Urban 20 – The voice of cities

Half the earth’s population already lives in cities; this will reach two-thirds by 2050. Cities account for the overwhelming proportion of the world’s economic output, while also consuming the bulk of the energy and generating over two-thirds of all emissions. So clearly cities are where all the action is. Cities and their concentrated populations also bear the brunt of the fury of natural disasters like floods and earthquakes, and the impacts of climate change in general. So there is much need for the voice of cities to be heard at the global level and engage the world’s leaders. This is what URBAN 20 seeks to do. A key plank of the G20, U20 will provide the urban perspective and thereby enrich the deliberations of the G20 leaders. The 2023 U20 Chair City is Ahmedabad.

Rapid and relentless urbanisation will continue to be a key theme of the 21st Century. Cities are increasingly hosting diverse, multi-cultural, multi-lingual populations thereby adding much colour and vibrancy to the urban landscape. At the same time, the challenges before cities and their governments are also of varied hues and growing in complexity. Among the prime challenges is providing services to the growing population that is coming into cities with great aspirations for themselves and their families – services ranging from water and sanitation, and waste management, to accessible public healthcare, affordable housing, and sustainable mobility. The global COVID pandemic presented a new dimension to these challenges and set about new thought processes among city leaders. There was all-round realisation of the need to strengthen resilience of cities in order to prevent impacts such as those during the pandemic. The U20 last year chaired by Jakarta, Indonesia focused on recovery from the effects of the pandemic calling upon G20 leaders to ‘recover together, recover stronger’ while urging them to augment investments in healthcare and housing.

This year’s focus and the U20 engagement with the G20 leaders could likely once again be on improving livability of cities. In addition there needs to be special focus on livelihoods security and productive economic engagement for the millions who will pour into our cities in search of a brighter future. A key element of such strategy could revolve around education, training, skilling, and re-skilling for large numbers. This is specially so in the context of rapid technological advancements which require newer and higher order skills. While driverless cars may be some years away, others such as smart meters are already going into use. With these you will not need an army of modestly-skilled meter readers or bill preparation personnel. And with the rapid rollout of Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms, there is apprehension about its impact on jobs and livelihoods. These fears cannot be wished away; these need to be addressed by making the urban population ready for a transition to different kinds of work that use AI platforms to enhance the quality of life of citizens. This will be necessary so that that inequality is reduced and to ensure that technology led work does not become the exclusive preserve of a chosen elite.

Mayors in the world’s cities will need to analyse in much detail and then inform national leaders and propose various measures required to enable equitable and sustainable urbanisation. Urban 20 is a very powerful platform for this purpose and its role will prove invaluable.