PLGS Webinar Series
This virtual open dialogue will review the role of Sub-national Urban Policies (including sub-national strategies and agendas) in the African context,
as a tool to achieve the goals of global urban agendas, and discuss how to redesign urban policy from the perspective of integrated strategies and, at the same time, multi-level governance and decentralisation.
The event will feature the participation of experts from UN-Habitat and representatives of Sub-national Governments in Africa, such as
Oumar Sylla, Acting Director, Regional Office for Africa, UN-Habitat
Carme Gual Via, Director, Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation
Remy Sietchiping, Chief, Policy, Legislation and Governance Section, UN-Habitat
Daniel Francisco Chapo, Governador da Província de Inhambane, Mozambique
Mduduzi Mbada, Head of the Policy Unit in the Gauteng Provincial Government, Office of the Premier; Gauteng, South Africa
Zubairu Mustapha, Manager Niger State Urban Support Programme; Niger State Government, Nigeria
Sandra Roque, UN-Habitat Representative in Mozambique
Carmen Sánchez-Miranda, Head, UN-Habitat Office Spain
For more information download the Concept Note with Programme below.
In case of any question contact Mr. Gonzalo Lacurcia at gonzalo.lacurcia@un.org
BUILDING RESILIENCE IN NUTRITION ON THE AFRICAN CONTINENT ACCELERATE THE HUMAN CAPITAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
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The Africa Dialogue Series (ADS) was launched by the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa (OSAA) in 2018 as an interactive platform for policy and decision makers, civil society, experts, and the academia to discuss and debate challenges and opportunities influential to Africa’s development. Ever since, ADS has become an important platform for OSAA to implement its mandate as set out in its Strategic Agenda, which was designed to help fulfil Africa’s development agenda.
The objective of the High-Level Policy Dialogue is to provide a platform for a political debate on the impact of food security on Africa’s development, feeding from the technical discussions held throughout the month of May. In this regard, the Dialogue is structured around four sessions, each of which will focus on one of the sub-themes of the 2022 Africa Dialogue series.
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A DIALOGUE BETWEEN MEGACITIES WITH INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS
- BOGOTA: Maria Mercedes JARAMILLO, secretary of Planning, Municipality of Bogota
- BUENOS AIRES: Gabriel LANFRANCHI, ex coordinator of the Urban environmental planning Council
- EURODELTA: Erik PASVEER, director of Space and Sustainability, City of Amsterdam
- GREATER ISTANBUL: Murat GUVENC, director of Istanbul Studycenter
- KINSHASA: Trésor KATEMBO, CDUK (Planning agency) of Kinshasa Municipality
- MADRID: Nicolas GHARBI, advisor of the City mayor
- NEW YORK: Moses GATES, vice-president for Housing and Neighborhood Planning, Regional Plan Association
- PARIS REGION: Sandrine BARREIRO, directorof Planning, Institut Paris Region
- SAO PAOLO: Francisco CASTRO, special advisor for Sustainability of Sao Paolo
- METROHUB UN-HABITAT: Rafael FORERO, Policy, Governance and Metropolitan expert
- OECD: Tadashi MATSUMOTO, head of Sustainable urban Development Unit
- IFLA-EUROPE: Didier VANCUTSEM, vice-president
- MTPA: Brigitte BARIOL, secretary general
URBAN HEALTH IN AFRICA WEBINAR SERIES
Hosted by the Africa Community of Practice of ISUH
Hosted by the Africa Community of Practice of the International Society for Urban Health, the webinar, centred around “Urban Health Governance”, is part of the Urban Health in Africa Webinar Series and will be held on 28th April 2022. The speakers will include actors from local government, UN-Habitat and research organisations who will share their practical experience of urban governance and share tools and best practices for supporting health through urban governance.
Through a combination of discussion, Q&A and break out sessions, this webinar will continue to connect and grow the community of practice on research and action in Africa and provide a platform for knowledge exchange and shared learning especially among early-mid career professionals (we are afterall a young continent!).
TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS: HARMONIZATION OF NATIONAL AND SUB-NATIONAL POLICIES AND GOVERNANCE
This Webinar is Co-organized by FAO, UNEP and UN-Habitat
Many governments are increasingly committing to accelerate and deepen food systems transformation in alignment with the 2030 Agenda and the UN Food Systems Summit outcomes. With 70% of food consumption taking place in urban areas, there is an increasing global consensus that making progress on the agenda of food systems transformation requires active engagement of urban actors, as national/sub-national governments and other stakeholders. An extremely important outcome of the Food Systems Summit convened by the UN Secretary General was the clear recognition of the role of urban, national, regional and local governments as a key part of the solution in promoting sustainable and transformative changes in food systems at all levels (local, regional, national and global). This has been a historic development on this topic. However the role that local and regional governments in promoting urban food systems transformation has not been sufficiently recognized at national and global levels.
In most cases, particularly in developing countries. Subnational governments often lack financial and technical capacity to advance sustainable transformation of food systems at scale.
However, the potential is there: an FAO Survey on Urban Food Systems and COVID-19 has shown that local governments have played an essential role in mitigating the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on the functioning of the food systems in their jurisdictions and protect the
health and food security of their citizens, despite the fact that in most of the cases they have no access to additional financial resources to support their actions.
It is therefore fundamental to support meaningful dialogue among stakeholders at all levels to identify modalities for promoting better coordination and coherence, harmonize policies and programmes related to food systems and strengthening the capacities of urban and local actors to promote food systems transformation. National Governments need to include cities and local governments in the process of developing and implementation their Pathways and other relevant actions and agreements regarding food systems.
FAO, UNEP and UN-HABITAT increasingly recognize the crucial role of cities in the overall food systems transformation. We promote the engagement of cities in global arena and support cities in mainstreaming food systems in their policies, planning and actions and
strengthen their capacities to implement national and local policies and programmes. Moreover, starting in 2020, FAO together with GAIN, are acting as a secretariat to the Urban Food Systems Working Group (UFS WG), an informal inter-agency group currently including 26 organizations (including UN-HABITAT, UNEP, and several city networks), to raise the voices of local governments in the global and national food systems transformation, including national, regional and global fora a such as the 2021 UNFSS and the Nutrition for Growth Summit.
A number of events were organized and catalyzed by the WG in the context of the UN-FSS pre-summit. For example, the WG: i) facilitated summit independent dialogues in 26 cities and undertook other consultations among cities and various stakeholders to discuss game changing solutions ii) submitted and followed up on the game changing solutions included in Action Track 4, Action Area 3 (Localizing Food Systems) and its clusters; : iii) organized a Global Summit Dialogue on 28th June, co-convened with Dr. Agnes Kalibata, iv) organized a session at the Pre-Summit main programme in partnership with the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, as well as a side event of the Food Systems Summit in partnership with the Global Task Force of Local and Regional Government1.
The Urban Food Systems Coalition2 is now formally recognized as one of the emerging coalitions coming out of the UNFSS process.
For a long time, different partners and constituencies have been expressing the need to strengthening coordination of food systems-related policies, governance and actions across levels (national, regional, local) as a way to accelerate urban food systems transformation.
1 https://summitdialogues.org/dialogue/24573/
2 https://foodsystems.community/commitment-registry/coalition-on-sustainable-and-inclusive-urban-food-systems/
Therefore, the Urban Food Systems Coalition will strive to connect national and sub-national governments to enable integrated food policy and action. In this context, FAO, UNEP and UN-HABITAT would like to call for a meeting with some representatives from local, regional and national governments to advance the discussion on the following:
1. What are the challenges and opportunities in harmonizing food systems policies and governance between national and sub-national governments and in engaging cities in the implementation of national food systems pathways?
2. How can the Urban Food Systems Coalition support national governments in engaging local and subnational governments in the process of accelerating the food systems transformation at all levels?
The consultation will also be the opportunity to share the outcomes of the Fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in relation to urban food systems.
The discussion will bring together prominent national and local leaders who will share their knowledge and experience on issues of multi-level governance and will provide insights as to the proposed coalition. Therefore, outcomes of the discussion will be very important for defining the form, governance and actions of the Urban Food Systems Coalition so that it can contribute to their efforts towards a sustainable food systems. They will also be of great use for informing other relevant events such as the UCLGA Africities Summit and the UN-HABITAT World Urban Forum.
THE URBAN RURAL LINKAGES WEBINAR SERIES
In light of COVID-19 pandemic, the UN-Habitat Urban-Rural Linkages programme aims to exchange information and learn from the efforts of different actors to overcome this crisis and enhance post-crisis recovery actions by bringing a focus to urban-rural linkages and integrated territorial approaches. For this purpose, UN-Habitat is hosting the webinar series, Urban-Rural Linkages in the time of COVID-19.
