power and resources remaining centralized in national governments. Addressing urbanization challenges in a just and environmentally sustainable way means adopting an integrated approach to urban policies, facilitating collaborative and collective action among all levels of government and relevant stakeholders. Developing national urban policies is key to an integrated approach to the challenges of urbanization and has played a significant role in Brazil, China and South Africa in aligning urban development from the national to local levels. UN-Habitat has supported the national urban development processes of Burundi, Malawi, Mongolia and Sri Lanka (UN-Habitat 2021).


Several countries have decentralized governance systems (e.g. Nigeria and India) where states have significant power and other countries are undertaking decentralization processes (Kenya), however this does not necessarily translate into improved city action. Even when cities function as autonomous entities, they grapple with limited financial resources and capacities. Many are under-resourced and lack mandates to raise funds for innovative projects. This is especially true of low- and medium-income cities in Africa and Asia, which are set to grow the most over the coming years (section 2.1). City governments are often unable to cope with the rapid urbanization from burgeoning urban population while resource limitations mean they can struggle to deliver basic urban services, such as water, sanitation, health care and waste management. The increasing rate of urbanization and rising population density can lead to a series of increasing risks, especially when urbanization is fast, poorly planned and occurs against the backdrop of poverty. The lack of basic services, housing and health care can compound the impacts of natural hazards and extreme weather events, resulting in widespread hardship. For example, in cases of extreme rainfall, poor solid waste management practices can clog storm water


drainage systems, leading to waterlogging and flooding, which increases loss of property, assets and even life.


Capacity-building of the urban institutional framework to manage complex urban challenges and issues is crucial. Many cities in developing countries grapple with ensuring the provision of basic services due to severe resource constraints, including human resources with the required skills (Cities Alliance 2016). Some countries have very few educational institutions able to produce professionals like urban planners, data analysts and climate and environmental scientists that can be deployed at the local level to design and plan cities in accordance with cutting-edge, socially just and environmentally transformational approaches. Moreover, city decision-makers may be hesitant or lack the knowledge to tap into the informal knowledge-base of urban dwellers to fill these capacity gaps. Another compounding factor is the lack of well- designed and implementable business plans based on medium to long term city sustainable growth and income scenarios.


City governments typically have separate and specialized bureaucratic departments, each of which deals with a specific sector (for example, housing, transport and green and public spaces). Institutional silos and poor interdepartmental communication and coordination are challenges for mainstreaming just transition objectives, which require close collaboration across multiple departments. In many cases, the existing formalized city governance structure hinders the adoption of integrated responses to address environmental problems and inequalities in cities. However, there are also examples of cities that have adopted cross-sector governance models for sustainable development. In the United Kingdom, for example, the Greater Manchester Low Carbon Hub, housed by Greater Manchester Combined Authority, has developed a long-term vision and plan to be carbon neutral by 2038 (Greater Manchester 2019).


34


GEO for Cities


© Shutterstock/ehrlif


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