•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.

2005 19:29 Uhr Seite 29

2005

30 Jahre GTZ. Partner für Perspektiven. Weltweit. 30 Years GTZ. Partner for the Future. Worldwide. 30 Jahre GTZ. Partner für Perspektiven. Weltweit. 30 Years GTZ. Partner for the Future.

Focus – Fascination – Future:

Designing tomorrow’s cities

Deutsche Gesellschaft für

Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ ) GmbH
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005 19:29 Uhr Seite 2

Contents

3 Preface

Eschborn Dialogue 2005

4 Anatomy of the city

8 Voice of the city

Wo r k s h o p 1
9 The power of cities – the influence of networking

10 Heritage as an asset
Wo r k s h o p 2
11 Development without culture – or culture-driven urban development?

12 Balancing act between boom and poverty

Wo r k s h o p 3
13 Poor rich city – between economic growth and financial crisis

14 Matters of security
Wo r k s h o p 4
15 City worth living in – security and rights for all

16 Governance by rules
Wo r k s h o p 5
17 Urban governance – how do cities stay manageable?

18 Urban ecomodels
Wo r k s h o p 6
19 Ecocities – the places of the future?

20 Transfer between city and hinterland

Wo r k s h o p 7
21 Town and country – connections create benefits

22 Efficient cities for people

Wo r k s h o p 8
23 Bringing the city close to the people – through participation and transparency

