UNITED NATIONS HUMAN SETTLEMENTS PROGRAMME
UN-HABITAT
FINAL REPORT
EXPERT GROUP MEETING ON URBAN POLICIES AND ENABLING LEGISLATION

BRASILIA, 12-14 NOVEMBER 2001
Co-organised and co-sponsored by
Caixa Economica Federal do Brasil
Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (IPEA)
Instituto Brasileiro de Administração Municipal (IBAM)

A. Background
Paragraph 240 of the Habitat Agenda, adopted by the international community in Istanbul 1996, identifies documented best practices and indicators as two key instruments for monitoring trends, issues and progress in its implementation. Decision II/7 of the 2nd Preparatory Committee for Habitat II established the conceptual framework, an Award scheme, the basic criteria, reporting format and procedures for documenting and evaluating best practices. Over 300 practices were documented in 1996 for the Habitat II Conference.

The demand for best practices information led UN-HABITAT to establish the Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme in 1997. This Programme is made up of a global network of national and local authorities, professional and academic institutions and civil society organisations dedicated to the documentation, dissemination and use of best practices in support of policy and capacity-building activities. As of 2001, over 1100 practices from 125 countries have been documented and disseminated and used as a source of information in analysing trends, emerging issues and lessons learned. The practices are contained in a searchable database available through the www and on CD-ROM. Results of their analysis form an integral part of Habitat’s flagship reports and policy documents.

B. Genesis of the Meeting
Resolution 17/8 of the Commission on Human Settlements (May 1999) called upon UN-HABITAT "to continue, in collaboration with capacity-building partners, the implementation of an Internet-based urban information and knowledge system to strengthen the ability of Governments, local authorities and key partners to gain access to and make use of information to monitor and assess urban conditions and trends and to formulate effective urban policies". In particular, the Resolution called upon UN-HABITAT to "expand the identification, analysis and dissemination of best practices to include, specifically, urban policies, plans of action and legislation …".

In June 2001, the Special Session of the UN General Assembly on the review of the implementation of the Habitat Agenda organised a Thematic Committee featuring 16 examples of best practices, enabling policies, legislation, and proven action plans in the areas of Shelter and Services; Environmental management; Urban Governance; and Eradication of poverty. The contribution of the Thematic Committee to the substantive debate and exchange of information led the Special Session to adopt in paragraph 63 of it’s final declaration: "A further goal is to translate best practices into policies and permit their replication. In this respect, the international community should ensure the effective formatting and dissemination of proven best practices and policies."

C. Purpose and Scope of the Meeting
The purpose of the meeting was to respond to the Resolution 17/8 of the Commission on Human Settlements and to give concrete expression to paragraph 63 of the "Declaration on cities and other human settlements in the new millennium". To do so, the Meeting was expected to:

a. Define what constitutes a good urban policy and enabling legislation including specific criteria;
b. Propose a reporting format that would enable government officials, practicing professionals, civil society organisations and the informed public to understand the essence of documented policies and legislation;
c. Propose additional information that would enable the international community, researchers and policy analysts to understand and differentiate between the contextual and generic elements of the documented policies and legislation, including the socio-economic and political justification of the policy;
d. Propose the thematic scope or entry points for documenting good urban policies and enabling legislation;
e. Propose means of dissemination and applications in policy development and capacity-building;

D. Participants
The participants of the Meeting represented practicing professionals of diverse thematic expertise, parliamentarians, legal experts, local authorities, researchers and academia and civil society organisations. As a United Nations Expert Group Meeting, participants were regionally and gender representative. A total of 21 participants attended the meeting, broken down as follows:

E. Process

Working Methodology

The methodology comprised of a mix of plenary presentations, discussions and "brainstorming" in small working groups. Presentations were made from different regions and areas of interest. The presentations were intended to set the tone of the debate and to provide insights based on ongoing work in such areas as drafting new policies and legislation and applying or enforcing such policies and legislation. Besides these presentations, the meeting was devoted to process-intensive working groups and plenary sessions for discussion, debates and synthesis. A pilot application of a draft template for documenting urban policies and legislation was also provided to the group covering six areas. These areas included: a City Statute law, a policy on strengthening rural economy and indigenous reserves, an urban environmental regeneration policy, a low-income housing policy, and a building code.

Global trends and issues

The Group noted that rapid urbanisation and globalisation have increased economic disparities both among and within countries. While fully cognizant of the urgent need to for policies and strategies to improve urban economic growth, job creation and productivity, the Group was particularly concerned that the benefits of growth be shared in an more equitable manner by all.

The group drew upon its diverse expertise to determine a list of issues of common concern. Background papers were commissioned for the meeting and presentations were made on: gender and urban policies, decentralization and poverty reduction, the right to adequate housing, urban and regional economic development strategies, and affordable and accessible housing.

