Information Technology in Municipalties
and Major Problem of Sustainable Devlopment , How We Can Empowering Municipalties
and Enviorment ?-----------------Nagar
Panchyat Ashrafpur Kichucha is Taken This Draft from WORD BANK, UNDP, ADB and Municipalties polcy. THANKS WORD
BANK, UNDP,ADB ….
Information Technology is regarded as the key
technology and its playing vital role in overall development of a country. It's
the "brain" and not "brawn" that is the key to sustainable
economic growth. While the second industrial revolution was initiated in the
labor-intensive manufacturing industry , and it's very
clear that the third revolution is driven by the knowledge-based services
sector. IT is being used widely in
macro-economic planning and decision making, public administration, education,
health-care, manufacturing, finance and banking, transportation, commerce,
publishing, energy conservation and environmental management.
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Enviorment, Finance and Sustainable Devlopment is
Major Problem in Urban Area-
Strategic Urban
Environmental Planning is an important tool to address urban environmental
issues in a systematic and planned manner. Cities in developing countries face
myriad urban environmental problems. Commonly known as the Brown Agenda, these
include lack of sanitation, lack of adequate solid waste collection services,
water pollution from untreated municipal and industrial wastewater, indoor and
ambient air pollution, contamination of soil and land from improper disposal of
solid and hazardous waste and so on. It is important to address these problems
for meaningful improvements to be achieved in enhancing urban livability in
cities of developing countries.
Urban environmental problems are generally very complex in nature due to
their multi-sectoral nature. Air pollution owes as
much to use of unclean fuels (in houses and industries) as to vehicular
pollution, only exacerbated by traffic congestion. Poor sanitation is a result
not only of poor drainage systems but also of dumping of solid waste in drains.
Further, especially in larger cities, urban environmental problems span across
multiple jurisdictions, such as collection, transportation and disposal of solid
waste or water pollution in rivers traversing through several adjacent cities
and towns. There are other problems that hinder proper urban environmental
management, which include lack of adequate knowledge (data and analyzed
information) on urban environmental problems, poor institutional capacity for
planning as well as managing urban environment. Towards Urban
Environmental Strategies. Addressing the complex urban
environmental problems, in order to improve urban livability through Urban
Environmental Strategies (UES), involves taking stock of the existing urban
environmental problems, their comparative analysis and prioritization, setting
out objectives and targets, and identification of various measures to meet
these objectives. This is followed by the preparation and appraisal of
alternative packages, the reexamining of the urban environmental
objectives (to ensure that they are affordable and achievable), preparation of
financial packages for the UES, preparation of concrete action and implementation
plans for the selected urban environmental objectives, and the
institutionalization of the UES. The process does not end here, but is pursued
through monitoring and evaluation of the implementation process (for which
urban environmental management indictors are necessary), with feedbacks leading
to the updating of the UES based on implementation experience.
Strategic Environmental Assessment
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is a decision-aiding tool which
complements the process of strategic planning with: (i) a solid assessment of environmental and other
issues; (ii) a well structured public and government debate on
these issues; and (iii) a mechanism to take the results of the
above assessment and debate into account. In other words, SEA is a
toolkit in itself to improve information, participation and transparency in
strategic planning. The main concern in SEA is always with environment,
but it is often used to assess social issues as well. Increasingly, its
usefulness has been found in the inter-relationship among environment, social
and economic issues. Thus, it is a tool which supports and complements
strategic urban environmental planning. The purpose of the Urban Environmental
Management (UEM) Toolkit is to strengthen urban environmental management
decision-making and planning practices. For its implementation, the UEM
Toolkit aims to provide decision-makers with mechanisms (i.e., management
indicators) to gauge the progress of their urban environmental management
activities from a life cycle perspective. The Toolkit will also provide a
range of examples of urban environmental management activities that are
recognized as Best Management Practices (BMPs),
including development policy strategies that integrate poverty reduction,
cross-sectoral interests, and local-national-global
perspectives. Ultimately, the Toolkit is intended to serve as a
contribution for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
A key concept behind the development of this (UEM Indicators) section
of the Toolkit is to identify environmental management indicators that go
beyond a description of a condition and effectively link to the decision-making
process, the latter often being a management element. The BMPs are to be related to the planning decision, to
elements of environmental management, and to the indicators themselves.
The process for selecting indicators must consider the need for
flexibility, as well as the contribution to an integrated vision. The
flexibility is required because, while developing countries may historically
lack certain key data, significant advances in urban environmental data
collection continue to be made (e.g., through the establishment of urban air
quality monitoring networks and the assessment of health impacts resulting from
the changes to environmental quality). The set of environmental
indicators selected must contribute to the integrated vision of
decision-makers. Therefore, the set must contemplate a variety of
relationships, including inter-sectoral, multi-media,
life cycle, and major
themes.
This paper reviews the causes and effects of
urbanization in the Asian and Pacific Region, highlights the resulting demands
for improved management and servicing of urban growth, and proposes a strategy
for Bank action in the sector. Because of the enormous variety of urban
conditions and stages of economic growth in developing member countries (DMCs), the development of an urban strategy for the region
is complex and needs to recognize the importance and diversity of country-specific
policies and programs. However, a number of common themes underlie the
strategy.
At the macro level, urbanization is strongly linked
to economic growth and has contributed positively to the gains made in many
countries throughout the Region. Measures to improve the extent, management,
and operation of urban services benefit both local and national economies. At
the same time, urban areas are exposed to external forces over which they have
little control, such as the progressive globalization of decision-making and
the economic crisis currently affecting the Region. The Bank’s urban strategy,
therefore, must be both robust and flexible to respond to such forces and their
impacts.
The phenomenal rate at which urbanization is
occurring has overwhelmed those tasked with managing urban areas, particularly
in the poorer countries of the Region. Exacerbated by a flood of rural-urban
migrants, cities have witnessed tremendous growth of unserviced
slum and squatter areas where millions of urban poor residents lack adequate
access to potable water and sanitation services. A key theme is the way in
which the problems of environmental degradation of urban poor communities, and
urban poverty in particular, can be addressed. Related to these challenges are
issues concerning improvement in the status of women and other vulnerable
groups.
Potential improvements in the provision and
maintenance of urban infrastructure and services are constrained by poor urban
governance, management, and finance. Outdated legal, institutional, and
governance traditions, as well as inadequate reform measures have constrained
the pace of development. Thus a major theme is to address urban governance and
the improvement of urban management through innovative approaches in the design
and implementation of development activities; participatory processes at the
local level; and the building of partnerships between corporate, community, and
public sectors. The more efficient use of existing financial tools, the
introduction of market-based approaches to local government operations, and the
use of innovative financing mechanisms will also be required.
Achieving sustainable urban development is a final
crosscutting theme, defined here as meeting the growing needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
This is in accordance with the recommendations of the United Nations Conference
on Environment and Development (1992), known as the “Earth Summit,” and the
Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (1996), Habitat II. The
comprehensive Global Plan of Action adopted at Habitat II incorporates policies
for the sustainable development of settlements and the increased role of local
governments in urban development and management. The urban strategy is designed
to achieve significant increasesin sustainability
within the framework defined by the long-term goal of full urban sustainability
in DMCs in environmental, financial, and
socioeconomic terms.
