In urban settlements around the world, city administrations struggle, and often fail, to provide essential services, safe spaces, and socio-economic securities to residents. While this poses difficulties and dangers to all inhabitants, the consequences of such neglect are especially severe for low-income women and girls.
With more and more people moving to cities, the question arises how to organise urban expansion in a way that ensures economic growth and quality of life. Nina Harari discusses which urban configurations can best accommodate urban growth and whether a city's shape influences its economic development.
Bangalore is perhaps one of the most prominent examples for urban growth and vibrant economic activity. M H Bala Subrahmanya explains the city’s ascent to success – and its downsides.
The Cities and Regions Talanoa Dialogues are a highly efficient tool towards achieving the goals set in the Paris Agreement. This can be seen in examples from Togo, the Philippines, Indonesia, South Africa, and Ecuador, writes Jisun Hwang from the ICLEI.
URBANET spoke to Shri Saranyan Krishnan about the particularities of urban land governance in India’s state of Tamil Nadu.
Shivani Chaudhry from the Housing and Land Rights Network argues that India’ Smart Cities Mission lacks a human rights dimension – with highly problematic consequences.
The concept of 'smart cities' is celebrated globally as one solution to the problems of urbanisation. Jagan Shah argues that in India, the Smart Cities Mission helps to overcome outdated structures in urban planning and governance.
India is a rapidly urbanising country. As a kick-off to our focus week, URBANET has prepared infographics to summarize some of the most important and fascinating facts and processes regarding urbanisation in India.
In the fourth part of our series on the Talanoa Dialogues, Kirti Kusum Joshi talks about the need for dialogue between federal, provincial, and local governments in order to reduce Nepal's vulnerability to climate change.
Achieving SDG 12—Responsible Consumption and Production—would entail the implementation of various other SDGs, argues Farah Kabir. ActionAid Bangladesh aims at raising awareness and changing consumption patterns in the capital city of Dhaka.
It is important to think locally when implementing the SDGs, argues Christopher Dekki. Countries in Asia-Pacific, such as Laos and Sri Lanka, are examples of this successful approach.
The agricultural sector of the municipality of Dumangas in the Philippines is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. We spoke to its mayor Ronaldo Golez about strategies to become more resilient and to empower local communities.
Most urban slum dwellers in Asian countries cannot access conventional systems of finance. To get a loan, you need to prove you are creditworthy. But without a pay slip, you are unbankable. People living in poor communities need access to loans and other forms of financing to develop solutions to the serious problems they face, writes Somsook Boonyabancha. With a variety of models and scales ranging from small community funds to national-level networks, community finance is a popular and growing tool that promises to open up new possibilities for the people most in need.
Preserving cultural heritage while upgrading urban areas can be a challenging task for cities. Analyn Rubenecia and Chenzi Yiyang describe how the city of Yangzhou, China, designed its urban renewable project with an integrated approach. This puts Yangzhou on the right track toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
With middle classes growing in middle-income countries, the challenge arises how to reconcile increasing consumption with finite resources. Can consumer behaviour be channelled in a way that makes it sustainable? Babette Never reports from a workshop that has explored this question.