SERIES 1: URBAN-RURAL LINKAGES IN THE TIME OF COVID-19
The first webinar of this series took place on Monday, May 4th, 2020. The panel discussion provided an overview of the current range of Covid-19 mitigation and post-Covid-19 recovery measures, bringing different perspectives and covering different geographical regions through the lens of urban-rural linkages.
SPEAKERS
- Jun Wang, Secretary of the CPC Songyang County Party Committee, People’s Republic of China
- Anne Fouda , Head of Studies, Planning and Cooperation Division, Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Republic of Cameroon
- Rafael Forero, Urban Policy and Metropolitan Expert, UN-Habitat
- Thomas Forster, Director, Practice2Policy
- Moderator: Remy Sietchiping, Head of Policy, Legislation, and Governance Section, UN-Habitat
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The main objective of the session is to learn from the role and measures that metropolitan authorities are adopting in the territories in the face of Covid-19 and discuss the impact of these measures on urban-rural flows of people, goods, services, resources and capital. Furthermore, the session aims to show the value of integrated and multi-level governance arrangements to manage resources across urban and rural areas, but also the challenges that these forms of governance are facing.
SPEAKERS
- Mario Silva Gomez, Metropolitan Planning Institute of the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara (IMEPLAN), Mexico
- Gabriel Voisin-Fradin, Grenoble-Alpes Métropole, France
- Lia Brum, World Association of the Major Metropolises
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The third session of this webinar series provides an overview of the current range of COVID-19 response measures in intermediate cities and small towns through the lens of urban-rural linkages. The opportunity to share and learn from intermediate cities and small town and their urban-rural interactions is crucial for leaders, organizations, and different actors in order to better understand various COVID-19 responses and institutionalize good practices emerging from this crisis period for greater resilience and sustainability in the future.
The main objective of the session is to:
- Understand the role that small towns and intermediate cities are playing in relation to the flows of food, goods, and resources between urban and rural areas at regional and national levels in the face of COVID-19.
- Learn more about concrete interventions concerning urban-rural flows of people, resources, and capital in small towns and intermediate cities.
- Discuss the contribution of urban-rural linkages and integrated territorial approaches to handle the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and post-crisis recovery in small towns and intermediate cities.
SPEAKERS
- Ellen van Selm, Mayor of Opsterland, Netherlands
- Edmundo Werna, Senior-level Urbanist, International Labour Organization (ILO)
- Firdaous Oussidhoum, Special adviser to the Secretary General, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) World Secretariat Barcelona
- José Enrique Garcilazo, Head of Regional and Rural Policy Unit, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
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The fourth session of this webinar series, Urban-Rural Linkages in the time of Covid-19: Covid-19 impact on the urban poor and slum dwellers in Asia and Africa, jointly organised with the UK Research and Innovation GCRF Centre for Sustainable Healthy and Learning Cities and Neighbourhoods (SHLC), will examine the impacts of Covid-19 on the urban poor and slum dwellers through the lens of urban-rural linkages. This session will take place on May 28, 2020, from 16:00 to 17:30 East Africa Time (EAT) (GMT/London, 14:00 to 15:30).
The objectives of this session are to:
- Develop a deeper understanding on the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic on slum dwellers and the urban poor.
- Discuss the contributions of urban-rural linkages and integrated territorial approaches to address the needs of slum dwellers and the urban poor in the face of Covid-19.
SPEAKERS
- Debolina Kundu, National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), India (Co-Investigator of SHLC)
- David Everatt, School of Governance University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Co-Investigator of SHLC)
- Kerstin Sommer, Programme Manager of the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme, UN-Habitat
- Joseph Muturi, Slum Dwellers International
DISCUSSANTS:
- Cherian Thomas, Chief Executive Officer at World Vision India
- Samuel Ikua, Mazingira Institute
AGENDA & CONCEPT NOTE
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The fifth session of the Urban-Rural Linkages in the time of Covid-19 series, is on Neighbourhood Governance and Community Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic, jointly organised with the UK Research and Innovation GCRF Centre for Sustainable Healthy and Learning Cities and Neighbourhoods (SHLC), will take place on June 4, 2020, from 16:00 to 17:30 East Africa Time (EAT) (14:00 to 15:30 BST).