Development of the Urban Strategy
Responding to the growth of increasingly complex
urban areas requires a review of Bank approaches to urban program and project
formulation, prioritization, and implementation within and among DMCs, taking into account lessons learned from the Bank’s
30-year experience in the sector. While DMCs can be
broadly grouped by stage of economic growth in terms of the priority needs of
their urban areas, urban strategies must respond to competitive and comparative
advantages, local urban economic circumstance, and other location-specific
concerns. Therefore, this paper proposes a broad regional strategy for the
urban sector that can provide both a framework for specific DMC urban
strategies and a guide for Bank action in the sector.
Most Asian cities have grown and diversified
economically well ahead of their capacity to manage development. Better
governance is required if cities are to function as engines of growth, avoid
further environmental deterioration, and provide residents with at least a
reasonable quality of life. Because the management of cities is complex,
involving many stakeholders in the public and private sector whose cooperation
must be obtained, the requisite institutional structures are of necessity
diverse, complicated, and imperfect.
Urban governance encompasses institutional
strengthening and capability building, decentralization, community
participation, and involvement of the private sector. Infused within these
components are four principles that form the foundation of good governance as
part of improved urban management: (i) accountability
of public sector staff and organizations; (ii) greater participation of
community and interest groups in decision making on the delivery of services
and demand management; (iii) predictability of markets, regulations, and legal
frameworks; and (iv) transparency in dealings between the private sector and
government.
Implicit within urban governance is the necessity
of a holistic, comprehensive view of urban economic development,
and a clear understanding of its linkages to investment promotion, competitive
advantage, urban management capacity, and responsiveness to the requirements of
the private sector. Urban economic development is an interrelated, complex
process that requires the creation of an enabling environment that supports
productive firms and individuals; promotes conditions for efficient urban
markets for land, labor, and credit; and capitalizes on an urban center’s
competitive and comparative advantages. Cities and other urban centers must be
able to develop such a vision and an associated enabling environment through
intensive consultation, participatory community processes, and innovative
partnerships. Importantly, urban centers must be able to articulate this vision
to the world at large, while at the same time strengthen urban governance
through a continuing process of self-monitoring and evaluation.
Decentralization
Decentralization represents a profound shift in the
manner and system of urban governance and empowerment of elected local
officials. Political, fiscal, and administrative decentralization has been
occurring to varying degrees in most DMCs over the
past decade. By decreasing the role of central government and augmenting the
authority of responsive local institutions, accountability between the providers
and users of local services can be greatly increased. Examples can be found in
the enactment of the Local Government Code (1991) in the
Community Participation
Community participation has increased in urban
development in many DMCs through the involvement of nongovernment organizations (NGOs), business associations,
religious associations, environmental pressure groups, associations of slum
dwellers, and other community-based organizations (CBOs)
in many aspects of urban development. Such groups may become involved in local
planning initiatives, taking responsibility for infrastructure improvement and
maintenance, obtaining innovative means of credit such as the Community
Mortgage Program in the
The Private Sector
Many local governments are increasingly adopting an
indirect enabling role, i.e., focusing on policy making, planning, regulation,
and protection, while private sector companies take full or part responsibility
for the delivery of one or more city services. New relationships have been
created, while public sector facilities and services (such as water supply and
sanitation) have been corporatized (restructured as
corporations) or privatized. For example, Metro Manila’s water supply is now
managed by two private sector concessionaires. Special purpose authorities,
such as the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority in
Urban Finance
Enhanced sources of funding for urban development
are urgently required in most DMC cities as part of the need to overhaul their
financial management systems. Local governments are being given greater
responsibility for the provision and operation of urban services without the
authority to raise extra revenues or enjoy fiscal independence. The typical
current mix of local land- and property-based and other taxes is inadequate.
User charges may sustain or partly sustain the operations of city services in
sectors such as water supply, sanitation, and power but other services such as
roads, drainage, and health depend heavily on frequently.13 erratic transfers
from central, state, or provincial governments. Such problems have hastened
various initiatives under way in the Region to attract private capital. For
example, many cities have contracted out part of their solid waste management
services (as in Bangkok) privatized water supply and sewerage (as in Manila)
and are in the process of deregulating transport services.
The potential for using municipal bonds as a
cost-effective means to finance urban infrastructure is increasingly evident
for DMCs, i.e., using domestic private capital rather
than sovereign borrowing by national governments. In
Urban Infrastructure and Services
a. Institutional Strengthening and Capability Building
Many local governments desperately lack the
required skills to manage growth, provide urban services, and maintain
infrastructure. Often training and capability building initiatives are
undertaken in an uncoordinated, unfocused fashion, replicating previous
programs and failing to enhance skills of urban managers and their staff. In
addition, there is an urgent need to promote and strengthen existing and new
institutional structures that are responsible for, or can facilitate, urban
development, such as the League of City Mayors in the
In addition to the urgent need for enhanced human resource skills at all levels of the urban development process, the institutional structures and the relationships between these structures need to be improved. Better horizontal coordination is critically needed in cities, particularly as urban areas spread across several local administrations. Policy dialogue with and assistance to metropolitan authorities are required to redesign institutional frameworks, revise regulations, and restructure decision-making mechanisms. Better vertical coordination between central (state and provincial) and local governments is increasingly essential as decentralization policies become more common and are progressively implemented.
Water Supply, Sanitation, and Solid Waste
In most of the poorer DMCs,
the quality and quantity of water supply in urban areas fall far short of
demand. Faced with an unreliable or intermittent supply and variable quality, a
high proportion of residents buy potable water from vendors and/or are obliged
to boil, disinfect, or filter it to protect their health. The Bank estimates
that some 93 million people in DMC urban areas have no access to safe drinking
water (ADB 1997d and 1998). Such shortages contribute to high levels of
waterborne disease in many cities, with particular impacts on the vulnerable
under-five age group. There are many reasons for such inadequate supplies. At
the water resource level, management problems are caused by overextraction
of groundwater, salination, unrecorded extraction by
industry using deep wells, and pollution of raw water supplies. At the water
delivery level, many water utilities provide deficient service through
inadequate metering,high rates of unaccounted-for
water6 (55-60 percent in Jakarta and Manila), damage and
contamination of the pipe network, arbitrary decisions on water tariffs, low
collection efficiencies, and exclusion of supplies to informal settlement
areas. In the last few years, one response to these failures has been
experiments in contracting out or privatizing all or part of city water
services, as in
The five main challenges in the urban water supply subsector are (i) meeting rapidly
increasing demand for household and industrial water within agreed limits, (ii)
increasing investments in new water delivery systems that will meet 24-hour
demand, (iii) upgrading and managing existing systems to run more efficiently,
(iv) safeguarding social equity by provision of potable water to poor
households, and (v) achieving full cost recovery.7
While investments in water supply have enjoyed a
fairly high priority in most cities, the provision of adequate sanitation is a
more widespread problem, with some 300 million urban residents in DMCs estimated to be without adequate facilities. In many
cities, most wastewater is discharged without treatment. Where sewerage is
provided, the network frequently functions as a combined wastewater and stormwater system. While septic tanks can provide an
intermediate level of treatment, the resulting discharge in built-up areas
often enters the street drainage system where it poses a potential health
hazard, made worse in many DMC cities that are subject to flooding. Even where
substantial investments in sewerage have been made, as in
The Bank has financed 14 stand-alone sewage
treatment projects through 1998, in the PRC;
The immediate challenge for sanitation services is
how to (i) address the perceived high need but low
demand for urgent remedial actions, (ii) develop alternatives to
capital-intensive systems, and (iii) overcome the low levels of willingness to
pay where households have alternative means of disposal. In the longer term,
the challenge will be to move beyond the provision of sanitation systems and
address wider issues of development-environmental interactions at the city and
regional levels.
