| URBAN
SOCIETY
Cities are
the major centres of the struggle for social development
– their concentration of large and diverse populations,
and their attraction of migrants, provide the conditions
for social innovation and changes in social relations that
are key to increasing social welfare for greater numbers;
while at the same time they are the focal points of social
struggles for an increased quality of life and social provision,
and the centres of influence on changing values in wider
societies. Six clusters of innovative policies and practices
contribute, together with their multiple interrelationships,
to the ‘social dimension’ of urban development.
They are:
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This section highlights initiatives promoting social inclusion,
including strategies for ‘people-friendly’ city
services, for child-centred provisions, fully participative
urban regeneration schemes, immigrant absorption programmes,
and citizen education projects.
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The documents gathered in this section illustrate initiatives
sustaining urban livelihoods: including new approaches to
poverty reduction though social mobilisation, new schemes
for directly addressing poverty and vulnerability through
social organisation, and more effective forms of access
to support infrastructures and services.
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This section focuses on gender equality and empowerment.
It includes provisions for the recognition of rights, mothers
and child support schemes; basic service localisation; support
for women in community activist and leadership roles, and
innovative institutional practices mainstreaming gender
equity in access to services and career opportunities.
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This section emphasises actions reducing violence and advancing
human rights: including innovative programmes for protection
against domestic and public violence against women, protection
of street children and child sweated labour, and establishment
of human rights provisions inmunicipal charters and administrative
practices.
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Improving health and education for all includes new forms
of community and informal education programmes, public information
centres, extensions to the coverage of primary education
for marginal groups, health education schemes in schools
and communities, environmental awareness projects, and community-based
sanitation and waste recycling schemes.
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This section, focusing on work accomplished in order to
enhance culture & identity, includes innovative programmes
in cultural heritage, arts and celebrations, conservation
of historic buildings as cultural patrimony, and mobilisation
around cultural practices for generating economic opportunities
and community cohesion.
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