The objectives of this session are to:
- Learn more about the adaptation and innovation of neighbourhood governance structures in the face of Covid-19
- Develop a deep understanding of concrete interventions by different neighbourhood governance configurations to manage urban-rural flows of people, resources, and capital during the pandemic.
- Discuss the contribution of urban-rural linkages and integrated territorial approaches to handle the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and post-crisis recovery in neighbourhoods.
SPEAKERS
- Mario Delos-Reyes, University of the Philippines School of Urban and Regional Planning (UP SURP), President & CEO Centre for Neighbourhood Studies (CeNS) and Co- Investigator SHLC
- Francis Levira, Ifakara Health Institute (Tanzania) and Co-Investigator SHLC
- Maria Teresa Nogales, Founder & Executive Director at Alternativas Foundation
- Erika Salem, Programm officer, Montréal – Métropole en santé
AGENDA & CONCEPT NOTE
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The first session of this webinar series titled Towards the New Normal: Learning from the crisis to improve territorial governance jointly organised with the global network United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) took place on Monday June 29, 2020, from 17:30 to 19:00 East Africa Time (EAT). (16:30 to 18:00
The objectives of this session were to:
- Understand the challenges that local authorities are facing to finance and handle the Covid-19 recovery as well as the role of national government in supporting local governments.
- Learn more about the governance mechanisms that have functioned in the face of Covid-19 and will be kept for the recovery phase.
- Discuss the mechanism/policies/legal frameworks for local government to promote a sustainable economic recovery and coordinate actors and sectors as a forward looking integrated territorial response.
- Discuss the ways to support Local and Regional governments in their responsibility and roles when facing post-COVID recovery, as they continue to be in front lines for most challenges.
SPEAKERS
- DAVID NABARRO, Imperial College IGHI | WHO COVID-19 Special Envoy | 4SD Leadership Mentoring Geneva CH
- EMILIA SAIZ, Secretary General of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG)
- SHIPRA NARANG SURI, Chief, Urban Practices Branch (OIC) Global Solutions Division, UN-Habitat
- EMANI KUMAR, Deputy Secretary General, ICLEI; Executive Director, ICLEI South Asia
- MOHAMED SEFIANI, Mayor of Chefchaouen (Morocco) and President of the Forum of Intermediary Cities of UCLG
DISCUSSANTS
Oliver Hillel – Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
Anne Amin – UN-Habitat
Karim Hussein- Senior International Development Expert and Strategic Advisor
The session was moderated by:
Firdaous Oussidhoum, Special adviser to the Secretary General UCLG
AGENDA & CONCEPT NOTE
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On 19 September 2016, Heads of State and Government came together at the UN General Assembly for the first time ever to discuss issues related to migration and refugees. In December 2018, following two years of intergovernmental consultations and negotiations, in December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly affirmed the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). The Global Compact for Migration is the first inter-governmentally negotiated agreement, prepared under the auspices of the United Nations and led by IOM, covering all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner. It presents a significant opportunity to improve the governance of migration, to address the challenges associated with today’s migration, and to strengthen the contribution of migrants and migration to sustainable development.
In an effort to acknowledge the wealth and contribution implied by human mobility and approach to migration and migrants from a human rights perspective, in December 2018 local governments committed in the Marrakech Mayoral Declaration to fulfill the Global Compacts for Migration (GCM) and on Refugees (GCR) in coordination with all levels of government and with all the actors engaged, building upon whole-of-government and whole-of-society principles in both compacts.
In February 2020, UN-Habitat introduced the agency’s flagship initiative on “Inclusive cities: Enhancing the positive impact of urban migration” at the World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi. The flagship will advance UN-Habitat’s work on urban migration, in both development and crisis contexts, within UN-Habitat’s strategic workstream on “Urban preparedness and response” (Domain of Change-DoC 4), but also linked to DoC 2, “Enhanced shared prosperity of cities and regions”.
In the face of Covid-19, the Urban-Rural Linkages Guiding Principles (URL-GP), such as Locally Grounded Interventions, Integrated Governance, Balanced Partnerships, Human Rights- Based, Provide Social Protection and Do No Harm, along with other principles and actions from the URL-GP Framework of Action, such as the recommendation to apply “whole-of-government approaches”- have become even more relevant in orienting the actions of national, local, and other actors to respond to the new challenges that have emerged from the pandemic and ensure an inclusive post-Covid-19 recovery.