24 The world as city

26 GTZ profile

27 Contacts

Published by: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH, Dag-Hammarskjöld-Weg 1-5, 65760 Eschborn, Germany
Telephone: +49 6196 790, fax: +49 6196 791115, email: info@gtz.de, Internet: www.gtz.de
Editorial staff: Jens Heine/jens.heine@gtz.de (responsible) and Georg Schuler/KonzeptTextRedaktion, Mainz
Proofreader: Manhard Schütze, Frankfurt am Main | Design: Eva Hofmann, Frankfurt am Main
Photos: Dirk Ostermeier (event) and GTZ archive | Litho: Communications Albecker & Haupt GmbH, Frankfurt am Main
Printed by: Druckerei und Verlag Otto Lembeck, Frankfurt am Main | printed on 100% recycled paper | August 2005
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005.
Bernd Hoffmann, Director Governance and Democracy GTZ
11.10.2005 19:29 Uhr Seite 3
Preface
Dear Reader,
Cities arouse our curiosity, they fascinate us. They inspire
directors to make films, like Metropolis and City of God,
writers like Günter Grass and Cees Noteboom to write
stories about Calcutta and Marrakesh, and composers
like Heiner Goebbels to compose music such as Surrogate
Cities. The city engages us. In response to onrushing
urbanization, Technical Cooperation is now even more
attentive to the city. As Peter Herrle, professor at the
Technical University Berlin observed: “Development policy
is turning into urban policy.”
GTZ has taken up the challenge and set its sights on this
issue with our spotlight of the year, Focus – Fascination –
Future: Designing tomorrow’s cities. The Eschborn Dialogue
2005 on the same topic provided a professional platform
for stimulating discussion and specialist exchange. In
addition to GTZ Head Office and field personnel, we were
pleased to welcome more than 200 speakers and partici-
pants from other federal government ministries and depart-
ments, municipalities, national and international organiza-
tions, business, industry and academia.
The Eschborn Dialogue made one thing clear: urban devel-
opment is more than just a technical or sectoral issue.
It is highly political. This is where people live out democracy,
where civil rights are exercised, and where interests are
articulated and negotiated.
As the range of workshop themes showed, urban devel-
opment has many facets, from urban culture through
environmental issues to international urban networks. What
we now have to do is turn all the valuable words into deeds
in anticipation of the big events coming up over the next
few years. The World Urban Forum III takes place next year
and the theme for the EXPO World Exposition in 2010 is
‘Better City – Better Life’.
My thanks go to everyone who made the Eschborn Dialogue
2005 possible: the speakers, the people in charge of the
workshops, the organization team and all those who took
part.
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
Eschborn Dialogue 2005
Anatomy
of the city
For two whole days, GTZ
Eschborn talked about just one
thing: tomorrow’s cities. In
workshops and panels at the
Eschborn Dialogue 2005,
prominent guests and devel-
opment experts discussed key
issues in urban development.
19:29 Uhr Seite 4
Urban development will have a decisive
influence on whether people 20 years
from now have an environment worth
living in. Can we avert climate collapse
and how can we live in a world without
oil? We can only find answers to these
questions if we include the city as a factor
in the scenario, as Volker Hauff, Chair-
person of the German Council for Sus-
tainable Development, said at the start of
the Eschborn Dialogue 2005. For two
days, the specialist conference under the
banner ‘Focus – Fascination – Future:
Designing tomorrow’s cities’ took a close
look at all the facets of urban develop-
ment. As every year, many prominent
guests accepted GTZ’s invitation, this
time to discuss its spotlight theme of the
year – tomorrow’s cities – with develop-
ment experts.
Countries with high-growth economies
such as Brazil, India, China or South
Africa bear a great responsibility. The
consequences for people and the environ-
ment could be enormous if we chart the
wrong course, Hauff warned. The nations
of the North must set a good example
before they start telling others what to do.
He explained that a key problem was
Erich Stather, State Secretary at the Wolfgang Schuster,
German Federal Ministry for Economic Mayor of Stuttgart
Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
rural exodus. Despite all the problems
this caused, cities were growing, particu-
larly in developing and more advanced
countries. A major reason for ongoing
migration lay in the economic resources
concentrated in the municipalities. As
GTZ Managing Director Bernd Eisen-
blätter pointed out, cities are engines of
growth and earn a major part of national
income. People see cities as the only
chance to escape poverty. In Asia alone,
the urban population has grown by 163
per cent since 1975. Eisenblätter: “The
urban population in Africa grows by five
per cent every year.”
GTZ has been dealing with the prob-
lems of towns and cities and urban devel-
opment for 30 years, since it started. The
focus at the beginning was on such items
as developing infrastructure, the drinking
water supply and sewage and refuse dis-
posal, as GTZ Director General Cornelia
Richter explained. The political dimension
of urban development has since moved
to the forefront of attention. The Indian
social scientist Sheela Patel, Director of
the NGO SPARC, called for urban devel-
opment to include poverty alleviation. The
founder of SPARC, an advocate of the
rights of the urban poor, underpinned her
argument by citing the situation of the
poor in Mumbai.
At the EFTA opening event with the
theme ‘Changing world – focus on the
city’ Stuttgart’s Mayor Wolfgang Schuster
pinpointed some trends in his city that
run counter to those in the South. As an
export-dedicated city, Stuttgart is one
of the winners of globalization, but the
population is shrinking: children and
youth live in only 19 per cent of house-
holds in the Stuttgart area and ten per
Sheela Patel, Steffen Seibert,
Director SPARC chairperson from ZDF
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
cent of those are one-child households.
“We have four times as many cars as
children", Schuster said. An important
countervailing factor in the trend towards
fewer children was migration, with mi-
grants accounting for thirty per cent of
the city’s inhabitants, making it increas-
ingly international. “What would things
look like without these children?” the
mayor asked. Alluding to the use of re-
sources, he warned against taking urban
development in the industrialized coun-
tries as a precedent for the countries of
the South. Schuster: “We can’t globalize
our way of doing things.”
Erich Stather stressed that develop-
ment policy must cater for the problems
of the megacities just as for those of
small towns. “Our aim is to keep people
in the rural areas,” the State Secretary
of BMZ (German Federal Ministry for
Economic Cooperation and Development)
added. In answer to moderator Steffen
Seibert’s question of whether develop-
ment funds should be reallocated in
favour of urban development, Stather
said no, but pointed out that overall de-
velopment assistance was being raised
by a considerable margin, reaching the
0.3 per cent mark next year, 0.51 per
cent in 2010 and 0.7 per cent in 2015,
as agreed by all European countries.
Infotainment
After the opening statements to the
Eschborn Dialogue 2005, four workshops
took a close look at major facets of the
GTZ spotlight of the year, ‘Designing to-
morrow’s cities’. After a demanding after-
noon of discussions, the loudspeakers
in the GTZ buildings finally announced:
Volker Hauff, Chairperson of the
Council for Sustainable Development
19:29 Uhr Seite 5
“The shuttles for the evening event are
waiting.” At the Commerzbank Plaza in
Frankfurt, the EFTA organizers provided
some infotainment before the second
round of workshops due to continue the
next day. Chairperson Steffen Seibert
from ZDF television invited the guests
to explore the ‘Fascination of the city –
between vision and reality,’ or the ‘city of
hell’ as he added before going on to lead
the audience through the evening as an
informed and attentive guide.
With an entertaining spot, Lee Roy
the B Boy marked the divide between the
first obligatory EFTA day and the volun-
tary exercise. His street dance on stage
gave the audience a taste of the global
rap culture with its roots in the cities
of the USA. “Could someone dance like
this on the streets of Kabul?” Steffen
Seibert asked his first quest Qiamuddin
Djallalzada, who personifies a part of
modern Development Cooperation. An
Afghan by birth, he returned to his native
country as a CIM Integrated Expert
(Centrum für internationale Migration und
Entwicklung) after 20 years in Germany
and now contributes to shaping its devel-
opment as Deputy Minister of Urban
Development and Housing. There were
no rappers in Kabul, he answered, but
the music and the lust for life, so long
taboo, were back.
Since his return in 2002 Qiamuddin
Djallalzada has himself witnessed how
Kabul has grown from 700,000 inhabitants
to 3.5 million. This rapid development
had overtaken the masterplans which
were originally conceived for 1.2 million
people at most, said the Afghan, who has
lived in the German town of Aachen and
returned to Kabul with a German pass-
port. The plans for the secondary cities
had also been superseded. The country’s
development planners were looking for
ways to stem the influx into Kabul and
other cities, by land allocation in the
provinces, for example. Under no circum-
stances, however, did the Afghan govern-
ment want to stop the ongoing exodus
from the provinces with state interven-
tions, which would run counter to its
liberal principles, Qiamuddin Djallalzada
explained. Though short of water and
housing, the people of Kabul would
muster the patience to thwart the plans
of political troublemakers, and what was
more, “The mass migration to Kabul is
strengthening national unity.”
Let people into the cities or keep
them out? This was also a key question
in Steffen Seibert’s interview with India’s
Ashok Khosla. The answer the president
of the New Delhi NGO, Development
Alternatives, gave was, however, quite
different to that of the previous speaker
from Afghanistan. Ashok Khosla, who
with his international biography is for
many the personification of globalization,
answered with a categorical ‘no’ to
keeping the cities open. We needed the
opposite approach to current mainstream
thinking. “To save the cities, we have to
keep people in the country and send the
investors there,” he said. Allocating 40
per cent of regional budgets to the urban
centres would only make everything
worse. Something had to be done for
the hinterland, he demanded. That would
certainly be cheaper and NGOs were
the decisive factor. Ashok Khosla: “God
bless their hearts’ strike!”
The urban problems at the beginning
of the 21st century are unprecedented
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005 19:29 Uhr Seite 6
Steffen Seibert, Ashok Khosla, President of Wolfgang Schmitt,
moderator from ZDF Development Alternatives, India GTZ Managing Director
in history, as GTZ Managing Director
Wolfgang Schmitt said at the opening of
the evening event, pointing to the limits
of development work. Despite all the great
competency and outstanding expertise,
he warned, many questions on cities
would have to remain unanswered. In
conversation with moderator Steffen
Seibert from Germany’s ZDF television
channel he added another point: consid-
ering the host of urban problems, devel-
opment experts would do well to listen
first to the people and decision-makers
involved. GTZ was known for its listening
experts, but frequently also for insisting
on competencies when solving problems.
With its institutional bias, German Devel-
opment Cooperation would do well to
learn more from the Anglo-Saxons. In-
stead of looking at problems through in-
stitutional glasses all the time, it certainly
made sense to pick out the ten out of
100 mayors who were prepared to take
risks to change the status quo and could
otherwise spend a long time asking
the establishment for help – to no avail.
On the idea of preparing today’s
opposition for tomorrow’s government,
Wolfgang Schmitt then also reminded the
audience of GTZ’s limits. This is where
the political foundations came in at the
very latest, said the GTZ Managing Direc-
tor. Sharing tasks with the political foun-
dations was one of the great strengths
of German Development Cooperation.
Megacities as partners?
“Development policy is increasingly turn-
ing into urban policy.” This prediction
was made by Peter Herrle, professor at
the Berlin Technical University, who intro-
Qiamuddin Djallalzada, Deputy Minister for
Urban Development and Housing, Afghanistan
duced the closing event of the Eschborn
Dialogue 2005 after the second round
of workshops with the theme ‘Shaping
the future – designing cities’. Rapid popu-
lation growth in developing countries and
the strong attraction of urban centres were
the reasons why cities were growing and
new ones kept emerging. Peter Herrle is
firmly convinced that new megacities will
spring up, particularly in Asia, but urban-
ization is taking on a new shape. Tomor-
row’s city with over a million inhabitants
will be an expansive conurbation, includ-
ing stretches of rural land, and have a
much lower population density than cities
in the 19th and 20th centuries. Develop-
ment cooperation should, he urged, ven-
ture into the big cities, because this was
where the central challenges of Develop-
ment Cooperation were most pressing:
poverty and social inequality, environmen-
tal pollution, the depletion of resources
and insufficient infrastructure. Herrle cau-
tioned, however, against simply exporting
Western methods of urban planning. They
needed to be tailored to local needs and
conditions, drawing on the experience of
Western urban planners and the advisory
Bernd Eisenblätter,
GTZ Managing Director
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
and mediating capacities of all institutions
in Development Cooperation.
In the following discussion, Stephan
Articus, Executive Director of the German
Association of Cities, was of the opinion
that German Development Cooperation
should concentrate on advising medium-
sized cities. This was where Germany
could best draw on its wealth of experi-
ence. Ursula Schäfer-Preuss, in contrast,
argued that Development Cooperation
should definitely venture into cooperation
with megacities. The BMZ Director
General for Cooperation with Countries
and Regions, Peace-Building and the
United Nations advocated cooperation
in demarcated sectors and cited as best
practice the air-pollution control project
in Mexico City.
For Cornelia Richter, cooperation was
imperative with the metropolises and with
medium-sized cities alike, “because the
municipalities are closest to the people,”
said the GTZ Director General for Plan-
ning and Development. Microfinance pro-
grammes were also very successful at
this level. Hanns-Peter Neuhoff, Senior
Vice President for America, Africa and
the Middle East at the KfW Entwicklungs-
bank (KfW development bank), stressed
that poor populations were quite capable
of taking entrepreneurial initiative and
paying back loans. Urban development
must harness this potential.
Moderator Volker Angres from German
television’s ZDF environment magazine
then asked whether Development Coop-
eration was investing more in cities. The
final panel of the Eschborn Dialogue 2005
agreed on the need to avoid one-sided
development. Urban development must
always cater for rural areas because of
Peter Herrle, Professor at the Cornelia Richter,
Technical University Berlin GTZ Director General for Planning
and Development
19:29 Uhr Seite 7
the mutual interdependencies. The Mali
North project was a showcase for how to
harness urban and rural resources for re-
gional reconstruction. In his final address,
GTZ Managing Director Bernd Eisenblät-
ter also contended that Technical Coop-
eration should seek partners in mega-
cities, in growing medium-sized cities and
in rural areas alike, depending on needs
and on task-sharing with other partners.
Development Cooperation must not lose
sight of its limits, however. It must always
build on what is already there, Eisenblät-
Ursula Schäfer-Preuss, Hanns-Peter Neuhoff, Senior Vice Volker Angres,
BMZ Director General President at the KfW development bank moderator from ZDF
ter stressed. Like Peter Herrle before him,
the GTZ Managing Director urged closer
cooperation between GTZ and the univer-
sities.
His special thanks went to the politi-
cal foundations for their contribution
to the Eschborn Dialogue. Bernd Eisen-
blätter: “The exchange with all of you,
the different views and the many good
practices we learn about make the
Eschborn Dialogue GTZ’s foremost
human resources development event.”
Stephan Articus, Executive Director
of the German Association of Cities
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
Voice of the city
Cities seek solutions to
common problems by looking
to networks. Their resources
and their political experience
lend weight to their national
and international role. GTZ
promotes exchange on
innovative approaches and
involves municipalities as
partners in dialogue.
Municipalities worldwide come together
to seek strategies for solving typical
common problems. The resulting city
networks have been making a name for
themselves for more than fifteen years.
The international community has
recognized the political dimension of
municipal problems, but all too often,
when it comes to drafting national policy
– including the implementation of the
Millennium Declaration – urban govern-
ments and their innovative ideas are left
out of the equation. So through these
networks GTZ contributes to giving cities
a say.
For the sake of Development Cooper-
ation it is important that cities and munic-
ipalities have a greater say as a dialogue
partner at international level. Urban
governments in particular are engaged in
the fight against rising poverty. This is
why Agenda 21 of 1992 and the Habitat
Agenda of 1996 are also concerned that
city networks learn from each other and
send messages beyond city precincts.
The more the economic and political sta-
tus of cities changes within countries and
in the international context, the more rele-
vant is their experience with water supply
and sewage disposal, waste management
and transport, environment and housing,
access to finance, economic develop-
ment and the fight against violence and
crime. Cities can develop strategies for
future economic and social life that can
prompt changes in other urban centres,
but also across regions or even national
frontiers.
This has implications for the interac-
tion amongst political, administrative,
business and civic stakeholders at urban
19:29 Uhr Seite 8
level and for their relations with national
government. It also affects municipal
associations. Party-political differences
between urban and national governments
can yield new approaches and compro-
mises acceptable to everyone, or exacer-
bate conflicting interests. Clearly, a grow-
ing number of municipal policy lobbyists
are entering the national and international
political arena. Whether the city networks
can perform their role successfully in co-
shaping global development will depend
above all on the integration and partici-
pation of the poor urban population, who
are not usually organized. The achieve-
ment of the Millennium Development
Goals also depends to a great extent on
this.
Modern city networks
A case in point of how German Develop-
ment Cooperation supports approaches
and exchange of experience in urban
poverty reduction is the Cities Alliance
founded in 1999. Its members now in-
clude the World Bank, UN-Habitat, the
UN Development Programme, twelve
states, the Asian Development Bank and
four municipal federations. Founded in
2004, the mission of the international
association, United Cities and Local
Governments (UCLG), is to represent the
interests of cities and municipalities and
contribute to co-shaping global develop-
ment.
GTZ has also gained experience in
helping to organize a development proj-
ect based on twinned cities. It advises
