New York, South-South News: Formal and Informal Collaboration a Key Factor in Building Resilient Cities By Brendan Pastor

At the nexus of collaboration between formal institutions of authority and informal sectors of civil society is the solution to one of the planets greatest challenges: building resilient and sustainable cities for the worlds growing urban population. This was the conclusion of experts and government leaders at the World Habitat Day celebration this morning at the United Nations. Participants, including highlevel UN officials and government leaders discussed the ways to best accommodate rapid urbanization that will likely see 65 percent of the planets inhabitants living in cities over the next 30 years. Compounding the challenge of urban growth is the inevitable consequences of climate change, particularly rising sea levels and increased extreme weather activity, and the threat they pose to coastal cities and low-lying communities. Scientists unequivocally agreed that not only is the climate getting warmer but the impact on rising sea levels is hastening, thus heightening vulnerability for our low lying cities and coastal areas. More than 1 billion people, as well as many financial and economic centres, are at risk, John Ashe, President of the 68 th General Assembly, told the crowd. Superstorm Sandy received the bulk of the attention at the event, with addresses about how to build citywide resiliency after its devastating effects. Given the UNs location in New York City, and the undoubtable impact that the storm has had on global climate change discourse, it was fitting that World Habitat Day should accommodate speeches by some of the regions leaders. Dan Zimmer, Mayor of Hoboken, the New Jersey city across the river from Manhattan, where an estimated 70 percent of the city was flooded during Sandy, offered insight into how sustainable urban planning and resilient infrastructure have made the post-Sandy recover easier. Hoboken is the densest city in the country, and has the number one per capita usage of public transportation in the country Dawn Zimmer told the audience. Zimmer discussed how the breadth of public transport options, and Hobokens ability to quickly navigate transportation alternatives during the Sandy aftermath, made adapting to the short-term disruption from the flooding much easier to stomach than other nearby locations. The task of creating more climate-resilient cities is a political, economic and social challenge on its own. But this task becomes even more complicated in many cities across the developing world where local governments and public authorities do not exercise complete control over the land.

At a press conference, Dr. Joan Clos, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UN Human Settlements Program (UN Habitat) was asked about how to factor this scenario into the equation. There is no leapfrogging policy for that, Clos told South-South News. There is no other way to plan resiliency than to have a functioning government. Cities are creations of humans, and they cannot be left to the spontaneity that results from lack of authority, Clos added. But the reality, Clos noted, shows that this situation does indeed exist. Under such conditions where public authorities are not adequately placed to design on their own, there is enormous benefit for collaboration between government and civil society actors. You need an authority, if possible a democratic one, in order to build a proper urbanization process. But that requires contribution of stakeholders and people. There are plenty of examples of when communities gather together to organize themselves outside of government existence. People impose for themselves their own rules and regulations for safe living, Clos concluded. Thomas Elmqvist, a professor at Stockholm Resilience Center at Stockholm University, added how important it was for groups, public and private, to collaborate to build adaptive capacities and create innovation. Formal government-only planning creates less resilience, and only informal planning creates much less resilience, Elmqvist said. This years World Habitat Day was another iteration of UN Habitats efforts to drive focus to the need for long-term sustainable solutions to urbanization. Falling at the end of the inaugural 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly, there was an undercurrent of hope that the ideas espoused in World Habitat Day resilience, sustainability, and long-term planning would factor into the UNs post-2015 development agenda. Urban resilience is a sustainable development priority, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon affirmed. All actors need to work together to save lives, protect assets and guarantee services when disasters strike.