The objectives of this session are to:
- Understand the human mobility impacts of Covid-19 on the spread of the pandemic across the urban-rural continuum and resulting new connectivity between cities, neighbouring communities and sub-regions.
- Develop a deeper understanding of territorial responses that can be adopted in light of new migration patterns.
- Learn how integrated urban-rural policies can have a positive impact for migrants and their families regarding livelihood generation, living conditions and access to services;
SPEAKERS
- Santino Severoni, Director Health and Migration Programme, WHO
- Jaime Pumarejo Heins, Mayor of Barranquilla, Colombia
- S. Irudaya Rajan, Chair Professor, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) Research Unit on International Migration, Centre for Development Studies
- Dalia Abulfotuh, Agricultural Officer, FAO
- Elisa Montoya, Postconflict and Culture of Peace Secretary, Cucuta´s Mayor’s Office, Colombia
- Charles Obila, Migration Officer, IGAD Secretariat-Djibouti
DISCUSSANTS
- STINEKE OENEMA, UNSCN Coordinator
- JOSEPHINE MWONGELI, Lecturer in the school of architecture at the University of Rwanda
MODERATOR
- STEPHANIE LOOSE, Programme Manager / Human Settlements Officer, UN-Habitat
AGENDA & CONCEPT NOTE
PRESENTATIONS
SERIES 2: STRENGTHENING COMMUNITIES FOR THE FUTURE WE WANT: URBAN-RURAL LINKAGES POLICY, LEGISLATION AND GOVERNANCE
Why is Barcelona devoting millions to construct new public markets, whilst Nairobi bulldozes them? Or consider London Mayor Sadiq Khan. His administration has assembled the vast array of market leaders into a single London Markets Board in order to simplify regulations for this part of the informal economy and to leverage new resources to support innovation and build capacity.
Barcelona and London are two high-profile cities whose public market successes represent an emerging ecosystems approach called Market Cities, championed by the Project for Public Spaces, HealthBridge Foundation, and Slow Food. The concept is this: As municipalities become increasingly important for regional food systems to flourish, public markets are uniquely positioned to play positive roles if they are supported.
Market watchers have identified seven key indicators of healthy market systems. A Market City is one that 1) recognizes its wide variety of public markets operate as one market system; 2) has diverse partners and stakeholders to take action together; 3) measures value and understand how markets function; 4) has regional distribution networks; 5) regularly invests in its markets; 6) helps diverse types of vendors start and grow their businesses; 7) recognizes that its markets are inclusive public spaces.
Unfortunately, regulatory authorities often deem these public assemblies of competing vendors as chaotic expressions of informality and ripe to be reigned in.
Ancient mechanisms that champion biodiversity, traditional foods and regionalism, most public markets operate within hostile environments.
They are also endangered by uninformed development, civil war, poor management and under-investment. And yet, the souqs, bazaars, farmers markets, street markets, market halls and the many names and shapes they come in somehow defy the odds and survive.
We explored not only how to ensure that these long overlooked institutions thrive, but explore creative measures to bring public markets to the next level — as civic conveners to connect rural to urban, social life to commerce, and behavior change into everyday people’s lives.
Amidst the COVID-19 lockdown, some markets fight to be recognized as essential services, whilst others perform remarkable heroics to relaunch as safe and social places (from Hanoi to Dhaka, Lima to New York).
This special session of the UN-Habitat “Strengthening Communities for the Future we want: urban-rural linkages policy, legislation and governance” webinar series, was broadcast in partnership with Slow Food International, as part of the Terra Madre 2020 Worldwide Slow Food Festival.
Learn more about a market city and its features here: What is a market city?
SPEAKERS
- Ms. Kelly Verel (Senior Director, Programs and Projects, Project for Public Spaces, USA)
- Ms. Kristie Daniel (Program Director, Livable Cities, HealthBridge Foundation)
- Mr John Taylor Chief Technical Officer, FAO Bangladesh, Bangladesh
- Ms Cecilia Andersson, Global Public Space Programme, UN-HabitatDISCUSSANTS
- Mr. Michael Hurwitz (GrowNYC GreenMarket Director, New York City, USA)
- Ms. Ana María Huaita Alfaro (Urban Markets, Food and Planning, Lima, Peru)
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Why are urban-rural linkages arguably the most transformative topic for paradigm change?