The sheer volume of solid waste generated in urban
areas around the Region is staggering, and poses a continuing challenge to the
health and quality of life in urban areas. In
Urban Transport
Urban transportation is critical to sustainable
development in DMCs in terms of quality of life and
economic success. As traffic congestion in the larger cities of the Region
becomes chronic, the urban poor suffer because of inadequate public transport,
and the general quality of life decreases through long commuting times,
accidents, and pollution (much of which is vehicle-generated), and the urban
economy must absorb significant economic costs related to lost productivity and
inefficiency. The sheer scale of megacities
in the Region puts great demands on transport systems capable of moving large
quantities of passengers and freight at affordable prices. While motorization
levels are low in many DMCs relative to levels in
developed countries, major increases are forecast and virtually all governments
support the trend, implicitly or explicitly. In
Few DMC cities have well-integrated systems of primary, secondary, and tertiary roads and many lack road space in their central areas with consequent impacts on traffic management and public transport efficiency. While some larger cities have developed mass transit systems, such investments have been costly, and characterized by long time-frames for planning, design, and construction. Such schemes often highlight the lack of coordination between land use and transport planning, and the roles of the public and private sectors in urban transport strategies. The challenge is to make investments in urban transportation sustainable through coordination, both in terms of physical provision and economic and financial policies, and by comprehensively addressing related issues such as a city’s balance in the locations of employment and housing. Investments should incorporate concepts of demand management, and consider appropriate roles for the public and private sectors.
Urban Housing
Access to affordable urban housing is an increasing
problem in the Region as population pressure increases and land prices rise.
The negative impacts are demonstrated through (i)
increased sharing of dwellings by two or more families, (ii) increased
squatting on public and private land, (iii) occupation of infrastructure
easements and hazardous or ecologically sensitive areas, and (iv)
outright homelessness. There are about 2.17 people per room in urban
The bulk of housing in DMCs
has been and is being provided by individual households, CBOs,
and private developers. Over the past 30 years, the Region’s public sector has
generally failed to provide affordable shelter for low-income households. Prime
factors have included failure to meet target group affordability without
significant subsidies and inadequate financial resources. Recent DMC policies
based on urban upgrading have been more successful, but have often suffered
from a lack of “ownership” in terms of the residents’ involvement in planning
and design, responsibilities for O&M, and contributions to desired
services. A major challenge for DMC governments is to recognize in policy
making that a greater or lesser share of housing in their urban areas is being
provided by informal housing supply markets, and to develop policies that will
help improve such housing markets.
The limited availability of formal credit is a
major constraint on the supply of affordable housing in most DMCs, but there are a variety of informal or semiformal
credit mechanisms. For example, some low-income families who can only afford
minimum standard housing, usually in unsanitary environments and without secure
tenure, will frequently fund improvements through help from family and friends
in an incremental development process. Other families may join informal,
community-based savings groups and obtain loans from those groups. Such
self-help processes mean that over time a substandard shanty can be transformed
into an adequate low-cost house. The conventional housing finance approach
taken by most housing finance institutions in the Region is not usually
available to such families. The challenge is to build on the experience of
community-based housing finance mechanisms being used in some DMCs (such as the SEWA Bank in India, the Community
Mortgage Program in the Philippines, and the Urban Community Development Office
in Thailand) to create large-scale and effective provision of housing finance
to low-income households. This entails, in part, strengthening links between
the formal and informal finance sectors.
Urban Land Management
The critical role of land supply in supporting
quality of life in urban areas demands a holistic approach. However, such an
approach is far from being met in many DMCs where
large numbers of poor and now middle class families, as well as small businesses,
are prevented from gaining access to land for development. Many obtain land
illegally and then face problems due to the lack of secure tenure, inability to
use land as collateral, lack of services, or other setbacks. More efficiency,
fairness, and transparency is needed in urban land
markets.
Many bottlenecks in the land market slow land supply and increase prices. For example, land accounts for some 40 percent of site development costs in Metro Manila. Typical problems include (i) inappropriate or unaffordable land use, building standards and regulations, such as unrealistic ratios of required public land to total site areas; (ii) no allowance for mixed land uses; (iii) cumbersome and expensive procedures for land transfer (including cadastral mapping, titling, and registration); (iv) land held vacant for speculative purposes; (v) lack of information to the public on land market indicators; and (vi) failures in coordination among agencies concerned with servicing new urban land. All too often, these failures in the land market are compounded by irrelevant spatial planning processes that are unable to keep up with, let alone guide, new urban development.
The Challenge of Sustainable Urban Development
Urban development is sustainable if it permanently
enhances the capacity of urban society to maintain or improve the quality of
life without exhausting nonreplaceable resources or
damaging the economic, cultural, or natural environment. At the same time,
sustainable urban development should serve to reduce poverty while
strengthening the ability of local institutions to involve and empower citizens
and ensuring that financial resources are sufficient to allow replacement of
assets and new investments.
Quality of Life
The quality of life in urban areas includes concepts
that can be measured to some degree: freedom from hunger; capacity to live a
healthy life; access to education, shelter, and basic services; and a secure
and livable environment at home and at the workplace. Equally important but
less quantifiable are concepts such as family stability, freedom from crime,
and full involvement in the community. Rapid urbanization often disrupts the
social, cultural, and religious pattern of people’s lives. For example, the
tensions caused by the integration of migrants from more traditional
lifestyles, and the conflicts between traditional close family relationships
and the more individualistic relationships characteristic of large cities.
Where whole communities become the vehicle for social, economic, political, or religious
discontent cities may become flash points for unrest, as at times in
Urban quality of life presents a highly varied
picture across the Region. In the middle-income countries of East and
Urban Poverty
Urban poverty—often more harsh and extreme than
rural poverty—is widespread in the Region, particularly in
The complexities of defining urban poverty mean
that data must be used with great care. For example, the income level needed to
avoid poverty will vary by urban area; local costs of living; the availability
of free or subsidized education, health, and other services; access to water
supply and other infrastructure; and the number and age of dependents in the
household. As a result, two families in two neighborhoods of the same city,
classified as having the same income, may in fact require very different income
levels to avoid poverty. Simplistic definitions of poverty also ignore the
deprivations in quality of life when families respond to falling incomes and
rising prices by, for example, taking children out of school to earn money for
the family or having one parent move to where job possibilities are better.
Quality of life decreases when a family must move in search of cheaper housing.
These effects are being highlighted in the current economic crises in some DMCs. Poverty reduction programs have to be widened to
accommodate such diversity.
Households headed by women, more common in cities,
are particularly vulnerable to poverty. Women generally have more limited
access to education, and suffer disparities in employment opportunities and
wage levels compared to their male counterparts. Women have the additional
burdens of culture and tradition that can manifest in legal and social obstacles
to access to land. Faced with limited opportunities and the necessity to meet
basic needs, many poor women are forced into highly vulnerable and dangerous
jobs in the commercial sex industry and other degrading means of employment.
Additionally, domestic violence poses a serious, and largely unacknowledged,
threat to women.
