UNDP Cities Initiative

Our Work on sustainable, inclusive, safe, and resilient urbanization:
More than half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas. By 2050, that figure will have risen to 6.5 billion people – two-thirds of humanity. Sustainable development cannot be achieved without significantly transforming the way we build and manage our urban spaces.

The rapid growth of cities in the developing world, coupled with increasing rural to urban migration, has led to a boom in mega-cities. In 1950, only 30 percent of the world’s population lived in urban areas. In 2014, 54 percent was urban, with the proportion being far higher in developed countries. By 2020, however, the majority of people in developing countries will live in cities, with Africa and Asia urbanizing faster than other regions. Together with Latin America, they collectively account for more than 90 percent of global urban growth.

Many national, regional and local governments have struggled to create and implement policies that tackle the growing challenges faced by population growth in urban centers. Making cities safe and sustainable means ensuring access to safe and affordable housing, as well as improving slum and informal housing settlements. City leaders must invest in public transport, create and regenerate new public spaces for all urban residents, and improve urban planning and management in a way that is both participatory and inclusive. Sustainable city life is one of 17 Global Goals that make up the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. An integrated approach is crucial for progress across the multiple goals.

UNDP’s policy and programme support focuses on supporting countries (and cities) to implement policies and initiatives for achieving SDG 11 and the New Urban Agenda. Given the scope of urban challenges, UNDP will continue to work with a diverse set of partners and stakeholders—as part of a ‘coalition’—in addressing challenges to urbanization at the local, regional and national levels.

Urban residents in well-planned cities enjoy better access to employment opportunities, healthcare, education and public services compared to their rural counterparts. This is an opportunity to ensure that the urban infrastructure being built is climate resilient [1] and provides a better quality of life for the people who will live there. Better governance, planning and management mechanisms and access to affordable financing will be critical determinants of the sustainability, resilience, and inclusiveness of future urban centers.

Kanishk Tharoor ~ The Rise And Fall Of Great World Cities: 5,700 Years Of Urbanisation – Mapped

Urbanisation is one of the defining processes of modern times, with more than half of the world’s population now living in cities, and new mega-metropolises mushrooming in Asia, Latin America and Africa. But a comprehensive, digitised database of city populations through world history has been lacking, with the United Nations’ dataset only extending as far back as 1950.

That was until recent research, published in the journal Scientific Data, transcribed and geocoded nearly 6,000 years of data (from 3700BC to AD2000). The report produced a gargantuan resource for scholars hoping to better understand how and why cities rise and fall – and allowed blogger Max Galka to produce a striking visualisation on his site Metrocosm.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/rise-fall

Smart City Makeover For Slums In Bhubaneswar Township Area

BHUBANESHWAR: The slum pockets falling under Bhubaneswar Town Centre District (BTCD), will wear a new look, according to the concept of Smart City Mission.

The BTCD is spread over 985 acres and there are 26 slums in the zone. The BTCD will be a model town of the city to be developed under the mission. The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started validation (enumeration) camps to identify the genuine slum dwellers so that they are provided with concrete buildings.

Read more: http://realty.economictimes.indiatimes.com/hubaneswar-township-area

Moladi ~ Conventional Building Methods Not Suited To African Conditions

Housing and construction systems developer Moladi says its low-cost housing system, comprising plastic formwork panels and a cement admixture, is widely embraced throughout Africa, as it has been specifically designed to meet the requirements of the African market.

Moladi founder and CEO Hennie Botes says the system alleviates challenges associated with conventional building methods, including excessive costs, labour-intensive processes and the availability of materials. He notes that while the aforementioned challenges are not specific to African countries, they are exacerbated by other uniquely African obstacles.

Read more: http://www.designmind.co.za/conventional-building-methods

Moladi ~ Push To Supply Longer-Term Lodgings

Housing and building construction systems company Moladi believes mining companies, which are currently dealing with the commodities downturn, should invest in longer-term building solutions for the purpose of on-site accommodation, as opposed to more traditional prefabricated modular buildings.
Thus, the company is targeting the mining industry for the provision of long-term accommodation, says moladi founder and CEO Hennie Botes.

The Port Elizabeth-based company’s buildings offer mines investment in permanent structures, which can be used for a range of applications, from accommodation to storage, that are secure, unlike temporary modular solutions.
Further, the company emphasises that its focus on providing a housing solution that is a quicker and a cheaper method of producing better-quality structures that are “far more durable and require less maintenance” will benefit mines and their workers.

Moladi uses mine by-products such as mine slag and crusher dust, which act as a stable level filler, as bulk building material to construct its long-term housing solution, reducing the cost of construction.
He adds that the company can construct buildings that are more durable than prefabricated and traditional brick and mortar building solutions.

Moladi’s green building method involves the use of removable, reusable, recyclable and lightweight plastic formwork moulds that are filled with mortar consisting of sand and cement.

The walls of Moladi’s buildings have a strength of 16 megapascal (MPa), compared with traditional brick walls that start at 2 MPa. “Our walls are up to six to eight times stronger than brick and cement,” adds Botes.

Read more: http://www.designmind.co.za/push-to-supply-longer-term-lodgings

Lisa Novacek ~ Empower Shack

Empower Shack from Urban-Think Tank on Vimeo.

The Empower Shack project is directed by Urban-Think Tank and the local NGO Ikhayalami in collaboration with the BT-Section community and associated local and international partners. The project aims to develop a comprehensive and sustainable informal settlement upgrading through addressing there core components:

• a two-story housing prototype,
• participatory spatial planning,
• ecological landscape management,
• integrated livelihoods programming,

There is an ongoing pilot phase is focused on a cluster of 68 houses within the BT-Section of Khayelitsha to be completed in 2017.

Read more: http://futurecapetown.com/watch-empower-shack