Local Agenda 21 And The Asian Context

4. Local Government Constraints

Local government in most Asian cities is in a state of innovation and experimentation. There is a tradition of NGO/CBO-government hostility and conflict. The tradition is deeply rooted in the politics of the sixties and seventies and except for a few projects, which have bridged this divide, the tradition continues. Even where the divide has been bridged, it remains limited to the projects and NGO/CBO’s that have bridged it and has not become policy. There is also a new conflict in the offing, that between elected councilors of new local bodies and community activists that the second and third generation of informal settlement dwellers has thrown up.

The resolution of these conflicts and the creation of a culture of consensus building is further complicated by the fact that most Asian local governments (especially the poor ones) face a number of constraints in fulfilling their functions. These constraints include: absence of maps and plans and or the expertise to develop them; limited control on financial resources (these are normally given to them as grants from federal or provincial sources); no links with informal processes and actors who in many cities are major actors in the development drama; and no links with an informed academia (it does not exist in the vast majority of cases) and no links of academia with informal processes. Added to this is the promotion of First World remedies for very different Third World situations.

5. The Role of Academic Institutions

Professionals, and the manner in which they are trained, determine to a great extent the manner in which cities are planned and function in the formal sector. However, in almost all Asian countries, academic institutions teach either First World models of development or models developed by First World institutions for the Third World cities. The result is building regulations and planning procedures that conflict with Asian culture and existing settlement patterns. Almost no research is carried out on understanding the forces that are shaping the built environment (and it is not only communities) and the interests of the actors involved. Almost all research carried out by these institutions is funded directly or indirectly by donors and is related to donor supported projects and programmes which either presume that local government functions or support it to function better rather than try to create a more equitable relationship between communities, interest groups and local government. However, a small change is visible since some academic institutions in Asian cities have created links with important NGO initiatives1 and others have modified their curriculum to relate to the reality of Asian cities2. Also, young professionals have started getting involved with grass root initiatives in total rejection of what they have been taught at university3. There is a need to understand these new directions and to promote them.

6. Communities Poverty And The Agenda      

All over Asia, communities negotiate with government agencies and politicians all the time, agenda or no agenda. Communities succeed in these negotiations when three things come together. These are:

  • A strong organization led by activists who are not touts of political parties, local interest groups or NGO projects. Such an organization is usually created as a result of communities being able to raise finances themselves and to be able to decide on how to use these finances themselves.
  • Professionals (or intermediate organizations) who are appropriately trained and are involved in the development process at the grass roots.
  • Public opinion and media supports the negotiations in favour of the community.

Such negotiations usually revolve around neighbourhood improvements and government inputs which communities wish to access and control. However, city level issues such as challenging insensitive mega-projects that displace people, are environmentally disastrous or economically inappropriate, requires a larger network of NGOs and CBOs and an organization that can produce an alternative plan and promote it with the help of poor communities, NGOs, media and relevant academic institutions. The Urban Resource Centre (URC) in Karachi is such an organization4. Similar organizations exist in other Asian cities 5 and are being promoted by the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR).

7. Conclusions

The objectives of LA-21 are relevant and so is the need to involve communities and interest groups in the planning and implementation process. However, it is clear from what has been said earlier in this paper that these objectives of LA-21 cannot be realized through projects but through

  • Planning for the city as a whole, including the poorer peri-urban and/or inner city areas, and making LA-21 projects a part of the larger planning process;
  • Evolving a process that seeks to build civil society so that it can negotiate as an equal with local government and be a counter balance to powerful local and international commercial interests. What is required to make this possible is to multiply organized communities and appropriately trained professionals and to help in the creation of a supportive media.
  1.  The URC Phnom Penh is closely related to the Department of Architecture and Planning at the University.
  2.  Example the Departments of Architecture and Planning at the Dawood College and at the NED University, both in Karachi and at the Institute of Technology at Surabaya.
  3.  The ACHR Young Professionals (YPs) Programme promotes and supports these initiatives. As a result, many NGOs have started getting help from the YPs. For details see ACHR website.
  4.  For details see URC website: www.urckarachi.org
  5.  URCs or equivalents are in Phnom Penh, Colombo, Khatmandu, Chang Mai, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur.
site design by iMedia
Mobile Menu
Responsive Menu Image Responsive Menu Clicked Image