Urban poverty has many causes. Some of these are
the willingness of new migrants to take low paid jobs in the city, increases in
the cost of land, long journeys to work, less support from an extended family
network, exposure to greater environmental risk, and greater vulnerability to
changes in market conditions in urban areas. Conditions of urban poverty are
worsened by the scale and speed of urbanization in many DMCs,
forces with which municipal governments cannot keep pace. In a situation of
scarce resource allocation, the urban poor are badly placed to compete for
essential services and shelter. Biases in investments, standards, pricing
policies, and institutional structures often skew services in favor of the
better-off in cities. For example, access to water is generally provided
unevenly among income groups, with formal supply systems being denied to poor
communities who are forced to turn to water vendors and often pay much more per
liter than higher income households. This is often due to unavailability of
reticulated supplies to these communities or the high one-time connection fee
that most urban poor cannot afford.
The challenge is to reduce urban poverty through a
combination of approaches, a mandate given particular urgency in light of major
increases in the urban poor in many DMCs affected by
the current Asian financial crisis. A range of measures is being explored,
including employment creation, credit for informal businesses, education and
literacy training, provision of legal tenure to squatters, improved social and
infrastructure services and access to shelter, and support for better human
rights. This includes the right to vote in electing representative government
and to organize at the community level.
The Urban Environment
Urban environmental conditions in the Region are
threatened by rapid and often uncontrolled growth, inadequate and poorly
maintained infrastructure, industrialization, and increasing vehicle densities.
Urban areas in the region are found at all stages of the transition between
traditional public health problems (e.g., poor air quality, water-related
diseases, malnutrition, and lack of medical resources), and more modern health
risks (e.g., exposure to toxic/hazardous substances, industrial and
vehicle-generated air pollution, noise, vibration, and stress-related
illnesses). In terms of air quality, the World Health Organization calculated
that in the early 1990s, 12 of the 15 cities in the world with the highest
levels of particulates, and 6 with the highest levels of sulfur dioxide in the
atmosphere were in
Urban environmental improvements require
institutional coordination between government departments, agencies concerned
with sustainable environmental management, and private sector interests. In
practice, this has proved to be difficult to achieve in DMCs.
Lack of political commitment and environmental awareness and poor enforcement
are also cited as major causes of low levels of investment in environmental
management facilities. The institutional framework for better environmental
management is further complicated in instances where interventions must address
multiple administrative boundaries, such as in the case of a polluted river
that flows through several municipalities. In recent years, however, there has
been growing pressure on DMC governments and industries by environmental and
other concerned groups to improve conditions in urban areas. Unfortunately,
because of worsening macroeconomic conditions in many DMCs,
environmental concerns are likely to be accorded lower priority than job
creation, especially for low-income DMCs grappling
with basic issues of urban poverty and public health needs.
To date, most urban environmental management in the
Region has consisted of remedial action through infrastructure investment to
clean up pollution. Often, as in the case of wastewater collection and
treatment, poorer urban households can not afford such actions,
and the remedial actions may not be able to keep up with demand. While the Bank
has undertaken a variety of projects within a broad definition of environment,
it has implemented only a few projects focusing specifically on urban
environmental improvement. The difficult, but ultimately worthwhile, task is to
develop preventative policies that can forestall future environmental
degradation without imposing impossible financial burdens on governments.
Preventative action need not be capital intensive; for example, the following
can all be implemented at low costs: (i) policies to
guide growth away from environmentally sensitive areas, (ii) market-based
economic instruments limiting levels of discharge that force reevaluation or
upgrading of production processes, (iii) development policies aimed at reducing
vehicle usage, and (iv) the greater use of economic resource pricing in cost
recovery mechanisms. However, given that the benefits of sustainable
environmental programs and policies are often only evident over the long term,
communities (and local-level policy- and decision-makers in particular) need to
be convinced of the value of these approaches through awareness initiatives.
Policies for Promoting Urban Governance
Principles
Four principles for achieving good
governance underlie all policies for strengthening urban management in DMCs.
i.
Accountability. If city managers and staff
are to be more accountable to central government policy makers and to
residents, their work will need to be assessed using performance indicators and
benchmark criteria. Accountability is also increasingly important in the
delivery of services by the private sector.
ii.
Participation. Greater participation is
an essential prerequisite of good governance, represented by a growing web of
interest groups that want more say in policy development and implementation.
Participatory approaches are of particular relevance to reduce urban poverty
and enhance the role of the informal sector. Community participation will also
be enhanced where the principles of demand management are used to improve
service delivery.
iii.
Predictability. With many cities growing
faster than the institutional capacity to manage their growth, administrative
and legal procedures are often applied unevenly and to the disadvantage of the
poor. An overhaul is required, so that, for instance, housing and land
regulations and standards are affordable to poor families. Innovative land
tenure policies could allow squatter families and informal businesses to enter
the formal housing and land markets. Streamlined procedures for land
registration and the validity of titles give confidence to households and
businesses. In addition, potential private investors in the delivery of city
services need confidence that the legal system is adequate in terms of contract
law, dispute procedures, and clear allocation of responsibilities.
iv.
Transparency. In dealings between the
private sector and local governments, transparency is too often lacking. As an
example, data on land markets is often not freely available, resulting in
increased costs to the potential developer and often the payment of illegal
demands for money. This problem should ease as, for example, computer-based
land information systems facilitate the storage and dissemination of data and
as the benefits of freely available data are realized. To promote transparency
and accountability, specific anticorruption measures should be put in place and
enforced.
Decentralization
Decentralization is a commitment to sustainable
development through empowering citizens and their locally elected officials,
accompanied by a reduction in the monopolization of resources and powers by
central authorities. From the perspective of intervention, external resources
should be used not so much to produce direct results as to strengthen local
capacities to initiate and manage activities that produce benefits for the
local community. This implies a demand-driven process, where communities define
what they feel they need in terms of development, and where participatory
processes for such input are institutionalized. Decentralization should not be
viewed as a goal in itself, but as an instrument for achieving more effective
service delivery systems, opening institutions to wider civic participation,
and increasing public trust in government.
There are compelling reasons for DMCs to pursue decentralization policies, which, properly
conceived, will greatly improve the management of urban areas and support the
better delivery of urban services. The Local Government Code (1991) in the
i.
the simultaneous decentralization of
responsibilities, resources, and autonomy;
ii.
strengthening of local government capabilities,
powers, and responsibilities;
iii.
the collection and diffusion of information on
local government services;
iv.
the retention by central government of certain
functions for reasons of efficiency, such as income redistribution and
macroeconomic policy; and
v.
review of city
government remuneration, incentives, and career structures.
Three critical types of coordination are
needed to support the decentralization process. Policies are needed to address
the following:
i.
Vertical coordination will
remain important to urban management as central government will continue to be
responsible for the legal framework of the public sector and for various
critical functions. Responsibility for services should be
assigned to the level of government whose boundaries best incorporate
the beneficiaries of those services.
ii.
Horizontal coordination will be
needed among public sector stakeholders involved in city development as well as
public-private sector coordination. Cross-border coordination will be needed
where large contiguous urban areas are composed of numerous local governments
(such as the Metro Manila National Capital Region, the
iii.
Internal coordination
mechanisms are critical to overcome poor coordination of interdepartmental, sectoral, spatial, and financial planning; poor
coordination of service provision; inadequate staffing; and unfamiliarity in
dealing with private service delivery companies. In addition, cities face many
cross-sectoral issues such as poverty reduction and
environmental protection that require new arrangements for coordinated action.
Community Participation
85. Development programs funded through external
assistance have often been criticized for having been designed in a top-down
fashion, dictating the kinds of activities that should be undertaken. Such
programs were typically not designed in consultation with stakeholders who
would be affected by the project, or worse, by those required to implement,
operate, and maintain them. The following principles support community
participation:
i.
