By Françoise Lieberherr*

The start of the new millennium marks the dawning of the urban age. This will be the major challenge of the 21st century. Three major trends will shape urban evolution throughout the world.

1. The world is becoming preponderantly urban. For the first time in the history of humanity, a majority of the world population will be living in cities, and urban growth will be strongest in developing countries. In these regions, the urbanisation process is not what it was in the industrialised world. Strong demographic growth and a lack of human and financial resources characterise it. This urban transition goes hand in hand with accelerating trends relative to poverty and homelessness, ethnic conflict, crime, violence and social exclusion.

2. Governments become more decentralised. The last decade was marked by widespread political, fiscal and administrative decentralisation affecting different countries to a varying degree. The aim of decentralisation is to render countries more efficient, and link public, private and community sectors in an effort to make them more accountable to citizens. Unfortunately, the decentralisation process is often implemented without the requisite institutional and financial accompanying measures. Alongside the State and the market, civil society has an increasingly important role to play in the partnership that promises to pave the way towards new forms of democratic governance.

3. Cities become both more global and more local. The development of communication and transport technologies has caused towns to join interdependent networks, facilitating their access to international markets. The birth of "global cities" (Sassen 1991) leads to a concentration of industrial production sites and of services, innovation, decision-making and financing, and creates new hierarchies between large, medium-sized and small urban centres. In parallel to this “globalisation impact”, local conditions influence or determine the rise of local authorities and projects launched by civil society.

Priority challenges

The fact that the world has become increasingly urban in terms of population density, spatial distribution, economic activity, social behaviour and cultural models, generates the following priority challenges:

- The autonomy of local authorities via decentralisation and greater democracy, should foster social equity and civic responsibility.

- Participatory urban governance should contribute to the promotion of the "open city", in which all individuals benefit from its opportunities regardless of income, sex, age, race or religion.

- The fight against urban poverty, based on an approach that makes the poor the focal point of development, should view them not as victims but as responsible and capable citizens endowed with knowledge, know-how, networks and rights.

- Actions for cities without slums should foster the transformation of shantytowns, and their integration within the larger urban environment through poverty alleviation strategies, improved

infrastructures, and the provision of basic services and housing. This will require positive policies that refuse “bulldozer strategies” and insist upon the right of the poor to a decent life.

- Adequate drinking water supply and sanitation, survival and dignity for the poor according to UN slogan, inadequate access to water represents an explosive challenge that threatens the life and living conditions of over two billion of the world’s inhabitants.

- The urban environment registers growing threats to its equilibrium: the day to day existence of hundreds of millions of city dwellers in the South is marked – and marred – by waste proliferation, uncontrolled waste discharge, polluted water, household and external air pollution, plus the risk of environmental disasters.

- Sustainable cities. The majority of cities in the South, with their growing poverty, environmental deterioration, inequalities, social problems, crime and other forms of insecurity, project an image of nonsustainability.

International urban cooperation

International urban cooperation has attempted to meet these challenges for decades, although financial resources for interventions in this still largely unrecognised area are limited. Twentieth century approaches evolved from a pessimistic vision with its fear of uncontrolled population growth towards a more positive view of cities as a driving force behind national markets and the global economy. In parallel, development strategies went from the promotion of rural development as a means of curtailing urbanisation, to an approach based on urban management. In our inequitable world, development strategies should promote the idea of the city with equal rights for all, against the divided city where slums and “rich man’s ghettos” exist side by side, and against social exclusion – of the poor, of women, of individuals along ethnic or colour lines. Cities should also promote a civic culture in which people see themselves as responsible citizens and not just as clients of urban services. It involves the commitment to a new social contract that will make the cities of the 21st century living - and livable.

The urban dimension of Swiss Development Cooperation

The SDC has been dealing with urban development issues for over 20 years. At first, it funded several projects backing micro-companies and the informal economy, particularly in the housing sector. This corresponded to the directives established by the urban guidelines of 1980, which focused on regional integration, local development and access to services. The number of urban projects multiplied (15 between 1982 and 1985, and 41 in the following years). They operated primarily in Cameroon, Burundi, Indonesia and Bolivia, but tended to be ad-hoc and dispersed. In 1987, the SDC set up a separate urban unit in Sectoral Division. Among other projects it established a sectoral program for the 1990-1992 period, an urban development policy in 1995 based on past experience, followed by a strategic document in 1998-2001.

An overview of Swiss urban activities gave rise to an assessment of their importance for SDC development work. They include sectoral projects (water, health, etc.) and global urban management projects to improve the general functioning of cities. Between 1993 and 1998, more than 270 SDC actions were conducted in urban areas in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, with an annual bilateral budget of CHF 156 million, corresponding to 32% o the

SDC’s bilateral budget.

Currently, the SDC backs urban programs in various countries, such as Burkina Faso, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Serbia and others. These programs focus primarily on local governance, decentralisation, capacity building, the consolidation of civil society, the creation of infrastructures, and poverty alleviation.

The SDC also takes part in the international political debate via the principal multilateral and bilateral urban networks, including those of the Urban Management Program UMP (PNUD, UN-HABITAT, the World Bank, and bilateral agencies) and the of the EU Commission’s urban experts’ group. The SDC’s urban development policy, based on an innovative transsectoral concept of urban phenomena, establishes a very large framework for a systemic approach focusing on two main areas: intermediate cities and the interdependence between the urban and the rural environment. Intermediate cities act as a relay between large urban agglomerations, small towns of local scope and rural areas. They also offer the best conditions for the promotion of participatory governance and democratic citizenship, as illustrated by the SDC’s urban Yogyakarta programs in Indonesia, Nam Dinh and Dong Hoi in Vietnam, and the medium-sized cities program in Burkina Faso. Urban-rural interdependence provides tangible opportunities for the implementation of strategies to boost the synergies between urban and rural regions and their complementary potential.

The SDC’s urban development policy focuses on four strategic areas:

- urban management and governance, as the two mainstays of improved urban organisation in terms of productivity,human living conditions and sustainability.

- the urban economy, above all the informal one, which provides a majority of city dwellers with survival strategies.

- urban poverty, viewed in multidimensional terms and support to initiatives launched by the most disadvantaged urban people, and aims for greater social equity.

- a sustainable environment, via integrated approaches to ensure better living conditions, particularly for the poor by reducing negative impact on their health and vital environment.

The SDC’s current urban aims focus on the international political debate, the capitalisation of past experiences in the urban sphere, and strategic considerations to improve synergies between actions.

* President of the S-DEV Geneva 05 International Advisory Board

Read more on Urbanews No 9:
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