German municipalities on developmental
issues in their international activities and
offers practical assistance in projects.
Advisory services for inter-municipal
corporations and municipal associations
have been in keen demand in Technical
Cooperation for years.
An excellent example of municipal
development partnerships is the Cauca-
sus city network, which GTZ supports on
behalf of the German Federal Ministry for
Economic Cooperation and Development
(BMZ). The project builds on city twinning
arrangements between Tbilisi and Saar-
brücken, Telawi and Biberach-on-the-
Riss, and Sumgait and Ludwigshafen.
Knowledge and experience gained in
German cities is combined with strategic
developmental objectives, which facili-
tates regional know-how transfer and
joint learning between partners. Mutual
learning processes strengthen municipal
government capacities and promote par-
ticipation by the urban population. The
process also contributes to defusing
conflicts in the Caucasus region. One ex-
ample of vertical and horizontal network
expansion is provided by the institutional
partnerships between the Georgian Asso-
ciation of Local and Regional Authorities
and the German Association of Cities.
Cooperation with the municipal federa-
tions in Latin America is another. Collabo-
ration with the Municipios y Asociaciones
de Gobiernos Locales (FLACMA) in South
America and the Federación Municipios
del Istmo Centroamericano (FEMICA)
in Central America aims at building up
knowledge management capacities in the
region and trying out new forms of inter-
municipal and international cooperation.
These approaches are in line with the
way cities see themselves. The municipal
development partnerships also attempt
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
new forms of international cooperation
in and with city associations and in direct
collaboration with city authorities. The
organizations in international cooperation
have recognized the importance of the
cities and make more use of networks,
partnerships and alliances in implement-
ing their projects. They bear co-responsi-
bility for internationally agreed develop-
ment goals and achieving sustainable
impacts.
Workshop 1
The power of cities –
the influence of networking
"The political and economic role of cities
has changed." With these words, Nigel
Harris opened the specialist discussion
at the Eschborn Dialogue 2005 workshop,
Power of the cities – the influence of net-
working, citing globalization and deindus-
trialization as the reasons. The emeritus
professor at the Development Planning
Unit of University College London also
pointed to a marked functional shift: “For
many cities the connection to the global
economy is already more important than
relations with their own national govern-
ment."
Cities should exchange good prac-
tices in networks and develop their com-
parative advantages, the London econo-
mist advocated. Decentralization was an
important prerequisite for their economic
success. Worldwide trends in migration
were another factor in competitiveness.
Nigel Harris: “International institutions
should help cities to integrate into the
Mark Hildebrand, Jörg-Werner Haas,
Cities Alliance GTZ Chile
19:30 Uhr Seite 9
world economy and facilitate immigra- Alliance office in Washington, emphasized
tion,” particularly in large conurbations. the advantages of city networks: “Cities
The question for GTZ Country Director learn more effectively in networks than
Chile, Jörg-Werner Haas, in conversation from donors,” he said. International
with chairperson Annette Riedel from agreements had accorded them a central
Deutschland Radio Berlin, was how small role in drafting and implementing inter-
and medium-sized cities fitted into in this national conventions. After all, the cities
picture. International cooperation must were the entities that had to do most to
engage more in large cities, but also achieve their objectives, as specified in
build on experience gained in small and strategy papers on poverty reduction and
medium-sized urban centres. In municipal in the Millennium Development Goals.
networks, a distinction needed to be Walter Leitermann, Deputy Secretary
drawn between temporary networks to General of the Council of European
solve specific problems, and institutional Municipalities and Regions in the German
and municipal associations and the World Association of Cities, looked beyond
Association of Cities and Local Govern- everyday political problems when he
ments. Haas forecast that city networks pointed out at the end of the workshop:
would be more involved in international “Municipal self-governance is of value
developments in future. Situational co- in itself.” This political good must be
operation and advice to meet needs was supported, at national, international and
the way to sustainable success for all global level.
stakeholders.
Phase of possibilities
A centralized state apparatus can be
more helpful than delegating power to
local government, as Zurab Chiaberashvili,
the mayor of the Georgian capital Tbilisi,
contended. He cited anticorruption as a
case in point. “For me it is important to
build infrastructure, but it is all the more
important for citizens to learn to organize
themselves to tackle their problems
and to bear some of the costs,” said
Chiaberashvili. The more the population
is involved, the sooner municipalities can
solve their problems. The twin towns
Tbilisi/Saarbrücken in the Caucasus city
network have now begun a ‘phase of
possibilities’ to develop joint strategies in
administrative reform and local govern-
ance. Mark Hildebrand, head of the Cities
Nigel Harris, Walter Leitermann, Zurab Tschiaberashvili,
University College London German Association of Cities mayor of Tbilissi, Georgia
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
10
Heritage
as an asset
Dealing with the cultural identity
of our partners in a professional
way has long been acknowl-
edged as an important factor in
Development Cooperation.
Upholding tradition in combination
with necessary modernization is
an innovative way of addressing
the issue of culture in urban
development.
Culture plays a major role in the eco-
nomic and social development of a city.
Municipalities as various as Bangalore,
Barcelona and Weimar demonstrate what
numerous studies from previous years
have claimed: taking active cultural
measures and safeguarding the cultural
heritage can go a long way towards im-
proving locational quality and contribute
to economic growth, employment promo-
tion and social identity. With its integra-
tive approach, Technical Cooperation also
seeks to make culture a driving force in
urban development.
International specialists are following
with interest what is happening in Aleppo,
Shibam and Sibiu, formerly Hermann-
stadt, where GTZ and its local partners
have found a common denominator for
culture and development. The formula is
integrated urban and historic city devel-
opment. In the iridescent historic districts
in partner cities in Syria, Yemen and Ro-
mania, Technical Cooperation is seeking
to preserve the cultural heritage by doing
more than just restoring historical monu-
ments, as in the past. On behalf of the
Federal Ministry for Economic Coopera-
tion and Development, the integrated
project approach supports local partners
in renovating residential buildings and
infrastructure, while promoting crafts,
tourism, administration and the initiatives
of the residents. GTZ, then, sees culture
as a resource for economic and social
development. This is also the view the
World Bank and UNESCO have adopted
for several years in their efforts to high-
light the economic and social aspects of
cultural development. To be included in
19:30 Uhr Seite 10
the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list,
a project needs to submit a management
plan and ensure the active inclusion of
the local population.
Living identity
GTZ Development Cooperation combines
modern urban development with safe-
guarding the cultural heritage to prevent
cities and urban-dwellers from losing their
sense of history and identity. Technical
Cooperation refurbishes and revitalizes
historic districts and fosters resilient
cultural traditions at the same time. This
gives the districts a sharper profile and
improves the quality of life for the resi-
dents, because the cultural heritage fig-
ures as an important element in today's
city-dwellers’ sense of identity and in
social and cultural cohesion. This holds
all the more at a time when standard
methods of construction and use, ruth-
less modernization, dilapidation or over-
exploitation threaten to deface or even
completely obliterate the cultural heritage.
Many historic cities also play an impor-
tant part in national identity.
The integrative project approach
also takes account of tourism, which
often promotes local, regional and even
national economic development in turn.
Because renovating old buildings is far
more labour-intensive than building new
houses, it contributes to employment.
Small and medium-sized local enterprises
benefit in particular from the demand
generated in the building sector.
By European standards, Germany
has the best record in rehabilitating and
revitalizing historic cities. Nowhere else
have more old cities and residential
districts been professionally renovated
to preserve their historical character since
the end of the nineties than in the new
German federal states. Combined with
the project approach of integrated urban
and historic city development devised
by GTZ, this experience provides useful
input for urban renewal projects. GTZ
has taken a pioneering role here, as
confirmed by UNESCO. The experience
gained will be harnessed for future
projects in urban and historic city devel-
opment.
Parallel institutions
Despite these successful projects, city
managers and development experts
have still not fully grasped the connection
between culture and development. In
institutional terms, these two aspects are
also still leading parallel lives in interna-
tional cooperation. In Germany too, where
the cultural sector in the conventional
sense is an intervention prerogative of the
Federal Foreign Office, the activity area
of harnessing cultural heritage for urban
development and the related project
types such as sustainable urban renewal
or historic city renovation are new in
Development Cooperation, and the notion
of culture is also acquiring broader
connotations in German development
assistance. Treating culture as an asset
transcends the so-called sociocultural
framework in the partner countries, which
we have so far tried to understand, cater
for and possibly change.
With a better understanding of the
role of culture and through new partner-
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
ships, culture can be assimilated more
in urban development. Culture should be
integrated more closely into project work
even if the culture sector is still not a
classic GTZ activity area. A more profes-
sional approach to the cultural identity
of partners in project work has long been
a called for. Specifically strengthening
this cultural identity can help to combine
the desire to keep traditions alive with the
need for modernization in urban develop-
ment. This is just what Christina Weiss,
the German Minister of State for Culture
and Media thinks: “We cannot base our
lives solely on what we think is efficient.”
Workshop 2
Development without
culture – or culture-driven
urban development?
We breathe more easily in the city. Just
a cliché? Not at all. “The city embodies
lifestyle, emancipation, democracy and
participation,” said Christoph Beier, GTZ
Director General for the Mediterranean
Region, Europe and Central Asian Coun-
tries, at the start of the workshop ‘Cul-
ture-driven urban development’ at the
Eschborn Dialogue, adding that the hall-
marks of the urban lifestyle were also
developmental goals. There was a link
between good cultural synergies and
good development paths.
The workshop panel discussion asked
what priorities the Federal Foreign Office
(AA) in Berlin, which is responsible for
cultural cooperation, and GTZ should set
Omar Akbar, Director of the Irene Wiese-von Ofen,
Bauhaus Dessau Foundation IFHP
19:30 Uhr Seite 11
and how culture could advance urban
development. “The resources for cultural
development abroad are meagre, less
than two million euros a year,” said Hans
Jochen Schmidt, Head of the Culture and
Education Division at the AA. Support so
far, he said, had included a symposium
on urban development in Kenya and a
cultural heritage event in St. Petersburg.
The cooperation envisaged with the
German Academic Exchange Service
and the Goethe Institutes would harness
synergies in cultural activities, given the
shortage of funds. The AA wanted to
enlist the support of the private sector
as a cultural partner too. Schmidt also
advocated stepping up cooperation with
the State Minister for Culture and Media
and the cultural foundations for Eastern
Europe.
Everyday life in a monument
Finally, Steffen Mildner made a link from
the “mother of all GTZ’s urban projects”
in Bhaktapur/Nepal, which aimed solely
at preserving historical monuments, to
integrated urban and historic city devel-
opment. Thanks to many parallels, this
approach had been able to learn from
the upgrading projects for marginal urban
districts, which the World Bank describes
as one of its most successful project
types, said the head of the GTZ team
in the project to redevelop the historic
Romanian city of Sibiu/Hermannstadt.
The integrated historic city and urban
development project sought to harness
the cultural heritage of the old part of the
city and the lifestyle of the residents as
a development factor. Renewing historic
cities went hand in hand with revitalizing
Steffen Mildner, GTZ staff Christoph Beier, GTZ Director
member in Romania General for the Mediterranean
Region, Europe and Central
Asian Countries
11
economic and social life. Mildner: “Pre-
serving historic cities is not a luxury, it is
about income generation and economic
development.”
“However, life in historic cities is
only one of many cultural messages a
city communicates,” said the internation-
ally renowned cultural expert Charles
Landry. The many urban elements taught
us to see the city as a living synthesis
of the arts. The urban milieu coloured
the emotional life of the residents who
identified themselves with it and then
Cornelia Dümcke, Managing Hans-Jochen Schmidt, Head of
Director of Culture Concepts Culture and Education Division
at the Federal Foreign Office
translated this feeling into creative
activity. Drawing on his project experi-
ence in Egypt, Omar Akbar, Director
of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation,
added: “Alliances of culture, business
and tourism fit into this scenario.”
The panel then suggested finding
a pragmatic way for AA as a cultural
partner and BMZ as a development part-
ner to work together, because as the
workshop revealed, culture and urban
development were inseparable from each
other. Competencies for culture and
Development Cooperation should there-
fore be merged. More room should be
given in projects and programmes to
experiments with urban subculture. GTZ
Director General Christoph Beier: “We
must be more receptive and look for
interconnections now and in the future.”
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
12
Balancing act
between boom
and poverty
The cities in the partner countries
have to perform a balancing act.
Keen locational competition and
economic development that tack-
les poverty must be reconciled in
a joint development strategy. GTZ
makes its contribution to placing
the alliance on as broad a footing
as possible.
Cities are pillars of economic growth and
at the same time battlefields in the war
against poverty. They play a pivotal role
in both: for the economic development
of entire countries and for the reduction
of poverty at home. Achieving the Millen-
nium Development Goals set by the inter-
national community therefore depends
on whether populous cities meet their
great economic and social responsibility.
Development Cooperation supports the
municipalities on the way to viable and
sustainable development and helps close
the gap between rich and poor.
The most challenging task is to pro-
vide the population with public services
and involve poor people in economic life.
This is compounded by the enormous
attraction that cities exert on people,
despite all the municipal problems. So
cities will have to perform a balancing
act. They have to improve their locational
advantages to attract new businesses
and at the same time they need a pro-
poor economic development policy to
offer income opportunities and services
to the poor. The job of Technical Cooper-
ation on behalf of BMZ is therefore to
bring together the urban stakeholders
with their different interests in a strategy
that aims at harnessing the strengths of
public and private partners. This strategy,
however, cannot be implemented like a
blueprint. Each city has different, often
parallel, economic and employment
cycles.
Another aim in many developing
countries must be to use the resources of
the informal economy and integrate these
19:30 Uhr Seite 12
in formal economic activities. It is very
important for the cities to succeed here.
Local policy must also promote the inter-
national competitiveness of the local
economy. Effective incentives are needed
to get international companies to invest.
Small and medium-sized enterprises also
have specific needs that the city must
cater for. To improve the competitiveness
of cities through joint efforts, functional
mechanisms for dialogue and coordina-
tion are required. These have to be put
into place. When doing this, care must be
taken to ensure that underprivileged sec-
tions of the population also have a say
in municipal decision-making processes.
For Technical Cooperation, it is important
that as many people as possible can
participate in the opportunities afforded
by urban development.
Development Cooperation assists the
municipalities in setting the right frame-
work to meet all the different demands
as the basis for broad economic develop-
ment. The GTZ advisers contribute to
improving the business and investment
climate, administrative procedures and
regulations. They develop institutional
and operational capacities, improve quali-
fications and help micro and small enter-
prises gain access to credit. As the GTZ
portfolio shows, policy strategies to
promote economic growth in cities must
cover a very broad range of concerns and
be carefully planned. This is the only way
to ensure that cities develop with the par-
ticipation of underprivileged groups and
do not lag behind international develop-
ments. Technical Cooperation also takes
account of globalization in this. Efficient
city managers can build bridges between
global players and their municipalities.
Different starting conditions inevitably
lead to disparities in and between cities
of different sizes. Economic and social
life diversifies. Municipalities must also be
able to keep pace with these processes
to remain effective.
Private sector as partner
There are more questions to answer. How
can cities supply drinking water, transport
infrastructure, educational facilities or
hospitals in view of rapid population
growth and the shortage of public funds?
How can they meet the growing demand
for investments, innovations and know-
how? For a long time, privatization was
regarded as the universal remedy for fi-
nancing urban infrastructure and services.
The wave of privatizations in the 1990s
showed, however, that trickle-down
effects and ‘getting the prices right’
are not enough to meet the challenges.
Current experience in urban development
approaches in different regional settings
enable us to give more discriminate
answers to these questions. On account
of efficiency gains and capital resources,
privatization approaches still figure in
development strategies.
GTZ is committed to the vision of
sustainable urban development. To put
this vision into practice, a systemic pro-
cedure is needed that includes different
stakeholders, and economic, ecological
and social negotiating processes that
give shape to the local future and institu-
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005 19:30 Uhr Seite 13