Support and utilize participatory processes.
Learning from past experience, current development theory encourages
stakeholder participation in community and urban development. For this to work,
people must be aware of the issues, and have the authority to make decisions,
act on them, and mobilize the required resources.
ii.
Develop effective systems for communication,
replication, and feedback. Participatory decision-making processes, by design,
require decentralized local governments that can be effectively responsive.
Inherent within these processes are systems for communication, replication, and
feedback.
Private Sector Involvement
The introduction of market-based
principles and private sector expertise into the urban sector can bring a
variety of benefits, particularly in larger cities.
i.
Market-based approaches. The
adoption of market-based approaches may allow existing agencies to deliver
better and self-financing services. In other cases, the private sector may bid
to operate a service, either on a contractual or an ownership basis. For
example, the corporatization of public sector water
enterprises to allow more autonomy and better human resources than local
governments, can lead to improved services, increased operational efficiency,
reduced tariffs, and access to private financial resources. Similar approaches
can and are being applied in public transport, markets, and solid waste
management in many DMC cities. However, the possible problems associated with
replacing public monopolies with private monopolies in the delivery of services
should be considered, especially in Pacific DMCs
whose market size is extremely limited.
ii.
Training and familiarization for local officials.
Whichever form of private sector involvement in service delivery is decided
upon, government officials will need to be trained in their new
responsibilities as a party to the contract. The contract will bind the private
operator to provide services in which payment is by results, while the
government retains overall regulatory authority. A national statutory framework
is needed as a starting point for contract negotiations and must cover factors
such as minimum quality standards and environmental parameters.
iii.
Regulatory framework. At the
local level, regulations will need to address the quality, price, and required
reliability of the service; the investment program; maintenance of assets; and
rights of access in the public domain. Risk assessment is another skill where
public agencies will need to gain understanding so that they can create an
environment conducive to attracting the private sector. Furthermore, in forging
agreements with private sector providers, the rights of the urban poor to enjoy
equitable access to basic urban services must to be protected.
Major Themes
This paper reviews the causes and effects of
urbanization1 in the Asian and Pacific Region, highlights the
resulting demands for improved management and servicing of urban growth, and
proposes a strategy for Bank action in the sector. Because of the enormous
variety of urban conditions and stages of economic growth in developing member
countries (DMCs), the development of an urban
strategy for the region is complex and needs to recognize the importance and
diversity of country-specific policies and programs. However, a number of
common themes underlie the strategy.
At the macro level, urbanization is strongly linked
to economic growth and has contributed positively to the gains made in many
countries throughout the Region. Measures to improve the extent, management,
and operation of urban services benefit both local and national economies. At
the same time, urban areas are exposed to external forces over which they have
little control, such as the progressive globalization of decision-making and
the economic crisis currently affecting the Region. The Bank’s urban strategy,
therefore, must be both robust and flexible to respond to such forces and their
impacts.
The phenomenal rate at which urbanization is
occurring has overwhelmed those tasked with managing urban areas, particularly
in the poorer countries of the Region. Exacerbated by a flood of rural-urban
migrants, cities have witnessed tremendous growth of unserviced
slum and squatter areas where millions of urban poor residents lack adequate
access to potable water and sanitation services. A key theme is the way in
which the problems of environmental degradation of urban poor communities, and
urban poverty in particular, can be addressed. Related to these challenges are
issues concerning improvement in the status of women and other vulnerable
groups.
Potential improvements in the provision and
maintenance of urban infrastructure and services are constrained by poor urban governance, management, and finance. Outdated
legal, institutional, and governance traditions, as well as inadequate reform
measures have constrained the pace of development. Thus a major theme is to
address urban governance and the improvement of urban management through
innovative approaches in the design and implementation of development
activities; participatory processes at the local level; and the building of
partnerships between corporate, community, and public sectors. The more
efficient use of existing financial tools, the introduction of market-based
approaches to local government operations, and the use of innovative financing
mechanisms will also be required.
Achieving sustainable urban development is a final
crosscutting theme, defined here as meeting the growing needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
This is in accordance with the recommendations of the United Nations Conference
on Environment and Development (1992), known as the “Earth Summit,” and the
Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (1996), Habitat II. The
comprehensive Global Plan of Action adopted at Habitat II incorporates policies
for the sustainable development of settlements and the increased role of local
governments in urban development and management. The urban strategy is designed
to achieve significant increases in sustainability within the framework defined
by the long-term goal of full urban sustainability in DMCs
in environmental,
financial, and socioeconomic terms.
Development of the Urban Strategy
Responding to the growth of increasingly complex
urban areas requires a review of Bank approaches to urban program and project
formulation, prioritization, and implementation within and among DMCs, taking into account lessons learned from the Bank’s
30-year experience in the sector. While DMCs can be
broadly grouped by stage of economic growth in terms of the priority needs of
their urban areas, urban strategies must respond to competitive and comparative
advantages, local urban economic circumstance, and other location-specific
concerns. Therefore, this paper proposes a broad regional strategy for the
urban sector that can provide both a framework for specific DMC urban
strategies and a guide for Bank action in the sector.
The strategy was prepared by staff of the Water
Supply, Urban Development and Housing (East) Division, with the support of
interdepartmental working groups2 guided by an interdepartmental
steering committee3.
The Challenge of Rapid Urbanization
Urbanization and the Growth of Large Urban Centers
Urban population growth in the Region has been
rapid. While total population of the DMCs grew from
1.7 billion in 1965 to 3.1 billion in 1995, urban population grew from 0.32
billion to 0.93 billion over the same period (Asian Development Bank [ADB]
1996a and United Nations Development Programme [UNDP]
1995). These figures represent 58 percent of overall world population increase
and 45 percent of world urban population increase over this period. However,
the 1995 urbanization level of 30 percent for the DMCs
is low in comparison with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development member countries and Latin American countries, where urbanization
levels averaged 70-75 percent. While some DMCs such
as the
The proportion of urban population living in large
cities in the DMCs will also continue to increase. In
1995, the DMCs contained six of the world’s
megacities4 (
While many DMCs have one
or several very large urban areas or megacities,
problems related to urbanization are best addressed at the level of secondary
cities and smaller urban areas, before they become megacities.
Interventions should begin at this stage to (i)
prevent problems worsening as cities grow; and (ii) support the programs and
policies that many DMCs have instituted for the
dispersal of industries; development of regional growth centers, corridors, or
zones; and promotion of an equitable and balanced hierarchy of urban
settlements. Most national urban strategies have adopted some variant of this
approach, incorporating explicit and implicit polices that guide urban growth
and development to designated urban growth centers.
Rationale for Investing in the Urban Sector
A strong case can be made for the importance of
investment in the sector on the basis of the central role played by urban
centers in national economic growth. Urban areas are dynamic engines of growth,
centers for innovation and entrepreneurship, and sources of highlydeveloped
social services. This view is in stark contrast to earlier development theory,
particularly expounded in the 1970s, which focused on rural development and
viewed cities as parasitical, resource-draining concentrations of people, often
poor, that generated little productive return. Opposition to urban development
as a national economic strategy was based on the belief that cities already
benefited from an urban bias, were too expensive to develop, and increased
unemployment as urban labor supply outpaced urban labor demand.
A chief complaint against urban development and
urbanization was that the process accelerated rural-to-urban migration,
characterized by rural workers being lured to the city with false hopes of a
high-paying job, only to end up unemployed or marginally employed in the
informal sector. However, during the 1970s and 1980s urban areas played a
crucial role in absorbing excess rural labor through rural-urban migration,
accounting for some 40 percent of urban population growth over the period.
