Regional Report on Mainstreaming Leave No One Behind (LNOB) in National Urban Policies and Programme in South Asia

The Regional Report of Mainstreaming Leave No One Behind (LNOB) in National Urban Policies and Programmes in South Asia &nbsp;was prepared with the completion of a project that was implemented in partnership with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology (UNOICT). An important aspect of this collaborative effort was to strengthen capacities of national and local governments, prioritize LNOB and focus on addressing disabilities in urban policy and planning frameworks in the four South Asian member States: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The project primarily focused on strengthening national governments and local urban institutions to incorporate LNOB (inclusion, disability and safety) into national urban policies, facilitating evidence-based localization of national policies and implementation of SDG 6 and SDG 11, and helping to guide the development and adoption of their approaches. Approximately 750 million people live with disabilities in the Asia-Pacific region. The report discusses how the target countries, under the present LNOB project, have taken an inclusive approach towards policy planning to ensure more resilient and disability-inclusive development. It further sets out the context and narrative to outline the need for disability-specific disaggregated data for development and policy formulation, implementation, evaluation, and highlights the significance of evidence-based policy formulation to empower national and local governments to mainstream LNOB as a key principle in implementing the New Urban Agenda. Consequently, a narrative has been set out in the report, through the illustration of good practices, to outline how inclusive policies and disaggregated data are extremely important to safeguard the rights of persons with disabilities and protect them against discrimination on the grounds of disability.</p

Eco-efficient and sustainable urban infrastructure development in Asia and Latin America : eco-efficiency and sustainable infrastructure in the United States and Canada

This publication considers the fact that despite the important role of the business community in the creation and promotion of green technology and related services in Canada and in the United States, the experiences in both countries illustrate the limitations of the market in the promotion of sustainable urban growth. The two cases reviewed in this report, the most advanced and comprehensive systems of urban sustainability highlight the key role of the public sector in the design, integration, promotion and enforcement of sustainable policies for urban growth.</p

Promotion of community-managed development projects : a CITYNET training manual

A CITYNET Training Manual prepared with the support of UNDP.This training manual presents the major characteristics that have made the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh and the Orangi Pilot Project of Karachi, Pakistan successful and which should be considered during the planning and implementation of any community development project. This is not a descriptive study of any of the two projects. Several publications, which have described these projects in detail already exist and another descriptive study would be a replication of effort. Some of these publications are listed towards the end of this manual under Selected References and can serve as useful background material. The target group of this training manual are operational staff of city governments, governmental, non-governmental or ganizations who are involved in community development. How ever, it may also prove useful to senior level officials who are involved in the planning of such development projects. It could also be used by those engaged in an ongoing community develop ment project as a check-list to ensure that all of the major considerations have been taken into account. The training manual is divided into four chapters. The first chapter deals with the preliminary research needed to commence community development projects. The second chapter deals with planning considerations to be included in such projects. The third chapter deals with implementation issues. The last chapter discusses points which could be considered while expanding project activities. Each chapter contains a discussion on how the Grameen Bank and the Orangi Pilot Project dealt with the above issues, difficulties faced and how they were solved. At the end of the publication a proposed checklist of issues which need to be considered while developing a community development project. This checklist could be used as a training exercise for professionals involved in such development projects.</p

Access and utilisation of primary health care services comparing urban and rural areas of Riyadh Providence, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has seen an increase in chronic diseases. International evidence suggests that early intervention is the best approach to reduce the burden of chronic disease. However, the limited research available suggests that health care access remains unequal, with rural populations having the poorest access to and utilisation of primary health care centres and, consequently, the poorest health outcomes. This study aimed to examine the factors influencing the access to and utilisation of primary health care centres in urban and rural areas of Riyadh province of the KSA

Redefining Water Security through Social Reproduction: Lessons Learned from Rajasthan's ‘Ocean of Sand’

One of the most urgent challenges facing the world today is ensuring local water security under rapid climate variability and change. This is of particular importance in a country like India, where over half of the people are involved in farming, and agricultural losses due to climate change are estimated to be as high as 30 per cent by 2080. This ethnography in the arid village of Bhiwadi, West Rajasthan empirically links the reintroduction of local water harvesting technologies with the building of sustainable social reproduction in subsistent communities. By emphasising both the role of gender and the informal economy – and institutions – this ethnography provides a more thorough picture of the individuals and collective actors involved in localised and resilient technologies within global economic and climatic processes

Urban Area Disadvantage and Under-5 Mortality in Nigeria: The Effect of Rapid Urbanization

Background: Living in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas is associated with increased -childhood mortality risks. As city living becomes the predominant social context in low- and middle-income countries, the resulting rapid urbanization together with the poor economic circumstances of these countries greatly increases the risks of mortality for children < 5 years of age (under-5 mortality). Objective: In this study we examined the trends in urban population growth and urban under-5 mortality between 1983 and 2003 in Nigeria. We assessed whether urban area socioeconomic dis-advantage has an impact on under-5 mortality. Methods: Urban under-5 mortality rates were directly estimated from the 1990, 1999, and 2003 Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys. Multilevel logistic regression analysis was performed on data for 2,118 children nested within data for 1,350 mothers, who were in turn nested within data for 165 communities. Results: Urban under-5 mortality increased as urban population steadily increased between 1983 and 2003. Urban area disadvantage was significantly associated with under-5 mortality after adjusting for individual child- and mother-level demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Conclusions: Significant relative risks of under-5 deaths at both individual and community levels underscore the need for interventions tailored toward community- and individual-level inter-ventions. We stress the need for further studies on community-level determinants of under-5 mortality in disadvantaged urban areas

Urban Governance for Adaptation: Assessing Climate Change Resilience in Ten Asian Cities

Rapidly expanding urban settlements in the developing world face severe climatic risks in light of climate change. Urban populations will increasingly be forced to cope with increased incidents of flooding, air and water pollution, heat stress and vector‐borne diseases. This research, undertaken with a set of partner research institutes, examines how to manage climate‐related impacts in an urban context by promoting planned and autonomous adaptation in order to by improve resilience in a changing climate. It investigates the linkages between the characteristics of pro‐poor good urban governance, climate adaptation and resilience, and poverty and sustainable development concerns. The paper develops an analytical framework by combining governance literature with rapid climate resilience assessments conducted in ten Asian cities. Based on this empirical data, we argue that a number of key characteristics can be identified to assess and build urban resilience to climate change in a way that reduces the vulnerability of the citizens most at risk from climate shocks and stresses. These characteristics form the basis of a climate resilient urban governance assessment framework, and include (1) decentralisation and autonomy, (2) accountability and transparency, (3) responsiveness and flexibility, (4) participation and inclusion and (5) experience and support. This framework can help to assist in the planning, design and implementation of urban climate change resilience‐building programmes in the future

Place- and age-responsive disaster risk reduction for Hong Kong: Collaborative Place Audit and Social Vulnerability Index for elders

published_or_final_versio