The Global Campaign for Good Urban Governance

The development goal of the Global Campaign for Good Urban Governance is to contribute to the eradication of poverty through improved urban governance. The campaign aims to increase the capacity of local governments and other stakeholders to practice good urban governance and to raise awareness of and advocate for good urban governance around the world. The campaign will focus attention on the needs of the excluded urban poor and, recognizing that women are one of the biggest levers for positive change in society, specifically respond to their needs. The campaign will make a significant contribution to implementing the Habitat Agenda and to the United Nations’ action strategy for halving extreme poverty by 2015.

The campaign theme – “inclusiveness” – reflects both the campaign’s vision and strategy. The vision is to realize the “Inclusive City,” a place where everyone, regardless of wealth, gender, age, race or religion, is enabled to participate productively and positively in the opportunities cities have to offer. Inclusive decision-making processes are an essential means to achieve this and are a cornerstone of the campaign. The concept of inclusiveness links the governance campaign to Habitat’s Global Campaign for Secure Tenure.

Based on its own experience working with cities, Habitat proposes to initiate a global debate by arguing that good urban governance is characterized by sustainability, decentralization, equity, efficiency, transparency and accountability, civic engagement and citizenship, and security, and that these norms are interdependent and mutually reinforcing.