Population growth in cities and increased urbanization across all countries has brought opportunities for many people, but also has resulted in an increasing demand for resources and additional pressures on land-use change worldwide. Although cities occupy just 3 per cent of the Earth’s surface, they are responsible for the consumption of roughly 75 per cent of all-natural resources. Furthermore, it is estimated that the 70 per cent of all CO2 emissions and waste is produced in cities[1]. Similarly, more than half of the world’s agricultural land, 26.5 million km2, is needed to support the food consumption in urban areas[2]. Although the heightened use of resources is closely linked to urban lifestyles in developed countries, consumption driven by choice as opposed to need is expected to increase substantially in emerging markets as higher incomes raise demand for material possessions and modern lifestyles[3].
Urban activities have direct and indirect consequences for the natural environment in the short, medium and long term, and their scale of influence typically extends far beyond the boundaries of what is typically considered to constitute “the city”. Growing urban demand coupled with globalized supply chains and increased global trade are impacting the local availability of resources in distant areas of the world. Cities can only support human life and economic activity if the ecosystems on which they depend for water, food and energy are functioning. Furthermore, urban populations are also affected by changes in distant ecosystems that affect the local availability, price of commodities, water quality or climate. The sustainability of cities is thus inextricably linked to social groups and places elsewhere, whose own sustainability is linked to urban processes. This also exemplifies how local economic gains in some territories have social, economic and environmental costs in others.
Managing the indirect, distant and sometimes obscured impacts of urban activities and city-decision making requires appropriate governance mechanisms that improve cities’ accountability for the resources they rely on. For this, governance mechanisms are required to manage the teleconnections and linkages between cities and nearby and distant ecosystems, including rural areas, hinterlands and/or natural spaces. Managing these linkages to benefit ecosystems is necessary to help people, farms and businesses, including also those located in distant communities, to conserve resources that sustain life and enjoy the benefits derived from a healthy environment. In this vein, sustainably managing these linkages entails strengthening the reciprocal and repetitive flows of people and resources between urban and rural areas – urban-rural linkages. Shortening the teleconnections between cities and distant ecosystems by strengthening urban-rural linkages implies reducing the dependency and pressure on distant ecosystems, increasing the resilience of not only urban population but also of nearby rural communities. This, in turn, promotes a progressive integration of territories, facilitating the sustainable management of resources in a manner that protects and improves the ecosystem and environmental services, reduces land degradation, greenhouse gas
emissions and air and water pollution, while promoting disaster risk reduction. Therefore, integrated territorial approaches, including urban-rural linkages, land- and seascape-management approaches, are vital for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
UN-Habitat started a process that culminated in 2019 with numerous stakeholders agreeing to Urban-Rural Linkages: Guiding Principles and Framework for Action (URL-GP) to Advance Integrated Territorial Development. The ten guiding principles seek to guide the actions of national and sub-national governments, civil society, the private sector and international organizations to begin taking steps to manage the multiple linkages and impacts that urban activities have on nearby and distant areas. The URL-GP provides a set of actions to improve the relationships between an increasingly urbanized population and the actors responsible for generation of resources from ecosystems from outside the urban areas that cities depend on. Moreover, the URL-GP provides a policy framework to harness the interactions between economic sectors, such as infrastructure, manufacturing, agriculture, water, energy and mining, which play a fundamental role in strengthening urban-rural linkages and therefore promoting integrated territorial development. The opportunities for managing urban-rural linkages are in all three areas of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental. The URL-GP are a fundamental tool for the management of interconnected, integrated and continuous territories.
The combined impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation are intertwined and increasing at alarming levels. These socio-environmental challenges are themselves intertwined with enormous pressures from an urbanizing planet on terrestrial and marine ecosystems. They combine with structural socio-economic inequalities that aggravate poverty, hunger, malnutrition and disease in every region of the world. All of these interlinked challenges have been compounded by the pandemic, giving greater urgency to calls from countries, from civil society and from the private sector for “nature-based”, or ecosystem-positive”, or “ecological” transitions and solutions.
Join us at the second session of the UN-Habitat “Strengthening Communities for the Future we want: urban-rural linkages policy, legislation and governance” webinar series, co-hosted with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
SPEAKERS
- Ángel Sánchez, Advisor to the Deputy Ministry for the Environment, Spatial Planning and Sustainability of the Community of Madrid
- Andrew Rudd, Planning and Environment Officer, UN-Habitat
- Joji Carino, Senior Policy Advisor, Forest Peoples Programme
- Kate Newman, Vice President Sustainable Infrastructure and Public Sector Initiatives, World Wildlife Fund.
