World Urban Forum 5 (WUF5)
By Frederick Kusambiza
This article is based on selected experiences and discussions from the World Urban Forum (WUF5), an international UN-HABITAT event on meeting the challenges of urban sustainability, which was held in March 2010. Some of the information provided in this article is based on the World Urban Forum Daily News, a publication made during the session.
Background
The WUF5 session took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and attracted close to about 12 000 people from over 100 countries. The five days of the session were devoted to examining rapid urbanisation and its impact on communities, cities, economies and policies. Just as the past four forums had different working themes, WUF5’s broad working theme was “Right to the City - Bridging the Urban Divide.”
The WUF sessions, which came out of Habitat I and Habitat II meetings 34 years ago, aim to consider the future sustainability of our cities. The WUF5 session gave evidence of the demand for more global dialogue, exchange and mutual learning on sustainable urbanisation. The global dialogues and mutual learning stimulate discussions on the challenges faced by rapid urbanisation and realise the opportunities entailed in accelerating a global trend towards an urbanised future that has implications for every country.
The substantive objectives of the WUF5 session were about taking stock of where the world stands with respect to the “Right to the City,” analyse who is getting the benefits of the urbanisation process and who is being left out. The fifth session also shared perspectives and view points on the contemporary relevance of this right to identify what is required to bridge the urban divide as well as facilitate a prompt and sustainable transition of moving from a city that is partially inclusive to one that is fully inclusive.
Broad Understanding of the Theme
“The Right to the City – Bridging the Urban Divide” session endorsed that this right expands the traditional focus of improving the quality of life, previously centred in the areas of shelter and the neighbourhood, to embrace the quality of life of the entire city and its surrounding areas. In this regard the city is not defined geographically or administratively. This right is therefore a mechanism to protect the populations living in cities or regions undergoing rapid urbanisation as well as those areas demonstrating urban decay and or abandonment.
Furthermore, the right carries an explicit understanding of a paradigm shift demanding that all inhabitants of the city—the rich, the poor and the powerful—have the same right to access and benefit from the opportunities that the city offers. At the WUF5, the main six domains that were used to discuss and provide critical responses to the above and other questions regarding the concept of “Right to the City” were:
Under the six domains that were used as the main topics for the dialogue sessions are overlap issues that are inevitable and necessary to discuss in terms of sharing the responsibility of different actors and in most cases share common approaches for effective policy implementation. The noted issues are categorised under economic, social, political and cultural aspects.
Under the economic category, income inequalities as a resultant lead to hunger in cities amongst many other things while the social and political category bring about deprivations associated with overburdened infrastructure, inadequate housing and urban service delivery, and out-of-date health care systems. The cultural aspects place women and youth and race at the periphery in decision making.
Key Observations
Noting that the WUF sessions happen biennially, how can government institutions, development agencies and civil society organisations contribute to mitigating the identified issues around “bridging the urban divide”? Broad observations are made below based on various reports from discussions held at the WUF5 and prior experience gathered from the field;
The spirit and enthusiasm evidenced at the WUF5 showed that every participant was committed to the basic theme of the Forum, “Right to the City - Bridging the Urban Divide.” A number of ideas were proposed and discussed. WUF5 session was concluded with a call for strengthening partnerships for urban development, as well as a growing recognition of the urgent need to address underlying causes of rapid urbanisation.
This article is based on selected experiences and discussions from the World Urban Forum (WUF5), an international UN-HABITAT event on meeting the challenges of urban sustainability, which was held in March 2010. Some of the information provided in this article is based on the World Urban Forum Daily News, a publication made during the session.
Background
The WUF5 session took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and attracted close to about 12 000 people from over 100 countries. The five days of the session were devoted to examining rapid urbanisation and its impact on communities, cities, economies and policies. Just as the past four forums had different working themes, WUF5’s broad working theme was “Right to the City - Bridging the Urban Divide.”
