What Future for Urban Cooperation? Assessment of Post Habitat II Strategies

THIS BOOK IS an inventory of urban activities undertaken by 17 bilateral and 15 multilateral agencies across the world. The introduction begins with a rationale of why cities need international aid and discusses some trends in urbanization, urban poverty and the informal economy. It briefly touches on urban economic growth and the link between rural and urban development as well as municipal roles and responsibilities. There is growing recognition by aid agencies that city interventions are important and the Istanbul conference was an important step in this; however, the commitments made there varied considerably, many not living up to the promises made.

This is the context given for the study, which was undertaken mostly by analysing literature sent by the organizations themselves although in 15 cases interviews were conducted as well. Websites were investigated by the author but found to be lacking; however, many improved during the course of the work. The various chapters have been reviewed by the agencies concerned, except in a very few cases, and are organized in identical format. Each chapter deals with one agency and is set out as follows:
• Introduction. This includes some information on actual aid against aid targets or against GDP; ranking amongst other donors; information on any changes in policy relating to aid; how the majority of aid is channelled (bilateral, multilateral, technical support etc.).
• Organizational Structures for Aid Provision. This describes from where the aid programme is administered, which ministries or divisions are involved and their departments, staff numbers, overseas offices where relevant and the main priorities for disseminating aid.
• Aid Policies and Strategies. This is generally a longer section describing the most recent policy decisions and, where these are very new, the previous ones also. It describes the focus on various sectors and the commitments behind them.
• Intervention Tools. This section describes the main tools for aid; this could be in the form of scholarships, technical intervention, a particular programme or set of programmes, financial frameworks, training or any other form.
• Share of Global Aid Resources allocated to Urban Development. This gives percentages and actual figures for the amount of aid spent on urban projects.
• Partners in Project Execution. This describes the relationships with other organizations where these are relevant to urban projects. Some agencies only carry out work through local partners, others only through large organizations, national or local governments.
• Countries where Urban Aid is Concentrated. This gives a breakdown of the main recipients of aid from each donor. These figures are given either as percentages or as total sums of aid disbursed.
• Innovative Projects. This briefly describes any number of projects undertaken in the urban sector, with or without partners.
• Bibliography. This is a short list of books, reports and other literature used to compile the chapter.
• Contact. This lists the contact details and names, where appropriate, of the main departments which undertake urban activity. Contact details are given for postal addresses, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses and websites.
• Finally, each chapter ends with a brief summary box (about 50 words) of urban sector activities under the titles “location”, “duration”, “staff”, “focus” and “geographical concentration”.

This is a valuable overview of urban activity by donor, although it represents only a brief slice of time and several policies in this book have already been updated, some as described within the book, others since publication. Contact details for each agency help the reader to follow up any interests themselves.