The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, has signed an agreement with Buffalo City Municipality to provide a partial credit guarantee to the city for the equivalent of up to US$6.8 million. The guarantee will provide security for four loans by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) to Buffalo City, with a total outstanding amount equivalent to $47 million. It will also free up resources for immediate use by the city for essential infrastructure investments.

This transaction was arranged through the Municipal Fund, a joint IFC-World Bank initiative designed to provide sub-national clients – states, municipalities, and municipally controlled institutions – with direct financing and access to capital markets, without relying on sovereign guarantees.

"This transaction will help improve service delivery in Buffalo City. It is innovative in that it will help move the market toward instruments that rely more on the underlying credit quality,” said, Vincent Gouarne, head of the Municipal Fund. The proceeds from the sale of the zero-coupon bonds will be used to support investments in water and wastewater, electricity, and roads. Buffalo City mayor, Sindisile MacLean notes that the, “IFC interaction with Buffalo City demonstrates for us a major show of confidence in an emerging city through innovative financing, enabling us to face the many challenges of developing municipalities. I would like to encourage more innovative ways of helping us become one of the leading secondary cities in Africa.”

Buffalo City, a municipality of 880,000 people, is located in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa and was established during the demarcation process of 2001 by an amalgamation of several areas.

Richard Ranken, IFC’s director for Sub-Saharan Africa, said, “Following its first municipal transaction with the City of Johannesburg, IFC has demonstrated its broad commitment to the sub-national sector in South Africa by also working with the next tier of municipalities and helping them increase their use of market-based resources for financing investment needs.”

Luther Mashaba, DBSA’s executive manager for South Africa operations, noted that “the DBSA’s long-standing relationship and partnership with Buffalo City is rooted in the many years of DBSA’s financial support and technical assistance to this municipality. --- The DBSA is pleased that IFC has made available these guarantees to mitigate risks for local government clients and to assist them in accessing loan funding. The DBSA is also excited by the fact that it can release these securities so that Buffalo City is able to respond to its community needs without having to take up additional loan funding for the capital programme.”

For more information about the IFC Municipal Fund visit http://www.ifc.org/municipalfund.

Cities Alliance signs two cooperation agreements with UCLG

Left to right: Kathy Sierra and Elisabeth Gateau.

Close on the heels of conclusion of the Executive Bureau meetings in Washington DC, Elisabeth Gateau, Secretary General of the United Cities and Local governments (UCLG) visited the Cities Alliance Secretariat in the Infrastructure Vice presidency of the World Bank to formalise landmark grant agreements with the Alliance. Signing on behalf of the Cities Alliance was the Alliance' Consultative Group co-chair and Vice President of the Infrastructure vice presidency, Kathy Sierra. The grant agreements are: Developing MDG-based City Development Strategies, designed to support UCLG members' engagement with and contribution to national poverty reduction strategies by developing city development strategies (CDS) focused on achieving local Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets. The grant will facilitate this process, in addition to sharing knowledge and lessons related to cities planning for CDSs, and integrating MDG-based targets into CDSs; and, UCLG Municipal Finance Commission, to support UCLG’s establishment of a Municipal Finance Commission to take forward the Istanbul+5 and Monterrey goals of sustainable financing of urban development to meet the challenges of growth and improving the lives of slum dwellers. The Municipal Finance Commission will act as an Advisory Body to UCLG members, the Cities Alliance and its recently formed Municipal Finance Task Force on matters relating to municipal finance and resource mobilisation. It will also assist UCLG members to access current thinking and innovations on ways to increase the flow of long term finance capital to developing cities.

Elisabeth also used the opportunity to once again thank Kathy and the World Bank for contributing to the success of the UCLG Executive Bureau meeting.

New UN-HABITAT Deputy Executive Director Visits Cities Alliance Secretariat

New UN-HABITAT Deputy Executive Director, Ms. Inga Björk-Klevby visited the Cities Alliance Secretariat in Washington DC, February 8th as part of her familiarisation tour. Ms. Bjork-Klevby said she was meeting with staff “to listen and to learn,” especially as Cities Alliance was going to be part of her portfolio of duties as deputy executive director. Outgoing Cities Alliance programme Manager, Mark Hildebrand, briefed her on the activities of the Alliance, highlighting some of its successes as well as some of the challenges that she would need to address. Each of the task managers in charge of the Alliance’s upgrading, CDS and urban finance portfolios respectively, took turns in provided further details in terms of their activities, with Ms. Bjork-Klevby interjecting at specific points with questions seeking clarification of the issues raised. Ms. Bjork-Klevby congratulated the Secretariat team for the accomplishments so far, saying she clearly felt at home in the Secretariat and that she was looking forward to working with the Secretariat staff to advancing the goals of the Alliance.

