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November 2001 Insights Issue
#38
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to Insights #38
Cities alliance:
tackling urban poverty
The Cities Alliance,
initiated by the World Bank and UNCH, aims to co-ordinate the urban
activities of multinational, bilateral and local government associations
through:
- long-term strategic
participatory planning through City Development Strategies (CDS) and
- concrete investments
through upgrading slums and the Cities Without Slums (CWS) programme.
Cities Alliance
aims to create the conditions for reducing poverty through employment
opportunities, improved access to basic services, legal and social protection
and financial services. Badly governed cities, asserts the alliance,
deny urban poor people the right to be heard and to place their needs
and priorities on the development agenda.
CDSs are intended
to be a consultative process through which urban stakeholders arrive
at a shared vision of a way forward for their city or town. CDSs are
often carried out through city level workshops that bring together the
public, private and civil sectors to determine the key issues in the
city's development and the necessary strategies to deal with them effectively.
Having established a collective vision, a strategic development framework
is designed and followed by an action plan. Many CDS are currently at
initial phases of development.
Early CDSs assumed
that the best way to alleviate poverty was through successful competition
in the global marketplace. Is there in fact, a need to tackle poverty
more directly? If so, how can this best be done within the strategic
planning process?
Over 50 CDSs have
been launched in East Asia, South Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle
East and Eastern Europe, since 1999. How successful are CDSs in addressing
poverty? GHK Research and Training has examined the poverty aspects
of CDSs and while it is too early to draw conclusions, insights are
beginning to emerge:
- Where there is
no tradition of community consultation there is a real danger that
poor people and the groups that represent them will be excluded from
the consultation process.
- Options for action
identified through the CDS process: research to date suggests a focus
on either actions designed to improve competitiveness in the global
market or fairly narrowly defined basic needs rather than strategically
planned and co-ordinated actions which fit into the city-wide vision.
- More work is
needed on how strategies can be implemented, rather than on strategies
per se.
Janet Gardener
GHK Research and Training
526 Fulham Road
London SW6 5NR
UK
T +44(0)20 7736
8212
gardenerj@ghkint.com
www.ghkint.com/publications.htm
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