JIBGAR.COM

October 2009

Abstract

The paper explores the characteristics of an inclusive city. It tries to show the relationship of inclusiveness with what makes a city more sustainable. It highlights some of the problems of sustainable urban designs; and explores the potentials of an inclusive city in making development more sustainable. It also shows the ways of using the experience of some inclusive cities in the shaping of new urban centres and in the renewal of traditional towns.  Recognizing that the government has not been able to appreciate the role of cities in the pursuit of goals for sustainable development, the paper underscores the need for raising awareness; draws inferences from the way such cities respond to state actions; and examines the role of the government in making cities more inclusive. It finally drives at policy-making for the promotion of such cities.

Keywords: inclusive city, sustainability, potentials, policy-making.

1.         Introduction

A distinctive feature of ancient towns in Nepal is their social cohesiveness. In the past, there was no polarization; the rich and the poor were integrated within the social system. Their inclusiveness was due to the fact that they were intertwined with the prevailing ways of life. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the experience of such towns can be used to further develop the concept of inclusive city for ensuring sustainability.

People organize themselves to create a community; a neighbourhood. They share their joys and woes in it. They fulfil their needs through it. They participate in the community activities. They serve their community according to their interest and ability. All, irrespective of their age, sex, and creed, will work to create a better environment to work and live in. A city is composed of many neighbourhoods. We will have a sustainable city out of several inclusive communities.

2.The Concept of an Inclusive City

In an inclusive city, all the sections of the population will be engaged in activities they like. It is based on the principle of co-existence. It reduces conflicts and crime; and thus increases security. It allows for an extensive use of social networks. It increases self-reliance. It will make the urban economy resilient, as the outside influence is likely to be resisted. It is easier to promote a more sustainable production and consumption system in such a city, as the people are encouraged to own and manage resources directly. It helps to revert to activities that are more sustainable.

The concept is also related with entitlements that will enable all to get integrated with the urban economy as a whole. There should be opportunities for everyone to participate fully with access to a variety of quality jobs. An inclusive city should thus generate a wide range of entitlements. It should be able to manage disparity and provide opportunities for a varied group of individuals. Failure to manage for disparity will limit the ability of the people to make choices about how and where they live. This will lead to polarization and conflicts impairing the social connections that are vital for living a vibrant and thriving life.

Communities must be able to influence and manage the space and activities themselves. People should be encouraged to participate in finding out the real causes of a problem and potential solutions. This will create a feeling of ownership to projects among the users.

The goal is to energize and regenerate a community; and to create pleasing environments that add value to cities. They provide residents with opportunities and choices to thrive and reach their full potential.

3.         Elements of Sustainable Urban Design

Designs should create inclusive spaces, which contribute to the fulfilment of the needs of all types of people, and make places and programs accessible to all. Humans have a diverse range of needs and abilities. These can be shaped and changed greatly through the promotion of inclusive design. It manifests the vision of an inclusive city in physical terms. Successful designs enable people across the entire social range to participate in and receive value from actions. It helps to create space that provides a sense of place that people identify with where they want to live and work. They generate consciousness on the need for human stewardship of the earth.

Actions emerge from the needs, assets and culture of the communities and the environment in which they exist. Their success should be seen in terms of their contribution in meeting the needs of the users, such as health, education, and safety. There must be good transportation and communication. Access to goods and services should be ensured in order to make these available to all the inhabitants regardless of age, sex, religion, or income, or power. A successful project is one that manages its impact and externalities on the entire environment. It ensures that the result actually becomes a net positive. Community involvement in the project will enhance its capacity to accomplish more. Sustainable actions will provide the people with tools they need to manage or control their environment. For making such designs, it is necessary to formulate and implement strategies to avoid:

• Neighbourhoods with diverse qualities of life;
• Conflicts between the physical environment and cultural values and vision,
• Unequal access to education, health and jobs;
• Urban slums; and
• Environmental shortcomings such as lack of parks and open spaces, ugly landscapes, and polluted rivers.

