URBAN INDICATORS
TOOL KIT
GUIDE
1. Introduction
2. The minimum data set
3. Collecting and compiling data
4. Methodological issues
5. Taking gender into account
6. Indicators methodology sheets
7. Using the Toolkit spreadsheets
8. Annexes
a. Adjusting money quantities to US dollars
b. General definitions
1. Introduction
This guide is a companion document to
the attached Urban Indicators Toolkit designed by UNCHS (Habitat) for reporting
on progress in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda.
The Indicators Toolkit is a simple
user-friendly spreadsheet for collecting and analysing a minimum data set
composed of 23 key urban indicators and 9 qualitative data sub-sets for the
Istanbul +5 assessment.
Supplementary
to the minimum data set, UNCHS (Habitat) has prepared several additional tools
which Habitat partners are encouraged to use for measuring progress in the
implementation of the Habitat Agenda:
§
An extended set of
indicators from which Habitat partners may select the most relevant for
their situation;
§
An easy-to-use “citizen
satisfaction survey” or “urban report card”;
§
A set of four process indicators to measure
participation in decision-making ;
§
A simple method for content
analysis of newspaper reports on urban issues.
These tools are available upon request to the Urban Indicators
Programme, UNCHS (Habitat) and on its homepage at:
<http://www.urbanobservatory.org/indicators>.
Back
to Top
2. The minimum data set
Based
on the Habitat Agenda and on Resolutions 15/6 and 17/1 of the United Nations
Commission on Human Settlements, UNCHS (Habitat) has developed an indicators
system that contains a set of 23 key indicators and nine lists of qualitative data. These are the minimum data required for
reporting on shelter and urban development consistent with the twenty key areas
of commitment in the universal reporting
format.
Indicators are supposed to measure
performances and trends in the 20 selected key areas, and to measure progress
in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda.
Indicators provide a comprehensive picture of cities, which, with other
indicators which may be chosen by countries, will provide a quantitative,
comparative base for the condition of cities, and show progress towards
achieving urban objectives.
Two different types of data are included in the minimum set:
·
Key indicators, comprising indicators which are both important for
policy and relatively easy to collect. They are either numbers, percentages and
ratios;
·
Qualitative data or check-lists, which give an assessment of
areas which cannot easily be measured quantitatively. They are audit questions
generally accompanied of checkboxes for yes or no answers.
For country
reporting, indicators should be collected and analysed for at least one major
city in order to establish the dimensions of national urban conditions, trends
and issues. To provide a better
diagnosis of urbanization within a country, it is recommended that indicators
be collected for a representative sample of cities based on size, economic
development, location or other variables relevant to the country's system of
human settlements.
It is important that the minimum data set be submitted as part of
the country report annex. The
resulting global database will provide the statistical foundation for
development of composite indices of urban poverty, urban human development,
city investment potential, urban environment, urban governance and overall quality
of urban life.
The indicators are classified into five chapters and subclassified
into the 20 key areas of the Istanbul +5 Universal
Reporting Format (table 1).
Table 1: List of indicators corresponding
to the 20 Habitat Agenda key areas of commitment.
