SCP '98 Summary Meeting Report

SCP '98 Summary Meeting Report

Mayors, city officials, project managers and staff from 35 cities associated with the SCP gathered in Moscow from 7 - 9 June for the 1998 Annual Meeting of the Sustainable Cities Programme (of UNCHS & UNEP). The newest member of the SCP family of cities, Moscow, played host to the meeting, giving participants from around the world an opportunity to see how the City of Moscow is approaching the challenges of sustainable urban development; in turn, Moscow was able to learn from the experiences of the many cities already actively working in the programme.

Under the broad title "Implementing the Habitat Agenda", SCP ‘98 focussed on improving effective implementation of environmental strategies, a topic which had been identified at SCP ‘97 (Shenyang) and at a regional SCP meeting for Africa in March 1998. Through the intensive working sessions of SCP'98, representatives from partner cities exchanged information and gathered their collective experience on how Environmental Planning and Management (EPM) works in practice. They identified problems and gaps encountered in implementation, and they formulated responses, based on lessons of experience, for these problems. In the process, they provided case examples to expand the EPM Source Book and to enrich the SCP briefing materials and Source Books.

Through this analysis, participants were also able to identify gaps, or weak links, in the evolving EPM process. A shortage of resources, political problems, and rigid bureaucratic procedures in cities were identified as areas in which greater attention is needed to work out successful solutions. Together, participants focused on developing responses to these challenges, based on their shared practical experiences with the EPM process. This process also facilitated broader dialogue and information exchange, touching upon many familiar and critical real-life concerns. Participation, information, transparency, decentralization, and capacity building were the cross-cutting features that appeared in almost all discussions and were identified repeatedly in the search for solutions which would ultimately lead to improved implementation on the ground.

The Annual SCP Meeting also gave those most closely involved with the SCP the opportunity to discuss the ongoing activities and future directions of the programme in which they play such a critical role. Participants took advantage of this opportunity through the Programme Partner Review during the final session. These were the main conclusions: dith 16 cities actively participating in demonstrations and 18 more in replicationsd the ability of a small core SCP team to provide direct support was becoming very thinly stretched indeed. Therefore, rather than taking on more new cities, it was considered a priority that the limited programme resources should be focussed on cities already active in the process and continue to support them. It was also agreed, however, that existing SCP cities have a responsibility to move swiftly through the stages of the EPM process so they may require less support, thus making room for new cities in the SCP.

The importance of exchanging information and forging partnerships at the global level was strongly reconfirmed, and the meeting requested the core team to establish closer partnerships with lending institutions and associations of local governments; it was well understood that these organisations can contribute significantly to the success of implementation and replication, respectively, in the cycle of local SCP activities. All the SCP partners at the meeting renewed their commitment to working towards sustainability in urban environmental planning and management, and also to developing partnerships at all levels in order to improve urban environments around the world.

Sustainable City Programme core support services, including the Annual Meeting and the Urban Environment Forum, were strongly endorsed. SCP partners requested that the Programme place a greater emphasis on information dissemination, and continue to produce and refine the SCP process tools and topic-specific tools.

Following their comprehensive review of SCP operations and their discussions on SCP direction, principles, and activities, the assembled partners reached a number of key agreements. Based on these recommendations from the SCP'98 Programme Partner Review, the Sustainable Cities Programme will:

• formalise and strengthen the PPR through the creation of a Programme Partner Review Committee (PPRC) which will include the SCP partner cities, the donors and funding partners, the core team and other key partners;

• establish tighter qualification criteria for cities receiving SCP support;

• place new emphasis on regional support and associated training requirements;

• formalize partnership with international lending institutions to improve "implementation";

• formalize partnership with associations of local government to enhance "replication";

• provide agreed core support services, including annual meetings of the SCP and the PPRC and the Urban Environment Forum;

• place greater emphasis on information dissemination; and

• provide an agreed set of SCP process tools and topic-specific tools

SCP ‘98 was an excellent example of what the United Nations does best - bringing together people to learn from each other and to develop new skills and partnerships. It also demonstrated the success of the tried and tested SCP approach to supporting the implementation of Agenda 21 and the Habitat Agenda at the local level.

Special thanks were given to the Moscow team for their generosity, hard work and kindness in hosting SCP ‘98. We look forward to learning from their experiences as they begin to move through the SCP process themselves.