The vitality of cities helps to make development more sustainable. It depends on the transformation of the culture, which is possible if their character and identity are not lost. Liveability depends on the ability to create an environment that depicts harmony between culture, built environment and nature. Every culture wants to retain its identity. If we fail to understand this, heritage sites will turn to problem areas with lost character. With the increase in the population and changes in values and aspirations, ecosystems change. There have always been resistances to changes. Sustainability of new changes depends on their compatibility with the existing culture.

The works done through external help may not add value to the local community to a significant level. It is not only fair but also cost effective to use the local community in the production, consumption, and in dealing with the impacts of their activities. The increasing cost of infrastructure and services under public undertakings also proves this point. External funding must provide a net gain to the community by creating new jobs and giving opportunities to spend earnings in the community itself. Cities must insist that new developments use local labour and skills. Training programs should be developed and run to raise awareness of community members.

4. Experience of Kathmandu Valley Towns

Culture is a major asset for towns and cities in Nepal. This is true in both crowded historic towns and isolated villages with people living in close harmony with nature. The Valley has numerous sites of great archaeological, historic and religious values. The major monuments are:

• Pagodas, temples, shrines and stupas,
• Ancient palaces, courtyards and statues,
• Historic towns with residential buildings, squares, lanes, stone water taps, backyards, bahals and bahis and
• Arts and paintings.

Its cultural charm is found in the form of diverse festivals around the year. The monuments are a part of the people’s daily life. Life is based on religious beliefs and sincerity to their tradition. The indigenous people have perpetuated the culture and helped the integration of their culture with the changing development trend. People’s daily life and the works of farmers, artisans, carpenters, painters and sculptors do represent living culture. The culture is reinforced by structure and settings; festivals, costumes, dances and music; ethnic diversity; religious philosophy and its practice; and legends and myths.

            From birth to death, special rites and celebrations mark the important events of one’s existence, assuming a symbiosis of body and soul with the divine. Festivals are expressions of life reflecting its joys and sorrows, and fears and dreams. They are interrelated and observed round the year. They are mysterious, colourful and full of fun. They have their roots and motives in the religion. They may reflect legendary belief and superstition and follow the seasons of crop harvesting. Some of the festivals are observed nationwide while some are unique to Kathmandu and some others are specific to a certain community, town or village.

            Historic cities should be looked as ecosystems. They are the product of the evolutionary process. They survived not because they are preserved. They survived enough to leave indelible marks on earth. Looking from the ecological perspective their sustainability can be understood against a variety of internal and external forces. It shows us how they can be managed in a sustainable manner. It is the local people along with their aspirations and energies, which can extend the life of their ecosystem with culture. Nepal’s experience in the conservation and upgrading of historical towns like Bhaktapur shows that it is necessary to:

• Integrate culture and development through planning. Instead of controlling new developments, these should be made compatible with heritage sites for cultural transformation. In the process, the character and identity associated with the heritage should be retained.
• Provide technological options to the people to make full use of the heritage sites.
• Understand social changes before making physical changes. It is much more difficult to live in the cultural history than to appreciate the value and beauty of it. With the modernization, people will be forced to make changes in their social life that may not be compatible with the cultural needs.
• Discourage modern development trends. Most of these might not be for the benefit of the people. In order to ascertain which modern changes are compatible or which elements can be well integrated, research on sustainable development becomes necessary. There is a lack of conservation techniques and knowledge. Cultural degeneration has taken place not because of ignorance, illiteracy and even poverty, but because of affluence and increase in economic opportunities due to commercialization. The lesson that can be learnt is that cities should not raise their standards just like that.
• Develop a culture of working with the people. It is not possible to work against the people.
• Encourage training and HRD activities and build capacity for inclusive designs.

• Emerging Problems and Issues

Nepal’s traditional towns are becoming less inclusive over time due to the failure to transform in line with the modern trends. There is an erosion of cultural and religious values.

Shift to unsustainable ways of living such as high-rise apartment building at places where there is acute shortage of services and chaotic transport system has threatened the urban life in many ways. The exposure of ancient towns to outside economies has not only made them less inclusive but also weakened their economy.