Ms. Inga Björk-Klevby

Why Africa needs special consideration in the urban poverty research agenda - Professor Akin L. Mabogunje

Cities Alliance Policy Advisory Board member and Chairman, Presidential Technical Committee on Housing and Urban Development, Abuja, Nigeria, Professor Akin Mabogunje, in Washington D.C. presented a keynote paper at a well attended seminar organised by the Comparative Urban Studies Project (CUSP) of the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars on February 1, 2006. Titled, Global Urban Poverty Research Agenda: The African Case the paper was part of a series of seminars organised by CUSP to identify new research and activity emerging from the field on issues facing policy makers and practitioners working to alleviate urban poverty.

Four issues relating to deepening urban poverty in sub-Saharan Africa formed the foundation of Mabogunje’s paper: 1) What is ‘urban’ about poverty and how is it different from problems facing rural areas? 2) Why is chronic poverty in sub-Saharan Africa a special case? 3) How can that peculiarity be explained? 4) What have societies done to cope with poverty?

Urban poverty is multi-faceted, said Mabogunje, detailing aspects of urban settlements that characterise urban poverty: inadequate income, asset bases, shelter, and access to public infrastructure and basic services, the absence of safety nets, the poor protection of the human rights, and the general voicelessness and powerlessness within political systems of the poor.

Mabogunje then addressed urban poverty in the African context, citing the special significance of the continent’s colonial history. Rural-urban migration has been fuelled by high concentration in cities of health, education, and other public facilities that are rarely found in rural areas. Yet inadequate industrial growth has driven increasing proportions of the population--up to 70 percent--to the informal sector economy. Thus, summed Mabogunje, people come to the city because of rural deterioration and they move into urban areas that are undercapitalised.

Commentary of Professor Mabogunje’s paper was presented by William Cobbett, Senior Urban Upgrading Advisor of the Cities Alliance, and Jane Guyer, Visiting Professor, Department of Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University.

To access the complete paper, click here: http://www.citiesalliance.org/doc/newsletter/march-06/mabogunjepaper.pdf.

GTZ/German Association of Cities and Towns - 13th Forum of Global Issues, April 6 – 7, 2006, Berlin, Germany

The manifold and diverse effects of urbanisation and megacities on international politics have received little attention so far, as has the growing importance of cities to foreign and international policy. On the one hand urbanisation and the emergence of megacities seem to result in a significant loss of state control. On the other hand, the massive concentration of economic and political power, as well as the international networking of many cities are transforming them increasingly into self-assured international actors.

It is against this background that the Task Force for Global Issues of the German Foreign office, in collaboration with the German Association of Cities and Towns, GTZ and the Habitat Unit of Technische Universitat Berlin, is organising a Global Issues Forum to examine megacities both as a consequence of and as actors in global change. Keynote speaker for the event will be Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, UN-Under Secretary General and Executive Director of UN-HABITAT. The Forum will also examine the effects of worldwide urbanisation on foreign and international politics as well as the new role of cities therein, in addition to sensitising the German public to the issues and targets of the World Urban Forum III, to be held in Vancouver, Canada, from 19 to 23 June, 2006.

4th Mayors’ Asia Pacific Environmental Summit (MAPES), May 9 – 12, 2006, Melbourne, Australia

The Mayors' Asia Pacific Environmental Summit (MAPES) provides a unique forum for mayors and other senior local government officials in the region to promote sustainable development in their cities, share information and best practices, and build partnerships with businesses, donor organisations, and NGOs.

The MAPES programme focuses on promoting bold leadership and action through extensive mayor-to-mayor dialogue and “Mayors' Commitments” – specific pledges to address a wide range of problem areas:
• Water supply expansion and wastewater treatment facilities
• Solid waste collection, recycling, and landfill management
• Vehicle emissions reduction
• Slums rehabilitation, and improving riverfronts and river ecosystems

The City of Melbourne is hosting MAPES 2006, in conjunction with Australia's largest environmental conference and trade show – ENVIRO 2006. MAPES 2006 is offering a new training opportunity in partnership with Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology, which will offer a Certificate Programme in Urban Sustainability for delegates attending certain sessions at MAPES.

For more information on the 2006 MAPES, click here: http://www.environmentalsummit.com/

28th Metropolis Board of Directors' meeting, 14 - 16 June, 2006, Toronto, Canada

The city of Toronto will host the 28th Metropolis Board of Directors' meeting, to hold from June 14 to 16, 2006. Meetings of three Metropolis Standing Commissions, including the Commission on Eco-Regions, Financing Services and Infrastructure as well as Urban Mobility Management will also take place. In addition to engaging in interesting exchanges of ideas on important urban management issues with colleagues from around the world, participants will also be able to take in the sights and sounds of Toronto, which this year is celebrating the Year of Creativity.

More information on the meeting including application forms can be accessed by clicking on this link: http://www.metropolis.org/index.asp?docID=1113&MenuID=1113&seccio=2.

