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By William Cobbett In May 1999, the World Bank and UNCHS (Habitat) launched the Cities Alliance as a global coalition of cities and their developmental partners, committed to making unprecedented improvements in the living conditions of the urban poor. Its membership has rapidly expanded to embrace most of the world's bilateral development agencies and the major international organizations of local authorities. In joining the Cities Alliance, all partners commit themselves to new ways of working together.
These activities of the Cities Alliance mirror the two main themes of the Habitat Agenda, and this linkage was further strengthened by the Millennium Declaration's endorsement of the Cities without Slums action plan, which aims to improve the lives of 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.The main focus of Cities Alliance activities is city and national governments in the developing world, as well as in economies in transition. Generally, the context for both activities is the opportunities to be found in globalization, rapid urbanization and decentralization, which are mitigated by increasing disparities in resource distribution, lack of corporate capacity and the increasing marginalization of the urban poor and minority groups. While its activities are always located within a specific national context, Cities Alliance activities most directly address the local level-government, city managers, local business and representative local organizations. The central challenge for the Alliance is to assist cities achieve dynamic economic growth, underwritten by good urban governance. This involves cities developing partnerships with local business leaders, as well as with organizations of the urban poor, and together establishing a common vision for the city. For many cities, this indicates a significant break with past practices and involves talking to slum dwellers, recognizing the developmental role of women, and redefining rights and responsibilities. This approach also requires significant changes in the way in which bilateral and multilateral development agencies engage, requiring greater collaboration and a greater willingness to let national and local governments help set the agenda. It is this commitment to change that has led to the formation of the Cities Alliance. Utilizing the existing capacity of members and partners at the local and national levels, the Cities Alliance promotes city-wide strategies, moving beyond narrow sectoral and project-based approaches to development. This requires clarity on the linkages between health, housing, transport, the urban environment and job creation-all with the city as the unit of analysis and action. Brazil is building on the experience of its cities to develop a decentralized upgrading programme, with the objective of adopting a national strategy to facilitate access to secure land tenure by the poor. Madagascar's regional capitals are preparing city poverty reduction strategies in a collective effort that involves internal and external partners. Nigeria's Nassarawa State Government and the Karu Local Government are committed to scaling up slum upgrading through a city development strategy, while Viet Nam is initiating the development of a national strategy to scale-up slum upgrading and provide better housing and services to the urban poor.
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