New Urban Agenda in Asia-Pacific: Governance for Sustainable and Inclusive Cities

The Asia-Pacific region houses over half of the world's urban population, and is estimated to reach 50% urbanization mark in 2019. Based on their sustained economic growth, Asian-Pacific cities have played a transformative role in the region, and are on the forefront of economic, social, political, and informational and technological change. However, they are also characterized by widespread urban poverty and inequality, enormous deficiencies in access to shelter and services, and deteriorating quality of the urban environment. The New Urban Agenda (NUA) aims to address the main issues faced by cities and human settlements around the world today, and outlines key principles and commitments towards addressing them. First, this chapter contextualises the NUA vis-a-vis the key sustainable and inclusive urban development issues worldwide. Second, it systematically reviews the idea of governance, and its evolution and theoretical underpinnings since the early 1980s in relation to the changing emphases of overseas development aid. Likewise, it provides insights into the ideas and literature related to governance, decentralization and democratization, and their relevance to cities. Third, the chapter juxtaposes the NUA with the urban realities of the Asia-Pacific region, and reviews three areas of immediate concern: (i) urban governance as an umbrella to respond to urban challenges, (ii) urban planning and policy, and (iii) service delivery and access for social inclusion. In doing so, it highlights the latest tenets of the global urban agenda that are articulated in the NUA, and Sustainable Development Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Finally, by providing a brief introduction to the various chapters, it explains how they are organized in the following three sections of the book: (i) urban planning and policy, (ii) innovations in service delivery and access for social inclusion, and (iii) emerging trends and future trajectories.