The last time the United Nations Human Settlements Program — U.N. Habitat — convened to address the issue of sustainable cities, Detroit, Michigan, was the Silicon Valley of the automotive industry and Shenzhen, China, wasn’t far off from a sleepy coastal fishing town.
Today, 20 years later, the Motor City continues to reel from municipal bankruptcy and Shenzhen is a sprawling megacity of 12 million people that exports roughly 25 million container shipments of industrial goods every year.
Dozens of other examples can illustrate the dramatic growth and expansion that has occurred in cities over the past two decades — changes that, consequently, have given rise to stark economic inequalities, environmental degradation, social injustices and other conditions that are of serious concern to the global development community. For too long, development experts say, cities, particularly in developing countries, have grown in ways that have overlooked basic development needs.
About the author
Naki B. Mendozamfbmendoza
Naki is a former reporter, he covered the intersection of business and international development. Prior to Devex he was a Latin America reporter for Energy Intelligence covering corporate investments and political risks in the region’s energy sector. His previous assignments abroad have posted him throughout Europe, South America, and Australia.