During the discussions the following issues emerged as key components to enabling legislation and effective urban policies:

Social, economic and environmental sustainability;

security of tenure and access by the urban poor to land, housing, credit and basic services;

empowerment of all stake holders, especially local authorities, civil society organisations, women and socially excluded groups

gender equality and social inclusion

Transparent, accountable and efficient urban governance and management

The group is convinced that urban policies and legislation that address the above issues can contribute substantially to improving the quality of life of the urban populations.

Partnerships, participation and governance

The group recognised the diversity and complexity of urban issues and challenges and underlined the need for participatory and inclusive processes, involving all stakeholders, in the formulation, adoption and monitoring of urban policies and legislation. It also stressed the need for such policies and legislation to address urban issues in a holistic and integrated manner. Similarly, the group noted that many well-intentioned laws and policies remain ineffective in their implementation and follow-up and stressed the important contribution of partnerships, participation, appropriate institutional and governance frameworks, training and capacity building for effective implementation, enforcement, monitoring and evaluation.

Urban Poverty, Social Exclusion and the Informal Sector

Urban poverty was identified as a major impediment to more sustainable urban development. It therefore needs to be addressed specifically by urban policies and legislation. Furthermore, the informal sector, particularly in developing countries, contributes significantly to the urban economy and specific policies should be adopted to recognise and support it. Similarly, such policies and legislation must be based on the principle of non-discrimination.

Empowerment of Women

An important policy and legislative concern is the empowerment of women. Women represent the majority of the worlds population and an even larger proportion of the urban poor. Ana Kajumulo Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT stressed in her remarks to the Grass Roots Women’s International Academy at the United Nations Habitat Summit in New York in June 2001, that women’s concerns are central to the Habitat Agenda. Therefore, good urban policies and enabling legislation must be gender sensitive and at the forefront of gender mainstreaming strategies.

Decentralisation and the Empowerment of Local Authorities

A key concern is the institutional framework and governance structures for creating and implementing good urban policies and legislation. In general, approaches that focus on decentralizing authority and responsibility lead to better results in terms of improved service delivery and local development. This is especially the case for addressing the needs of the poor, particularly women, and other disadvantaged groups. Such forms of decentralization must involve genuine reallocation of power, resources and responsibilities to local levels, not just minor reshuffling of administrative duties from the central government. Experience has demonstrated that in many situations, decentralization can be more effective for reducing poverty, an important goal of the Habitat Agenda. This is very important in the context of developing countries, where poverty reduction is a primary focus for development policy.

Replicability and Transferability

The Group recognised that the process of formulating, adopting and implementing policies and legislation is shaped to a large degree by social, cultural, political and judicial practices at the national level. These factors influence the potential for replicability and transferability. The Group felt, nonetheless, that a global database, using a common set of criteria and a common reporting format would constitute an invaluable instrument for promoting the exchange of expertise and experience and serve as a source of inspiration for improving existing laws and policies and the processes for their formulation and implementation. The group recommended, however, that such a database be accompanied by contextual information to enhance usability, comparable analysis and learning.

Criteria for Assessing the effectiveness of policies and legislation

Based on the above premise and observations, the Group proceeded to identify a comprehensive and wide-ranging set of issues and criteria. These were assessed in terms of their relevance to the substance or content of policies and legislation, and to their underlying processes of formulation, adoption, monitoring and implementation. The Group identified a set of XX generic criteria that could applied to assessing the effectiveness of all urban policies and legislation and integrated the remaining criteria within a common reporting format in the form of thematic entry points, lead questions and a checklist to be used in the documentation and assessment of urban policies and legislation.

F. Final Conclusions and Recommendations

We, the experts of this meeting, recommend that the UN-HABITAT launch a global initiative for the documentation, dissemination and use of urban policies and enabling legislation as a major contribution to its advocacy role and mandate and in furthering the global campaigns on urban governance and secure tenure. It suggests that this initiative and the present report be presented to the first Urban Forum to be held in Nairobi in May 2002 for broad-based consultation and to build consensus. The Group recommends that Habitat initiate a pilot scheme to document a regionally representative sample of policies and legislation and to present the results of this pilot initiative to the Commission on Human Settlements at its 19th Session for endorsement and follow-up implementation. We further recommend that UN-HABITAT bring to the attention of UN Member States the need to mobilize the necessary human, technical and financial resources necessary to document and disseminate good policies and legislation on a systematic basis and to support the application of best practices, good policies and enabling legislation to ongoing training, capacity-building, advisory and consultative activities. Taking into consideration the synergies between and the complementary nature of Best Practices and this new initiative, we further recommend that the partners of the Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme to collaborate closely with UN-HABITAT and other potential new partners in identifying, documenting and disseminating examples of good urban policies and legislation.

Annex 1
List of participants