URBANIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT: EMERGING FUTURES
WORLD CITIES REPORT 2016
THE RULES OF THE GAME: URBAN GOVERNANCE AND LEGISLATION
Urban governance and legislation efforts still inadequate, new UN-Habitat report asserts
The continuation of a legal system that does not fundamentally express the realities of the
socioeconomic and political-institutional processes that it proposes to regulate, i.e., the realities
of its context, generates distortions.
Although many countries have embarked on urban governance and legislation, the results are still inadequate and fall short of
the ideal, according to the just released The World Cities Report 2016, Urbanization and Development: Emerging Futures, by the
United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat. Furthermore, legislative reforms are yet to come and in most countries the dispensation of public power remains very similar to what it was at the time of Habitat II - The second United Nations
Conference on Human Settlements held in 1996 – says the Report.
UN Under-Secretary-General and UN-Habitat Executive Director, Dr Joan Clos, said: “Robust and well-implemented urban
rules and regulations create an enabling environment for fostering positive urban development. Despite many countries embarking
on decentralization, results have been highly variable, generally falling short of the ambitions set out at Habitat II.”
Under urban law, the report says the broad-ranging collection of diverse policies, laws, decisions and practices that govern
the management and development of the urban environment - remains a highly segmented and complex field driven by a dynamic
where technical objectives in specific fields are considered in isolation from each other, as well as from the institutional, financial
and social factors that will determine effectiveness.
“The continuation of a legal system that does not fundamentally express the realities of the socioeconomic and politicalinstitutional processes that it proposes to regulate, - i.e., the realities of its context – generates distortions of all sorts. This
phenomenon is frequently reflected in the laws governing physical planning and land development: these include procedures for
important elements – such as identification and maintenance of public space, plot design and allocation, the control and economic
role of built space and building codes – that consistently fail to produce the physical outcomes that were expected to match
economic and social policies,” Dr. Clos said.
The report says inefficient or impracticable legislative reforms reflect the dominance of ‘universal’ technical concerns and
replication of foreign ‘best practice’ that largely disregard both local circumstances and opportunities for effective review and
adjustment.
“The real action for advancing the Habitat Agenda resides at the local community level in the public, private and non-profit
sectors. Only through effective and properly supported partnerships can effective progress be made. This calls for enabling legal
frameworks, an active civil society and broad-based participation by ordinary citizens in the affairs of their communities and local
authorities. Local authorities are also pivotal to the realization of the broader goals, as reflected in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” it says.
United Nations Human Settlements Programme
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P.O. Box 30030, Nairobi 00100, Kenya
n
Tel: +254 20 7623153/3151
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Fax: +254 20 7624060
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E-mail: [email protected] n Website: www.unhabitat.org
WORLD CITIES REPORT 2016 URBANIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT: EMERGING FUTURES
Box 6.1: What is urban law?
Political-legal: Citizen
Improved technical or
managerial capacity
Improved service delivery
Improved legal and
fiscal framework
Key messages
Improved accountability
(downwardi.
& upward)
Good
Improved governance
3. PRIMARY
OUTCOMES
Fiscal: Revenue,
expenditure & borrowing
2. INTERMEDIATE
OUTCOMES
1. SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
OUTPUTS/ PROCESSES
Administrative: local control
over personnel, budget,
financial management
Poverty reduction /
improved livelihoods
quality urban law contributes
to investment, strong
Improved stability /
/ enhanced of diverse policies,
Urban law is the broadparticipation
ranging, collection
wealth
creation, as it provides
Improved citizen economic performance and
conflict
reduction
social contract conditions
laws, decisions and practices that govern the management and capacity to engagepredictability and order in urban development.
development of the urban environment. Urban law has several
defining characteristics:
ii. Effective local governance rests on participatory service
INPUTS
& SUPPORT MECHANISMS:
• It governs the crucial functions of towns and cities and
reflects
delivery planning, budgeting, management and moniFinancial & human resources, programmes and projects,
the rights and responsibilities of the residents
and users
toring. When endowed with appropriate legal powers,
technical assistance, capacity building, partnerships, etc.
of these urban areas. The functions are diverse, including
adequate financial allocations and the human capacity
urban planning, municipal finance, land administration and
they can drive the transformation agenda.
management, infrastructure provision, mobility and local
economic development, among others.
iii. The critical ingredient for successful legal reform is cred• It is present at various levels, from internationally recognized
ibility. Credibility is enhanced when laws are culturally
rights, such as the right to housing, to national legislation and
resonant and enforceable.
on to municipal rules or by-laws that often govern local issues
such as provision of services or management of public space.
iv. A focus on basic, essential statutory and derived legisla• It often has a dual character, with an apparently neutral
tion that can be enforced will provide the most effective
technical nature Cooperation
accompanied
by a complex social aspect,
support
to sustainable
urban development.
& partnerships
Constructive
critical opposition
including the potential for differential effects on different
groups within the urban environment - with those more
vulnerable, such as the poor and the socially marginalized,
being of particular concern.
Sub-contracting
Partnerships
Source: United Nations, 2015j.
Cooperation
in service
delivery
Membership:
participatory
bodies
Public audit
bodies
Lobbying &
public interest
litigation
Advocacy
& public
exposure
Alternative
experiments
Direct action
& creative
protest
Figure 6.3: The institutional components of effective urban governance
Source: UN-Habitat, 2015.
Urban Gorvernance
Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanisms for Cities’ Progress
Legislation Framework
Urban Planning and Design
Intergrated Infrastructure Plan (10 yrs)
Spatial Development
Framework (10-40yrs)
Intergrated Development
Plan (term of office)
Planned Extensions
Public Infrastructure Framework
Intergrated waste Management
Intergrated Transport Plan
Water Services Plan
Energy Plan
Growth management
strategy (20 yrs)
Municipal Finance
Priority projects to
Effect Spatial Transformation
Medium-Term Income
& Expenditure Framework
Rolling
Regulatory
Reform
LEGISLATIVE FOUNDATION
The World Cities Report will be available for download from the UN-Habitat publication site
http://unhabitat.org/urban-knowledge/publications/ and as an App for mobile devices from http://appstore.unhabitat.org
For more information, please contact: Mr. Gordon Weiss, Spokesperson and Head Advocacy, Outreach and Communications,
e-mail: [email protected], or Jeanette Elsworth, Head of Press and Media, [email protected] Tel: +254 20 7623147
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