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Contributions from
the Column
InWEnt Forum
German vocational training in global competition
Megacity governance
Energy policy in the USA
02/2007 |
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[ Emerging powers ]
People are part of the solution
Paul Taylor believes that local government plays a crucial role for reaching the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals and fighting poverty. The director of UN Habitat’s liaison office in Brussels emphasises that municipal authorities are typically in charge of relevant institutions in many countries, including, for instance, elementary schools that teach children reading, writing and arithmetic (MDG 2) or hospitals and health centres, without which child and maternal mortality cannot be significantly reduced (MDG 4 and 5).
According to Taylor, the commitment of decision-makers at sub-national levels is similarly required to provide everyone with clean drinking water (part of MDG 7). The UN says that half the population of a number of major agglomerations does not have access to piped water and depend on buying water by the bucket or canister at very high prices. Some pay more than 15 times as much as households served by regular utilities.
Matters are especially tough when cities grow fast with large numbers of poor people migrating from agrarian regions because agriculture can no longer support their families properly. Bombay (officially called Mumbai) is such a magnet in India. Experts estimate that at least 2 million people in this metropolis of 18 million inhabitants do not have access to safe sanitary facilities that do not pose health risks.
Nevertheless, Bombay is still a place of hope for many of India’s poor. “People come to the city to improve their lives,” says Sheela Patel of an independent organisation called Sparc, which advocates for slum dwellers in Bombay. She also points out that many small and midsize towns in India and China are growing quickly. Their infrastructures are generally just as overloaded as those of large megacities with more than 8 million inhabitants.
Frannie Léautier of the World Bank Institute also underscores the relevance of local government. She points out that the quality of local administrations often determines whether – and to what extent – cities and their people are able to benefit from globalisation. In December, Taylor, Patel and Léautier met in Frankfurt; all three gave presentations at a conference organised by InWEnt and the Frankfurt mayor’s office. The event was entitled “Governing Emerging Megacities” and dealt with the role of local authorities from various angles. 35 participants came from India and China.
The challenges are complex; and there are no easy solutions that might be simply transposed from one city to the next. According to InWEnt, it is important for the poor to be seen as part of the solution, not as the problem. Diverging interests and perspectives need to be taken into account, and – wherever possible – reconciled. From one city to the other, the process can differ greatly. For instance, there is a great variety of different roles private-sector companies play for providing public services.
“The governance of fast-growing cities and megacities in countries like China, India, and other ‘emerging powers’ is one of the key challenges of this millennium,” says Günther Taube, InWEnt’s division manager for governance issues. “Social and environmental catastrophes with global consequences will only be prevented if all segments of the population are taken into consideration and act responsibly.”
On behalf of the German Development Ministry, InWEnt is organising a series of dialogue fora on globally relevant matters. Late last month, the second conference in the series took place in Berlin on the topic of social security and social cohesion in India. Once again, it became clear that the poor are not simply objects of social policy, they must be empowered to take their well-being into their own hands. (dem)
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