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Since 1999, UN-HABITAT’s Global Urban Observatory (GUO) has been helping cities in developing countries set up their own Local Urban Observatories (LUOs) so that they can get an accurate picture of their needs and keep track of them.
In close collaboration with municipalities, the idea is to try and give as accurate a picture as possible of a given situation – be it the number of people living in slums, the numbers without clean water and sanitation, the victims of crime, those afflicted by health hazards, or even the number of streets in a given neighbourhood. Many cities lack such information, and the disparity here between the wealthier nations and the developing world is staggering.
Local urban observatories bring together city officials, citizens and businesses to ask the simple question: “How well is my city or local authority achieving results that matter?” Development assistance and public expenditure in cities should be achieving results – more employment, fewer people living in poverty, reduced air pollution, and improved quality of local services. LUOs help track progress against these important local development goals by gathering relevant data. The observatories monitor a comprehensive range of issues based on local priorities, including social development (under-five mortality, crime rates, percent of poor households), service delivery performance (access to safe water and sanitation, amount of wastewater treated or solid waste generated), and economic performance (informal employment, city product). LUOs are encouraged to develop their own key performance indicators built around local strategic plans, policies and important service areas.
In Santiago, Chile, for example, the LUO helped the municipality develop indicators for monitoring progress against the Santiago 2010 Strategic Plan. Baseline data and development targets for each of 73 indicators were produced covering the period between 2000-2010. As a result of the monitoring system, the allocation of municipal resources is more transparent, while public awareness of the impact on the economy and the environment has grown.
As part of this monitoring process, LUOs try to gather information that is broken down by geographical location within a city, for example by district and neighbourhood. The GUO helps cities conduct household surveys to highlight the significant gap between slum dwellers and wealthier residents. LUOs use modern technology such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and high-resolution satellite images for mapping and analysing spatial information. This kind of detailed information helps planners and policy-makers to better understand where the poor live in the city, their living conditions and basic needs, and the impact of programmes.
But LUOs do more than simply collect data. Feedback on the outcomes of strategies and services is crucial in helping policy-makers to better understand where things are working and where they are not, and to make more informed decisions.
“The indicators drew to our attention some areas that we have never measured before, such as the economy of the city,” said a local official in Harare, Zimbabwe. “This is a good indicator that helps us to focus resources and priorities.” Harare council is working on integrating indicators into both the physical plan and the strategic plan for the city.
Journalists are also using the indicators. Petralehka Chatterjee, a reporter in India, commented that she uses urban indicators to make a point about trends and comparisons among cities. An example comes from Bangalore where the high crime rate is interesting: although it is not the poorest city, it does have greater inequalities in the population.
In Rosario, Argentina, socio-economic and overcrowding indicators have been used by the water company to identify areas in the city with “unsatisfied basic needs”. An interviewee involved in the indicators programme in Nakuru, Kenya, commented that the data has been useful in preparing shelter programmes and service delivery plans for the municipality.
The LUOs have helped to catalyze new partnerships. National statistics offices are starting to work better with local authorities in order to compile disaggregated national data for cities. LUOs have brought different local agencies around the same table to discuss performance data about their services. In cases where a broader range of stakeholders has been involved, LUOs have strengthened networks between citizen groups and the local authority.
The city of Ahmedabad in India recently set up a Local Urban Observatory coordinated by the local NGO, Urban Planning Partnerships (UPP). UPP has a track record in gathering data on slums in the city using GIS to map these neighbourhoods. The municipality, a key partner of the LUO, has used the results for preparing its own slum upgrading programme.
The GUO is concentrating on projects in selected cities. These include Curitiba (Brazil), Cali (Colombia), Guadalajara (Mexico), Riga (Latvia), Vladivostok (Russia), Aden (Yemen), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), and Ahmedabad and Kolkata (India). It is also exploring potential initiatives in Iran, South Africa, Uganda, Bangladesh, China and Indonesia. Most of these projects are being implemented in partnership with UN-HABITAT’s regional offices and other international development partners such as Metropolis, UNDP and the World Bank.
The challenge is to create local demand for the monitoring system by demonstrating that it can have a positive impact on urban management –this is the only sure way to sustain LUOs over the long term.
Tanzib Chowdhury is a Human Settlements Officer with UN-HABITAT’s Global Urban Observatory.
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