Research in
Recent experience and analysis demonstrates the
efficiency of cities as generators of economic growth (United States Agency for
International Development [USAID] 1991). The Bank has estimated that some 80
percent of the Region’s new growth is generated in its urban economies (ADB
1996a). Many DMCs are expecting their cities to
provide most of the employment required by their rapidly growing populations. In
large cities in particular, urban areas benefit from a large and skilled labor
force, economies of urban scale, and economies of agglomeration (i.e.,
efficiency resulting from the clustering of firms in a given industry or
related industries), as well as the resulting demand for intermediate and
consumer goods (Appendix 2). There is ample evidence that labor productivity
increases with city size. For example, the ratio of GDP per capita to national
GDP per capita is 1.9 for
At the same time, the importance of secondary
cities and towns and rural-urban linkages at a regional level must not be
overlooked. In many East Asian newly industrializing countries, agriculture has
been developed with the rest of the national economy, which in turn has played
a critical role in the development of domestic markets and integration into the
international economy. Secondary towns and cities provide markets for rural
products, service centers for rural activities, and jobs to absorb surplus
labor. Strengthening linkages between urban centers and rural areas is
necessary to ensure that the two remain mutually reinforcing.
While initial capital
requirements may be greater in urban than in other areas, the payoff from such
investment can also be high. Urbanization brings health and
social benefits that could only be achieved in rural areas at far greater
costs. Residential infrastructure costs may be higher in cities, but households
are also better serviced with piped water, solid waste collection, and
electricity—all of which contribute to better health and welfare. Additionally,
economic returns to industrial and commercial investments also tend to be
higher in cities than in small towns and rural regions. More productive jobs
can be created in cities, due in part to the fact that workers have more
complementary capital inputs to increase productivity.
Throughout the Region, urban areas are, and will
continue to be, at the center of economic growth. Economic efficiency of cities
is based on the fact that urban growth follows the market. Cities will continue
to grow as positive externalities outweigh negative ones. Urban areas with
large productivity advantages, stemming from locational
features or from the agglomeration of industries, will continue to expand in
population and area, and will command the highest wages and land and housing
prices. Less productive cities will grow at a slower pace and to a smaller
size, where wages, land prices, and worker productivity will be lower.
Nevertheless, market forces generally fail to fully incorporate the harmful
effects of urban growth, as many of the consequences of environmental
deterioration go unrecognized and no market mechanisms are in place to correct
them. This may account for the fact that in
Other forces are at work in the Region.
Globalization and technological change will strongly affect the fortunes of
different DMCs depending on their perceived locational advantages, potential profitability, available
skills, and adaptability. These external factors are influencing cities in the
Region in two ways. First, there is increasing competition among cities as
multinational firms compare labor and other input costs and assess economic
incentives available, the regulatory climate, the existence of market-based
laws and institutions, flexibility of the labor force, and political stability:
cities that can meet these requirements will progress economically at much
faster rates than those that cannot. Second, the emergence of information-based
service industries including financial and producer services, research and development, and media is benefiting larger cities that can
offer the most efficient conditions for information dissemination.
The process of globalization through the international trade of goods, capital flows, and labor mobility has created an increasingly integrated world economy and growing competition between urban centers for foreign and domestic investment. Interdependencies are being created between urban centers across national boundaries, often creating links that are stronger than those between an urban center and its own hinterland. Trade liberalization, while often painful in terms of the required restructuring across sectors, is creating new opportunities and synergy within and between regional growth zones. Ultimately, competition between urban centers will not only be related to locational and production advantages, but to less tangible but equally or more important factors such as good governance, quality of public service provision, and support for entrepreneurial enterprise. This process will result in both winners and losers.
Urban development is sustainable if it permanently
enhances the capacity of urban society to maintain or improve the quality of
life without exhausting non replaceable resources or damaging the economic,
cultural, or natural environment. At the same time, sustainable urban
development should serve to reduce poverty while strengthening the ability of
local institutions to involve and empower citizens and ensuring that financial
resources are sufficient to allow replacement of assets and new investments.
The quality of life in urban areas includes
concepts that can be measured to some degree: freedom from hunger; capacity to
live a healthy life; access to education, shelter, and basic services; and a
secure and livable environment at home and at the workplace. Equally important
but less quantifiable are concepts such as family stability, freedom from
crime, and full involvement in the community. Rapid urbanization often disrupts
the social, cultural, and religious pattern of people’s lives. For example, the
tensions caused by the integration of migrants from more traditional
lifestyles, and the conflicts between traditional close family relationships
and the more individualistic relationships characteristic of large cities.
Where whole communities become the vehicle for social, economic, political, or
religious discontent cities may become flash points for unrest, as at times in
Urban
quality of life presents a highly varied picture across the Region. In the
middle-income countries of East and
Urban Poverty
Urban poverty—often more harsh and extreme than
rural poverty—is widespread in the Region, particularly in
The complexities of defining urban poverty mean
that data must be used with great care. For example, the income level needed to
avoid poverty will vary by urban area; local costs of living; the availability
of free or subsidized education, health, and other services; access to water
supply and other infrastructure; and the number and age of dependents in the household.
As a result, two families in two neighborhoods of the same city, classified as
having the same income, may in fact require very different income levels to
avoid poverty. Simplistic definitions of poverty also ignore the deprivations
in quality of life when families respond to falling incomes and rising prices
by, for example, taking children out of school to earn money for the family or
having one parent move to where job possibilities are better. Quality of life
decreases when a family must move in search of cheaper housing. These effects
are being highlighted in the current economic crises in some DMCs. Poverty reduction programs have to be widened to
accommodate such diversity.
Households headed by women, more common in cities,
are particularly vulnerable to poverty. Women generally have more limited
access to education, and suffer disparities in employment opportunities and
wage levels compared to their male counterparts. Women have the additional
burdens of culture and tradition that can manifest in legal and social
obstacles to access to land. Faced with limited opportunities and the necessity
to meet basic needs, many poor women are forced into highly vulnerable and
dangerous jobs in the commercial sex industry and other degrading means of employment.
Additionally, domestic violence poses a serious, and largely unacknowledged,
threat to women.
Urban poverty has many causes. Some of these are
the willingness of new migrants to take low paid jobs in the city, increases in
the cost of land, long journeys to work, less support from an extended family
network, exposure to greater environmental risk, and greater vulnerability to
changes in market conditions in urban areas. Conditions of urban poverty are
worsened by the scale and speed of urbanization in many DMCs,
forces with which municipal governments cannot keep pace. In a situation of
scarce resource allocation, the urban poor are badly placed to compete for
essential services and shelter. Biases in investments, standards, pricing
policies, and institutional structures often skew services in favor of the
better-off in cities. For example, access to water is generally provided
unevenly among income groups, with formal supply systems being denied to poor
communities who are forced to turn to water vendors and often pay much more per
liter than higher income households. This is often due to unavailability of
reticulated supplies to these communities or the high one-time connection fee
that most urban poor cannot afford.
The challenge is to reduce urban poverty through a
combination of approaches, a mandate given particular urgency in light of major
increases in the urban poor in many DMCs affected by
the current Asian financial crisis. A range of measures is being explored,
including employment creation, credit for informal businesses, education and
literacy training, provision of legal tenure to squatters, improved social and
infrastructure services and access to shelter, and support for better human
rights. This includes the right to vote in electing representative government
and to organize at the community level.
