Paul van Lindert

Bridging local institutions and civil society in Latin America: can city-to-city cooperation make a difference?

In order to improve the quality of urban governance in cities in the South, it is believed that local institutions and citizens should be brought together more closely. To bridge the gap, there is a need both for citizen participation to have a stronger role in collective decision making and for institutional strengthening, to make local governments more responsive to community needs. This paper explores the role that North—South city-to-city cooperation can play as an instrument for meeting those needs. The outcome of two partnerships between cities in Nicaragua and Peru and their sister cities in the Netherlands is discussed in terms of the resulting support to urban governance. The case studies reveal that while city-to-city cooperation has a particular potential to strengthen local governments, their administrations, service delivery performance and levels of responsiveness, the outcome with regard to encouraging citizenship and citizen participation in urban decision making and development planning has been more modest.

Household shelter strategies in comparative perspective: Evidence from low-income groups in Bamako and La Paz

Abstract This article focuses on the shelter strategies of low-income households in Bamako, Mali and La Paz, Bolivia. The structure of the land and housing markets conditions the range of shelter alternatives available to the poor in both cities. Land and housing markets in La Paz show more dynamism than Bamakos, where housing turnover is rare, and filtering processes are slow. Bamakos land and housing markets are characterized by a poor record of shelter improvement; lower rates of mobility to new housing opportunities on the periphery; and more constrained access to home ownership than in La Paz. It is argued that shelter strategies are not determined by structural constraints only. Within the scope of available options, the poor themselves decide what particular alternative will be employed to improve shelter conditions of the household. City-born residents prove to be more fortunate than migrants in securing appropriate shelter.

Sustainable housing and the urban poor

After last year’s adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the year 2016 promises to be a landmark year for international housing policy agendas. In October, the UN Habitat III Conference (also referred to as ‘Habitat III’) will be held in Quito, Ecuador. After the successful inclusion of Sustainable Development Goal 11 on urban development and its ratification in the General Assembly of the UN by heads of state in September 2015, it is now time to consider how the ambition of making cities and human settlements ‘inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’ can be realised. Will ‘Habitat III’ actually introduce a new paradigm shift that is able to substantially change urban policymaking? And what will the impact be on mainstream housing policies? Target 11.1 of the Sustainable Development Goal 11 states: ‘By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums’. That target alone represents a substantial task. The theme of this special issue is sustainable housing for the urban poor in the Global South. In this introduction, we will discuss some of the most relevant dimensions of urban sustainability relating to low-income housing and then introduce the papers of this special issue. First, the focus will be on the relationship between sustainability and low-income housing. Next, housing sustainability will be placed in a systemic framework that is based on ecological models. In the third section, it is argued that a crossfertilisation between housing solutions and social innovation fosters housing sustainability. This will be followed by a discussion on urban shelter policies and their implications for a new urban housing agenda. Finally, the contributions to this volume will be presented.

Capacity development or new learning spaces through municipal international cooperation : Policy mobility at work?

The importance of strengthening local governments is widely recognised as local governments face new challenges against the backdrop of global decentralisation processes. Municipal International Cooperation (MIC) contributes strategically to such processes by peer-to-peer learning within existing local institutions, a development process that is both efficient and provides continuity. Empirically, the paper draws upon the findings of an evaluation of the Dutch support programme for MIC called LOGO South. The main conclusion is that partnerships between local authorities do strengthen local governments in the South; the unique approach of the LOGO South programme adds important spillover effects in mutual learning, resulting in both policy transfer and mobility. By creating multilevel governance networks, knowledge circulation was also strengthened. This paper contributes to the debate by showing that locally based, multilevel hybrid networks are strategic for governance processes.

Local Governance and Local Development in Latin America: Views from Above and Below

Looking at Latin America in the twenty-first century, the subcontinent appears to have reinvented itself. Economies have been transformed under liberalization and globalisation, political environments have been modified by democratic transitions, and many social and cultural changes have brought about clear-cut modernization processes, with consequences such as, for example, the remodelling of the ‘traditional role’-spatial pattern with its primate cities and weak peripheries. Undeniably, during the second half of the twentieth century, the manifold processes of decentralized development have had an impressive impact on Latin America’s political, economic, social and spatial landscapes.