导航|地址|刷新
Urban Governance | UN-Habitat

Skip to main content

Top Menu

Covid-19

Governance

Donors

Programmes

Media centre

Get involved

Events

Menu

Main navigation

About Us

Overview

Accountability

Donors

Evaluation

Governance

Leadership

New Urban Agenda

Our Strategy

Partners

Sustainable Development Goals

Overview

Accountability

Annual Report

Donors

Evaluation

Join us

Leadership

New Urban Agenda

Our Strategy

Partners

Sustainable Development Goals

Topics

Climate Change

Disability

Energy

Housing

Human Rights

Land

Legislation

Local Economic Development

Local Governments and Decentralisation

Migration

Mobility

Municipal Finance

Planning and Design

Public Space

Regeneration

Regional and Metropolitan Planning

Rehabilitation

Resilience and Risk Reduction

Safety

Slum Upgrading

Waste Management

Water and Sanitation

Youth and Livelihoods

Climate Change

Gender

Housing

Human Rights

Innovation

Land Tenure Security

Metropolitan Management

Mobility and Transport

National Urban Policy

Public Space

Resilience and Risk Reduction

Slum Upgrading

Solid Waste Management

Urban Economy and Finance

Urban Energy

Urban Governance

Urban Health

Urban Legislation

Urban Migration

Urban Planning

Urban Regeneration

Urban Safety

Urban-Rural Linkages

Voluntary Local Reviews

Water and Sanitation

Youth

Where We Are

Africa Region

Asia and the Pacific Region

Arab States Region

Latin America and the Caribbean Region

Europe

North America

Africa Region

Asia and the Pacific Region

Arab States Region

Latin America and the Caribbean Region

Europe

North America

Angola

Botswana

Burkina Faso

Cabo Verde

Cameroon

Chad

Comoros

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ethiopia

Ghana

Guinea

Guinea Bissau

Kenya

Madagascar

Malawi

Mozambique

Rwanda

Sao Tome and Principe

Somalia

South Africa

South Sudan

Uganda

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Afghanistan

Bangladesh

Cambodia

China

Fiji

India

Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Malaysia

Mongolia

Myanmar

Nepal

Pakistan

Philippines

Solomon Islands

Sri Lanka

Thailand

Viet Nam

Egypt

Iraq

Jordan

Kuwait GCC

Lebanon

Libya

Saudi Arabia

State of Palestine

Sudan

Syrian Arab Republic

Tunisia

Yemen

Andean Countries HUB

Argentina

Bolivia (Plurinational State of)

Brazil

Chile

Cuba

Mexico

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

Kosovo

Office for European Institutions

Spain

New York Office

Knowledge

Best Practices

Capacity Building

Data and Analytics

Research and Publications

Best Practices

Capacity Building

City Prosperity Initiative

Data and Analytics

Global Future Cities

Global Land Tool Network

Research and Publications

Global Urban Lectures

Habitat UNI

Her City

Our City Plans

Urban Agenda Platform

Urban Data

UrbanLex

Urban Policy Platform

Urban Resilience Hub

World Cities Report

Search

Go

Donate

Donors

Events

Get involved

Governance

Media centre

Urban Governance:

+ Download the response plan+ View the COVID-19 Appeal+ Join us

Home

urban governance

What is Governance?

Governance refers to the structures and processes that are designed to ensure accountability, transparency, responsiveness, rule of law, stability, equity and inclusiveness, empowerment, and broad-based participation. Governance also represents the norms, values and rules of the game through which public affairs are managed in a manner that is transparent, participatory, inclusive and responsive. Governance systems set the parameters under which management and administrative systems will operate. Governance is about how power is distributed and shared, how policies are formulated, priorities set and stakeholders made accountable.

It encompasses a diverse range of actors in decision-making processes as well as the formal and informal structures that have been set in place to arrive at and implement decisions. In the urban context, it is the process by which governments and stakeholders collectively decide how to plan, finance and manage urban areas. Urban governance is also the sum of the many ways in which individuals and institutions, both public and private, plan and manage the common affairs of the city in a continuing process where conflicting or diverse interests may be accommodated, and cooperative action can be taken.

