Join us for the side-event of the Cities Alliance Joint Work Programme on Equitable Economic Growth in Cities at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) on 17 October, Monday 12:30-1:30pm, Room MR12, Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, Quito.
 

Speakers include:

• Clare Short, Chair of Cities Alliance Management Board
• Lucy Slack, Deputy Secretary-General, Commonwealth Local Government Forum 
• Marty Chen, International Coordinator, WIEGO
• Jerry Maldonado, Senior Programme Officer, Ford Foundation
• Rubbina Karruna, Cities Advisor, DFID
• Sameh Wahba, Director of Urban Development, World Bank
• Vito Intini, UNCDF 
• Young Moon, Senior Advisor with the Urban Economy Branch, UN-Habitat
• Mario Pezzini, Director OECD Development Centre

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About the event

As the international community meets to agree the New Urban Agenda, its draft outcome document highlights the growing need to ensure equitable access to public goods, natural resources, basic services and the use of public spaces that are essential to the livelihoods of people, in particular the urban poor in both the informal and formal economy. It suggests that international and national partners will need to focus stronger on ways to increase and harness the capacity of both the formal and informal economy, as well as the opportunities offered by the diverse creative potential of cities to create an enabling and fair business environment and support innovations. 'Leaving no one behind in cities' will therefore require Habitat partners to shape economic growth in cities in a way that is characterised by inclusiveness, equity and environmental sustainability. 

In urbanising and low-income countries relatively few city administrations have adequate institutional frameworks with governance arrangements to respond adequately. Not all have strong local revenue bases, and decentralisation systems typically do not devolve responsibilities with commensurate fiscal resources or authority. Growth-led urbanisation has not automatically led to lessening of disparities or better environmental conditions and may even hinder the very growth process it arises from. Similar concerns are being voiced in OECD countries.  The quality of economic growth, inequality and poverty, the contributions and challenges arising from migrants in cities, are at the forefront of recent public and policy dialogue.
 

Focus areas

This side event will focus on approaches available to city governments, organisations of informal workers and non-governmental organisations on creating a supportive, enabling institutional environment to ensure public goods, including use of public space, and public services are available to all, translating into reduced disparities and better inclusion of the working poor during cyclical upturns and downturns as well as structural growth over the long term. For these trajectories to be identified and supported, complementary policy actions will be discussed, to empower cities in the planning, financing and maintaining of local public goods. 

The side event is hosted by the Joint Work Programme Equitable Economic Growth in Cities of the Cities Alliance Partnership consisting of UK Department for International Development (DFID), UN-Habitat, United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF), The Ford Foundation and the World Bank.

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About the Cities Alliance Joint Work Programme on Equitable Economic Growth in Cities

Cities Alliance is a global partnership of local authorities, national governments, non-governmental organisations and multi-lateral organisations working together to ensure that cities increasingly are characterised by effective local government, active citizenship, and delivering improved and responsive services to the urban poor. The Cities Alliance partnership has set up a 4-year Joint Work Programme to better understand and address the relationship between the delivery of public goods and services and equitable economic growth in cities. 

You can follow the event on Twitter @CLGF_News