The WUF sessions, which came out of Habitat I and Habitat II meetings 34 years ago, aim to consider the future sustainability of our cities. The WUF5 session gave evidence of the demand for more global dialogue, exchange and mutual learning on sustainable urbanisation. The global dialogues and mutual learning stimulate discussions on the challenges faced by rapid urbanisation and realise the opportunities entailed in accelerating a global trend towards an urbanised future that has implications for every country.
The substantive objectives of the WUF5 session were about taking stock of where the world stands with respect to the “Right to the City,” analyse who is getting the benefits of the urbanisation process and who is being left out. The fifth session also shared perspectives and view points on the contemporary relevance of this right to identify what is required to bridge the urban divide as well as facilitate a prompt and sustainable transition of moving from a city that is partially inclusive to one that is fully inclusive.
Broad Understanding of the Theme
“The Right to the City – Bridging the Urban Divide” session endorsed that this right expands the traditional focus of improving the quality of life, previously centred in the areas of shelter and the neighbourhood, to embrace the quality of life of the entire city and its surrounding areas. In this regard the city is not defined geographically or administratively. This right is therefore a mechanism to protect the populations living in cities or regions undergoing rapid urbanisation as well as those areas demonstrating urban decay and or abandonment.
Furthermore, the right carries an explicit understanding of a paradigm shift demanding that all inhabitants of the city—the rich, the poor and the powerful—have the same right to access and benefit from the opportunities that the city offers. At the WUF5, the main six domains that were used to discuss and provide critical responses to the above and other questions regarding the concept of “Right to the City” were:
- Taking forward the right to the city.
- Bridging the urban divide; inclusive cities.
- Equal access to shelter and basic urban services.
- Cultural diversity to cities.
- Governance and participation.
- Sustainable urbanisation; cities in a changing climate.
Under the six domains that were used as the main topics for the dialogue sessions are overlap issues that are inevitable and necessary to discuss in terms of sharing the responsibility of different actors and in most cases share common approaches for effective policy implementation. The noted issues are categorised under economic, social, political and cultural aspects.
Under the economic category, income inequalities as a resultant lead to hunger in cities amongst many other things while the social and political category bring about deprivations associated with overburdened infrastructure, inadequate housing and urban service delivery, and out-of-date health care systems. The cultural aspects place women and youth and race at the periphery in decision making.
Key Observations
Noting that the WUF sessions happen biennially, how can government institutions, development agencies and civil society organisations contribute to mitigating the identified issues around “bridging the urban divide”? Broad observations are made below based on various reports from discussions held at the WUF5 and prior experience gathered from the field;
- Developing a sustained vision for society is an on-going process. The route to sustainability changes as circumstances change over time. New forms of partnerships have emerged and need to be enhanced where arrangements of public, private and civil society should be deepened further. Concrete legal and institutional arrangements between public, private and civil society as well as necessary investments by public and private have to be committed to make the right to the city a reality. Intentions and promises will only continue to widen the gap by cheating precious time.
- There are alternative approaches to supporting development; for example one approach would be to work with policies and regulations; while another approach would be to work with vulnerable groups in society by preparing them to become resilient to obstacles. This provides mitigation through the governance side as well as the affected populace, which gives opportunity to working with this populace and not for them.
- Urbanisation needs to be managed through a process of proactive investigations, planning, action and learning so as to create a virtuous circle in development. “Bridging the Urban Divide” requires an integrated approach that articulates economic, social, political and cultural forms of inclusiveness. This allows new models of urban development and management with bold realistic policy framework and leadership at national and local levels to be instituted, implemented and measured. Government policies and strategies have to change to respond to the decreasing gap between rural areas and cities.
- As it was mentioned in the overview report of the WUF5 session, cities are not just about economies or populations; they are also defined by their ability to bring people together along with their ideas and culture. Therefore, social participation has to become a key feature of democracy and justice for all people regardless of their backgrounds, beliefs and origins.
The spirit and enthusiasm evidenced at the WUF5 showed that every participant was committed to the basic theme of the Forum, “Right to the City - Bridging the Urban Divide.” A number of ideas were proposed and discussed. WUF5 session was concluded with a call for strengthening partnerships for urban development, as well as a growing recognition of the urgent need to address underlying causes of rapid urbanisation.