The Challenge

In many countries, urban governance systems are currently unfit for purpose and need critical reforms to enable sustainable and inclusive urban development. They have institutional frameworks that prevent urban governments from fully delivering on their responsibilities through inadequate decentralization, insufficient resources, poor capacity and weak frameworks for engagement with residents, civil society and other key stakeholders. Most countries, especially in the Global South, also suffer from ill-defined distribution of responsibilities between different levels of governments, leading to the duplication of roles and gaps which can lead to institutional wars. The net effect being that common citizens suffer from poor public service delivery and they end up procuring these services from informal, expensive yet unsafe channels.

These ineffective multilevel governance arrangements also compromise planning processes, risk backlogs in budget spending, lead to higher transaction costs and create wider economic inefficiencies, as well as compromising the principles of transparency and accountability. Community engagement and participation in public-decision making needs to promote more productive and inclusive interactions to better include women, youth, ethnic minorities, migrants, the urban poor and other disadvantaged groups such as people with disabilities in decision-making processes. Furthermore, inequalities, insufficient access to basic services, lack of decent housing, job insecurity and informality also continue to shape spatially fragmented and socially segmented cities while the expansion of metropolitan areas and the burgeoning gap between them and intermediary cities pose serious challenges to urban governance.

Why Good Urban Governance?

In 1999, UN-Habitat launched the Global Campaign on Urban Governance to support the implementation of the Habitat Agenda goal of “sustainable human settlements development in an urbanizing world.” The campaign’s goal was to contribute to the eradication of poverty through improved urban governance. Today, the international consensus is still the same: the quality of urban governance is the most important factor for the eradication of poverty and for prosperous cities. Good urban governance is outcome-oriented and promotes the rights of all people by ensuring that all urban residents reap the benefits of urbanization. These elements are recognized by the New Urban Agenda (NUA) and the Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs) which both note that weak institutions and poor governance mechanisms increase the risk of low performance, wasted resources, inefficient sectoral interventions, human rights violations and an overall lack of progress. Thus, governance processes should be participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective, efficient, equitable and inclusive. This will reduce mal-administration and ensure that the views of minorities are considered and that the voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard within the decision-making process.

UN-Habitat’s Work on Urban Governance

The NUA and the SDGs call for institutional coordination at all levels through new governance arrangements and improved metropolitan governance structures. UN-Habitat is tasked with assisting local governments to effectively capture domestic revenue, improve fiscal decentralization, manage urban displacement and utilize frontier technologies. The Agency has developed the following four principal working areas on governance:

Normative Actions – development of tools and methodologies as well as the identification of best practices.

Technical Component – field and technical cooperation projects including testing and implementation of developed tools.

Advocacy Actions – establishment of partnerships and cooperation mechanisms between various stakeholders and the development of MOUs and joint agenda.

Knowledge and capacity development component – seminars, workshops, case studies and training events. Development and dissemination of discussion papers and research publications.

Sub-areas of the governance workstream:

Strengthening local governance to realise the SDGs and Agenda 2030 (including localising the SDG, working with local governments to strengthen their capacities);

Multi-level governance; and

Re-thinking the relationship between public and private sector to enhance public sector investment.

Impact

Over

140

local governments improved their policies and guidelines on equitable access to sustainable urban basic services.

More than

70

local authorities implemented effective urban safety programmes incorporating crime prevention strategies that improve urban safety.

News and Stories

Story

2 September 2022

UN-Habitat organised Somali Mayor’s Forum held in Rwanda fuels Municipal reforms in Puntland

Learn more

Story

29 March 2022

The Executive Board of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme meets in Nairobi

Learn more

Story

20 October 2021

Launch of the council on urban initiatives

Learn more

Story

20 May 2021

Expert Group Meeting focuses on People Centred Urban Governance

Learn more

Story

14 April 2021

Municipal Council Officers in Somaliland Share Experiences in Local Governance

Learn more

+ More News and Stories

+ LocalizIng the SDGs

Highlighted Publications

Technical Report

Benchmarking Case Studies on Public Participation in Spatial Planning Processes In Four Countries: Australia, Chile, South Africa And The United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland: Urban Governance Case Studies, Volume 2

Read now More

Technical Report

Global Review of Smart City Governance Practices

Read now More

Technical Report

AI & Cities: Risks, Applications and Governance

Read now More

Policy and Strategy

Governance Assessment Framework for Metropolitan Territorial and Regional Management (GAF-MTR)

Read now More

Toolkits, Manuals and Guides

Building Participatory Accountability Systems for City Policies - Handbook

Read now More

Policy and Strategy

Multi-Level Governance for Effective Urban Climate Action in the Global South

Read now More

More publications

…(内容过长已截断)

------
导航页打开网址