.g., orphans, people living with HIV/AIDS). The climate for private investment will deteriorate and local government itself will suffer the absenteeism and productivity losses that result from increasing prevalence.

As the organ of government closest to communities, local governments need to be well equipped for their frontline positions in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The World Bank's Africa region urban team, in conjunction with AMICAALL and other partners has published a Training Toolkit CD-ROM to help local governments in Africa win the battle. The toolkit is based on a recent publication by the same team: Local Government Responses to HIV/AIDS: A Handbook with video segments and learning guidelines developed as part of a Distance Learning Course prepared for the African Local Government Action Forum that piloted the Handbook with municipal teams in 7 African countries (Rwanda, Tanzania, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe between November 2003 and February 2004. It is intended to provide users with a better understanding of the roles that local government authorities can play in addressing HIV/AIDS; and to guide users through the issues and exercises presented in the Local Government Responses to HIV/AIDS Handbook. Target users include individuals and teams within local government authorities and trainers who work with local governments.

The CD-ROM provides:

• Session objectives and discussion themes;

• Overview Video presentations by a World Bank Local Government HIV/AIDS specialist that outline the key issues and themes. (15 minutes per session, accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation);

• In-practice video presentations by specialists and practitioners on specific topics (15 minutes per session);

• Readings from the Handbook, and additional resources on each of four topics;

• Assignments using Tools from the Handbook, and Commentary on Assignments that offer additional information and examples relevant to the assignments and the session objectives;

• ALGAF Country Presentation made by teams from Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Kenya during the ALGAF piloting of this training in 2003. Please note that not all cities submitted presentations for each session.

Copies of this Training Toolkit can be obtained from Local Government HIV/AIDS Initiative, Urban Unit, The World Bank, 1818 H Street, NW, MSN H3-305, Washington, DC 20433, USA - www.worldbank.org/urban/hivaids/

  >> Cities Alliance Grant Approvals Update

Iran: Preparatory assistance to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development for the institutionalization of the CDS into the urban planning process in Iran

The grant is to support Iran's Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to institutionalise CDS into the urban planning process. To be implemented by the World Bank financed Urban Upgrading and Housing Reform Programme (UUHRP ), this activity will facilitate the preparation of terms of reference (ToR) for the CDS through broad-based stakeholder participation; build consensus on the ToR priorities; design a curriculum and training on strategic planning and public participation in municipal decision-making delivered to small groups of municipal professionals and community leaders; survey the existing urban planning systems in Iran proposing means of incorporating the CDS into that system; and, scaling up the CDS activities and dissemination. Expected outcomes in addition to the institutionalisation of CDS into the national urban planning system and processes include: budget allocation for the CDS initiatives in the country by the Management and Plan Organization; and improved capacity of local institutions (including municipalities) involved in urban development planning.

West Bank and Gaza; Establishment of an Integrated Strategic Planning Process for the Neighboring Towns of Ramallah, Al-Bireh and Beitunia

In face of rapid population growth, spiraling demand for better quality and quantity services, as well as declining revenues, the mayors of the neighbouring cities of Ramallah, Al-Bireh and Beitunia in the West Bank and Gaza applied for a Cities Alliance' grant to enable them to develop an integrated CDS to tackle growing poverty. The CDS grant will facilitate project set up and mobilisation of resources; strategic analysis/assessment of the three towns; definition of vision and shared cooperation with prioritisation of strategies; development of 5-year action plan; promotion and marketing of capital investment plan; evaluation and capture of the CDS process. The strategic planning process is expected to establish and strengthen urban governance capacity of the three towns; lead to a significant improvement in public service delivery (such as water, electricity, wastewater treatment and solid waste disposal); an improvement in the employment situation, all of which will have a significant impact on poverty alleviation. GTZ, AfD, KfW, UN-Habitat, World Bank are the Cities Alliance members sponsoring this activity.

Morocco: Partnership Framework Agreement for Support and Monitoring of the Program "Cities Without Slums"

The Framework Agreement for this activity sets the foundations for a Cities Alliance partnership with Morocco's Ministry of Housing and Urban Development for the support and monitoring of the Government's national Cities Without Slums Programme, (Villes Sans Bidonvilles), which aims to upgrade 200,000 slum households by 2010, taking the city as the programming unit, and within a contractual framework between the State and local authorities. The Agreement will include the drawing up of a comprehensive technical assistance and training plan; creation of a Slum Observatory; and the establishment of a Technical Monitoring Committee to ensure coordination and follow-up of the Cities Without Slums Programme's implementation. Requested by the Minister for Housing and Urban Development in the Office of Prime Minister, the ambitious activity is supported by USAID, UN-Habitat, AFD, and the World Bank, and is to be implemented by the Near East and North African (NENA)/Urban Forum and Holding Al Omrane.

South Africa: Preparation of the South African National Upgrading Support Programme

This will facilitate South Africa's Department of Housing efforts to develop the technical assistance, capacity, and institutional reform requirements for the successful design and multi-year roll out of the municipal-led National Upgrading Support Programme (NUSP) to scale-up and mainstream upgrading of informal settlements throughout South Africa. It will be implemented through interviews and field visits with both key actors in the SA national upgrading programme and the project managers/coordinators overseeing and implementing NUSP pilot-lead projects; Field visits to municipalities and provinces that have well established major upgrading projects and those at an advanced stage of planning or near to implementation. Following the field visits, the draft activity plan for NUSP will be the subject of a workshop with key actors leading to finalisation of the proposal. Implementation is expected to result in the mainstreaming of a continual process of upgrading informal settlements throughout South Africa, in a process driven by accredited local authorities within a clear and consistent national policy framework; and an improved institutional framework, better aligned with a strategy of continuous upgrading and consolidation at both scale and requisite speed. USAID and the World Bank are sponsoring this activity.

Guidelines for proposals and eligibility requirements for funding support are available from the Working with Cities Alliance Guide, accessible from the Cities Alliance website.