Commonwealth uniquely placed to tackle urban growth, says report

Progress towards the UN’s Millennium Development Goals across the Commonwealth will require a concerted focus on managing urban growth better. This is the main message from a new study that scopes the state of Commonwealth cities.

The planning and management of cities is also integral to attempts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, the report says.

The Commonwealth’s urban population is growing by 65,000 people a day, over 23.5 million a year. This urban growth reflects the youthful age structure of cities. It is also fuelled by rural to urban migration and the redefinition of the boundaries of urban areas.

Urban growth rates of 4 per cent a year, as are found in, for instance, The Gambia, Kenya or Solomon Islands, mean that the number of people in cities in these countries will double by 2025. Currently the Commonwealth has 76 ‘million-plus cities’ and 32 of these are expected to more than double in size between 2000 and 2025.

Emeritus Professor Cliff Hague from the Commonwealth Association of Planners, one of the report’s authors, said: “The Commonwealth remains less urbanised than the rest of the world. Maybe this is why rapid urbanisation has not been given the attention it needs.

“However, we are now in a phase of city-making that cannot be halted and that will have lasting economic, social, environmental and political impacts. The longer the issue is overlooked the harder and more expensive it will be to fix.”

He explained that efforts to upgrade slums are failing to keep pace with rates of new slum formation, with consequent impacts in terms of public health and security.

“The poorest people live in the most vulnerable locations, often at risk from floods or landslides and without easy access to safe drinking water. This is not inevitable. Smart planning is needed to reduce risk while protecting livelihoods.”

Will French from the Royal Town Planning Institute, co-author of the study, stressed the need for rich Commonwealth countries to tackle urban sprawl. “Low density urban spread entails loss of agricultural land, forests and natural habitats, higher per-capita infrastructure costs, less cost effective public transport and higher energy consumption. The physical spread of the cities at today’s rates has implications for food security.”

The report commends efforts by the Commonwealth Local Government Forum to create a network of “Inclusive Cities”, and calls for a concerted effort to improve urban planning and management across the Commonwealth.

“The Commonwealth is uniquely placed to play a leading role in the global task of making urbanisation more sustainable and equitable,” added Professor Hague. “Our cities can create the wealth to lift people out of poverty, as the success of Commonwealth countries like Malaysia and Singapore shows.”

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• Commonwealth Publications