Cities face increasing and a diverse set of problems relating to different groups such as the youth, senior citizens, and the disabled ands so on. Their needs and problems are naturally different. As inclusiveness depends on the ability to avoid the exclusion of any group, awareness on population programs will help to enhance it. It is necessary to satisfy the needs of different age-groups of the population. The perspectives of different groups of people are different. ”For what most people see and often want in cities is not what planners, decision makers and elite groups see and want. It varies for children, for workers, for immigrants for people of different ages, incomes, occupations, and cultural backgrounds.” (Rodwin 1981, 13).

The movement of people from one place to another for various purposes is increasing due to relative ease in travelling.  More and more people migrate to bigger cities to fulfil their rising expectations. Such expectations are alluring. They look for better opportunities in a new place. However, they might end up with living in slums and abject poverty.

Due to population movement, family is disrupted; migrants fail to take their family members along with them. The chances that the expectations of the migrants will be met are decreasing.  Most cities in developing countries have failed to include them in a meaningful way. Many face disasters of various kinds as they migrate leaving their native place. Being not inclusive is the root cause of the problem; and we see conflicts, crimes, sexual abuses, girl trafficking etc. as its symptoms.

The place of origin will be affected due to the loss of its frontier group of people. It will be also impoverished due to transfer of some assets. On the other hand, at the place of destination, because the entitlements required for survival are different, their life will not be easy. It takes long time for them to be integrated in the new place. It will depend on the ability of the place to include them. Moving to a bigger city means many problems apart from the feeling of alienation. This makes it necessary to dig deeper as to what happens to the receiving space and the one that is losing population.  While there is the need to retain people in the place of origin, making it more inclusive, the capacity to absorb the migrants need to be enhanced at the place of destination. We should develop necessary skill and training programs as a means to create a new set of entitlements.

By trying to meet the needs of the people confined within a place and for a given time, we are not considering the effects of our efforts on other spaces and in the future. Our ability to satisfy the needs depends on how we use the space and resources over time. We should use the resources in relation to the needs of the population.

The value system of the past is being replaced by a new one. There is a preference to wealth, although the satisfaction derived from it is declining. In poorer communities, most of the necessities are accessed through community efforts and through mutual help. Market provides only a few of these to the poor. Although the market tried to replace such a system, the poor generally do not have adequate access to most of the things they need for their survival and progress. Poverty, in other words, makes the settlement more cohesive with interdependency among its members. The need to depend on the community decreases as the family income increases but this is not the solution as the family during the transition sacrifices most of the things it had been enjoying. It is not necessarily good for a society in transition to move to modern ways that are more conventional. Moreover, the failure to retain social networks with mutual help leads to the loss of inclusiveness in the society.

Some of the problems of urban designs in responding to the sustainability issues are change in the values; threats of modern ways; increasing discrimination, limited awareness etc.

6.         Making Cities More Inclusive and Sustainable

The concept of sustainable development has deep implications on our way of doing things, our behaviours, and values. It is necessary to evolve a process where all will be integrated. We need to ensure that the results of our development are distributed in a fair way. Policy framework is required to help making decisions with a view to balance social good with theright to develop. Each project must be checked against the following:

• Does it lead to form a real neighbourhood?
• Has the community been involved;
• Does it actually help to fulfil the community’s vision?
• Does it respect social and cultural preferences?
• Does it help to create a cohesive community?
• Is it environmentally sustainable?
• Will it allow all residents to make progress?

Population should be managed for creating sufficient entitlements for a diverse group of people residing in a geographical space that will enable them to survive and prosper. Most of the problems crop up due to lack of entitlements. As inclusiveness increases, the problem of entitlement ceases; they are correlated. To make it more inclusive, it is necessary to have special projects on entitlements for the excluded groups in any community. The following measures will help to make cities more inclusive:

• Encouraging local activities;
• Increasing awareness on community life;
• Providing key services locally;
• Engagement of the inhabitants in upgrading environment and social works;
• Investing in cultural and religious features;
• Pedestrianisation for sustainable mobility;
• Forming cooperatives in the neighbourhood; and
• Sustainable financing of infrastructure.