- Paul Wander, Natural Resources Division, United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
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SERIES 3: THE COLLECTIVE QUEST FOR RESILIENCE
When: 30 Jun 30, 2021 11:00 AM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
Globalisation – an all-purpose word – is a broad and vague notion that reflects the global exchange between nations of goods, services, capital, and now, even data. It has succeeded in lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, but for quite a number of years now, it has been called into question and even started to recede.[1]
It is probably impossible to deglobalize completely the global economy, but the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated its limitations in the inequality of the distribution of food supplies, medical equipment, and lately vaccines, calling for re-localisation of food supply chains, trading, and policy approaches.
The most likely outcome among the ‘globalisation – no globalisation’ continuum lies in an in-between solution: regionalisation. [2] The success of the European Union (EU) or the Regional Comprehensive Partnership in Asia (ASEAN) illustrates that regionalisation is possible. Scaling it down to bio-regions, that is areas with similar ecological characteristics and micro-climates, can enhance the socio-economic territorial development of bio-regions, address resilience to combat climate change impacts and deliver greater urban-rural integration.
The complexity of interconnected challenges both globally and within the urban-rural continuum is enormous, ranging from: the adverse effects of climate change, diseases, food supply chains, equal opportunities, infrastructure, education, quality of life, and cultural experience to name but a few. The smaller scale of bio-regional territorial approaches to rural-urban integration could produce a greater long – term resilience and aid deglobalisation processes.
UN-HABITAT Urban-Rural Linkages: Guiding Principles. Framework for Action (GPFA) to Advanced Territorial Development (2019) recognises the functional territorial and ecosystem-based interlinkages between urban and rural settlements and land-use[3], promoting system-based approaches for inclusive urban, territorial and rural policy and planning, whilst addressing rural-urban linkages at different scales from large cities, to intermediate towns and villages.
Urban-rural integration can act as a ‘win-win’ catalyst for a multitude of challenges, whether in addressing climate change, health or territorial inequality.This webinar will bring together thought leaders from global and regional agencies to explore: “Bio-Regional Territorial Approaches to Rural-Urban Integration in Combating Climate Change. The Collective Quest for Resilience and Deglobalisation.”
- [1] COVID-19: The Great Reset (2020), Schwab. K, Mallert. T, Forum Publishing, Macro Reset p.105
- [2] COVID-19: The Great Reset (2020), Schwab. K, Mallert. T, Forum Publishing, Macro Reset p.109
- [3] Urban-Rural Linkages: Guiding Principles. Framework for Action (GPFA) to Advanced Territorial Development (2019), p.9Images © unsplash.com and individual contributors.
MODERATOR
• Dr. Sandra Piesik, Senior Consultant Policy, Legislation & Governance Section Global Solution Division (UN-HABITAT)
OPENING
• Dr. Remy Sietchiping, Chief, Policy, Legislation & Governance Section Global Solution Division (UN-HABITAT)
KEYNOTE
• Climate change and foresight approaches, Dr Youssef Nassef, Director, Adaptation Division Acting Director, Intergovernmental Support and Collective Progress Division Chair, World Adaptation Science Programme, Founder of the Resilience Frontiers Initiative (UNFCCC)
DISCUSSANTS
• Food security and climate change, Dr Zitouni Ould-Dada, Deputy Director of the Climate and Environment Division Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment (OCB) (FAO)
• Putting Europe’s shared heritage at the heart of the European Green Deal, Ms Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailović, Secretary General of Europa Nostra, (Europa Nostra)
• Resilience and Culture Ruritage H2020, Professor Simona Tondelli, Urban and Regional Planning, University of Bologna
• Territorial cohesion to leave no place behind, Mr Alessandro Rainoldi, Head of Unit, Territorial Development, (Joint Research Centre, European Commission)
• Co-creation as a tool and methodology, Mr Xavier Troussard, Head of the New European Bauhaus Unit, (Joint Research Centre, European Commission)
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SERIES 4: URBAN-RURAL LINKAGES WEBINAR IN PREPARATION OF THE 9TH SESSION OF THE AFRICITIES SUMMIT
When: 21st January, 3-4:45pm EAT
While the world, and especially Africa, is rapidly urbanizing, the development gap between rural and urban areas tends to increase. Urbanization has been widely acknowledged for its transformative power, but even though urban and rural areas depend on each other, rural areas often lag behind and worldwide, 85 per cent of the poor still live in rural areas. In both the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs) and the New Urban Agenda (NUA), United Nations Member States agreed to policies that support integrated urban and territorial planning and development. They called for new, inclusive approaches and enhanced synergies between urban and rural communities and spaces an essential component of the vision of Agenda 2030 to “leave no one behind”. The African Union’s Agenda 2063 on the other hand pursues shared prosperity and well-being, unity and integration of the entire African continent with a specific aspiration for a prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development: where cities and other settlements are hubs of cultural and economic activities and economies are structurally transformed to create shared growth, decent jobs and economic opportunities for all.
