Improve cities resilience and sustainability through e-government assessment

Abstract

Cities are important hubs of human activity that are gaining in population and increased importance in the global economy. In 2016, close to 4 billion people — 54 per cent of the world’s population — lived in cities. According to the World Bank, in the last 50 years the proportion of population living in cities has increased by 50 per cent, and it is estimated that, by 2050, 6 billion people will be living in cities (66 per cent of the world’s population). In 2014, high levels of urbanisation, at or above 80 per cent, characterised Latin America and the Caribbean and Northern America. Europe, with 73 per cent of its population living in cities, is expected to be over 80 per cent urban by 2050. Africa and Asia, in contrast, remain mostly rural, with 40 per cent and 48 per cent of their respective populations living in urban areas. Over the coming decades, the level of urbanisation is expected to increase in all regions, with Africa and Asia urbanising faster than the rest. The role of local administration in the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is critical, since those goals recognise the transformative power of urbanisation for development and the significance of city leaders in driving global change from the bottom up. Most of the SDGs have targets that are directly or indirectly related to the daily operation of local and regional governments. Local governments are policy makers and catalysts of change. They are also the level of government best-placed to bind the goals with local communities. Improvement of local e-Government functions encompasses local public institutions, their operations and civil society organisations alignment with UN SDGs 11 and 17 for sustainable cities and communities and goal 16 for peace, justice and strong institutions. In practice, institutions are strengthened by free, fair and equal citizen participation. Furthermore, local governments that possess decentralised authority can better set local priorities to assure the rights and needs of vulnerable groups and provide transparent and accountable institutions.