Inclusive designs should promote the access for all to space for diverse uses such as eating places and groceries at convenience, open space and parks, places for meditation, sports and recreation, etc. The city should be composed of safe neighbourhoods with a range of dwellings to accommodate diverse needs. Housing and building codes should focus more on health, safety and community quality of life.

There should be full access to quality education with choices. It should be realized that the physical condition of a school does have an impact on a child’s ability to learn.

In order to enhance access and mobility, viable public transit system should be developed. Cities can create incentives and promote policies that favour mass transit. Safe, functional and green connections will help to restore the public realm and make them more inclusive. Pedestrian streets will reactivate the public realm. These along with mixed land uses will help to reintegrate.

Heritage sites and well-maintained and usable open space are virtually the only urban places where people of different income level have equal access. Parks and open space are instrumental for improved air and water quality, for preserving rivers, and for city greening.  They provide community facilities and gathering spaces. Spaces and places are required to create and display social and cultural rituals that have meaning for all residents. Public events, such as street fairs and dramas, make neighbourhood life vibrant. Cities should provide space for grassroots and community organizations.

It is necessary to encourage the community-based initiatives and integrate these with the city level structures and networks. We should concentrate on making traditional towns more inclusive and provide necessary inputs there. We should also create new eco-towns.

As it is generally difficult to capture the changing needs of the changing population, flexible design should be adopted to accommodate the changing needs. In terms of form, culture and ways of life there should not be any compromise. It should be functional loved by its residents. It should adapt to the changes that are taking place.

The potentials of an inclusive city should be used in making development more sustainable. This can be done through the following measures:

• Emerging urban areas should be planned and developed as eco-towns where relatively rural characteristics and lower standards could prevail.
• Upgrading of old towns and settlements with a view to make them more inclusive is a sustainable strategy that needs to be pursued. The potentials of social network and the heritage can be used with the revival of indigenous activities.

There is a need for generating awareness and penalize those indulged in unsustainable patterns of development. Inclusive systems are more sustainable as these have less impact on the economy and are self-managed. Resources are not only used fully, but additional resources bound with the people are also made available. People being tied with their community are motivated to be happier as they have a purpose to make their place a better one and they are not allured to outside gold and glory.  Most of the services that are provided locally are likely to satisfy them more because they can be tailored to their needs. However, the policy is not strong to this end. The government itself is after short run returns in monetary terms.

The primary role of the government is to promote such cities. It should protect such cities from being affected by the outside influence. The local autonomy and self-reliance are critical to the sustainability of such cities. They should be encouraged to prepare and implement local agenda 21. They should be encouraged to provide infrastructure and services in a sustainable way.   State actions are shaped by the demands reflected in political terms by a community. In Nepal, they are not based on public welfare. Such cities adapt to what the state does. Most of the actions are not necessarily geared to enhance sustainability. This will threaten inclusiveness as well. The local conditions are generally ignored as the state has a standardized package. The experiences of such cities should shape state actions. Such actions need to be made promotional by playing a key role in localising Agenda 21. In specific terms, the government should:

• Help such cities to pursue sustainable ways of providing services
• Help facilitate autonomous development
• Grants and subsidy
• Protection from distortions
• Respect the local authority by not exploiting the services created by it

• Conclusion

The concept of an inclusive city is linked with a functioning and thriving community. An ideal society is the one where human needs are satisfied through the community efforts; and where they are inspired to add value to the community they belong to and they identify themselves with. Here the people live in harmony with their environment; and are less vulnerable to different types of risks. As they do not have to worry much to satisfy their own needs, they are enabled to contribute as much as they can. Their happiness depends on the services they are able to provide to their community. They find convenient environment to work. For emulating such a society, it is necessary to think of manageable communities. The answer can be found in the concept of an inclusive city. It should be designed to foster such communities in the form of eco-towns, eco villages or healthy cities. An inclusive city is a place where such a society thrives. It is inclusive also in the sense that whatever you contribute will add value to the social good. It is not like paying tax to a government which is busy in sustaining bad governance. For an inclusive design, we should therefore consider the way families in a community interact with each other. It should influence the process of their overall development and their engagement in different activities.

