Urban equity has become a universal concern. Today, more than two-thirds of the world’s population lives in cities that have experienced over three decades of steadily increasing inequality. Rapidly urbanising cities, then, have developed into agglomerates of intensely divided communities experiencing vastly different access to services and risks in their daily routines. Similarly, India experienced a rapid or steady urbanisation beginning with late eighties and nineties. Even Bhubaneswar that came to existence as a planned capital city could not avoid rising inequity. Rather, sixty-five years after the city was established, it still struggles to achieve equity in housing, service delivery, poverty reduction, slum, employment and mobility etc.
In order to bring the world together the biannual event World Urban Forum (WUF) advocating sustainable urbanisation kicked off its week of global discourse dedicated to urban equity and development in Medellín, Colombia. This year’s discussions holds a firm vision towards a new urban agenda for post-2015, Habitat III and addresses pressing issue of inequality nearing the end of the Millennium Development Goals. Its theme is “Urban Equity in Development - Cities for life”.
Nearly 25,000 participants, registered for the biannual event, include policymakers, civil society members, economists, researchers, academics, and other development practitioners, along with 500 mayors.
WUF7 is quite important as 52 per cent of the global population now live in cities where income inequality has increased since the 1980s. In many cases, the increase has been staggering; even there is a growing consensus in the international community that equity needs to be clearly integrated into the development agenda.Unlike what was believed some years ago, equity and growth are partners rather than adversaries, and this idea is gaining ground in international circles.
The consequences of inequality in cities are a fundamental concern. High levels of inequality do not just hamper poverty reduction and economic growth — they impact all aspects of human development.Inequalities are present in urban spaces, with cities divided by invisible borders that take the form of social, cultural and economic exclusion. An estimated 862.5 million people live in urban slums without basic services. Slums, the face of poverty and urban inequality, continue to increase in most countries of the developing world including India, perpetuating lack of access to basic services and political representation to the most vulnerable communities.
Gender inequality persists, preventing women from accessing secondary education, decent employment, political representation and reproductive health care. Moreover, youth inequalities manifest in discrimination in access to education, differentiated levels of employment and livelihood opportunities and lack of participation in decision making. Cities, then, are a critical component in addressing the inequality problem. Their design, governance, and infrastructure have direct impact on the lives and opportunities of their inhabitants. Bringing urban equity into the center of development means that everyone should get access to everything that makes an inclusive city. It also means that public goods and basic services should be available to everyone, creating conditions in which they are distributed according to needs.
Urban equity in development implies that the urban space should not contribute to reproducing unequal relations or reinforcing existing ones. In this relation, it should ensure that redistributive mechanisms and where possible special measures are put in place for a fair and more efficient use of resources.
“Urban Equity in Development — Cities for life” can ignite nations all over the world to reduce inequity while getting benefits of rapid urbanization. In many cases, urbanization helped cutting poverty rate half since the millennium. China or in the case host continent latin America’s impressive urbanizing speed is a global example of how innovation in policymaking and urban design reduced poverty and disparity in urban equities.
Similarly, cities all over the world too are exploring options how to put Public-Private Partnerships in achieving urban equity in the 21st century cities. It is believed that a strong local Government is key to designing successful partnerships with private sector organisations to address local infrastructure, technical, and service needs that can reduce the difference in equity with public-private partnerships for communities that have experienced resource constraint or faced institutional challenges.
Bhubaneswar has two decades of time to put innovation in city management, so that innovation will take the centre stage of urban development. Otherwise our cities will continue to grow with high degrees of inequity in social inclusion along weak municipal governance.
Moreover, our cities may expect a direction from the WUF7 on policies that can be grounded to reduce inequity in urbanisation at national and local levels by reforming the emerging six pillars of urban policies: political, economic, social, spatial, social inclusion and environmental.
(Dr Rout is cofounder, local Governance Network)