Basic Services for All in an Urbanizing World


Book Description

UCLG’s Third Global Report on Local Democracy and Decentralization (GOLD III) examines basic service provision and the current state-of-play of the local governance of basic services around the world. Basic Services for All in an Urbanizing World examines the enormous challenge of ensuring the universal provision of basic services in a world that is being shaped by rapid global urbanization, climate change, and economic, social and technological transformation. The world’s urban population is predicted to reach 5 billion people within the next 20-30 years. The report analyses the conditions necessary for local governments to provide these new urban residents with quality basic services. Water, sanitation, waste management, transport and energy are essential, not only for the preservation of human life and dignity, but also in driving economic growth and ensuring social equality. Each chapter examines a world region, drawing on existing research and consultation with local authorities on the ground. The chapters review access levels, legal and institutional frameworks, and the different ways in which basic services are managed and financed, as well as showcasing diverse examples of innovation in the local and multi-level governance of services. It concludes with a set of recommendations for all stakeholders with a view to making the goal of basic services for all a reality. This report contributes to discussions on the Millennium Development Goals and the UN Post-2015 Development Agenda. The findings of GOLD III will also be essential to promoting the vision of local governments at the 2016 UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat III).




More Urban Less Poor


Book Description

A world more urban... The world is undergoing massive urbanization, and is projected to increase from three to over four billion city dwellers, mostly in the developing world, within 15 years. This historic shift is producing dramatic effects on human well-being and the environment. ...but less poor Unplanned shanty-towns without basic services are not an inevitable consequence of urbanization and slums are not explained by poverty alone. Urban misery also stems from misguided policies, inappropriate legal frameworks, dysfunctional markets, poor governance, and not least, lack of political will. Urbanization and economic development go hand-in-hand and the productivity of the urban economy can and should benefit everyone. Living conditions for the urban poor can be dramatically improved with proper solutions, backed by decisive, concerted action. More Urban - Less Poor brings order to the complex and important field of urban development in developing and transitional countries. Written in an accessible style, the book examines how cities grow, their economic development, urban poverty, housing and environmental problems. It also examines how to face these challenges through governance and management of urban growth, the finance and delivery of services, and finding a role for development cooperation. This is essential reading for development professionals, researchers, students and others working on any facet of urban development and management in our rapidly urbanizing world. Published with SIDA




Steering the Metropolis


Book Description

A distinctive feature of urbanization in the last 50 years is the expansion of urban populations and built development well beyond what was earlier conceived as the city limit, resulting in metropolitan areas. This is challenging the relevance of traditional municipal boundaries, and by extension, traditional governing structures and institutions. "Steering the Metropolis: Metropolitan Governance for Sustainable Urban Development,” encompasses the reflections of thought and practice leaders on the underlying premises for governing metropolitan space, sectoral adaptations of those premises, and dynamic applications in a wide variety of contexts. Those reflections are structured into three sections. Section 1 discusses the conceptual underpinnings of metropolitan governance, analyzing why political, technical, and administrative arrangements at this level of government are needed. Section 2 deepens the discussion by addressing specific sectoral themes of mobility, land use planning, environmental management, and economic production, as well as crosscutting topics of metropolitan governance finance, and monitoring and evaluation. Section 3 tests the concepts and their sectoral adaptations against the practice, with cases from Africa, America, Asia, and Europe.




Man's Struggle for Shelter in an Urbanizing World


Book Description

Industrialization and population explosion are contributing to an urban revolution in the developing countries of the world. Static social and economic conditions, frozen for hundreds of years, are rapidly being overturned. This book makes an important contribution to our understanding of various national programs and the efforts of international agencies directed toward achieving land reform and adequate housing. This is the first book on the subject. Charles Abrams, drawing heavily on his rich store of intimate practical experience, dramatically describes housing situations in Ghana, Turkey, Pakistan, the Philippines, Nigeria, Japan, Singapore, India, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Jamaica, Ireland, Barbados, and Bolivia. His expert knowledge of the legal and financial aspects of land and housing problems is tempered by common sense observation of technical and social aspects, enriched by imaginative human concern, and made effective by a high degree of political realism. Man's Struggle for Shelter will benefit a wide audience of readers. The urban and regional planner, the housing official, the land economist, and government policy planners, both here and abroad, will find this book extremely important.




Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Communication, Devices and Computing


Book Description

The book is a collection of best selected research papers presented at the Fourth International Conference on Communication, Devices and Computing (ICCDC 2023). The book covers new ideas, applications and experiences of research engineers, scientists, industrialists, scholars and students from in and around the globe. It covers research contributions from communication technologies which are from the areas such as 5G communication, next-generation Wi-Fi, spread spectrum systems, satellite and high altitude platforms, radio over fiber techniques, wireless sensor networks, modulation and diversity technique, ad hoc and mesh networks, cognitive radio networking, optical wireless and visible light communications, signal processing for secure communication, millimeter wave and terahertz communication, design, control and management of optical network, error control coding and information theory, printed antennas, performance analysis of wireless network, smart antennas and space time processing.




World Cities Report 2020


Book Description

In a rapidly urbanizing and globalized world, cities have been the epicentres of COVID-19 (coronavirus). The virus has spread to virtually all parts of the world; first, among globally connected cities, then through community transmission and from the city to the countryside. This report shows that the intrinsic value of sustainable urbanization can and should be harnessed for the wellbeing of all. It provides evidence and policy analysis of the value of urbanization from an economic, social and environmental perspective. It also explores the role of innovation and technology, local governments, targeted investments and the effective implementation of the New Urban Agenda in fostering the value of sustainable urbanization.




Making Public in a Privatized World


Book Description

How do we provide effective public services in a deeply neoliberal world? In the wake of the widespread failure of privatisation efforts, societies in the global south are increasingly seeking progressive ways of recreating the public sector. With contributors ranging from cutting-edge scholars to activists working in health, water, and energy provision, and with case studies covering a broad spectrum of localities and actors, Making Public in a Privatized World uncovers the radically different ways in which public services are being reshaped from the grassroots up. From communities holding the state accountable for public health in rural Guatemala, to waste pickers in India and decentralized solar electricity initiatives in Africa, the essays in this collection offer probing insights into the complex ways in which people are building genuine alternatives to privatization, while also illustrating the challenges which communities face in creating public services which are not subordinated to the logic of the market, or to the monolithic state entities of the past.




Global Urban Justice


Book Description

Cities increasingly base their local policies on human rights. Human rights cities promise to forge new alliances between urban actors and international organizations, to enable the 'translation' of the abstract language of human rights to the local level, and to develop new practices designed to bring about global urban justice. This book brings together academics and practitioners at the forefront of human rights cities and the 'right to the city' movement to critically discuss their history and also the potential that human rights cities hold for global urban justice.




Governing Urban Africa


Book Description

This book explores some of the key challenges confronting the governance of cities in Africa, the reforms implemented in the field of urban governance, and the innovative approaches in critical areas of local governance, namely in the broad field of decentralization and urban planning reform, citizen participation, and good governance. The collection also investigates the constraints that continuously hamper urban governments as well as the ability to improve urban governance in African cities through citizen responsive innovations. Decentralization based on the principle of subsidiarity emerges as a critical necessary reform if African cities are to be appropriately empowered to face the challenges created by the unprecedented urban growth rate experienced all over the continent. This requires, among other initiatives, the implementation of an effective local self-government system, the reform of planning laws, including the adoption of new planning models, the development of citizen participation in local affairs, and new approaches to urban informality. The book will be of interest to students, researchers and policy makers in urban studies, and in particular for those interested in urban planning in Africa.




Urban Planet


Book Description

Global urbanization promises better services, stronger economies, and more connections; it also carries risks and unforeseeable consequences. To deepen our understanding of this complex process and its importance for global sustainability, we need to build interdisciplinary knowledge around a systems approach. Urban Planet takes an integrative look at our urban environment, bringing together scholars from a diverse range of disciplines: from sociology and political science to evolutionary biology, geography, economics and engineering. It includes the perspectives of often neglected voices: architects, journalists, artists and activists. The book provides a much needed cross-scale perspective, connecting challenges and solutions on a local scale with drivers and policy frameworks on a regional and global scale. The authors argue that to overcome the major challenges we are facing, we must embark on a large-scale reinvention of how we live together, grounded in inclusiveness and sustainability. This title is also available Open Access.