On March 15th, in partnership with the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Urban Sustainability Lab, USAID, the World Bank and Cities Alliance, hosted the concluding workshop of the 2015 Urban Poverty Essay Competition. Three students traveled to Washington, to present their research related to the poor living in cities in the developing world, and were joined by three expert commentators.

The grand prize winner, Stephanie Butcher, presented her work on a partnership between the water utility and private citizens to support small scale water provision and access for slum communities in Kisumu, Kenya. The paper focused on the success of delegating responsibility to residents, allowing greater flexibility for pricing, payment and location of water sources.

Ei-Lyn Chia presented her work on the use of community development associations and other social housing mechanisms to encourage development in the degraded urban center of Sao Paulo Brazil.

Jason Scott presented his work on the effect of digital technologies on activism and social inclusion within the Complexo, a favela outside of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

All three panelists highlighted specific interventions that aim to create a more equitable and inclusive urban fabric. Common themes throughout the workshop were the importance of community inclusion, finding the correct incentives that encourage successful public and private partnerships, and ensuring that an intervention addresses actual need rather than simply shifting it. Representatives from USAID, the InterAmerican Development Bank and the World Bank provided expert commentary on the papers, and IHC CEO Judith Hermanson provided concluding remarks.

The webcast of the event is available here. In the meantime, read the papers from the three winners, in addition to other finalists in the published book here.

IHC recently participated in a workshop hosted by the Shelter Working Group at InterAction. The goal of the half day event was to discuss the potential of integrated programing in humanitarian response.

Global humanitarian response is often divided into organized clusters, so that after a disaster those working to provide one type of service can coordinate and deploy more efficiently.  However, support is growing for the idea of taking a spatial or “neighborhood” approach that views the needs of one group or neighborhood as a whole, encouraging joint planning and design across clusters. The workshop explored this approach, asking participants to discuss the challenges and opportunities it presents, as well as next steps to encourage greater integration.

Chuck Stechel, Senior Shelter Settlements and Hazard Mitigation Advisor at USAID’s Office of Disaster Assistance (OFDA), opened the session with a presentation of OFDA’s “Settlements” approach to shelter assistance, and then asked participants to discuss and share their experiences with integrating sectors.

There was agreement throughout the group on that while technical expertise is vital, a broader vision and the skills to manage the scope of a neighborhood approach are often lacking in both proposal and implementing teams.

Especially in urban settings, participants noted that it is no longer enough to simply provide shelter, if there is no capacity to upgrade, legal basis to build, or national interest in continuing support once emergency response efforts cease.

More than anything, a shift in culture, both by donors and practitioners is necessary, including shifting how success is evaluated. Shelter does not exist in a vacuum, and ensuring that programs transition from emergency response to long-term development is equally important as the initial program itself.

The workshop was well attended by humanitarian implementing organizations, technical advisors and several representatives from OFDA. It provided the Working Group and OFDA with a basis of opinion as both entities work to shape understanding of spatial approaches and improve global practice.

IHC was glad to hear urbanization and cities being recognized as unique settings with unique challenges to the humanitarian community. IHC has long advocated for multi-sector integrated program design in both humanitarian and development assistance, and is glad to see these issues being discussed broadly. The Working Group will be sharing outcomes and next steps from the workshop in the coming weeks.

IHC is delighted to announce the appointment of two distinguished urban experts to its council of Senior Technical Advisors:  Roger Williams and Thomas Kingsley.  They both bring to IHC impressive US and international expertise.  IHC’s Senior Technical Advisors serve IHC through their deep subject matter expertise and experience addressing challenges of equitable urban development.  They assist IHC as it seeks to advance and share practical policies for greater inclusion, equity and prosperity within cities.  

How Local Governments are transcending their Borders to Fight Climate Change:  The story of Durban and Southeast Florida

Guest Post by Jessica Johnston
Senior Program Manager,  International City/County Management Association (ICMA)

The Durban  ̶  Southeast ­Florida Climate Change Partnership began in 2013 when CityLinks, a program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and implemented by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), connected Broward County and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with Durban, South Africa, to address common climate change challenges including sea level rise, flooding, and storm water management, as well as community and municipal engagement.

Durban, a leader in eco-system based adaptation, was introduced to ICMA through the Durban Adaptation Charter (DAC). The DAC was launched at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) 17 held in the City of Durban (eThekwini Municipality), South Africa in December 2011. The DAC commits signatories to ten principles that will assist their communities to respond to and cope with climate change risks thereby reducing vulnerability. Since then, the DAC has grown to over 1,100 local government signatories around the world, the majority of which represent communities in the global south.

Although Durban was successfully addressing many climate challenges in their own back yard, they recognized that climate impacts do not pay attention to political boundaries. Finding an innovative way to work with surrounding municipalities on shared climate challenges was critical to creating sustainable and effective adaptation strategies.

Knowing that Durban was interested in looking at innovative governance models around climate change, ICMA reached out to its members in Southeast Florida that were involved in the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compact. The Compact was formed in 2009 when Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach counties joined forces to work cohesively on climate change. The Compact calls for the counties involved to work cooperatively to advocate for state and federal policies and funding, dedicate staff time and resources to create a Southeast Florida Regional Climate Action Plan, and meet each year to measure progress and identify concerning issues.

Over the course of the partnership CityLinks facilitated exchange visits between Southeast Florida and Durban to see if and how the compact model might work in South Africa. During a trip to Southeast Florida, municipal staff from Durban took an in-depth look at the technical and policy solutions Fort Lauderdale and Broward County are implementing to address climate change. The delegation also met with key community members to better understand the level of citizen engagement the Compact required. In addition to the nuts and bolts of the Compact, the delegation toured Southeast Florida to see how they are preparing for climate change through storm water management solutions, ecosystem restoration, coastline management, and public/private sector engagement.

As a result of the partnership Fort Lauderdale and Broward County became the first U.S. signatories to the DAC in November 2013. In true partnership fashion, the team in Durban took the compact model back home. The Central KwaZulu-Natal Climate Change Compact, now in its second year of operation, has brought together the municipalities around Durban in a consortium that allows for them to work collectively toward regional climate resilience.

To learn more about ICMA’s work in Durban and the CityLinks program, visit the CityLinks website and the Notes from CityLinks blog, follow us on Twitter at @ICMACityLinks, like us on Facebook, and join the climate change discussion in the Climate Preparedness, Adaptation, and Resilience group on the Knowledge Network. Visit ICMA International’s site for additional information on ICMA’s other global projects.

The IHC is updating our communications hardware and part of that update unfortunately includes a change of phone number. New office contact information can always be found on the bottom of this page, but in the future the office may be reached at 202-239-4401. IHC staff emails will remain the same. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

IHC is very excited by the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the underlying agenda to eliminate poverty.  We see SDG 11 to foster inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities as fundamental to their achievement and will be actively supporting it.

As the expected passage of the new Sustainable Development Goals nears, IHC joins with many organizations, nonprofits and civil society around the world gearing up to support the ambitious new global targets for sustainability and development.

SDG 11 is comprehensive and reflects the complex dimensions of cities. It also represents a sea change in global understanding of the importance of urbanization and guiding the growth of cities in an inclusive and responsible manner. The IHC has long advocated that greater attention be given to cities and particularly the needs of the urban poor, and this goal presents a new opportunity to focus these efforts.