UN-Habitat and partners initiated and convened the process to develop “Urban-Rural Linkages: Guiding Principles and framework for Action” with over 130 actors ranging from experts working in the field of urban, rural, and territorial development, representatives of national and sub-national governments, development partners, think tanks, academia, and intergovernmental organizations. The Urban-Rural Linkages: Guiding Principles and framework of actions are based on the premise that urban and rural areas should not be treated as separate entities when development plans, policies and strategies are made. Rather, the aim is to harness the potential that their combined synergy generates, so that everyone benefits from the circular flow along the urban-rural continuum. The goal of these Guiding Principles is to inform pragmatic strategies and propose a Framework for Action to build an enabling environment for more inclusive and functional urban-rural linkages.
There are also similar initiatives by other international organizations with different focus and approach. An initiative by GiZ and five other agencies compiled cases in Africa, Europe and Latin America on territorial development initiatives. Similarly, a territorial perspective for development (TP4D) initiative drafted principles of a territorial approach to development. Similarly, IFAD also developed a paper on “Territorial approaches, rural-urban linkages and inclusive rural transformation” as an outcome from the Global Policy Engagement Forum and Technical Meeting on 11 December 2015. FAO on the other hand has toolkit city-regions food systems that bring the role of urban-rural linkages through the entry point of food. OECD and UCLG have also compiled case studies and developed tools to support intermediary cities towards enhancing integrated territorial development.
UNHABITAT and UCGL-A Africa are undertaking a series a dialogue on the issue of URL towards Africities, that will bring together more than 5000 representatives of local governments in Kisumu in 2022. The overall purpose of the dialogue is to review policies and institutional frameworks supporting the integration of rural and urban continuum and its impact to establishing the foundation for local economic development and its’ ability to connect markets and systems of cities. Best practices will be collected, disseminated, and replicated with the view of informing ongoing policies and national development plans for a holistic approach of local economic development for secondary and intermediary cities in East African Countries.
MODERATOR
- Dr. Remy Sietchiping, Chief, Policy, Legislation & Governance Section Global Solution Division (UN-HABITAT)
OPENING REMARKS
- Mr. Oumar Sylla, Director, Regional Office for Africa, (UN-HABITAT)
- Mr. Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, Secretary General, UCLG
SETTING THE SCENE
- Mr. Raf Tuts, Director, Global Solutions Division, UN-Habitat
- H.E Prof. Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o, Governor, Kisumu County
- Ms Rose Gamwera, SG EALGA
PANEL 1: URBANIZATION IN AFRICA, STATUS AND ROLES OF INTERMEDIARY CITIES
- Hassan Radoine – Ph.D., M.Phil., M.Sc., Dip. Arch. Director, School of Architecture, Planning and Design (SAP+D), Coordinator, Social Innovation Lab, SIL/UM6P, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco
- Abdul Hussaini – Town Planner/Geo-spatial Analyst, Coordinator, Minna GCIF Initiative and RCE Minna. Niger state, Nigeria
- Dr. Charles Konyango – Director of urban development, state department of housing and urban development
PANEL 2: EXPLORING TOOLS, METHODOLOGIES AND INSPIRING PRACTICES TOWARDS INTEGRATING URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
- Cecilia Marocchino – Urban Food Agenda Coordinator, Food Systems and Food Safety Division (ESF)
- Vicente Ruiz – Economist; Thematic Division, OECD Development Centre
- Cllr. Innocent Uwimana – President of RALGA (Rwanda national association)
- Salvatore Fundaro – Planning, Finance and Economy Section, Urban Practices Branch Global Solutions Division, UN Habitat
- Dr. Rene Peter Hohmann – Head of Global Progammes at the Cities Alliance/UNOPS; Cities Alliance
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