Although the historic towns of Kathmandu Valley are good examples of an inclusive city, there is an increasing threat. One can easily observe conflicts of interest between the global trend and the inherent primitive characteristics. Time and again, there had been attempts to impair their inherent characteristics for more than a century. Some of the factors that sustain their inclusiveness may be summarised as follows:

• Primitiveness with strong resistance to change;
• Cohesive and all-inclusive design;
• Encouragements for pedestrians;
• Culture of sharing poverty; and
• Sharing of urban space with opportunities for mixing together due to cultural and religious activities throughout the year.

Due to primitiveness and the persistent resistance to change, large scale investments with ability to destroy the inherent character of the settlements never thrived. However this had immense costs and the life of the common person had not bee an easy one. The role of the government must change and help the community actions to transpire their inclusiveness. It should understand that modern changes will be resisted in absence of adaptation measures; and any sort of conflict of interest will make development more costly and unsustainable. “The conflict between the improvement in the living standard of the people and preservation of cultural heritage should be sorted out through working with the people and through technologies that allow a greater integration between culture and development.”  (Joshi 2000, 26). The government has no other option than to work with the people; and on policies that will make living in these cities easier and more pleasing.

References:

Corbett, G. et. al., (1995), Kathmandu: seven studies in urban renewal, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba.

Haaland, A., (1985), Bhaktapur: A Town Changing, revised edition, Kathmandu: GTZ.

Hanson, J. (2004) “The inclusive city: delivering a more accessible urban environment through inclusive design’’, RICS Cobra 2004 International Construction Conference: responding to change, http; www.eprints.ucl.ac.uk/3351.

Joshi, J., (2008), Planning Approaches in Nepal, Kathmandu: Lajmina Joshi.

______., (2000), Planning for Sustainable Development: urban management in Nepal and South Asia, Kathmandu: Lajmina Joshi.

______., (2008), “Sustainable Provision of Urban Environmental Services in Kathmandu Valley”, unpublished paper presented at 2^nd ICBED, University Sains Malaysia.

Ministry of Population and Environment, (1999), Environmental Planning and Management of the Kathmandu Valley, Kathmandu: MoPE/IUCN.

Parajuli, Y. K., (1986), Bhaktapur Development Project: Experiences in Preservation and Restoration in a Medieval Town, Kathmandu: Bhaktapur Development Project.

Price, C and A. Tsouros, (eds.), Our Cities, Our Future: Policies and Action Plans for Health and Sustainable Development, Copenhagen: WHO Healthy City Project Office.

Rodwin, L., (1981). Cities and City Planning, New York/London: Plenum Press.

Safier, M., (1996), “The Cosmopolitan Challenge in Cities on the Edge of the Millennium: Moving from Conflict to Co-existence”, City, Oxford.

The Inclusive City, http: www.inclusivecity.com.

UN-HABITAT/UNEP, (2004), ALEX 2003: Environmentally Sustainable Urbanization, Meeting Report of the 2003 Global Meeting of the Sustainable Cities Programme (SCP) and the Localizing Agenda 21 Programme (LA21), Nairobi.