CHAPTER 1: Shelter
1. Provide security of tenure
indicator 1:
tenure types
indicator 2:
evictions
2. Promote the right to
adequate housing
qualitative data 1:
housing rights
indicator 3:
housing price-to-income ratio
3. Provide equal access to land
indicator 4:
land price-to-income ratio
4. Promote equal access to
credit
indicator 5:
mortgage and non-mortgage
5. Promote access to basic
services
indicator 6:
access to water
indicator 7:
household connections
|
CHAPTER 4: Economic
Development
15. Strengthen small and micro-enterprises,
particularly those developed by women
indicator 20:
informal employment
16. Encourage public-private sector partnership
and stimulate productive employment opportunities
qualitative data 5:
public-private partnerships
Indicator 21:
city product
indicator 22:
unemployment
|
CHAPTER 2: Social
development and eradication of poverty
6. Provide equal opportunities
for a safe and healthy life
indicator 8:
under-five mortality
indicator 9:
crime rates
qualitative data 2:
urban violence
7. Promote social integration
and support disadvantaged groups
indicator 10:
poor households
8. Promote gender equality in human
settlements development
indicator 11:
female-male gaps
|
CHAPTER 5: Governance
17. Promote
decentralisation and strengthen local authorities
qualitative data 6:
level of decentralization
18. Encourage and support participation and
civic engagement
qualitative data 7:
citizen involvement in major planning decisions
19. Ensure
transparent, accountable and efficient governance of towns, cities and
metropolitan areas
qualitative data 8: transparency and
accountability
indicator 23: local government revenue
and expenditures
|
CHAPTER 3:
Environmental Management
9. Promote
geographically-balanced settlement structures
indicator 12:
urban population growth
10. Manage supply and demand for water in an effective manner
indicator 13:
water consumption
indicator 14:
price of water
11. Reduce urban pollution
indicator 15:
air pollution
indicator 16:
wastewater treated
indicator 17:
solid waste disposal
12. Prevent disasters and
rebuild settlements
qualitative data 3: disaster prevention and
mitigation instruments
13. Promote effective and environmentally sound transportation
system
Indicator 18:
travel time
Indicator 19:
transport modes
14. Support mechanisms to prepare and implement local
environmental plans and local Agenda 21 initiatives
qualitative data 4:
local environmental plans
|
CHAPTER 6: International Cooperation
20. Enhance international cooperation and
partnerships
qualitative data 9: engagement in international cooperation
|
Back
to Top
3. Collecting and compiling data
Who should collect the
data ?
It is expected
that completion of the indicators survey will be a collaborative effort, rather
than the work of a single individual. Some results can be completed solely by
reference to secondary materials. Others will require consultation with a small
group of experts. Also, it is vital to get knowledgeable experts to interpret
the survey and provide their most informed judgment on the values of the
indicators.
The experience with the indicators programme to date has
demonstrated that in order to obtain good data,
i) highly qualified experts and officials
in each country need to be consulted for the collection and estimation of the
indicators;
ii)
these experts should be in direct communication with UNCHS, and work
should be reviewed and commented on at different stages.
No single person is expected to be simultaneously conversant with
each of the areas, and experts or departments with knowledge of each area will
need to be contacted by the persons responsible for overall compilation of the
data, in order to obtain authoritative estimates for each area.
What is the year of
reference ?
As you may recall, for the Habitat II
Conference, the year of reference for data collection was 1993. For Istanbul
+5, the year of reference will be 1998, 5 years after.
For cities which have collected information for the
Habitat II Conference, complete 1993 results are available in the Global Urban
Indicators Database residing on the following homepage: http://www.urbanobservatory.org/indicators
Country
or city level data ?
While some data should be reported at the country level
only (national level data) and other at the city level only (city level data),
some information should be provided for both city level and country level. The
level of collection is indicated for each of the indicators in the reporting
sheets below.
For
city level data, the standard area of reference is the urban agglomeration.
When data for the Urban Agglomeration is not available, data for the
Metropolitan Area might be used. This
should be indicated in a note page attached to the results.
The urban agglomeration
is defined as the built-up or densely populated area containing the city
proper; suburbs, and continuously settled commuter areas. This may be smaller
or larger than the metropolitan area.
The metropolitan area is the set of formal local government
areas which are normally taken to comprise the urban area as a whole and its
primary commuter areas.
Back
to Top
The success of
indicators reporting depends on getting the most accurate information presently
available. Where recent published data is available, this is preferable. If
published data are not available or are not recent enough, the best estimates
possible should be obtained.
The suggestions
given below for collection of individual indicators vary between using “hard”
data, i.e. published data which is desirable but not readily available for all
indicators, and using “soft” data, i.e. indirect evidence or the informed
opinion of experts. The preferred option should always be to use published data
(adjusted for year, definition, etc.) whenever it is available and recent
enough. For all data collected, the guiding principles are that it should be
the best available, the latest available, and that it should be fully
documented.
Disaggregated
data of high quality and comparability may be difficult to achieve. Often there
are a number of different ways to approximate an answer. Implicit in all of the
indicators, however, is the possibility of quoting published data or of using a
different methodology. If this is done, then the source or methodology should
be documented completely in an annexe. If the data provided are for anything
other than the stated definition, please explain the differences in the notes
section at the end of the modules and sub-modules.
