David Dodman is the Director of Human Settlements at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London, United Kingdom. David has played an active part in the ACCCRN network as well as working on the Habitat III discussions, in particular as part of Policy Unit 4.
During a short interview David shared some of his thoughts on how discussions at the Preparatory Committee for Habitat III in Surabaya have been going. This is an abridged text of that interview.
Q1. What is the Habitat III process? How is it relevant today?
The Habitat III process has been exciting and at this final PrepCom we will find out what the New Urban Agenda (NUA) is. The key thing is that the NUA is being built out of lessons that have been coming out of cities around the world. This makes sure that the NUA will remain relevant.
This is of course not the first NUA, there have been previous meetings, Habitat 1 in 1976, Habitat II in 1996 have influenced the way in which UN agencies and governments approach urban issues until now.
A key change since 1996 is that Climate Change has become a critical issue. The 1996 outcome document makes very little reference to Climate Change. The new NUA document will be important as it will highlight how cities can address the mitigation of greenhouse gases in cities while it also includes very strong language about adaptation and about resilience to changing weather patterns.
Q2. How is the theme of urban resilience coming through?
At the center of discussions are three transformative commitments: “leaving nobody behind” or ending poverty, sustainable prosperity for all and environmentally sustainable urban development. A key difficulty is how do we integrate the three together because these three commitments create invisible barriers between these issues. Resilience is a helpful concept here because it is at the core of addressing environmental concerns, as well as directly related to questions of poverty and how to build sustainable prosperity for all.
One of the critical elements in Quito will be how to come up with an implementation program. The NUA reflects the SDGs in its language but the Habitat III process needs to focus more on how to achieve the SDGs in cities.
One element that needs to be foregrounded is partnerships as a key way of building resilience and driving urban sustainability. ACCCRN has shown how the Shared Learning Process is critical to building community resilience, potentially contributing to the transformational aspirations of the document.
Q3. What are the recommendations for bringing UCCR into international discussions? Has UCCR become more important?
Climate change specialists are taking urban areas more seriously, while urban specialists are now taking climate change a lot more seriously too. The process for coming up with the NUA gives us the opportunity for new types of inputs. One of the policy units during Habitat III focused on urban ecology and resilience.
What needs to be highlighted further is the potential for how resilience can contribute to broader concerns. How to bring resilience together with concerns for Right to the City for example or how to see resilience and reduction of risk as a public good. The way in which resilience helps us to think about the actions and interactions of agents, systems and institutions contributes greatly to international discussions such as Habitat III and the SDGs.