13

tionalize innovations. To this end, the GTZ
teams and their project partners cooper-
ate with public, private-sector and civil
society players and promote municipal
self-administration capabilities in keeping
with the principles of good governance.
Workshop 3
Poor rich city – between
economic growth and
financial crisis
When experts talk about involving the
private sector in municipal services, water
inevitably takes centre stage. This is also
what happened at the Eschborn Dialogue
2005 workshop ‘Poor rich city’, where
this issue dominated the first part of the
session. The second part turned its atten-
tion to urban economic development be-
tween poverty reduction and international
competition. The résumé by Oliver Haas
on GTZ's work in the activity area initia-
tive ‘Urban Development Asia’ holds for
both theme clusters: “Our advisers must
help municipalities to create a conducive
business climate to induce enterprises
to locate and invest in infrastructure and
new jobs.”
Reporting on experience gained by
RWE Thames Water in Jakarta, Ulrike
Ebert made a statement that ran like a
continuing theme through the discussion:
“Unmanageable risks deter investors.”
Manfred Konukiewitz, Head of the BMZ
Water, Energy and Urban Development
Division, assessed the disastrous situa-
tion as a clear case of government failure,
because 97 per cent of the water supply
in developing countries was organized by
the public sector – a clear indicator of the
unattractive climate for private participa-
tion. Through efficient management and
commercial finance, private-sector partic-
ipation could contribute to affordable and
efficient supply.
In the debate, the speakers pointed
to the need for cooperation between
public, private and civic agencies. Citing
experience gained by the GTZ Regional
Team for South America, Barbara Hess
added that the security situation played
a role in the business climate, but she
also pointed to affirmative examples.
Bogotá had succeeded in organizing fi-
nances, redeveloping districts and setting
up supervisory authorities, resulting in a
Manfred Konukiewitz, BMZ Günter Dresrüsse, GTZ
distinct rise in private investments. When
a city lacks credit standing, GTZ can
liaise as an honest broker between the
municipal authority, industry and banks,
said Herwig Mayer, GTZ adviser in Manila
Metro, and Florian Steinberg from ADB
Housing and Urban Development added:
“National financial sector development is
essential for the water supply.”
German Centre for Industry and Trade
in Singapore gave an account of how
Singapore, Shanghai, Bangkok and Seoul
were vying for international investors.
In response to competition, Singapore
had cut capital gains tax and set up three
institutes for economic development.
Finally, there was the question of
what role Development Cooperation
could play in framing competitive urban
locational policy. The prime aim here
must be to create a favourable investment
climate through a pro-business institu-
tional environment. This could also con-
tribute a lot to poverty reduction in the
view of Manfred Konukiewitz, not least
when bringing informal enterprises into
the formal sector.
Florian Steinberg,
Asian Development Bank