Third World Urban Forum, June 19 – 23, 2006, Vancouver, Canada

The third session of the World Urban Forum (WUFIII) will be hosted by the Government of Canada in Vancouver, from 19 to 23 June, 2006. The main theme of this session will be Our Future: Sustainable Cities – Turning Ideas into Action, with the following sub-themes: “Sustainable Cities: Urban Growth and Environment;” “Sustainable Cities: Partnership and Finance”; and, “Sustainable Cities: Social Inclusion and Cohesion.”

WUFIII will comprise high level opening and closing sessions; dialogues; networking events, roundtables; and an exhibition showcasing best practices and urban innovations worldwide.

The Cities Alliance will be hosting three networking events:

1. “Empowering Cities to Mobilise Domestic Capital: Enabling framework and City Level Actions.” The objectives of this session will be to identify national level policy actions to enable a new market for private capital to finance public infrastructure; identify a set of agreed internal actions to demonstrate a clear revenue stream that would provide a stronger voice when negotiating with higher levels of government for greater devolution of powers to match increased responsibilities; and, initiate necessary actions for cities to better access finance

2. “Understanding Local Economies: Tools and Methods.” This will enable discussion of a research study commissioned by the Cities Alliance, and the World Bank with Dutch Trust Funds to identify good practices in local economy competitiveness assessments. The event aims to show why a better understanding of local economies will improve development outcomes; how partnership efforts in understanding local economies can build better governance; sharing global good practice in local competitiveness assessments; and, identify tools to enable cities with reliable information design strategies with more confidence.

3. “How to integrate Environmental aspects in city long term strategic planning.” The event will facilitate the discussion of a Cities Alliance-commissioned study on how environmentally successful cities have put environment as key driver for economic sustainable development, as part of the Cities Alliance-UNEP Environment initiative on the integration of environmental aspects into its approaches and activities, particularly within city development strategies currently being undertaken in more than 160 cities.

More information on these networking will be available in the Forum programme and will also be posted on the Cities Alliance website.

The WUF III website can be accesses by clicking here: http://www.wuf3-fum3.ca/ or http://www.unhabitat.org/wuf/2006/Organization.asp

Africities 4 Summit, September 18-24, 2006, Nairobi, Kenya

The proposed theme for the fourth Pan-African edition of local government days, or Africities is Building Local Coalitions for the Implementation of the Millennium Development Goals in African Local Governments. To be hosted in Nairobi, Kenya, Africities 4 will aim to:

• Deepen the political will for decentralisation in Africa through central government support and commitment;

• Strengthen the African Municipal movement

• Promote the advocacy role of local government for their inclusion in national and international forums on issues related to local development

• Provide a forum for a continental exchange of information and good practices between elected local government officials (mayors), technical officials, and local government research and training institutions

• Promote the notion of “think globally act locally”, implying that local solutions are crucial to sustainable development.

• Promote African integration through local-to-local cooperation and networks.

Concurrent with the different sessions and meetings will be an exhibition - CITEXPO 2006, with the theme, “Access to Basic Services in African Cities”. CITEXPO offers an opportunity to central and local governments, the civil society and the private business sector to exhibit their products, services, and experiences relating to decentralisation and local development in Africa.

Cities Alliance will have a strong presence at this fourth summit, as with the third one in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Details of the Alliance’ participation will be posted on the website as they become available.

More information on Africities 4 is available on their website: http://www.africities2006nairobi.org/index.asp. For more information on CITEXPO email: citexpo@africabusinessevent.com.

Many urban reports have drawn attention to the global trends of urbanisation, particularly in Africa and Asia. However, a recent report published by the World Bank has vividly demonstrated the impact at city level of these global trends. Co-authored by Shlomo Angel, Stephen Sheppard and Daniel Civco, the report examines the dynamics of global urban expansion by defining a new universe of 3,943 cities with population in excess of 100,000, and drawing a stratified global sample of 120 cities from this universe.

It analyses population data and satellite images for two time periods, a decade apart, in addition to several measures of urban extent and expansion, among them the built-up area of cities and the average density of the built-up area, were calculated. It also presents and analyses data for 90 cities out of the global sample of 120. Weighted averages of the built-up area and the average density, as well as compactness and contiguity measures, and their change over time, are presented for nine regions, four income groups and four city size groups covering the entire globe.

Densities in developing-country cities were found to be some three times higher than densities in cities in industrialised countries, and densities in all regions were found to be decreasing over time. The report argues that if average densities continue to decline at the annual rate of 1.7 per cent, as they have during the past decade, the built-up area of developing-country cities will increase from 200,000 km2 in 2000 to more than 600,000 km2 by 2030, while their population doubles.

The Central message of this study is quite clear: Developing country cities should be making realistic, yet minimal, plans for urban expansion; designating adequate areas for accommodating the projected expansion; investing wisely in basic trunk infrastructure to serve this expansion; and, protecting sensitive land from incursion by new urban development.

To download the full report and individual chapters visit the Cities Alliance website at: http://www.citiesalliance.org/publications/homepage-features/feb-06/urban-expansion.html.