Coordination
with Multilateral and Bilateral Organizations
The Bank is working with other external support
agencies through geographic coordination of assistance programs and in some
cases cofinancing of lending and/or TA. In addition
the Bank is supporting NGOs, both as a component of projects and directly, as
in the Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi.13
Multilateral support agencies operating in the
urban sector in the Region include the World Bank, UN agencies (including
United Nations Centre for Human Settlements [UNCHS– Habitat] and United Nations
Children’s Fund), and the European Union. The World Bank provides the most
comprehensive assistance, covering integrated urban projects, water supply,
waste management, urban transport, environmental management, and housing
finance. Strong emphasis is placed on policy dialogue and capacity building and
the World Bank supports its operational activities with sector and research
programs. Among the UN agencies, UNCHS provides technical support aimed at all
aspects of human settlements development, and codirects
the Urban Management Program with the UNDP and the World Bank. UNCHS also
directs the Sustainable Cities Program. The Local Initiative Facility for Urban
Environments supports NGOs and CBOs in the Region.
Bilateral support to the urban sector includes the
Department for International Development (United Kingdom), focusing on urban
poverty relief in South Asia; the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ)
on local government capacity building in various countries; Japan’s Overseas
Economic Cooperation Fund on transport, drainage, and other urban
infrastructure; Australia and New Zealand on local government capacity
building; and USAID on highly leveraged, policy-based assistance programs
focusing on urban and housing finance, decentralization, and privatization.
In addition to these government-led programs,
support to the urban sector also comes from numerous NGOs, CBOs,
and academic-based research institutes in many DMCs,
such as the Asian Institute of Technology in
Urban Development Objectives
The starting point for formulating urban
development objectives is the Bank’s Medium Term Strategic Framework,
1995-1998. The five strategic objectives against which Bank project activities
are measured are (i) promoting economic growth, (ii)
reducing poverty, (iii) supporting human development, (iv)
improving the status of women, and (v) protecting the environment. While
the objectives are currently under review, they are not likely to change
dramatically. At least 50 percent of projects and 40 percent of lending should
be for projects with social or environmental benefits. Bank operations are
targeted to emphasize policy support; capacity building; strengthening of
productive capacity, infrastructure, and services; and improved regional
cooperation.
Most urban development, water supply, and housing
projects are classified by the Bank as human development projects. In addition,
depending on their specific goals, urban projects frequently address one or
more of the other four overall strategic objectives. The current priority for
the Bank to respond to the economic crisis in several DMCs
is highlighting the key role of urban projects in reducing urban poverty. The
overall strategic objectives can be realized for the urban sector through the
following operational objectives:
i.
maximizing the economic efficiency of urban areas
(economic growth) through
a.
increased contribution to GDP;
b.
easier market entry for small businesses;
c.
creation of employment;
d.
attraction of inward investment; and
e.
availability of suitable land, infrastructure,
energy, and services to meet business demand;
ii.
reducing urban poverty through
a.
reduced unemployment; and
b.
increased number of households with access to land,
infrastructure, and services;
iii.
improving quality of life (human development and
the status of women) through
a.
reductions in environmental pollution levels;
b.
improved support mechanisms for the disadvantaged;
c.
enhanced role for gender development;
d.
reduced crime levels;
e.
reduction in serious illness;
f.
availability of suitable land, infrastructure, and
services to meet residents’ demand; and
g.
increased participation in decision making;
iv.
achieving sustainable urban development (protecting
the environment) through
a.
reduced use of nonreplaceable
natural resources;
b.
increased use of energy pricing, taxation, and
energy-saving forms of
c.
urban land use and construction;
d.
increased social equity in the distribution of
social benefits;
e.
reductions in environmental pollution levels; and
f.
use of
improved urban management systems, including good governance, decentralization,
private sector involvement, funding mechanisms, and community participation.
To achieve these objectives, the Bank
should promote the following policies for inclusion in national government
urban sector policy and strategic frameworks: (i)
promoting good urban governance, (ii) improving urban management; (iii)
mobilizing financial resources; (iv) reducing urban poverty; and (v) addressing
urban development subsectors (IUDPs;
water supply, sanitation, and solid waste management; and transport and
housing). Policies for Mobilizing Financial Resources
A variety of policies are available to support the mobilization of
financial resources, and to finance and maintain urban
infrastructure and services, including the following:
i.
Promotion of fiscal autonomy. The
catalyst for improving financial management at the city level is the drive
toward financial autonomy that encourages responsibility, efficiency, and
increased sustainability in funding urban services. In this connection, DMCs’ central governments should allow localgovernments
to retain locally collected revenue and to seek funding from a wide range of
sources, including the private sector. Increased fiscal autonomy should be
accompanied by regulatory mechanisms appropriate to protect the interests of
producer and consumer.
ii.
Computerization and automation.
Increased autonomy should also encourage computer-based accounting, cost
control, billing and collection procedures; contracting out of services such as
infrastructure maintenance; and development of management information systems
and strategic financial planning.
iii.
Market-based and economic pricing of services. Pricing
policy will become more urgent given the pressures on government resources and
the increased role of the private sector. While full cost recovery is the
long-term objective, in the short term efficiency, cost reduction, and revenue
collection should be improved. Action needs to center on the establishment of
sound pricing policies, i.e., marginal costs must reflect the costs of
additional capacity together with those of O&M and the externalities
associated with environmental damage. However, despite the drawbacks, some
element of cross-subsidy will frequently be justified as a last resort to
maintain access to services for the urban poor. More rigorous targeting of
subsidies to families rather than property will need to be encouraged.
iv.
Direct cost recovery. At the
same time, service quality will need to be kept commensurate with prices to
avoid the build-up of consumer resistance. For that reason, direct cost
recovery through user charges will usually be more effective than indirect cost
recovery through property taxes and similar levies. However, indirect taxes
will remain important elements in the local government revenue base. Property
taxes in particular can be better structured to capture the economic benefits
of land, as being shown by Bank-assisted projects in Dhaka.14
v.
User charges and service fees. The
adoption of market-based principles for pricing urban infrastructure and
services will also help DMCs estimate the incremental
demand for resources more accurately. Differential pricing of road usage, for
instance, coupled with efficient public transport, as in
vi.
Land-related financial instruments. DMCs also need to examine different methods of capturing some
of the unearned gains in land values, which result from new or upgraded road
construction and other assets built at public cost; for example, through
betterment charges, land readjustment techniques, and contributions in cash or
kind by developers.
vii.
New sources of funds. New
funding sources including private capital are needed for DMCs
to meet the costs of infrastructure investments. However, many city economies
will take time to expand to a level where they can afford to employ private
capital. In the meantime, they will need to continue to rely on transfers from
central governments to supplement locally raised revenues. In turn, decisions
will be needed on which taxes and charges should be controlled by local
governments. Other methods that can be used to supplement local revenues
include municipal development funds and other financial intermediaries,
community mortgage programs, loans for housing finance through local CBOs, and the funding of new infrastructure through
associated property development, as in
viii.
Capital markets and credit finance. Cities
need assistance to achieve long-term access to capital markets and/or direct
private investment in infrastructure. Issues include removing constraints such
as the lack of credit ratings for local governments, addressing the lack of
long-term debt instruments such as municipal bonds, and assisting central
governments to cope with the required expansion of credit and understand the
lending options for urban infrastructure projects. The many examples of private
concession contracts in relation to regulatory entities need to be available to
people involved in city finance.
