Commonwealth Local Government Forum

Cities and urbanisation

In 2014, 54% of the global population was living in urban areas and this is predicted to rise to 66% by 2050. The characteristics of cities differ greatly across countries and regions of the Commonwealth and some issues facing large and megacities will differ from those faced by secondary cities and towns and across the Commonwealth, the degree of urbanisation varies significantly. Whilst 38.1% of the population of the Commonwealth lived in urban settlements in 2014, Commonwealth Europe is 82% urban and Commonwealth South-East Asia 78% with Commonwealth Africa 41%, Commonwealth South Asia 33% and the Commonwealth Pacific Islands 18% urban. Achievement of SDG 11 will require cities to actively address the key dimensions of sustainable development – the economy, the society and the environment and to be inclusive, and proactive to ensure safety of all citizens. Subthemes includes urbanisation and migration, urban planning, informal settlements, formal and informal urban economy, disaster risk reduction and emergency planning, safety and security in cities, and smart cities and ICT.

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Featured

How Matauranga Maori is being woven into place-based regulatory decisions in Aotearoa

Remember the Flicking Tail of the Lizard: how matauranga Maori is being woven into place-based regulatory decisions in Aotearoa. Te Mana Rauhï Taiao, the Environmental Protection Authority, is adopting a new and comprehensive approach to bringing mätauranga – the Mäori knowledge system – into its regulatory practice. This will potentially have an impact on decision-making on environmental protection in your local area.

Author: Kevin Jenkins Publisher: Policy Quarterly Publication year: 2019


Metropolitan Governance Principles and Practice Prepared for the Fiscal Management Division

This paper identifies a range of governance mechanisms to support the efficient and equitable provision of public services and improve policy coordination in metropolitan areas. It provides examples from cities in the Global North and Global South, and takes a closer look at metropolitan governance in Brazil, where the constitution makes it challenging to create formal metropolitan structures. The paper suggests that the choice of metropolitan governance structure depends upon how one weighs conflicting considerations—prioritizing efficiency, access, and accountability points to smaller local government units whereas economies of scale, externalities, and equity suggest larger governments. The review of metropolitan governance models does not point to one model that could work everywhere because national and local context matter. Nevertheless, the paper suggests that countries should develop more effective systems of governance for metropolitan areas if they want to improve service delivery, cost sharing, and decision-making. A regional structure that encompasses the entire economic region would ensure that services are delivered in a coordinated fashion across municipal boundaries and improve the process as a whole by reaping the benefits of economies of scale and internalizing externalities.

Author: Enid Slack Publisher: Inter-American Development Bank Publication year: 2019


First Ramphal Institute Conference on Megacities and Air Pollution: Report of Proceedings

The Ramphal Institute conference on megacities and air pollution, on 27-28 September 2018, was a pioneering exercise to bring together experts from Dhaka, New Delhi, Gauteng, Lagosand London to exchange ideas on how to reduce toxicity in the air we breathe. The RamphalInstitute, with its vocation for the Commonwealth, organised an interactive event with the invaluable sponsorship support of Elsevier, the global data and analytics company specialising in science  and health. The Institute has been working on megacity issues with the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, Dhaka, theNational Institute of Urban Affairs, New Delhi, the Gauteng City Region Observatory, Johannesburg,and the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, Lagos. Our aim in this conference wasto focus on improving air quality, looking not only at the science, but at policy and public relations aspects as they affect what city leaders can do.

Author: Ramphal Institute Publisher: Ramphal Institute Publication year: 2019


Capital cities and urban sustainability

Capital Cities and Urban Sustainability examines how capital cities use their unique hub resources to develop and disseminate innovative policy solutions to promote sustainability. Cities are taking a leading role in defining a sustainable future at a time when national, state, and regional governments in several countries do not provide sufficient leadership. Capital cities stand out among cities as likely leading drivers in the effort to empower sustainable innovation as they provide a hub for connecting a variety of key constituencies. While acknowledging the successes capital cities have achieved, the international, multi-disciplinary contributors to this work discuss how there is room to do more and improve. The promotion of specific sustainability policies in crucial areas such as clean water provision, high tech innovation, public procurement contracting, and improving flood control in capital cities is examined through various global case studies. The examples range from relatively rich capital cities, such as Copenhagen, where the well-financed hub would be expected to succeed in generating sustainable policies, to poorer cities such as Phnom Penh, where such an optimistic outcome can seem less likely.

Author: Robert W Orttung Publisher: Routledge Publication year: 2019


Governing Cities in a Global Era: Urban Innovation, Competition and Democratic Reform (edited by Robin Hambleton and Jill Simone Gross)

This book is about the role that ideas, institutions, and actors play in structuring how we govern cities and, more specifically, what projects or paths are taken. Global changes require that we rethink governance and urban policy, and that we do so through the dual lens of theory and practice.

Author: Hambleton, R., Gross, Jill Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Publication year: 2007


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