Local government and sustainable urban development (original) (raw)

Sustainable Local Governance Reforms and Development: An Urban Planning Theoretical Perspective

2016

Local governance and urban development are fraught with challenges ranging from poor service delivery, inadequate stakeholder participation to skewed implementation of urban planning policies. The root cause of these challenges emanate from poor and uninformed planning by urban planners. Town planners need to appropriately determine the type of urban development approaches to be executed.. A critique of different urban development approaches is given and a determination made to see which of these best suited for integrated and sustainable urban planning and development. The paper recommends the vital significance of stakeholder participation, crafting of an enabling regulatory framework as well as education and training for local government personnel. Keywords: Urban Panning; Sustainable development; Service delivery; managerialism; New Public Management; Integrated Development Management; Stakeholder participation

Local Governance in the New Urban Agenda: An Introduction

Local and Urban Governance, 2020

The chapter provides an overview of the process that lead to the Habitat III Conference in 2016 and to the New Urban Agenda. Among other aspects of this half-century long process, the book shows how local government became increasingly a critical tier of government in the implementation of the global urban and development agendas. This centrality in the policy process of these global agendas requires a local government system with significant levels of local autonomy. This organizational, functional, and financial autonomy of local government do not exist in numerous countries, in particular in developing countries, while in others, namely in developed countries, there are signs of a move back towards recentralization, which places in risk the implementation of the principles and goals of the New Urban Agenda. This introductory chapter ends with a brief presentation of the book structure, its main parts, and chapters in each of them, highlighting the rationale behind the organization of the book.

Chapter 9 Urban Governance, Democratic Decentralization,

Chapter 9 Urban Governance, Democratic Decentralization,, 2020

This study aims to analyze the implications of democratic or political and administrative or fiscal decentralization in the downward accountability, participatory and deliberative democracy to shape the urban governance of natural resources, facilities, infrastructure, etc. The methodological and theoretical approach of the analysis is framed by the institutional theory and analyses the power relationships and interactions between national and local governments, authorities, agencies, politicians, and other actors within the urban democratic governance system, downward accountability, participative and deliberative democracy, etc. Finally, in the conclusion it is argued that some institutionalized democratic mechanisms and management practices can be implemented in the political or democratic and administrative or fiscal decentralization to improve democratic urban governance of natural resources and environmental and urban green areas.

THE ROLE OF EFFICIENT URBAN GOVERNANCE IN MANAGING NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This paper discuss on the preliminary study on the concept of efficient in urban governance towards managing national development. National Development has been a major issue in the country’s latest development agenda. The issue is more obvious in city-region due to its role as an engine of growth economy development. Now, with its sights set on attaining the economic level of a fully developed nation by 2020, Malaysia must focus on securing a credible share of the lead sectors of the globalised economy. Kuala Lumpur City-Region, which is the most developed region in the country and an important catalyst towards national economic growth. How well do urban governance responsible to efficiency and effectiveness of local authorities in city-region? What kind of urban governance is required to enhance competitiveness and earning opportunities within city-region? The main challenge of enhancing city competitiveness in city-region is efficient urban governance. The world today needs a new, comprehensive and holistic model of urban governance that involves all sectors (government, business and the civil society) as equal partners in development. Urban governance which integrates all sectors including public, private and other social organisations in participatory decision making. Efficient urban governance is characterized by sustainability, subsidiarity, equity, efficiency, transparency and accountability, civic engagement and citizenship and security. In line with this, the importance efficient urban governance would make Malaysia more competitive and attractive to investors and facilitate the achievement of the nation’s development goals. Therefore Kuala Lumpur City-Region will manage and govern efficiently.

Local Government Decision Making on Urban Development: A Case study of the City of Utrecht, The Netherlands

This paper looks at the increasing role of cities in driving sustainable development. Already half of the world's population lives in cities and by 2050 this is expected to rise to 70%. Cities also have a greater potential to take action in sustainable development, not only because of the concentration of economic activities near cities, but also due to the possibilities that arise due to a higher population concentration. The United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (hereafter referred to as, SDG's) that followed from the summit has seen the development of a stand-alone urban goal, rather than urban challenges forming part of other sectorial goals and targets. The urban goal relates to cities and communities to ensure that cities and human settlements are inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. This study is aiming at understanding policy decision-making processes and understanding the challenges of implementation. The case study of the City of Utrecht, The Netherlands looks particularly at economic and social growth and Utrecht's learning by doing approach to it. In particularly, how Utrecht deals with decision-making processes around creating new policies, strategies and programs. This paper will look at the different factors that play a role for Utrecht to decide upon while developing urban strategies.

Urban and Local Governance PhD Course (PPMP-902) Block One – Part I The Nature of the State and Public Management An introductory seminar lecture

Existing dialogue on the transition to good public management in Africa generally are marked by several limitations: a tendency to narrow the thought and practice to the terms and categories of immediate, not very well considered, political and social action, a naïve realism, as it were; ambiguity as to whether civil society is the agent or object of change; a nearly exclusive concern in certain institutional perspectives of ‘development’ and consequent neglect of analysis in terms of generic attributes, specific strategies and performances of these organisations and finally, the inadequate treatment of the role of donors in Africa. Proponents of a strong developmental state in Africa assert that reforms neo-liberal market reforms pushed by IFIs have failed to generate the kind of growth they sought in Africa and hence strong developmental states are the way forward, as they in any way endanger the reforms of good governance and democracy in Africa because only those that were home-grown ever had a chance of success. On the other hand, there exit current schools of thought that “organisational adaptation to political emergencies is part of the Africanisation of public policy. It is an ad hoc process, which defines in outline the emergence of a new system of mal-governance. Rather than societal convergence, the emerging system is adapted to the process of co-evolutionary and separate development that systemic crisis in Africa has given rise to - developmentalism that is hooked to the umbilical cord of international charity and thus the incorporation of aid in national development.

Understanding Good Urban Governance: Essentials, Shifts, and Values

Urban Affairs Review 2014, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 553-576

Building on the relevant international literature, as well as empirical research on urban cases, this article determines and discusses five core values of good urban governance: responsiveness, effectiveness, procedural justice, resilience, and counterbalance. The quest for good governance can take various forms. This article focuses on urban governance, and identifies four different shifts, with increased emphasis on the real decision makers or the ordinary citizens, with increased attention to selective choice or integrative deliberation as modes of urban governance. Urban governance and good urban governance are not synonymous. This article advocates critical reflection, moving beyond the performance bias that tends to accompany governance reform.