A balancing act
The second big question in the workshop
was: how can cities manage the balancing
act between local and pro-poor economic
development and global competition for
international enterprises? Mattias Böhle
provided some insights into economic
development and locational policy in the
Hanover region. The head of the GTZ
Economic and Employment Promotion
Division dealt in particular detail with the
Ulrike Ebert,
role of cluster management in setting
RWE Thames Water
up businesses. Stephan Weiss from the
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
14
Matters
of security
Security in many cities is no
longer a public good. The lack
of structures coupled with
violence born of desperation,
are plunging urban areas into
crisis. Municipalities seeking
to cope with this insecurity can-
not manage without integrated
approaches.
The cities are growing fast and so is the
everyday insecurity of their residents in all
walks of life. The needier sections of the
population are afflicted by job insecurity,
ill health, anxieties about their children's
future, domestic violence and the danger
of sliding into absolute poverty. The slums
and illegal settlements on the outskirts
lack electricity, water, sewage systems
and basic social services. The social
security facilities cannot be built fast
enough to keep pace with the speed of
urban growth. Fatalism, conflicts, violence
and crime are on the increase. Those who
can, afford to live in fortified enclaves
and pay for their own security them-
selves, because it hardly exists any more
as a public good. Municipalities seeking
to cope with the myriad of insecurity
factors cannot manage without integrated
approaches.
Thanks to their experience in various
disciplines, Technical Cooperation per-
sonnel can contribute towards making life
safer in the large cities. TC has a versatile
portfolio. In the view of GTZ advisers,
the sustainable promotion of a culture of
human security means taking the physi-
cal, psychosocial and socio-economic
dimensions into account.
A culture of human dignity
The international goal, then, is to create
political, social, ecological, economic, se-
curity and cultural systems that together
form the basis for survival and a liveli-
hood in dignity. Approaches to making
life less unpredictable and insecure must
therefore address both security forces
in a city and access to basic social ser-
vices, for instance education and health
19:30 Uhr Seite 14
care. Basic security guards against city-
dwellers succumbing to desperation.
Maximum attention must be given to im-
proving the situation of the most vulnera-
ble sections of the population. This is the
only way to ensure sustainable security
for all city-dwellers.
Security is also unthinkable without
liberty. The urge to be free of fear is as
real as the desire to be free from priva-
tion. Another important facet of security
is the freedom to stand up for one’s own
interests. So a feeling of security can
only thrive in a city when participation
and empowerment are accorded their
due place in public life. People must be
enabled to uphold their interests in social
conflicts and take part in decisions. This
is why GTZ promotes democratic institu-
tions to involve urban citizens in munici-
pal processes.
Integrated approaches
GTZ teams promote integrated and inter-
disciplinary approaches applying the
principle of participation in many bilateral
development projects worldwide. Devel-
opment experts in South Africa combine
conflict management in urban centres
with youth promotion. As community
peace workers, young unemployed men
and women cooperate with the police to
curb violence in the townships. An inte-
gral component of this project is promot-
ing training and employment to improve
the job prospects of the community
peace workers. This has a dual effect:
more security and social stability in low-
income districts.
The keystone in Mozambique was
basic security. GTZ advised its partners
on setting up a social welfare system
for poor households whose employment
prospects were so bleak as to threaten
their survival. As part of a World Bank
project, the development organization
explored the proposition that regular cash
payments to poor households could
make a decisive, broad and sustainable
contribution to poverty reduction.
Disaster risk management is the cen-
tral security concern in Indonesia. With
a programme for decentralization and im-
proving urban services, GTZ contributes
to enabling the municipalities to cope
with extreme natural disasters on their
own in future. The findings of a risk
analysis are discussed with all decision-
makers at local level. GTZ helps the local
authorities to integrate aspects of disaster
risk management into development plan-
ning. Risk maps contribute to protecting
people through appropriate regional
planning and preventing damage to infra-
structure. This too is an aspect of sus-
tainable security in cities, where earth-
quakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides
and floods usually cause most harm to
poor people.
Prevention is also the maxim in Latin
America and in New Delhi. With support
from GTZ, city and municipal authorities
in four countries of the continent of South
America are drawing up their own local
security agendas. For two years now, a
multisectoral round table in New Delhi
has been working on integrated addiction
prevention. In the New Delhi City Action
Plan on Drugs, city policymakers have
now developed a strategy to give particu-
larly underprivileged poor sections of the
population more protection and security.
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
In the face of the many different urban
problems, GTZ’s contribution may seem
modest. Nevertheless, these projects and
programme components represent good
practices for dealing with the problem
of insecurity in cities. They provide proto-
type solutions which are then available
for broader application.
Workshop 4
City worth living in –
security and rights for all
“Security means everything in people’s
conditions of life that enables them to
make use of the goods and services of
a city.” This is how Peter Herrle, Head of
the Habitat Unit at the Technical Univer-
sity Berlin, summed up the core theme
of the Eschborn Dialogue 2005 workshop
‘City worth living in – security and rights
for all’. As the workshop revealed, secu-
rity as a development factor cannot be
viewed on its own, but only as part of the
total process of reshaping social relations.
Klemens Hubert, Jörg Calließ, Moderator
GTZ South Africa Evang. Akademie Loccum
The quality of the district and the
work situation affected security as much
as access to basic services did, said GTZ
staff member Rüdiger Krech in his wel-
coming address to the workshop partici-
pants. Chairperson Jörg Calliess added
at the opening: “The lack of prospects
and basic social security leads to social
disparities, poverty and crime.” In the
opinion of the sociologist, architect and
urban planner Peter Herrle, urban security
is based on three interconnected security
pillars: resilient core communities, a legiti-
19:30 Uhr Seite 15
15
mate monopoly over the use of force, and health promotion in the city of Hamburg.
a working civil society. Combining these Municipalities worldwide could learn
is the paramount concern of urban secu- from the network initiated by WHO in the
rity. This in turn presupposes the social mid-eighties, as Klemens Hubert, GTZ
participation of marginalized sections of Country Director South Africa explained
the population – as a legal right. Equal with reference to the peace and develop-
rights exist formally in many countries but ment projects in the townships of Preto-
many people lack access to them. ria. In cooperation with the police, groups
In his paper on social risk manage- of young peace workers prevent conflicts
ment, Ronald Wiman showed that mental and arbitrate in disputes. Dovetailed with
needs are very high up in the pyramid social security, housing construction and
of human needs. As the Deputy Director health, this community policing approach
of the Health and Social Services Depart- could definitely be applied in other
ment in STAKES and adviser to the cities as well, because to be successful,
Finnish Foreign Office observed: “People security projects must always be social
do not live to eat, they eat to live.” The projects, as the workshop established.
idea behind modern social security was
not charity, but empowerment. Managing
social risks called for participation, but
above all a vision of a society and a city
that was there for everyone. This scenario
also included disaster risk management.
“Disasters usually strike cities harder than
rural regions,” said Thomas Loster, Man-
aging Director of the Munich Re Founda-
tion. GTZ could use the knowledge of the
insurance sector in public-private partner-
ships to conduct risk analyses and iden-
Ronald Wiman, Klaus-Peter Stender, Peter Herrle,
Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Healthy Cities Network TU Berlin
tify the hot spots in the cities. Strategic
dialogue amongst politicians, the private
sector, civil society and city authorities
was still far too rare.
Feeling safe
In addition to the two expert speakers,
two interviews conducted by chairperson
Jörg Calliess provided food for thought
in the workshop. In one interview, Klaus-
Peter Stender, the Coordinator of the
German Healthy Cities Network, ex-
plained the security factor in municipal
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
16
Governance
by rules
The problems in cities are as
multifarious as urban life itself.
Many politicians and citizens
still need to learn how to apply
the yardsticks of good urban
governance to developing their
municipalities. This is not just
about good will; it is also about
power and how to use it.
A new era has dawned in many city and
municipal halls in our partner countries.
Greater democracy, political pluralism and
deregulation call for a new notion of gov-
ernance and administration at local level.
Local decision-makers need to learn good
urban governance. To apply these princi-
ples, though, cities, business and industry
and citizens must often familiarize them-
selves with their new roles. GTZ supports
municipalities in this difficult process.
In the last 15 years, cities in the transi-
tion and developing countries have ac-
quired increasing powers to run their own
affairs in an economical, efficient, trans-
parent, accountable and participatory way.
Many governments have delegated politi-
cal decision-making powers and allocated
financial resources from the national to
the local and regional level and introduced
institutional reforms, new laws and new
forms of participation. New social and
civic movements have gained a voice,
women's associations, and environmental
and human rights groups, for example.
To be able to provide the services formerly
rendered by the public sector, there is a
general search for new ways to involve the
private sector and civil society. Many cities
are engaged in global competition for in-
vestors and highly qualified personnel. At
the same time, cities are having to cooper-
ate more closely and build up networks
worldwide to be able to cope with their
pressing problems: economic ties are being
severed, the social fabric is breaking down,
broad strata are excluded from social and
political participation, there is mounting
insecurity and crime is on the rise.
To keep cities manageable and worth
living in under these difficult conditions,
19:30 Uhr Seite 16
those responsible in cities and munici-
palities must learn to steer developments,
reconcile divergent interests and settle
conflicts. This is not just about good will;
it is also about power and how to use it.
Many stakeholders are vying to gain
advantages and influence in the urban
development arena, established organi-
zations, informal institutions or loose
alliances in politics, administration, civil
society and industry. Government authori-
ties, societies, associations, NGOs, enter-
prises, trade unions and religious groups
pursue specific interests, stand in different
power relations to each other, and want
to have a say in decisions on allocating
resources. All these, however, must play
a part in the political consensus and take
on responsibility for their municipalities at
the same time. Their participation can mo-
bilize additional resources, provided that
knowledge, finances and competencies
are activated and harnessed for a purpose.
Urban governance also means reor-
ganizing the way services are provided
to citizens. The redevelopment of informal
settlements, municipal services in water,
energy, wastes and security, and partici-
patory development planning, land
management, integrated environmental
management and local economic devel-
opment will only work in the long run if
they are institutionalized. City authorities
and administrations are not the only ones
that have to enhance their capacities.
Administrative bodies, residents' associa-
tions, committees and operator organiza-
tions also need to take on responsibility
and prepare to perform new tasks, be-
cause their capabilities are crucial to
finding lasting solutions to the problems.
Political management
GTZ provides advisory services for indi-
vidual fields of activity in municipal and
urban development and also for general
policy management. Its experts assist
local politicians, administrative personnel
and municipal associations in drafting
policy guidelines for development in and
around cities, modernizing administration
and raising their efficiency and trans-
parency. They motivate urban stakehold-
ers to cooperate, to broker processes of
consensus and civic participation, to help
in finding constructive ways of settling
conflicts of interest and to promote new
forms of public-private partnerships.
Good urban governance in the field,
however, can only reach its full potential
if competencies in the municipalities
are demarcated and sufficient financial
resources are made available. All this
must be organized at national level, with
a democratic, decentralized government
apparatus, a fair tax system, dependable
legal provisions and professional and
adequately paid public servants. GTZ
provides advice for this as well.
A hallmark of cities is the concen-
tration of power and decision-making
authority, which stretches even beyond
city boundaries. The impetus for nation-
wide reforms often comes from the
cities. Good urban governance cannot
be practised in one city alone, so cities
are catalysts of social change. GTZ
therefore sees urban governance as a
contribution to political and social reform
and as a path to democracy.
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
Workshop 5
Urban governance – how
do cities stay manageable?
Entitled ‘Urban governance,’ this EFTA
workshop addressed a theme with many
different facets. That is why Bernd Hoff-
mann, GTZ Director for Governance and
Democracy, was looking for a definition
at the start. The transparent interaction
of government, business and industry
and civil society – coupled with integrity,
efficiency and the responsible exercise
of power – is the mix his guest experts
thought defined good urban governance.
A key paper, two panels and numerous
contributions from the plenum closed in
on each facet through the lens of Devel-
opment Cooperation.
“Major developments are already tak-
ing place at the local level,” said Marga
Pröhl, Head of the Directorate General
for Administrative Modernization at the
Federal German Ministry of the Interior,
in her opening paper, and posed the
question of what nation states can do at
all for urban development. Modernizing
individual administrations was not
enough to do justice to the role of the
cities. All municipal stakeholders needed
to interact to achieve sustainable urban
development, she said, and outlined a
management scenario for good local gov-
ernance (GLG). A very lively discussion
then ensued on how to initiate and pro-
mote GLG.
Local dialogues
“Can urban development be effectively
linked with national poverty reduction
strategies?” was one of the questions
Hans Dembowski, Hela Hinrichs,
Chief Editor of D+C Jones Lang LaSalle
19:30 Uhr Seite 17
17
chairperson Bernd Hoffmann then posed bowski, Chief Editor of the magazine
to Sheela Patel. In her answer, the NGO Development and Cooperation (D+C),
representative and member of the Policy concentrated on access to information
Advisory Board at Cities Alliance pin- and agreed with the workshop's con-
pointed the deficits. “Consultants from clusion that Development Cooperation
the North usually lack the urban focus can contribute to establishing local
for poverty reduction”, she said, based responsibility and a municipal consensus
on her experience as a member of the by promoting dialogue amongst all urban
NGO SPARC for social justice in Mumbai, stakeholders at a horizontal and vertical
India. Development cooperation could level.
help NGOs to enter into dialogue with
urban authorities and bring people into
contact with public agencies and politi-
cians. GTZ staff member Hans Christian
Voigt stressed the importance of knowl-
edge exchange and described the role
of urban governance in Africa. The GTZ
saw its job as liaising between municipal
office-holders and those without power.
There was clear agreement in South
Africa on the need for government to in-
volve civil society, according to GTZ staff
Francois-Nestor Menguélé, Hans-Christian Voigt,
member François Menguélé, referring
GTZ staff member in South GTZ staff member in Cairo
to the South African government pro- Africa
gramme ‘Urban Renewal’. GTZ consult-
ants helped to develop overarching
strategies for urban development. Men-
guélé: “National strategies must be given
a local face.”
For Hela Hinrichs, a representative
of the multinational real estate company
Jones Lang LaSalle, integrity, efficiency
and transparency were the criteria for
measuring sustainable urban manage-
ment. In her view one of the best places
to find so-called winning cities was in
China. Cities in this country had their
own budgetary powers, sought out pri-
vate development partners and mobilized
private capital for urban development,
she said. Investors should be able to
co-shape the profile of a city. Hans Dem-
Marga Pröhl, Deputy Director General
German Federal Ministry of the Interior
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
18
Urban
ecomodels
Urban centres often pollute
the environment badly and
overexploit resources. More
and more metropolises are
doing something about this by
applying the ecocity principle.
GTZ process advisers are
helping them. The prototypes
will then be transferred to
other regions.
A city is an organism and, like any living
creature, it cannot survive without a
metabolism. In many places, though, this
process is veering off-balance. Unbridled
growth, air pollution, waste heaps, traffic
gridlock, slums and lack of access to
the services of an urban infrastructure
are all symptoms indicating that the ‘city
organism’ is seriously ill in many places.
The treatment for cities and their resi-
dents is socially, economically and eco-
logically balanced and efficiently organ-
ized urbanization. The ecocity strategy
supports efforts for ecological and sus-
tainable urban development.
To be able to carry the prefix ‘eco’,
a city must improve the conditions of life
for its residents – particularly the poor –
and protect the environment. Waste is
controlled, and transport and air pollution
is reduced with an ecological mobility
scheme. The enterprises in the ecological
model city must use technologies that
protect the environment and conserve
natural resources. Ecocities also have
a political component: the residents
are involved in urban development, the
surrounding countryside is included and
land use is planned.
19:30 Uhr Seite 18
Small and big solutions
GTZ advisers in urban ecology want to
keep the metabolism between cities and
their environments healthy in the long
term and make the cities worth living in.
Their integrated approaches in urban
development work on both a small scale
and a large scale. Technical Cooperation
promotes sustainable land use, infra-
structure planning and management,
and the organization of environmental
processes. Along with solid waste dis-
posal, air-pollution control and transport,
this also includes the energy and water
supply, sewage disposal, water pollution
control, energy-saving building methods
and municipal trade supervision. GTZ of-
fers concepts, implementation strategies,
methods and instruments for the whole
city and its sectors that also meet ecocity
standards. The development agency's
integrated municipal environmental
management comprises environmental
information systems, environmental moni-
toring and ‘ecobudgeting’. GTZ advice
in ecological construction and housing
takes account of building materials and
technologies, supply systems and user
behaviour.
Another important item in the Techni-
cal Cooperation portfolio is the interaction
between municipal and industrial environ-
mental management. Development ex-
perts can draw on extensive experience
in managing industrial estates. They
support their partners in installing supply
and disposal systems, using resources
efficiently, reducing emissions and im-
proving accident management. The urban
authorities and administrations benefit
from GTZ's experience in building func-
tional infrastructure and learn how to
provide the related municipal services to
all sections of the population in keeping
with their economic, ecological and social
responsibility.
Policy and legal provisions as well as
the institutional and regulatory framework
also play an important role in the ecocity
approach. Based on them, GTZ advisers
apply their management instruments,
provide technical advice for appropriate
technologies and strengthen operational
competency. Technical Cooperation at-
taches great importance to enlisting the
support of the private sector for ecocity
objectives, animating citizens to con-
tribute to their city's future and initiating
cooperation with the private sector, with
chambers, associations, educational
establishments and NGOs. Including the
informal sector is a strategic factor in
urban development.
China’s experience
The ecocity approach has now taken
practical shape in two-million-strong
cities in the East Chinese coastal
province of Jinagsu: Yangzhou and
Changzhou. On the way to becoming
ecocities, both metropolises want to
reduce environmental pollution, introduce
better environmental management and
cater more for ecological concerns in
their municipal development plans. On
behalf of BMZ, GTZ advisers support
these cities' efforts and those of the
Chinese Ministry of the Environment
in implementing a suitable programme.
The project teams work directly in the
municipal authorities.
One of their tasks is to find ways to
modernize building structure in line with
environmental standards to preserve the
organic social fabric. With its one million
inhabitants, Yangzhou has taken a differ-
ent path from many other booming cities
in China, where entire historic districts
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005 19:30 Uhr Seite 19

