CLGF and its Indian partners continue to work on the development of a roadmap for action on sustainable urbanisation for Madhya Pradesh in follow up to the policy dialogue which took place in Bhopal in February. A set of consultation and on-line sessions have been taking place in March to refine and prioritize key action areas for sustainable urban development in the State. At the end of March a revised roadmap for action will be presented back to the State Government and will serve as a guide of CLGF’s upcoming activities in the State.
29 key action areas were identified by meeting participants during the February dialogue. In the follow up sessions these have been broadly grouped into six focal areas including governance and decentralization, municipal finance, local capacity and skills, built environment and inclusive urban development, climate resilience, and economy participation and implementation. The groups discussed priorities around improving municipal finance through increased own-source revenue and better public finance management, enhancing local capacity through professional development and digital technology adoption, and addressing challenges in the built environment including housing, transport connectivity, and regional planning. They also reminded that the roadmap needs to be grounded in the specific legislative context of the State and specifically the Municipal Act and the Viksit Madhya Pradesh@2047 Vision Document.
While CLGF is still moving through the consultation and finalisation process key recommendations to date have included focusing on Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and better planning for these within a regional framework of urban, peri-urban and rural environments, last mile infrastructure and transport solutions that could help prioritise sustainability as well as increased prioritization of public participation and downward accountability were also stressed. The participants emphasised the need to address structural issues preventing effective implementation of urban development initiatives and highlighted the importance of involving civil society and private sector expertise in this process.
Participants across the process have also stressed the importance of ensuring implementation of the roadmap. This will also be a key indicator of success for CLGF and its partners in the Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Initiative (CSCC). The roadmap is being designed as a framing document that can support and valorise partnerships and complementarity, not a tool for one actor to implement alone. As one sporting mechanism CLGF will, through the CSCN put in place a network for MP cities to exchange on their main challenges and learn from each other towards a sharing of home grown good practices.
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