To City Leaders: “Don’t lock yourselves into 25-year solutions”

Twenty years after the last UN Habitat conference in 1996, UN Habitat III (or the Third UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development) is set to take place this October in Quito, Ecuador.

The last two decades have seen dramatic changes in urban trends — in particular, cities as a focal point and the impact of IT.

For one expert, however, the strong focus on IT and innovation may be misplaced.

“Urban innovation has hit the mainstream vocabulary because cities are in crisis. This innovation is about people, it’s not about anything else. It’s not about big data or technology.”

Mr Nicholas You, Chair of the Urban Strategy and Innovation Council of ENGIE and former Senior Policy Advisor to the UN Human Settlements Programme, cited Rio de Janeiro, which effectively rolled out its Advanced Emergency Response System with IBM in 2011. He highlighted the real reason behind the success — not IBM, but its new elected mayor. Mayor Eduardo Paes demanded zero casualties from thunderstorms, and government staff quickly set to work. Two maps that were overlooked for 20 years — the subsoil map structure of Rio de Janeiro and its rainfall patterns — were overlapped to predict where the next rainfall would occur, enabling the city to evacuate people in time. It was also able to predict outbreaks of dengue and malaria.

“IBM did not do the work,” Mr You said, because the information was always there. IBM only collated and returned the data on one system. “This was not driven by data, but driven by the real need to prevent casualties.”

At Habitat III in October, national governments and the international community are expected to examine the patterns impacting human development, the environment, and civic and governance systems worldwide — and broker goals and solutions.

“Back in 1996, inequity was primarily in the Global South. Today it is a major issue for the Global North,” said Nicholas You, pointing to the affordable housing crisis, and challenges in social integration, especially with the influx of immigrants to Europe.

“Many cities are also shrinking and dying in the Global North,” he added. In many parts of Europe, federal governments are broke, land value as the principal source of public revenue is stagnant, and the subsidies that had maintained infrastructure are no longer working. “Cities can no longer rely on federal handouts and are looking to their own ways and means to solve day-to-day issues and crises,” he said.

When asked for his advice to city leaders, Mr You said, “Don’t lock yourselves into 25-year solutions.”

He gave an example from Stockholm, which invested in an expensive cogeneration plant that was reliant on garbage as fuel. As garbage recycling rates rose in Sweden over the years, Sweden had to buy garbage from nearby countries, causing major policy disruption to recycling efforts in those countries.

“We need to come up with a new urban agenda that puts people first. Today, smart and sustainable cities are about connecting communities, activities, services, systems and people.Habitat III will be a critical opportunity to address these connections.”

About the Speaker

Nicholas You
Chair, Urban Strategy and Innovation Council
ENGIE (Formerly GDF Suez)

Nicholas You is a veteran urban specialist and thought leader. Prior to his retirement he was the senior policy and planning advisor to UN-Habitat and the manager of the Habitat II Conference held in Istanbul in 1996. He is the founder and honorary chairman of the UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign Steering Committee, and immediate former chairman of the Assurance Group for Urban Infrastructure of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. He also serves as member of the board of the Citiscope, the Huairou Commission, the Joslyn Institute for Sustainable Communities and is a fellow of the Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation, China and an adjunct to the Centre for Liveable Cities, Singapore.