Policies
for Improving Urban Management
Institutional Strengthening and Capacity Building
Examples of the Bank’s increasing support for
capacity building are the recently approved loans for the urban sector in
i.
Define clear roles and functions. A
fundamental component of improving urban management is the appropriate
institutional structure for planning, financing, and delivering services and
other functions of government. Responsibilities for delivery of a service
should be assigned clearly to one level of government, the corporate private
sector, or the community. An underlying problem is that policies for the urban
sector are made in many parts of governments with poor cross-sectoral coordination of policy making. In addition, the
growing importance of the private sector is placing new demands on the public
sector, which is already short of skilled staff. It is important for city
government to thoroughly review responsibilities for service delivery before
inviting the private sector to participate.
ii.
Promote government as an enabler, not provider. The
public sector needs to adopt an enabling role in support of the private sector.
In an enabling role, the government sets policies and makes choices in sector
priorities; monitors private sector operations in service delivery; supports
the economic health of the city; and protects the community against threats to
urban quality of life, including pollution, congestion, overcrowding, and
damage to scarce resources. An important component of the new relationship is
to encourage public-private partnerships in land and property development, and
service delivery. In many urban areas capacity building is crucial to enable
governments to fulfill their existing mandate, let alone take on the new skills
required.
iii.
Support for skills training and other
capacity-building initiatives. The lack of skilled human
resources is a major constraint to developing the necessary structures for
urban management, particularly at the local government level. The relatively
low status and pay, and lack of incentives offered by most local governments is a principal cause. In some cases, as in
iv.
Promote regional cooperation. The
problems of managing urban growth and improving the competitiveness and
livability of urban areas are common to many countries. Bringing DMCs together at various levels of interaction, including
the local government level, is a powerful way to share best practices,
cross-fertilize innovation, and promote new ways of problem solving. Networking
and cooperation also allows one city to learn from and prepare for problems
currently being encountered in another city, and for lessons learned to be
shared and successes repeated.
Building appropriate institutional structures for
urban management is an incremental process. It is better to have imperfect
institutions that can adapt quickly to outside forces than to have rigid
systems that cannot. Moreover, even in small and medium-sized towns with few
resources, a small group of well-trained multidisciplinary staff willing to
think innovatively and with strong community and political backing can have a
significant impact on achieving city development objectives.
Urban Land Management
Policies to achieve adequate land for residential,
industrial, and other uses to improve the economic efficiency of urban areas
and to improve the quality of life for residents are as follows:
i.
Improve the efficiency and transparency of land
markets. The tools that can be used to improve the efficiency and
transparency of land markets include improved mechanisms for land transfer
(cadastral mapping, land titling, and registration); land information systems
for the benefit of private and public interests; deregulation of unnecessary
land-use controls; incremental forms of tenure designed to help residents in
informal/squatter areas become part of the formal city; and institutional and
legal reforms so that land can be used as collateral. Such policy and technical
reforms can also contribute to improved property-based tax revenues.
ii.
Rationalize the institutional framework for land
administration. The framework for land administration needs to be
rationalized in the context of decentralizing responsibilities for urban
management. An example would be merging land development public corporations
that operate at the national level with local governments.
iii.
Accelerate the delivery of serviced land17. The
Bank will support capacity-building actions to accelerate the delivery of land
serviced with adequate access to roads, water, drainage, and electricity. For
example, in cities in South Asia DMCs with remaining
public land, the objective may be to treat land as an asset in an investment
portfolio, i.e., to secure funding and provide security for private sector
partners. In DMCs where land is predominantly
privately owned, land pooling mechanisms can be tested and applied as part of
public-private partnerships, using techniques such as joint ventures for
commercial property development, land readjustment, and guided land
development.
iv.
Improve spatial planning and urban planning
systems. Improved systems for urban planning and regulation should
continue to give strategic guidance on urban expansion and renewal policies,
and to address the externalities arising from land development such as
pollution. However, systems should consider the use of innovative approaches to
planning and building standards, incremental in nature, that also increase
affordability. Other approaches may include the use of flexible zoning,
techniques whereby the private sector provides social/offsite infrastructure in
exchange for fast-track planning/building approvals, permissive systems of
development control, and innovative techniques such as land-use controls tied
to environmental impact.
v.
Establish procedures for public participation. More
effective procedures are needed for public participation in decision-making on
the use of land and location of infrastructure investments. Planning processes
should incorporate specific components and resources for discussions with a
wide range of stakeholders, CBOs, NGOs, business
groups, environmental and other pressure groups, academia, etc., as well as
other public sector agencies. There should be procedures for an iterative
process of plan development and project implementation, using focus groups for
example. Mechanisms should be developed and put in place to ensure public
participation in the urban land management processes.
Urban Environmental Management
Policies for environmental management
are designed to manage air, water, land, and soil resources to (i) maintain their qualities and quantities at levels that
are not harmful to public health, (ii) support balanced ecosystems, (iii)
contribute to the visual aspects of urban development, and (iv)
provide sustainable urban areas. Priority strategies include the
following:
i.
Stimulate demand for investments and policy reform. The
demand for urban environmental improvement can be pursued through (a)
institutional strengthening, including the issues of low willingness to pay,
weak institutional and technical capability, lack of supporting policy and
legal frameworks, and the need to create a conducive setting for private sector
financing; (b) pilot projects to demonstrate the benefits of urban
environmental improvement; (c) strengthening of municipal financial capacity
for environmental improvements; (d) increased resource utilization as a project
objective; for example, the incorporation of a sewage treatment project within
the overall water quality management framework; (e) campaigns to heighten
public awareness of environmental issues; and (f) promotion of regional
cooperation.
ii.
Address industrial waste management. Items
covered should include hazardous and toxic wastes, medical waste, and other nondomestic waste from industrial processes. Emphasis
should be placed on the development of economic instruments to minimize waste
creation and enforce due care by waste generators. Where treatment systems are
necessary, development of centralized systems should be encouraged.
iii.
Manage domestic waste.
Particular attention should be paid to the collection, treatment, and disposal
of domestic (solid and liquid) wastes in order to mitigate the health risk and
environmental nuisance. Minimizing the creation of solid waste should be
encouraged through a combination of economic instruments and public awareness.
iv.
Control air pollution. Large
cities should focus particularly on air quality monitoring systems; vehicle
maintenance; traffic management; and the introduction of unleaded gasoline,
natural gas, and other benign fuel technologies for domestic and vehicle use.
In addition, TA and institutional strengthening will be required to assist in
developing appropriate legal instruments and incentive frameworks, and in legal
enforcement.
v.
Strengthen urban environmental management systems.
Strengthening urban environmental management systems in DMCs
will involve (a) promoting close coordination and cooperation between national
environmental management agencies and municipal governments, (b) strengthening
environmental impact assessment of urban development projects, (c)
strengthening the process of environmental audit, and (d) strengthening
capacity for integrating environmental dimensions into spatial planning and
development projects in environmentally sensitive areas.
vi.
Provide for disaster mitigation. Government,
local communities, and the private sector must take a proactive role in natural
disaster mitigation, including preparedness programs to help people reduce
personal and economic loss caused by earthquakes, floods, and severe weather
disturbances. Reducing earthquake hazards, for instance, can include better
forecasting; improved model building codes and land-use practices, development
and improvement of seismic design and construction techniques, accelerated
application of research results, and reduced risk through the use of
post-earthquake investigations and education.