19

have been ruthlessly demolished. It is
national policy to observe old architectural
styles and standards but shopping cen-
tres and gigantic tower flats are sprouting
up everywhere. Yangzhou was, in con-
trast, one of the first cities in China to
draw up a plan with scientists for the
ecocity scheme drafted by the national
environment authority at the end of the
nineties. Within three years, the public
parks had already expanded by around
two-thirds to cover an area equivalent to
about 750 football fields. Production is
becoming cleaner all the time. Enterprises
subscribe to the precepts of corporate
environmental management.
The prototypes developed by the
ecocity projects will then be transferred
to other regions.
footprints. So Khosla's idea of the future
city turned out to have lot in common
with the way Konrad Otto-Zimmermann
sees the ecocity. “It is not a high-tech
idea, it is an ecosystem,” said the Secre-
tary General of Local Governments for
Sustainability in Canada. In conversation
with chairperson Stephan Paulus, both
experts then discussed the ecobudget
approach. Pilot projects in India and in
the Philippines had already applied this
method, which turned mayors and man-
agers into custodians of natural resources
and kept a permanent eye on the environ-
ment. The ecobudget module could be
tailored to the needs of any developing
country, Zimmermann said.
on a refuse dump in Cuernavaca Mexico
left a vivid impression.
“Promoting and exchanging experi-
ence and knowledge of the ecocity idea
and showing the world how it works.”
This is how the Brazilian GTZ staff mem-
ber Francisco Alarcón summarized the
tasks of Development Cooperation for
ecocities. To be successful, this process
required measures to build the confidence
of stakeholders, transparency and the
resolve to put the idea into practice. All
the experts agreed: “It's all about govern-
ance, about putting people in charge.”

