Local governance and access to urban services: Conclusions and policy implications

Abstract

Studies in this volume show that inclusive, participatory and sustainable urban service delivery and access require a set of policy and program responses: It is essential to distribute resources equitably to urban local governments and strengthen their planning and management capacity in order to enable them to perform their responsibilities. Institutional arrangements should be restructured to promote collaborative governance and stock-taking of functional gaps and overlaps among multiple agencies and departments located within a city. Participatory mechanisms should be provided for the engagement of civil society, local governments, citizen groups and other stakeholders in local decision-making processes. The need is for greater use of widely recognized instruments of accountability and transparency including participatory budgeting and right to information. One of the challenges of urban policy implementation is political and social inclusion and engagement of marginalized communities including women, youth, migrants, ethnic minorities and the urban poor in the structures and processes of local governance including access to urban land and housing through revised land use regulations, effective land density and mixed use, and housing finance and land titles reforms. Cities have been laboratories of experimentation, innovations and good practices to improve service delivery and access. Recent surveys have highlighted a number of innovations and good practices in cities in terms of their content, rationale and impact on urban residents. These need to be replicated. Information and communication technology (ICT) should be used to enhance quality, performance and interactivity of urban services; to reduce costs and resource consumption; and to improve contact between citizens and government. Finally, peri-urbanization is a critical issue in access to services for the urban poor. It requires an integrated planning and coordination of urban areas.