CLGF co-hosted a side-event at the Habitat III Conference on the challenges and solutions to increase productivity and job creation in cities on 17 October in Quito.

In the context of growing inequality in cities with roughly one quarter of the world’s urban population – almost 900 million living and working in slums, the session looked at ways to promote economic growth and create jobs by exploring the link between local service provision and equitable economic growth. 

As part of the Cities Alliance Joint Work Programme on Equitable Economic Growth in Cities, the session explored some of the 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.

Speaking at the session, CLGF Deputy Secretary-General Lucy Slack said, “We need to create an enabling environment for equitable economic growth and improve the quality of local government staff in order to professionalise service delivery.” 
 

Speakers included Clare Short, Chair of Cities Alliance Management Board; Lucy Slack, Deputy Secretary-General, CLGF; 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 and Mario Pezzini, Director OECD Development Centre.
 

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. 

Find out more about the side event