Fight against poverty to be won or lost on East Asia's city streets

Keshav Varma, Director, Urban Policy for East Asia and Pacific Region, World Bank, Washington D.C.

East Asia's cities are at the center of three powerful forces, urbanization, globalization and decentralization. These offer unprecedented challenges and opportunities in the fight against poverty. As the region prepares to see its urban population almost double in the next 30 years, from 664 million to 1230 million in 2030, the risks and opportunities are not the stuff of academic research or political debate. They are, quite literally, the difference between life and death.

Urbanization is inevitable. Despite the efforts of governments to stem the flow of migrants and population growth, the urban population in the world will, by 2030, surpass the rural population. Simultaneously, globalization is heightening competition between cities for market share and for jobs. Cities that are unable to respond are threatened by increasing poverty.

Decentralization, which forces cities to take on greater responsibility for their own management and revenues, provides both an opportunity and a challenge in responding to urbanization and globalization. Unless city development is managed properly across the region, poverty will remain high and the Millennium Development Goals, which promise to halve the proportion of people in poverty by 2015, will remain elusive.

Mayors from China, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Mongolia and Vietnam and officials from the World Bank convened recently in Singapore to wrestle with some of these challenge. This learning workshop was organized by the World Bank Institute and supported by the government of Singapore. Cities as diverse as Zhenzhou, China with its 6 million population, and Can Tho, Vietnam with less than 350,000, exchanged experiences and ideas on addressing urban poverty.

Although the scale and particularities of urban poverty in these cities are enormously diverse, all representatives recognized the common problems they face-that urban poverty is complex and multidimensional, and that fighting poverty requires sustained efforts.

So, what are cities doing to win the battle against poverty?

Cities find themselves taking on roles far beyond traditional infrastructure and service provision. Instead, there has been an entire paradigm shift. Cities are seeing themselves as engines of economic growth, providers and managers of land, and suppliers of social services. To do this effectively, cities need leadership and professionalism, and they need to forge partnerships with communities, the private sector and international organizations.

Mayors are recognizing the role of cities as engines of growth and are taking proactive roles in stimulating development and creating employment. Chinese cities are moving to create investor friendly environments, eliminating red tape and increasing employment opportunities.

They are also restructuring state-owned enterprises to be more efficient and productive. Filippino cities are striving to promote stable environments, good basic infrastructure networks, and law and order as the driving forces in promoting growth, far more than incentives for foreign investments like tax breaks.

Cities are also focusing more on encouraging and strengthening the local economy through supporting the informal economy and microenterprises.

But poverty is not just about economic growth and income. The urban poor live under appalling conditions in slum areas, often paying high prices for illegal access to basic services such as water and electricity, and constantly facing the threat of eviction.

Mayors recognize the need to adopt programs for improving existing conditions by providing security of tenure and improving infrastructure services like water supply, sanitation and drainage. Cities in the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Mongolia are implementing programs that improve living conditions in slum areas, and provide security of tenure. This is not enough. Increasing migration from rural areas is forcing cities to acknowledge the need for long term land management, shelter strategies and integrated infrastructure planning.

Even with better living conditions, the poorest of the urban poor still need additional support to access social services such as health and education. Gianyar and Balikpapan in Indonesia provided innovative examples of free mobile health clinics and transportation to clinics for the poorest.

Ulan Bataar in Mongolia is providing assistance to street children, the most vulnerable group.

Cities stress that they want to be self sufficient and accountable to their constituents. Good governance and strong measures to eliminate corruption are crucial. To succeed, cities recognize that they need to professionalize their civil service and build their capacity to respond quickly to environments that are continuously evolving as a result of globalization and urbanization.

Cities also realize that they need the active participation of citizens to design poverty reduction strategies that respond to people's demands. Cities are taking various initiatives to address issues of better governance. Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam is using participatory poverty mapping to identify low income areas and plan a phased program of action. Naga City in the Philippines is using information technology to improve transparency and accountability by providing access to city accounts and programs on the internet and its own website.

Despite these efforts, reducing urban poverty remains a Herculean task. Urban poverty as a share of total poverty in East Asia is currently 25 percent and is projected to increase to 40 percent by 2025. Cities need to provide leadership and commitment in tackling the enormous challenges ahead, and they need help. From national government, cities need support in setting national policy and direction, establishing an enabling environment and devolving power to implement effective poverty reduction strategies.

From international agencies such as the World Bank, cities are seeking the following: Information and knowledge sharing through new ideas for city policy and planning, more learning events, city-to-city exchanges, and facilitation of national to local government dialogue; technical assistance for planning, management, land administration and economic development (particularly through support for small and medium enterprises); and financial resources for infrastructure, social service investments, and housing.

This workshop provided a unique opportunity to share innovations and home grown solutions to the problems of urban poverty. That cities as diverse as Liaoning in China, Phnom Penh in Cambodia, Kota Palu in Indonesia, Can Tho in Vietnam, and Calapan in the Philippines can learn from each other, attests to the value of exchanging experiences.

It also attests to the desire of mayors around in the region- and around the world-to find answers so that the urban poor have a chance at a better life. The alternative is unthinkable, but without concerted effort and creative thinking, it is a prospect which cannot be dismissed.