Workshop 6
Ecocities –
the places of the future?
Bogotá before and after. The presentation
showed how it had changed: the ecocity.
In Bogotá, public places have been
replanned for the benefit of residents,
pedestrians, children and public transport
passengers, but the ecocity is not just
a single idea, it embraces many visions
which share outcomes, as Ulrike Weiland
from the University of Leipzig pointed out,
providing a lucid definition of the kind of
city the EFTA workshop, Ecocities – the
places of the future, envisaged.
The specialist discussion did not look
like agreeing on a common definition at
first, however. What Ashok Khosla from
India had to say about tomorrow's cities
sounded more like a plea for the country.
Citing the billion people living in slums,
the President of the New Delhi NGO,
Development Alternatives, advocated
reversing rural-urban migration. Planning
for the future meant developing the
hinterland of the cities. A possible city
of the future could be a conglomerate
of settlements linked by transport routes.
Khosla called this development ‘trans-
forming villages into a social city’. Two
major steps in this direction were plan-
ning in advance and changing ecological
Stephan Paulus, Konrad Otto-Zimmermann, Rusong Wang, Chinese Ashok Khosla,
GTZ Deputy Director, Environment Academy of Sciences
Secretary-General ICLEI Development Alternatives
and Infrastructure
Practical approaches
Ecocities in this sense did not yet exist in
the PR China, said Rusong Wang of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences. The head
of the Chinese think tank described his
homeland as a country where the econ-
omy is the predominating driving force.
“This is why we must make special efforts
to promote environmental protection,”
he argued. Only the megacities Yangzhou
and Changzhou wanted to develop as
ecocities. Traffic planner Karin Rossmark,
GTZ staff member Detlev Ullrich and
Raghu Babu of the GTZ-ASEM project
presented three more ecocity approaches
promoted by Technical Cooperation in the
workshop: traffic abatement in the his-
toric city of Sibiu in Romania, sustainable
urban development in Brazil by recycling
unused areas and the ecocity programme
in India. A video showing Brazilian chil-
dren talking about their dream city of the
future and a photo exhibition about life
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
20
Transfer
between city
and hinterland
The trend is towards the city,
but this does not mean severing
ties with the country. People
depend on each other on both
sides. The urban-rural connection
is of mutual benefit. GTZ applies
translocal and multisectoral
strategies for this.
The connection between town and
country is very important at a time when
almost half of the world’s population
already lives in cities and towns. A good
connection is useful for both sides, for
the urban and for the rural population.
Municipal decision-makers have recog-
nized that the urban periphery is inter-
secting more with the centre. Poor house-
holds in particular earn a livelihood by
commuting. Policymakers must secure
their diverse livelihoods. Poor people's
mobility and willingness to migrate should
bring them more advantages than disad-
vantages. To support the municipalities,
Development Cooperation must not di-
vorce urban from rural sectoral strategies.
There are many ways for Technical
Cooperation to support urban-rural
interaction. GTZ promotes infrastructure,
strengthens institutions and service
providers and secures the transfer of
resources. Development experts also
help to cement the social fabric and
advise on developing and extending
shared capacity.
Urban infrastructure depends on rural
resources, particularly for water supply
and settlement areas. Conversely, rural
infrastructure development benefits from
the electricity generated in cities and
towns, from the markets and transport
facilities. Institutions are very important
for expediting development activities.
If they are planned separately for urban
and rural areas, there is a danger of them
hindering each other’s policies. Services,
particularly modern ones, often start
developing in urban regions. Most service
companies, banks for example, soon
19:30 Uhr Seite 20
expand into rural areas to increase
business.
The urban and rural populations
also support each other via markets and
other exchange relations, ranging from
seasonal workers to goods and services.
Improved income opportunities through
urban growth result in remittances to
relatives in the country. This raises the
standard of living of the population in
rural areas, which serve as social and
ecological refuges, especially in times of
economic hardship. The transfer of funds
is also an indication of where newcomers
to the city see their social and cultural
home and of their desire to retain their
social and family ties in the country.
Development Cooperation contributes
to organizing these interrelations so as
to promote development.
Shared basic needs
The main good, however, that connects
urban and rural areas is food. Low-in-
come households spend a major part of
their income on food, but how can food
prices be kept low for city dwellers with-
out detriment to the livelihoods of rural
producers? A strategic element that ben-
efits both sides is improving access to
the urban food markets. A more effective
linkage between urban food demand and
production in the surrounding countryside
improves the incomes of the farmers and
affords poor people in urban centres an
opportunity to find work processing and
trading locally produced food.
One factor disrupting the continuous
flow between town and country lies in
the changing preferences of urban con-
sumers over time. Globalized markets
underpin this trend. Supermarkets put
rural producers at a disadvantage. Be-
cause smallholders cannot meet the strict
quality standards for food, goods are
imported, which in turn breaks the tradi-
tional links between town and country.
This is why GTZ supports input suppliers,
traders, processors and exporters in
complying with the new quality standards
on national and international markets.
Stable local supply chains restore the
broken urban-rural link.
Development strategies must also
account for the international deregulation
of trade and new production locations
that are redefining urban-rural relations
in some regions. That is why integrating
local development strategies in national
planning is so important. The interventions
must be tailored to local requirements.
Both geographical and sectoral devel-
opment strategies must fit. Synergies
between urban enterprises and rural
producers are key for speeding up local
economic development and poverty
reduction. These local economic devel-
opment strategies are gaining increasing
acceptance amongst decision-makers.
The successful implementation of
programmes depends on a careful analy-
sis of the strengths and weaknesses of
the locality and the actors. A suitable
instrument for this is the analytical frame-
work, Rural and Economic Enterprise
Development (REED) developed by GTZ
with other development institutions. It is
the culmination of 20 years of experience
from a large number of projects in sectoral
and regional development strategies.
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
Workshop 7
Town and country –
connections create benefits
What is urban? What is rural? Those who
came to the workshop ‘Town and country
– connections create benefits’ with a
pretty clear idea about this soon learnt
that ‘rural’ is impossible to define exactly.
The closest we can get, according to
Peter Conze, GTZ Director General for
Africa, in his opening speech, is that in
rural areas settlements and infrastructure
take up a small area and fields, meadows,
woods, water, mountains and deserts
predominate. Where do such distinctions
get us, though, considering the many hy-
brid forms of urban and rural? The answer
given by James Garrett, an expert from
the International Food Policy Research
Institute, was: “A strict separation makes
no sense, if employment and social ties
in the whole area shape the lives of the
people in it.”
In his opinion, a systemic look at the
livelihoods system told us far more about
how things developed. In Mozambique
for example, half of the urban activities
had a bearing on agriculture. The corol-
lary was that “Sustainable development
James Garrett Heino von Bassewitz,
IFPRI Manager of Biopark
in urban areas depends on the connec-
tion with rural areas.” Relations of ex-
change therefore need to be promoted.
Heino von Bassewitz thought that devel-
oping marketing chains for farm products
also afforded development opportunities
for both regions. Now that guaranteed
prices and purchasing systems through
government regulation had been rolled
back, producers would have to be able
19:30 Uhr Seite 21
21
to meet the various needs of urban con-
sumers, said the manager of Biopark,
one of the leading suppliers of eco-certi-
fied food in Germany. A suitable instru-
ment for promoting regional economic
ties based on locally produced products
was the value-added chain approach.
Balancing interests
Gladys Maingi, the representative of the
Stefan Helming, GTZ Deputy Peter Conze, GTZ Director
Ministry of Agriculture in Kenya, explained
Director Planning and Development General Africa
what must be done so that urban and
rural areas both benefit. An example of
diverging interests that she cited was that in infrastructure, health and education
urban consumers were looking for quality were land reforms and better access to
at a reasonable price and producers technologies and research.
wanted an adequate income. Farmers At the end, the workshop agreed
should be able to serve the market under that GTZ must promote strategies for a
reliable conditions. The influence of car- balanced development of urban and rural
tels at the wholesale level was harmful areas. Moreover, Gerd Fleischer from GTZ
to competition. Small producers should Agriculture, Fisheries and Food called for
organize and train themselves to be able future approaches that surmount sectoral
to cope with the logistics of urban markets divisions to be able to respond to new
and meet quality standards. Gerhard Mai ways of life in the urban-rural continuum.
then pinpointed an impediment for joint
urban and regional planning. “Urban
planners care mainly about infrastructure
and neglect economic relations. Rural
area planners, in contrast, often ignore
urban markets,” was the GTZ policy
adviser’s criticism. He then gave an
Gladys Maingi,
Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture
account of how things could be done
differently, as in Ethiopia. “The poor need
to be supported in putting their produc-
tive resources to use on the market
instead of letting them go to waste,” said
Stefan Helming, GTZ Director General
for Planning and Development. National
development strategies ought not to treat
rural areas as a ‘leftover’ in the equation.
What was needed besides investments
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
22
Efficient cities
for people
The German political foundations
make an important contribution
to municipal development in the
developing countries. In coopera-
tion with their partners, they
strengthen decentralized capacity
and promote participation, trans-
parency and performance at local
level.
The global advance of democracy and
human rights has taught a growing num-
ber of citizens that they stake two claims
on local government: as decision-makers,
through elections, and as a client, be-
cause municipalities are also service
providers. The more people in developing
countries realize this, the more it will also
become apparent to them how unwieldy,
inefficient and corrupt their decades-old
administrative apparatus is. These local
governments discredit themselves and
forfeit their authority, but even administra-
tions with high operational efficiency will
fail if they ignore democratic rules. This
is why the German political foundations
take a dual approach: they promote de-
centralized and efficient municipal capac-
ities and contribute to strengthening par-
ticipation and transparency at local level.
Only a municipal authority that is
responsive to the interests of its citizens
will find broad support in the population
and will be able to advance sustainable
municipal development. With democratic
instruments, politicians must guarantee
that interests can be articulated and pri-
orities set in the competition of interests
between municipalities and higher-level
power centres as well as within the local
community. Civic participation and trans-
parency in administrative decision-mak-
ing are the key to a thriving community.
There are good examples in inter-
national Development Cooperation of
approaches that can transform traditional
authorities into democratically controlled,
efficient and effective institutions whose
activities meet the needs of citizens. A
major element in international municipal
development programmes is the involve-
19:30 Uhr Seite 22
ment of all stakeholders in the decision-
making process: civic associations with
initiative and ideas as well as municipal
administrations and political representa-
tives that must be convinced of the need
to implement constructive suggestions.
There is a tradition of distrust between
the two sides of the negotiating table. To
ease this deadlock, administrative bodies
must be brought into projects early on.
New forms of participation can awaken
the interest of citizens in the community
and keep them interested.
The power of argument
The German political foundations have
been effectively promoting these kinds of
developments for years. With the power
of argument, they give direction in coop-
eration with parties, parliaments and civil
organizations and shape the attitudes of
decision-makers by arranging transfer of
experience, providing clear guidance with
best practices, and promoting worldwide
networks.
The rationale for this work is based
on the unsatisfactory outcomes or even
failure of many development approaches
due to sole cooperation with central
government agencies. It became increas-
ingly clear by contrast how successful
the municipal level can be in performing
the role of development promoter if it is
entrusted with managing its own affairs
thanks to a greater responsiveness to
citizens' needs, provided the subsidiarity
principle is always observed. The foun-
dation for this is an avowed commitment
to a democratic order that entails both
respect for human rights and greater
opportunities for civic participation.
The political foundations always look
to two objectives: the decision-making
powers, the resources and the adminis-
trative competencies need to be dele-
gated from central government to local
municipal self-governance, and they also
seek to improve political capacities and
processes and administrative efficiency
at municipal level. Both are important,
because success in one strengthens the
other.
Thanks to their presence in the partner
countries, the political foundations can
give direct project support and gear this
to the target group. The capacities in the
assignment country make sure that the
partners as initiators of the projects are
also the beneficiaries. Cooperation with
NGOs has proved to be a particularly
successful alternative to cooperation with
government organizations. This also ap-
plies to administrative assistance, where
NGOs act as research, advisory, and/or
training agencies for public administration.
Direct cooperation with state institutions
is, however, still essential to achieve long-
term success.
There are plenty of examples of
successful project work in these fields
of activity. The aim of improving the
technical and administrative efficiency
of municipalities is always to promote the
political institutions and their effective
interaction and to advance the basic prin-
ciples of freedom, solidarity and justice.
This process must also bring about a
lasting improvement in the effectiveness
of municipal operations, which is why
practical municipal services are always
the object of the political foundations’
support for decentralization and munici-
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
pal development. Taken together, partici-
pation, transparency and practical out-
comes are ultimately what give municipal
players their legitimacy.
Workshop 8
Bringing the city close to
the people – through partici-
pation and transparency
“With the power of argument, political
foundations have in cooperation with
parties, parliaments and civic organiza-
tions helped to give municipal develop-
ment direction by raising the awareness of
municipal decision-makers and assisting
in global networking.” This was Gerhard
Wahlers’ positive assessment of coopera-
tion with administrative authorities and
civil society organizations in partner coun-
tries at the start of the Eschborn Dialogue
2005 foundations workshop ‘Bringing the
city close to the people – through partici-
pation and transparency’. Thanks to their
greater responsiveness to citizens’ con-
cerns and their autonomy, the municipali-
ties and NGOs often proved to be better
development promoters than central
government agencies, was the view of
the Head of the International Cooperation
Department at the Konrad Adenauer
Foundation. Direct cooperation with state
institutions was, however, still essential
to achieve long-term success.
Foundations and projects
Field staff of the political foundations and
local partners presented selected projects
at the workshop.
Orlando dos Santos Junior, Andrés Peňaleza Mendez,
FASE Brasilien Controlaría Cuidadana, Mexico
19:30 Uhr Seite 23
23
• The Friedrich Ebert Foundation’s
project, Decentralization and Municipal
Self-governance, in Southeast Europe
targets building local self-governance
capacity, getting the necessary legal pro-
visions adopted and setting up a regional
network in the long term. Regional know-
how transfer supports reforms towards
decentralization. Case-study analyses
from the region provide approaches for
Nitai Mehta, Wolfgang Mayer,
local initiatives.
Praja Foundation, Mumbai Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung Ägypten
• The Citizens Charter project run by the
Friedrich Naumann Foundation supports
NGOs in India in stipulating transparency country's ministry of the interior and the
and civic participation as provisions in Rhein-Sieg District authority in Germany,
contractual agreements. between citizens schemes have been developed in the
and local authorities. An online-assisted provincial cities Battambang and Siem
control system will provide information in Reap for decentralizing administrative
future on how the administration handles units. Legal provisions have been adopted
the complaints it receives. A citizens ma- for new local administration bodies. Sec-
nual explains how the local administration toral ministries have delegated powers.
operates. • Finally, in its project Democratic Go-
• The Heinrich Böll Foundation sponsors vernance and Local Development, the
the project, Controlaría Ciudadana, in Rosa Luxemburg Foundation supports
Mexico City to combat corruption and decentralization and more civic partici-
make the allocations of public funds pation in Rio, Belo Horizonte, Belén and
transparent. The revised local constitution Recife. Its Brazilian partner advises and
confers on citizens acting in an honorary upgrades legally established local coun-
capacity the right to scrutinize the muni- cils to be able to exert greater influence
cipal authority’s invitations to tender, on the decisions taken by local govern-
expenditure procedures and accounting. ment committees.
• In its INFOREG project in Egypt, the
Hanns Seidel Foundation in Egypt con- The project presentation at the workshop
centrates on raising the efficiency of local showed how the diverse international
and regional authorities and involving work of the political foundations comple-
citizens more in regional policy decisions. ments official German development as-
One focus is on qualifying the regional sistance.
administration in housing construction
and in urban planning and development.
• In its urban reform project in Cambodia,
the Konrad Adenauer Foundation supports
nationwide decentralization. With the
Adelheid Feilcke-Tiemann,
Deutsche Welle Bonn
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
24
The world
as city
by Günter Meinert and Angelika Hutter
In 25 years’ time, two-thirds
of the world’s population will
be living in towns. Growing
urban populations place
heavier demands on city
managers. They will have to
make economic reforms, pro-
vide basic services, integrate
a multicultural population
and curb the consumption of
natural resources. GTZ policy
advice contributes to good
urban governance.
Günter Meinert Angelika Hutter
19:30 Uhr Seite 24
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan coined
the term Urban Millennium, and for good
reason. The urban population is rising
by 180,000 a day and the stresses on
urban politicians and administrations are
enormous, but political and administrative
management capabilities are not keeping
up with the rapid pace of urban growth.
Conflicts are on the rise and traditional
institutions and values are being eroded.
Due to chronic governance deficits,
many cities particularly in the developing
countries, already face insoluble prob-
lems.
Nevertheless, the city still fascinates
people. Rural exodus will continue simply
due to the enormous appeal of urban life
and not just because of the better eco-
nomic opportunities in cities. The balance
of opportunities and dangers of life in
tomorrow’s cities will depend heavily on
two factors: one, the number of people
who can take advantage of the opportu-
nities and two the successful negotiation
of and adherence to viable rules for
the difficult coexistence of very diverse
social, cultural and ethnic groups. The
success or failure of these efforts will
have an effect beyond local precincts.
Cities are forging closer national and
international links all the time, people are
changing their places of work, exchang-
ing experience and are informing them-
selves through the media. What happens
in one city has an effect on others, even
more so in future.
City-dwellers get to know directly
what democracy means, and they de-
mand it too. Added to this is the growing
political role of cities in decentralization
and democratization. Both processes
delegate considerable decision-making
powers and funds for public expenditure
from the national level to towns and
municipalities. So the urban community,
the polis, is not the just the etymological
origin of politics. Large or small, munici-
palities in many countries are coming to
be a new power factor, wielding influence
on national policy. This influence is ex-
erted, for example, through city alliances
or influential mayors, who often enough
rise to the rank of minister or even prime
minister. There is an increasing aware-
ness of the role of urban centres in
development and it is also shaping the
agendas of international organizations,
as attested by the recent foundation of
the international association United Cities
and Local Governments, and the theme
of the 2010 World Exposition in Shanghai,
‘Better City, Better Life’.
Modern ways to cooperate
Looking at this panorama and its many
facets, we ask what Technical Coopera-
tion can contribute to coping with the
immense problems. For about 30 years,
GTZ has been promoting urban develop-
ment, currently in more than 100 projects
with an urban theme. Our development
experts support integrational strategies,
good urban governance and capacity
development and contribute to improving
the framework for these.
Urban development is often con-
cerned with technical aspects, setting up
urban infrastructure, public services and
land registers as well as pro-poor busi-
ness promotion. GTZ here acts as a
knowledge broker. Our personnel can
draw on extensive experience from many
projects and specialist bodies. They put
together a package of expertise for the
case in hand. Sectoral advisory services
help municipal authorities to assess the
economic, social and ecological impacts
of urban development. It often turns out
that integrated approaches are needed to
address several problem complexes at
the same time. Examples of this are pro-
jects in urban redevelopment that provide
assistance in employment and housing,
infrastructure and the protection of
historical monuments in a multisectoral
strategy.
Cities already consume enormous
amounts of natural resources today, as
recent urban management instruments
such as eco-budgeting or the ecological
footprint show. The waste heaps are
mounting, the sewage streams are
swelling, and exhaust and waste gas
concentration is rising. The health of
many millions of city dwellers suffers as
a result and satellite pictures have already
revealed the global consequences – the
pollution of large expanses of ocean. In
Southeast Asia, a brown cloud is looming
over a large expanse of the continent.
As in the past in Europe, the smoking
chimney stacks are clear evidence of
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
economic progress. In many countries,
the cities account for the bulk of the
national product. As innovation centres
and magnets for national and interna-
tional investments they generate the
largest part of economic growth. In Asia,
the cities are responsible for 80 per cent
of economic growth. The impressive sky-
lines of the globalization winners cannot,
however, belie the fact that these efforts
to make good the development backlog
are unfortunately treading the unsustain-
able path taken by the industrialized
countries. Alongside the winners are a
large number of losers – countries, cities
and people unable to hold their own in
the competition. Even in locations with
high economic growth, large parts of
the population benefit little. A growing
number of poor people are forced into the
informal sector where jobs are, however,
declining and the working conditions are
deteriorating.
This race to the bottom is also affect-
ing the cityscape. Districts are becoming
dilapidated, slums and sprawling informal
settlements line the outskirts. In sub-
Saharan Africa, 72 per cent of all town-
dwellers live in slums, almost 900 million
people worldwide. Measured against
this, the Millennium Goal of significantly
improving the conditions of life for 100
million slum-dwellers by 2020 seems
almost modest. Reaching this goal alone
will call for enormous additional efforts
by cities, national governments and the
international community.
Participating in the future
To work, viable solutions require the
cooperation of the many stakeholders.
Citizens must participate in the major
decisions affecting the development of
their city. This is the only way to articulate
concerns and settle conflicts. Participa-
tion leads people to cooperate. Poor
sections of the population in particular
need support to give them a say. Suitable
management methods are needed to
enable private enterprises to render public
services. Municipal authorities have to
give proper account of their decisions
and make their expenditure and outcomes
transparent. Development projects pro-
duce prototypes that bring the principles
and procedures of good governance into
19:30 Uhr Seite 25
25
public discussion and set them on the
political agenda.
Faced with the broad array of urban
problems and the shortage of municipal
funds, the contribution Development
Cooperation can make may appear small,
but a modern cooperation approach does
not aim at working through one set of
problems after another as a way to solve
the whole complex issue of urban devel-
opment. GTZ raises the abilities of the
stakeholders to solve their problems
themselves. Imparting knowledge is only
one aspect. Experiencing projects live
and practising methods of reaching a
goal changes attitudes, views and ways
of working. This applies to people as
much as to organizations that benefit
from GTZ’s methods of organizational
development. New forms of urgently
needed cooperation amongst groups and
organizations also frequently emerge in
the course of a project.
When problems need to be tackled
in new ways, it often becomes apparent
how inadequate and restricted the
statutory framework is. To be able to
establish sustainable project strategies,
GTZ therefore contributes to reforming
government sector policy, devising
development instruments or amending
laws and guidelines. Urban development
projects cooperate with urban associa-
tions and ministries. Based on tried and
tested approaches, sound decision-mak-
ing aids are prepared in a joint procedure.
Extensive consultation processes facili-
tate political consensus and acceptance
for reforms.
The challenge for Technical Coopera-
tion in urban management is to apply just
the right mix of sectoral, organizational
and implementation advice to meet the
specific needs and strengthen the man-
agement capabilities of everyone involved
in urban development. GTZ provides
in-process services for this. Echoing the
theme of the next World Exposition, its
slogan could be: Better Management for
Better Cities.
Günter Meinert is Priority Area Manager for
Sustainable Urban Development
Angelika Hutter is a Planning Officer for Urban
Development
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005
26 GTZ-Profile
Service
provider
for partner
countries
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Tech-
nische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH is
an international cooperation enterprise
for sustainable development with
worldwide operations. It provides viable,
forward-looking solutions for political,
economic, ecological and social devel-
opment in a globalized world. GTZ
promotes complex reforms and change
processes, often working under difficult
conditions. Its corporate goal is sustain-
able improvement in the conditions of
life for people.
Founded in 1975 as a private company,
GTZ is a government corporation
registered in Eschborn near Frankfurt
am Main. It works mainly for the Federal
Ministry for Economic Cooperation and
Development (BMZ), but also on behalf
of other German federal agencies, for the
governments of other countries, for inter-
national clients such as the European
Commission, the United Nations or the
World Bank, and for private enterprises.
GTZ performs its tasks for the public
benefit. All surplus funds are reallocated
solely for our own projects in international
cooperation for sustainable development.
In action worldwide
In over 130 countries in Africa, Asia,
Latin America, in East European transition
states, in the Newly Independent States
and in Germany, the company employs
a workforce of some 9,500. About 1,100
of these are assigned experts, some
7,100 are local field staff, and about
300 specialists are engaged in projects
in Germany. GTZ runs its own offices
in 67 countries. About 1,000 staff work
at the Head Office in Eschborn near
Frankfurt am Main.
19:30 Uhr Seite 26
GTZ can draw on more than 30 years of
experience in international cooperation
for sustainable development. Its specialist
and executive personnel are located
in the partner countries. GTZ operates
nationwide and adapts its procedures
and approaches to the local conditions.
Together with its partners, it drafts plans
and implements measures tailored to the
particular situation. It does this by com-
bining sectoral, regional and management
competencies.
Open for alliances
International cooperation for sustainable
development needs allies. GTZ has a
worldwide network linking it with civic,
economic and cultural partners. It has
always cooperated closely with national
and international organizations in Devel-
opment Cooperation. When appropriate
and economically warranted, it deploys
German and foreign know-how of private
consulting firms, freelance expert consul-
tants and public institutions.
GTZ performs tasks in international co-
operation in adherence to the principle
of sustainable development. We work
to improve the ability of all involved to
take action themselves. We see capacity
development as our core competency,
our key task and our approach. A major
principle is to include all actors and
partners in planning and implementation.
This is how we foster cooperation and
consensus at the same time. We often
liaise between government and civil
society and arbitrate in social conflicts
of interest. We also assist our partners
in drafting and implementing long-term
strategies, laying the joint foundation for
structural reforms and their implemen-
tation. Wherever it makes sense and
wherever we can, we enlist the support
of the private sector in all our services.
For maximum effect, we work at local,
regional, national and international level.
Our activity areas
The many activity areas where GTZ
provides services range from economic
development and employment promotion
to state reform and democracy promo-
tion, from health and basic education
to environmental protection, conservation
of natural resources, agribusiness, fish-
eries, and food and nutrition. In all our
activity areas we contribute to raising the
performance of people and organizations.
Policy advice plays a prominent role in
GTZ's work. In many partner countries,
GTZ supports far-reaching reforms and
the necessary changes in the political,
economic and social framework. Where
acute need threatens survival, GTZ
carries out emergency-aid and refugee
programmes. Here too, though, our ap-
proach is to strengthen people’s ability to
help themselves and to set development
in motion that can sustain itself in the
long run. In recent years, GTZ has
extended its services, for example to
include organizing and holding large
events.
Our broad range of services
GTZ
advises organizations and governments
in performing their tasks and in
developing democratic, rule-of-law
and social and ecological free-market
institutions
renders services in project and financial
management
recruits and prepares experts and
provides backstopping during the field
assignment
takes on tasks in logistics and in
designing, managing and implementing
projects in cooperation and events
management
takes on technical planning and
procurement of equipment for projects
organizes and conducts upgrading
courses
handles non-repayable financial contri-
butions from the Technical Cooperation
budget
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005 19:30 Uhr Seite 27

