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This is a series of articles focused on inclusive urban planning for the working poor, produced through a collaboration of global action-research-policy network Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing & Organizing (WIEGO) and The Global Urbanist. WIEGO is a partner in the Inclusive Cities Project, a consortium of largely membership-based organisations of the working poor. Through organising and policy advocacy the Project aims to ensure that urban informal workers’ needs are heard within urban planning processes. These articles draw from the experiences in the Project, as well as those of The Global Urbanist‘s network of writers. Titles in the series include:

The migrant workers of Gurgaon struggling for visibility in the eyes of the government.

How Brighton supports its artists working informally.

Health and sanitation is an economic right as well–just ask Ghanaian food sellers.

Here to stay: the daily challenges facing Shanghai’s ‘floating population’.

It’s time to welcome the informal workforce to the urban policy table.

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Are ‘new cities’ the future of Africa’s urban development

An article by Faustin Moukala, an architect and managing director at Siwara Associates, a consultancy firm managing development projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

UN-REDD Programme. Lessons learned: Africa

The UN-REDD Programme is the United Nations collaborative initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) in developing countries. A report has been published which introduces the 16 UN-REDD partner countries in Africa, and discusses regional specific opportunities and challenges arising from reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+). It highlights the need to: extend REDD+ knowledge and dialogue beyond policy makers to include all relevant stakeholders; and build a solid institutional framework for REDD+ that promotes coordination and cooperation. The report emphasises the importance of integrating REDD+ into sustainable development such that the environmental and social benefits from REDD+ can be maximised while the risks are minimised.

Mobility for poor: Improving informal transport. New Delhi, 3-5 October 2012

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in partnership with UN-Habitat organised a workshop in order to create a holistic understanding of informal transport systems and to facilitate knowledge/experience sharing on challenges and solutions for improving informal modes of transport like cycle rickshaws, shared autos, mini buses, etc. A note is available setting out the objectives of the workshop.

Building scientific capacity for development

The developing world needs to have the capacity to find their own solutions to their own problems and this requires them to develop home grown scientists and technology, according to a report by MPs on the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee. An important feature raised in the report by the Select Committee was that there had to be more attention paid to ensuring that scientists, especially those trained through UK support, were facilitated in staying in their home country and utilising the skills they had acquired. More support was needed to permit scientists from developing nations to build and develop their early career within in their native country. Only then could programmes to build scientific capacity eventually become self-sustaining. An additional volume contains written evidence to the Committee

Planning for a low carbon future: Lessons learned from seven country studies

According to a report from the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) of the World Bank, countries seeking to balance economic growth with carbon reduction can achieve both. The report details case studies on low-carbon development in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland and South Africa. The report proposes frameworks for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction, highlighting approaches to low-carbon development that balance challenges like poverty, climate change and energy use. Globally, the report’s findings focus on development of green technologies, engaging mainstream leadership across sectors, and meeting potential increased demand for technical assistance. It suggests that larger countries with rapidly-developing economies, such as Brazil, China, and India, have the most at stake in cost-effective low-carbon development, and notes that these three countries were responsible for over 40 percent of global renewable energy investment in 2010.

Cities for Life Summit. Hyderabad, India, 15-16 October 2012

This event brought together more than 500 participants, including about 150 city representatives from 45 countries, 60 city and sub-national leaders (governors, mayors, deputy mayors, and commissioners), as well as delegates from UN agencies, science, business, national, and international organizations with an aim to foster and unite local action for biodiversity. Presentations are available online.

Communicating climate change and migration

The topics of climate change and human migration attract considerable public and media attention. Together, they represent a potentially explosive combination. Attempts to communicate about climate change and migration risk inflaming two already heated debates. However, the language is not yet entrenched. A major opportunity exists to shape how the debate develops. This briefing explains the basic principles of good communication on the issues. It is intended for use across the refugee, environmental, human rights and development sectors.

Making social protection ‘climate-smart’

Adaptive Social Protection (ASP) aims to reduce the vulnerability of poor people to a range of shocks and ongoing stresses through the integration of social protection (SP), climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR). However there are still few documented examples of social protection programming that specifically accounts for climate change, now and in the future, or that seeks to mitigate the potential of disasters in risk-prone communities. This briefing, from the Institute of Development Studies, draws policy-relevant lessons for ASP programming from a social protection programme in Tanzania taking its first steps to become ‘climate-smart’.

Resilience: New utopia or new tyranny? Reflection about the potentials and limits of the concept of resilience in relation to vulnerability reduction programmes

Resilience is becoming influential in development and vulnerability reduction sectors such as social protection, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. Policy makers, donors and international development agencies are now increasingly referring to the term. In that context, the objective of this paper was to assess in a critical manner the advantages and limits of resilience. While the review highlights some positive elements, in particular the ability of the term to foster integrated approach across sectors, it also shows that resilience has important limitations. In particular it is not a pro-poor concept, and the objective of poverty reduction cannot simply be substituted by resilience building.

Urban livelihoods