Opportunities and Strategies for Sustainable Urban Development

Even though the global sustainable development paradigm has started to be translated into local visions for action in various developing countries and their respective cities, the process is extremely slow and fragmented. In particular, the absence of a comprehensive sustainability-based framework for national, regional and local planning indicates a lack of commitment to or incapacity for practical implementation beyond the political stage of signing global framework initiatives such as Agenda 21 and Habitat Agenda. All three case study cities exhibit several pieces of policies, legislation and strategies and plans at national and local levels from which a comprehensive approach to sustainable urban development can evolve. Therefore, political will and institutional capacity at national and local levels are likely to remain the key determinant factors towards realizing integrated strategies in the case study cities as well as most other cities in developing countries.