Challenges for sustainable development of cities in Latin America and the Caribbean

The sustainable development of the cities of Latin America and the Caribbean poses important challenges for the urban territorial policies at their local subnational national and regional levels. It requires the convergence in the urban space of the necessity of internalizing the environmental costs (via improvement of the management and governability of the associated systems), assuming and solving social inequities (via improvement of urban habitability and the investement of capitals), and the recognition and approach to economic restrictions related to efficiency (by improving the offer of financing). This work discusses these themes in their social economic and environmental dimensions, applied to the sustainable development of the human settlements in the region, focused both on present limitations and opportunities in this field, as well as on the regional process in terms of political reforms, implementation of programs and the development of projects. It is suggested that there are certain conditions orfactors that systematically fail in the development and implementation of policies aiming at this objective. One of these factors refers to the governability of the system, meaning by this, the characteristics of the relationships between actors (urban management and political will included), and the formal and informal rules of the system. The latter incorporates the institutional and normative frame that governs politics. The other factor refers to the scarcity of development of mechanisms of financing for the sustainable urban development.