There wasn’t much excitement in Pakistan around the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development that concluded in Quito in Ecuador during October 2016. An articulate new urban agenda was also announced -- prepared after elaborate efforts of several experts and reviewers.

It marks an important milestone in the attempts to deal with urbanisation through UN-styled approaches. The process began in 1976 with the First UN Conference on Human Settlements (HABITAT-I) in Vancouver. The conference recommended to the central/federal governments to develop spatial plans for cities to consolidate zoning and land use provisions. The event generated a lot of activity: Many governments prepared human settlement policies with a focus to support disadvantaged and vulnerable communities.

The second UN Conference on Human Settlements was held in Istanbul in 1996. Due to decentralisation, emphasis was shifted towards local governments. Many follow-up programmes and initiatives were launched with the objective to take stock of the global situation with respect to housing, community development and sustainability of urban poor settlements during the past several decades. This aspect is also relevant to Pakistan where more than 40 per cent of the population lives in urban areas and a major number of these dwellers exist without urban basic services.

Arguments of this scale usually provide an opportunity to scan the impact on sectors with a renewed commitment. Habitat-III was no different. Participants and stakeholder agencies discussed some of the core matters that the cities of the world are currently grappling with at length. Slum expansion; limited affordable housing for the poor; schism between the decision-making elite and the urban poor; vulnerability of urban masses against natural and man-made disasters; subservience of urban planning and management; market economy doctrines as well as issues pertinent to energy crises, sustainability and climate change were among the top concerns for the delegates.

It is another reality that most of the participating international agencies had their respective shares in promoting incongruent approaches that seldom worked in the contexts of developing countries. However, instead of undertaking an objective analysis of past attempts, one finds that the same approaches continue to be changed as an instant recipe to resolving the complex urban problems in the developing contexts.

Slum upgrading and affordable housing provision for the low-income urban communities has been a key area of input. According to UN estimates, over one billion people in the world live in slums. In Pakistan, the situation is no better. As the possibilities to access proper land for housing are diminishing fast, the urban poor are now forced to live in hazardous terrains and vulnerable habitats -- lower banks of nullahs or creeks, landfill or garbage dumping sites, swamps, shoulder spaces of active railroad tracks and unprotected boundaries of sea are some examples. These communities are periodically affected due to calamities, accidents and hazards.

Besides, the urban administration simply refuses to provide alternative locations due to the so-called ‘illegal’ nature of their settlements. These communities are forced to leave their settlements whenever any development project is initiated. Even otherwise, the possibility to acquire urban infrastructure is fairly remote. There was a tradition of launching slum upgradation projects in the 1980s and after. Provision of water supply and sanitation, ownership rights and constructing pavement of streets were some of the important ingredients of this programme. However, the local and provincial governments are finding it very difficult to venture into this terrain. Extremely high land prices reduce the chances for its acquisition or allocation for any social purpose. The pressure from donor agencies has reduced the possibility of extending any subsidy for slum upgradation.

In Pakistani cities, one finds that the poor are being elbowed out to survive at the urban peripheries. Rising commuting costs, unavailability of urban basic services, fear of evictions, high crime rates and absence of hope for an appropriate upgradation of living conditions are some of the predicaments that continue to haunt these marginalised communities. The situation in medium-sized and small cities is even worse. While the federal and provincial governments initiate some projects/programmes for larger cities, smaller settlements simply remain invisible to concerned decision-makers.

There is a lot of lip service regarding people’s participation in development works; this also made a cornerstone of the agenda for discussion at Habitat-III. At present, major urban development projects are undertaken without any consultation with stakeholders. In many cases, even the direct affectees are not informed. Gujjar Nullah evictions in Karachi are a case in point. It is reported that many demolished dwellings were constructed with the ‘assistance’ of municipal officials who later refused to own their approach. Dislocations have been caused due to real estate development schemes in Gwadar.

In secondary cities, one finds expansion of highways and infrastructural projects being implemented without consultation with the inhabitants of the affected area. Whereas the elected representatives now run local government units, they are found usually conniving with real estate developers, investors and builders without giving due regard to the aspirations and needs of their own constituencies.

Municipal finance has emerged as a core issue in the normal functioning of cities. With the passage of time, the city lifestyle has become resource-intensive. Hence, they require an increasing proportion of monetary, material and human resources to fulfil the citizen’s aspirations. With the Musharraf era devolution plan gone, the provincial governments are all-powerful in dealing with local affairs. There is no independence with respect to revenue mobilisation at the local level.

The local governments and affiliate organs are entirely dependent upon provincial transfers. The local tax base is extremely fragile. Traditionally, local taxes include property tax, conservancy tax, fire tax, utility charges (as per tariffs), advertisement levies, and taxation on entertainment, municipal enterprises and betterment levies. Actual collection is dismal on all these counts and is hardly compatible even to balance the establishment costs. The federal government (and provincial governments in some cases) fund the development projects or arrange for donor finances for such ventures. It is obvious that since the key control of financial policies rests with the upper tiers, they automatically acquire control on all levels of strategic decision-making. This hampers the decentralisation approach to a great extent. In other words, financial sub-ordination gives rise to functional and administrative sub-ordination.

Habitat-III sheds light on matters related to urban disasters, safety and security. In the same vein, crime, violence and lawlessness were discussed as important issues -- challenging especially for the developing countries. Experts reported that these problems harm the investment, delay nationally vital development projects and reduce public access to basic amenities of life, diminish the chances of lower income groups to escape from poverty and endanger democratic progress and sustenance. Despite these grave consequences, most cities in the developing world do not have any adequate mechanism for grappling with urban disasters, crime or violence.

Hefty budgets are kept for beefing up law-enforcing agencies but little benefit is derived from the ever-increasing strength. Crime and violence are by-products of social injustices, inequalities and disparities; and without addressing the root causes, such hollow measures can achieve nothing. Disaster preparedness and mitigation is obviously the lowest of priorities.

With the passage of time, cities are developed without having an overall master plan. This approach suits the investors, builders and real estate entrepreneurs who wish to undertake urban projects as profit making enterprises. This approach is in contrast to the interests of less-privileged classes who often suffer due to the skewed list of priorities drawn for such schemes. For instance, banking sector, automobile manufacturers and civic agencies are promoting the production and sales of cars.

Transportation projects are transforming public access ways into exclusive fast-moving tracks to facilitate this class. Pedestrians, operators of non-motorised transport and users of public transport are at a complete loss. In most cases, road improvement projects are implemented at the cost of public transit projects. Under the ruthless doctrines of market economy which assess every initiative on the yardstick of profits, urban planning becomes a low priority exercise. Sanity needs to be restored to reinstate public interest over and above petty gains and benefits to a few.

One cannot deny the significance of issues raised in the Habitat-III. An objective assessment of the issues especially with reference to local realities is the need of the hour. The situation in Pakistani cities can only improve if certain pre-requisites are met. The consultation process is most vital before any project, programme or initiative is approved for implementation. Constitutional cover needs to be sought for the distribution of accumulated revenue to make working of local governments meaningful.

Essential rights -- housing, mobility and urban basic services -- must be made accessible to all citizens irrespective of income brackets. If these core issues are not seriously addressed, the effectiveness of initiatives like Habitat-III shall remain an illusion!