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11. Dynamic Cities? The Role of Urban Local Governments in Improving Urban Service Delivery Performance in Africa and Asia

Author:
Jamie Boex, Ammar A. Malik, Devanne Brookins, and Ben Edwards
Publication Date:
07-2016
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
Cities are engines of economic growth that provide spaces for social transformation and political inclusion. Their ability to deliver widely accessible and efficiently functioning public services drives productivity and sustains development. We design and apply an assessment framework to 42 cities in 14 African and Asian countries to better understand the functional, administrative, and political dimensions determining the quality and coverage of water, sanitation, and solid waste collection services. We find that urban local governments are constrained in their authority and discretion to deliver basic public services. Reforming intergovernmental institutional structures to better match responsibilities is essential for realizing cities’ full economic potential.
Topic:
Government, Water, Governance, International Development, Economic growth, Urban, Sanitation, Services, and Cities
Political Geography:
Africa, Asia, and Global Focus

12. The Watercourses Convention, Hydro-hegemony and Transboundary Water Issues

Author:
Joyeeta Gupta
Publication Date:
09-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The 2014 entry into force of the UN Watercourses Convention of 1997 could institutionalise water law globally, thereby countering hydro-hegemonic approaches. However, since the Convention is out of date; has been ratified by only 36, mostly downstream countries; does not require amendments of pre-existing treaties; and has no Conference of the Parties to ensure that it becomes a living treaty, its actual influence in addressing the evolving problems in transboundary river basins remains minimal. Nevertheless, it is not unimaginable that with an appropriate follow-up to this Convention, it could be converted into a living and relevant framework convention in the future.
Topic:
Politics, Treaties and Agreements, United Nations, Water, and Hegemony
Political Geography:
Global Focus

13. Data Intelligence for 21st Century Water Management: A Report from the 2015 Aspen-Nicholas Water Forum

Author:
Dave Grossman, Martin Doyle, and Nicole Buckley
Publication Date:
12-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The 2015 Aspen-Nicholas Water Forum, brings together each year a select group of water experts with diverse knowledge - from finance and policy to technology and ecosystems - to explore the future of our water system; the role of corporations and municipalities in managing water risk; and the innovations in, and convergence of, water policy, finance, and technology to identify potential game changers. The forum this year specifically focused on water and big data to understand how the emergence of large, but dispersed, amounts of data in the water sector can best be utilized to improve the management and delivery of water for a more sustainable future. Understanding what water data we have, how we collect it, and how to standardize and integrate it may well be a prerequisite to taking action to address a wide range of water challenges.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Science and Technology, Natural Resources, Water, and Global Markets
Political Geography:
Global Focus

14. El Nino: The case for urgent action

Author:
Debbie Hillier, Josephine Liebl, and Franziska Mager
Publication Date:
12-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Abstract:
Millions of poor and vulnerable people face hunger and poverty this year and next because of record global temperatures, droughts and erratic rains in 2014 and 2015, compounded by the development of possibly the most powerful El Niño on record. Strong leadership at every level of government and a coordinated international effort are required to avoid the failures of the 2011 Horn of Africa drought, when the international system was slow to respond and widespread suffering ensued. Urgent humanitarian response is required in places already in crisis such as parts of Ethiopia. This paper focuses particularly on other places, where the crisis is currently unfolding, and where there is still the opportunity for rapid action to mitigate the worst impacts of El Niño.
Topic:
Climate Change, Poverty, Natural Disasters, Water, and Hunger
Political Geography:
Global Focus

15. Globalization and Scarcity: Multilateralism for a world with limits

Author:
Alex Evans
Publication Date:
11-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation
Abstract:
Globalization has improved the living standards of hundreds of millions of people – but growing resource scarcity means it risks becoming a victim of its own success. Left unaddressed, scarcity of food, energy, water, land and other key 'natural assets' has the potential to trigger intensifying zero sum competition between states – in the process, increasing poverty, state fragility, economic instability, inflation, and strategic resource competition between major powers.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Economics, Energy Policy, Environment, Globalization, Natural Resources, Water, and Food
Political Geography:
Global Focus

16. Financing Water Supply and Sanitation Sector in EECCA Countries, including Progress in Achieving Water-Related Millennium Development Goals (MDGS)

Author:
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
At their meeting in Almaty in October 2000, EECCA Ministers of Environment, Finance, and Economy, Ministers and senior representatives from several OECD countries, as well as senior officials from International Financial Institutions (IFI), International Organisations, non-governmental organisations, and the private sector, recognised the critical condition of the urban water supply and sanitation sector in EECCA and endorsed "Guiding Principles for the Reform of the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Sector in the NIS". Participants requested the EAP Task Force to assess progress in implementing these Guiding Principles for review at a major conference of stakeholders that took place in 2005 in Yerevan, Armenia. This paper is an update of a report that was prepared for the Ministerial meeting in Yerevan, drawing on more recent data, and responds to the Ministers' request to prepare such a paper for the Environment for Europe Conference in 2007.
Topic:
Water, Millennium Development Goals, NGOs, and Sanitation
Political Geography:
Global Focus