It is not
expected that new household surveys will be initiated to collect data. For
areas which might eventually require detailed household or other surveys, we
generally suggest obtaining an estimate or an “educated guess” from a group of
expert observers in the field.
For all data collected, the guiding principles are that they should
be the best available, the latest available, and that they should be fully
documented. In most cases though, an approximate result is very much
preferred over no result, and may give guidance to improved future
collection methods. It is necessary to keep in mind the systemic relationships
among indicators. The total picture of each sector and of the city as a whole
is more important than a highly accurate value for any one variable, and highly
inaccurate values for all others. Data which might be insufficiently accurate
for a detailed study of a single indicator, or for examining short-term
variations in a single indicator, may be accurate enough for sector-wide
evaluations. Precision may be less critical for a broad, cross-city or cross-country
analysis than it would first appear because the error in measurement will
usually be much smaller than the variations between cities.
One of
the problems in collecting urban indicators will be the large number of
government agencies holding the data. Each sector, e.g. transport, water etc.
tends to be handled by a different authority, and consequently collecting the
indicators is likely to require a larger number of contacts and to take long if
not coordinated in a timely manner. Another problem will be the different
arrangements for the provision of urban services in different countries,
particularly those with a federal system. In these countries, many typical
local government functions including education, housing, police, water and
planning are often undertaken by state governments, and methodology to maintain
comparability with cities where these functions are carried out by local
governments will need to be developed. As well, there are often a number of
municipalities in any city, and unless local government statistics are
collected centrally in a consistent way, there may be a good deal of difficulty
involved in assembling local government data for the whole city.
Some indicators such
as household size do not change quickly, and older data may safely be used,
with extrapolation if necessary. Other series such as price data or incomes
will change rapidly, and it is essential to have the most recent data possible.
The dates for the data used, the method of calculation or estimation, and the
sources used should be documented in a note annex. Please note that, in general, stock data (e.g. unemployment, housing
stock) should preferably be estimated as the average value during the year, but
can be taken as the value at the middle of the year.
Back
to Top
In many countries and areas of life, analysis of the
status of women in human settlements is not easy because data do not exist. The
contribution that women make to development, as well as the discrimination
against them, are equally hidden. Efforts to obtain sufficient and factual
information about the state of the housing and urban sectors should be made in
relation to overall economic, social and environmental development. The
availability of statistics and indicators which quantify the specific roles and
conditions of life of men and women can influence changes in public perception
and hence policies. If collected by countries, such indicators will provide a
sound basis for the formulation and implementation of housing and urban
development policies that are sensitive to the roles of different members of
the society.
This document includes a
gender-perspective in indicators, by proposing that effort should be made to
disaggregate indicators by sex as much as possible.
The purpose of the disaggregation of indicators by
sex is :
- to measure the role of men and women in urban
development and shelter;
- to monitor urban and shelter sectors, taking
gender into account;
- to integrate the gender dimension in policies,
indicators being policy tools.
However, data collection may be a
difficult task given the unavailability of disaggregated data in many countries.
In any case, data disaggregation must be a primary concern in enabling a gender
approach to urban and shelter sector planning and monitoring. All actors should
recognize the value and relevance of gender-sensitivity and should introduce a
gender-aware approach in further data collection efforts at the national and
city levels.
While
most of the indicators should have disaggregated results by gender, other types
of disaggregation might be considered, depending on the particular urban
context. They might be:
-
by type of settlements: in most developing countries, it is
useful to obtain data disaggregated for formal and informal urban settlements,
generally slum and non-slum areas; results such as on the tenure status, price
of utilities or level of services vary dramatically between formal and informal
areas.
-
by districts: information disaggregated by districts is
extremely useful for planning in a variety of issues related to shelter,
socio-economic development, environmental management and governance. Cities
which have highly developed data collection and analysis systems are generally
able to provide data by wards, districts or sectors. Such information will
easily be compiled into a geographical information system which will allow
mapping of urban performances by sectors.
-
by communities: cities which have strong community differences
might collect information by communities, especially, on tenure types
(indicator 1), access to services (indicators 6 and 7), poor households
(indicator 10), employment (indicators 20 and 22). This information will
provide a useful background for assessing the level of inclusion of the
different communities.