Contacts

Workshop 1 Workshop 5

The power of cities – Urban governance –

the influence of networking how do cities stay manageable?
Friedegund Mascher Angelika Hutter
Telephone: +49 6196 791657 Telephone: +49 6196 791648
Email: friedegund.mascher@gtz.de Email: angelika.hutter@gtz.de

Workshop 2 Workshop 6

Development without culture – Ecocities –

or culture-driven urban development? the places of the future?
Reinhold Bäuerle Nina Barmeier
Telephone: +49 6196 792325 Telephone: +49 6196 796505
Email: reinhold.baeuerle@gtz.de Email: nina.barmeier@gtz.de

Workshop 3 Workshop 7

Poor rich city – between Town and country –

economic growth and financial crisis connections create benefits
Manfred Horr Gerd Fleischer
Telephone: +49 6196 791242 Telephone: +49 6196 791432
Email: manfred.horr@gtz.de Email: gerd.fleischer@gtz.de

Workshop 4 Workshop 8

City worth living in – Bringing the city close to the people –

security and rights for all through participation and transparency
Rüdiger Krech Andreas Klein
Telephone: +49 6196 791258 Telephone: +49 30 26996466
Email: ruediger.krech@gtz.de Email: andreas.klein@kas.de

You can order the booklets GTZ

Annual Report 2004 and Fact Sheets
“Designing tomorrow’s cities” at:
i-punkt@gtz.de workshop
•RZ_EFTA-Broschüre/e_111005. 11.10.2005 19:30 Uhr Seite 28

2005

30 Jahre GTZ. Partner für Perspektiven. Weltweit. 30 Years GTZ. Partner for the Future. Worldwide. 30 Jahre GTZ. Partner für Perspektiven. Weltweit. 30 Years GTZ. Partner for the Future.

Deutsche Gesellschaft für

Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ ) GmbH

Dag-Hammarskjöld-Weg 1– 5
65726 Eschborn, Germany
Telephone: +49 6196 790
Telefax: +49 6196 79 1115
Email: info@gtz.de
Internet: www.gtz.de