Let’s Make our Cities and Communities Inclusive, Safe, Resilient and Sustainable

In 2015, world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  The 17 SDGs call for action by all countries to promote prosperity while maintaining peace, protecting the planet, the people and building partnerships. With only ten years remaining to achieve these goals, countries are accelerating steps towards ending poverty, fighting inequalities, tackling climate change and ensuring that no one is left behind.  Every month, the United Nations places one of the 17 SDGs under the spotlight, highlighting its purpose, targets and criticality in advancing Agenda 2030. This month’s focus is SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

Half of the world - 3.5 billion people - live in cities today and five billion are projected to live in cities by 2030. These figures make it imperative that efficient urban planning and management practices are in place to deal with the challenges brought about by urbanisation.

Sustainable development cannot be achieved without significantly transforming the way we build and manage our urban spaces.

The rapid growth of cities, a result of increasing populations and migration, has led to a boom in mega-cities, especially in the developing world, making slums a more significant feature of urban life.

Ensuring sustainable cities means creating career and business opportunities, safe and affordable housing, and building resilient societies and economies. It involves investment in public transport, creating green public spaces, and improving urban planning in inclusive ways.

Urban areas are impacted by all the SDGs, and many are at the forefront of finding sustainable solutions.

In Africa, the urban population currently stands at 472 million, with this figure set to more than double by 2040, reaching one billion.

Africa’s population is growing and urbanising at a high rate, bringing increasing demands on services and infrastructure within cities. Two-thirds of the urban space that the continent needs by 2050 does not exist today.

One hundred of the continent’s cities have more than one million inhabitants. Ten cities have five million, and Lagos, Africa’s largest urban space, has 23 million. These mega-cities challenge our knowledge about urban populations through their population numbers, diversity and roles in terms of movement of people, ideas, goods, wealth and cultures.

The World Bank estimates that the urban infrastructure needs of Africa cost USD 90 billion (R1.38 trillion) annually. Some four million homes would need to be built each year to keep up with the explosion in urban growth.

In Eswatini, urban population is 21% in comparison with the rural population at 79%, with a growing trend towards urbanisation. A total of 14 cities and towns are under urban local government, including:  Mbabane, Manzini, Nhlangano, Siteki, Pigg’s Peak, Matsapha, Ezulwini, Mankayane, Hlathikhulu, Ngwenya, Vuvulane, Lavumisa Malkerns and Buhleni and three areas are declared controlled, namely; Magindaneni, Mhobodleni and Sikhuphe.

In addition, 60% of the peri-urban residents live in informal communities on un-surveyed land without a legal title. Less than 50% of that population has access to a safe water supply and fewer than 20% have access to formal sanitation. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development is commended in this regard for its efforts to implement the urban development project in line with His Majesty’s Vision 2022.

Attention must also be paid to the environmental and social costs of urbanisation. Indeed, development needs to be organised to ensure the prevention of pollution, as cities are the source of 70% of greenhouse gas emissions, the undermining of the social mix of city centres and creation of slums.

The discussion on sustainable cities should therefore focus on: (a) Essential services such as security, resources, renewable and efficient energy, and risk management; (b) Mobility in cities such as transport infrastructure and access; (c) City-living such as housing, healthcare, education, culture, sport, leisure, civil society and vulnerable populations; (d) Feeding cities and sustainable consumption, including agriculture, shops, restaurants and catering, packaging, recycling and local production; (e) Connectivity in cities such as innovation, digital technologies and data management; (f) Urban-design including architecture, construction,  green spaces, urban art, sustainable tourism and heritage conservation; (g) Financing and structuring projects including donors and foundations, banks, investment funds, financial and technical support, project management, and decentralised cooperation.

Last week, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, hosted the Africa Day 2020 Conference in Dakar, Senegal, with a focus on “Cities for People”. This year’s Conference was dedicated to sustainable urbanisation on the African continent, looking at the rapid growth of African cities and towns.

As our towns and cities grow at unprecedented rates, sustainable urbanisation is one of the most pressing challenges facing the global community in the 21st century.

Cities are the hub for much national production and consumption: economic and social processes generate wealth and opportunity. However, they are bring disease, crime, pollution and poverty. In many cities, especially in developing countries, slum dwellers number more than 50% of the population and have little or no access to shelter, water, and sanitation.

In Eswatini, urban local governments are implementing various initiatives to respond to the challenges of towns and cities. Notably, initiatives such as the Alliance of Mayor’s Initiative for Community Action on AIDS at the Local Level (AMICAALL) have played a significant role in responding to the HIV and AIDS pandemic. The AMICAALL programme has assisted all towns and cities to establish locally-based responses to HIV and AIDS. Activities include: condom distribution, home-based care, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, Anti-Retroviral Therapy (in Manzini and Mbabane), care for orphans and vulnerable children, food security, workplace HIV and AIDS programming and behaviour change communication, which is delivered through youth peer education, reaching out to men and communities.

Recently, the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF), Gender Links (GL), the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MHUD) and the Eswatini Local Government Association (ELGA), have partnered to implement “Connecting the Dots: Local Actions for Women -  Political and Economic Empowerment”. This project, implemented in four southern-African countries, including Lesotho, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with funding from the  UK Department for International Development (DFID), seeks to strengthen the political and economic empowerment of women and girls in southern Africa through online networks linked to Centres of Excellence for Gender in Local Government. It seeks to increase the participation of women of all ages in local government.

On 19th  March 2020, the United Nations Eswatini will support the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to host the Mayor & Municipal Managers’ Dialogue on the SDGs: an opportunity to engage on strategies on the development and the management of sustainable cities, towns and communities and the overall implementation of the SDGs.  The event will be hosted by the Ezulwini Municipality withthe Government, cities and towns of Eswatini devising on issues of mutual concern and enhancing their partnership.