-
by age groups: disaggregation by group of age can provide crucial
information which allow adequate age-groups targeting for a number of policy
areas such as crime and safety (indicator 9), poverty alleviation or employment
(indicators 10, 20, 22); common used age groups are 0-4 years, 5-14 years,
15-24 years, 25-59 years, more than 60 years.
Back
to Top
6. Indicators
methodology sheets
This section describes the minimum data set, with explanation
about:
1.
significance of each
indicator for analysing urban conditions and trends and their meaning in the
Habitat Agenda;
2.
definitions adopted by
UNCHS (Habitat) in accordance with international standards, in order to
facilitate comparisons of data when possible;
3.
methodology for obtaining
and collecting the data, as well as for calculating the results;
4.
ways and methods for taking gender
into account for each indicator;
5.
collection level for each indicator (country or
city level);
6.
linkages between
indicators in order to relate the analysis of each indicator result with other
ones (e.g. the crime rates (indicator 9) might be related to the level of poverty
(indicator 10) and unemployment (indicator 22)).
|
Indicator 1:
|
Tenure types
|
|
|
|
|
Reporting chapter:
|
SHELTER
|
|
|
|
|
Habitat Agenda commitment:
|
Provide security of tenure
|
|
Significance:
|
This indicator provides an overview
of the share of different tenure status among urban dwellers. Among the
safest tenure are ownership, purchasing and tenants in social housing and
when rental regulations are protective enough, private tenancy can offer a
fairly safe tenure to households. The most common precarious tenure statuses
are homelessness and squatter, which can also be used as distinct indicators.
|
|
Definitions:
|
percentage of woman and man-headed households in the following
tenure categories:
(a) owned; (b) purchasing; (c) private rental: (d) social
housing; (e) sub-tenancy; (f) rent free;
(g) squatter no rent; (h) squatter rent paid; (I) homelessness;
(j) other.
·
Owned refers to households with a clear title or
ownership (formal housing) of the house and land they occupy, possibly through a company
structure or as condominiums or strata title, or long leasehold of land. Purchasing refer to owner-occupiers
in formal housing with a formal mortgage over the property.
·
Private rental is households in (formal) housing for
which rents are paid to a private landlord who is the legal owner. Social housing includes all
households in public, parastatal or NGO-owned or operated housing, including
government employee housing and housing owned or operated by co-operatives. Sub-tenancy refers to households who
are renting from another household who is renting the premises.
·
Squatter - without rent refers to households in
squatter housing, or housing which has no title to the land on which it
stands, and who pay no rents. Squatter
- with rent refers to households
in squatter housing who pay rent.
·
Other includes homeless, nomads, persons living
in institutions or hotels, and any other tenures.
·
Homeless refers to persons without shelter. These
persons usually carry their few possessions with them, sleeping in streets,
in doorways, on piers or in some open areas, such as park.
|
|
Gender:
|
Tenure type by sex of household is an essential part of the basic
information on the status of men and women in human settlements. In many
countries, female-headed households suffer from a lower and more precarious
tenure status than male-headed households, which leads to insecurity for
themselves and their dependents. Many studies have shown that, in developing
countries, female-headed households predominate in informal settlements.
|
|
Collection
level:
|
City and national levels
|
|
Linkages:
|
indicator 2 (evictions),
indicator 3 (housing price-to-income ratio), indicator 5 (mortgage and
non-mortgage)
|
|
Indicator 2:
|
Evictions
|
|
|
|
|
Reporting chapter:
|
SHELTER
|
|
|
|
|
Habitat Agenda commitment:
|
Provide security of tenure
|
|
Significance:
|
Whether is it legal or illegal,
eviction has generally negative social impacts on the concerned population.
This indicator measures the degree to which this practice is still in force.
Because eviction is usually irregular and intermittent, the value for this
indicator is an average over the last five-year period. In developed
countries the indicator will refer to evictions during large public works
projects but mostly to evictions for non-payment of rent, and will measure
affordability conditions and the availability of legal recourse by landlords.
In developing countries the major component of this indicator will be
squatter evictions. In many countries, Governments have chosen to allow
long-term squatter settlements to remain in place, improved infrastructure,
and secured land tenure thereby allowing the residents |