Through this book, Dr. Jibgar Joshi, a renowned scholar and professional with rich experience, offers among other things, a language and tools for talking cities and understanding the process of planning, forming and developing cities in the present context. I have known Jibgar for more than four decades. He has over the years kept himself engaged in active academic and professional exercise.
The book provides readers with a framework, which could be instrumental in getting the insight of all the parameters essential for building cities. Careful perusal of the book could convince readers that the narrative mentioned in the book, if translated professionally into actual practice, could result in the emergence of a city with capacity to remain inclusive, safe, and resilient. Nepalese have witnessed the ongoing unplanned growth of cities in the country and are struggling for getting basic services. Having read the book, I believe the readers would come across a valuable message for avoiding flaws and biases in urban development strategy. The book might reassure its readers about viability of cities which are livable and manageable in their own life time and in their own vicinity. Dr. Joshi’s strategy gets mapped impressively as he discusses in practical tone, integrated action planning and strategic planning. The writer takes special care in blending the concepts and practices of integrated planning, investment planning, and strategic planning in the context of realizing the vision of master plan for urban areas. In a display of pragmatism, he lays emphasis on flexibility in allowing the implementation-dynamics of the process and actors attached to the key elements – planning, integration, and investment – to take their due course prudently.
The book is responsive to climate change issues and advocates the use of clean energy. The latest move for saving environment for future expressed in vocabulary of various sorts – green revolution, respect to natural resources in the heat of development drive, saving mother earth, back to nature, safe earth, and development not at the cost of environment – also features in the book in a prominent way. He refers to the years of dedicated contribution that communities made in developing and preserving common public spaces and pinpoints the current pressure on them because of the growing needs of present day economic growth. He voices for their continued accessibility to all people irrespective of their income level. The doctrine he advocates is a complex of concepts and practices. It includes, among others, respect for and appreciation of relevance and importance of common spaces, skill to maintain their continuity under any excuse, open heart for integrating them with development, and innovations to use them in an enhanced manner. It is to be implemented with people’s participation accompanied by schemes for sustainability.
The readers may have a better feeling of, after they have a comprehensive tour of urban planning through different perspectives which adorn the book, the mess in cities, confusion in role of actors, haze in vision, and drifting policies reflected in the latest state of city-building in the country. The author has stressed on infrastructure sketching the conflict currently being felt in growing demand for and inadequate supply of basic services such as drinking water, sanitation, energy, transport and communication in cities. Therein he finds an appropriate role for engineers and planners and also a challenge for them: building infrastructure with apt design and with proper use of land focusing on sustainability and ICT. Arguing that “it is possible to transform rural areas into sustainable and vibrant urban centers”, the author mentions: “people should be made aware of their needs and the possibilities of meeting them in the best possible way. Let the people use their creativity, wisdom, and ingenuity to find solutions to their problems.” The book will urge building province-specific and region-specific cities in Nepal providing guidance to provincial leadership. Take-away from the book in this regard is clear: a working urban system could strengthen provincial economies which would then enable the country to realize prosperity at the national level.
The book is interesting to read and facilitates understanding of issues related to core dimensions of urban planning and its parameters and linkages. Dr. Joshi has taken special care to avoid planners’ and engineers’ jargon and scholarly show-off for focusing on communicating his message to common Nepalese who take interest in development matters particularly in the way cities are built or managed. The positive and constructive tone that readers find in various pages of the book should be appreciated for it helps to move on remedying errors of the past. A rich bibliography and appropriate attributions wherever needed exhibit the writer’s keen sense of research and professional authenticity. It is because of these qualities that the book could be termed – a must read book – for those interested in development and cities. I commend it. It will, besides providing readers with updated way of looking at city development and planning, facilitate the decision makers, planners and builders to refresh their thinking and construction-practices about city and development matters.
Rama Krishna Regmee
Senior Journalist an Prof. Kantipur City College
Putalisadak, Kathmandu.

1.              Introduction and Overview

The pace of urbanization, estimated to be four percent per annum, is highest in Nepal among the countries of South Asia[. This has led to economic growth. The contribution of the urban sector to GDP is increasing fast. Cities compete in attracting investments, however, they are suffering from an acute shortage of infrastructure and services. This has made it difficult to sustain growth, and made cities less competitive resulting in increasing exclusion that manifests itself as increased slum areas. Adjustments take place to sustain competitiveness at the cost of inclusiveness such as access to basic services.

The perspectives on cities have changed over the years. First, cities were considered to be exploitative. The exploitative role of Kathmandu is evident from the fact that most of the foreign investments made in Nepal are captured by Kathmandu. Kathmandu also sets market rates for goods produced nationally favorable to the Kathmandu economy. The generative role of Kathmandu has remained limited due to the influence of the Indian economy [As a result, Kathmandu has not been able to help develop other regions. The services it provides are less affordable compared to what the Indian cities provide. Its generative role did not improve even when the two nations had bitter relations during the late 1980s. Kathmandu needs to create a productive connectivity with the outlying areas of the Kathmandu Valley region. This is a precondition for enhancing its sustainability. Understanding of cities’ distributive role in terms of their relationship with the outlying regions, the way cities appropriate resources and the global economy will help to resolve the issue of equity in sharing the advantages of global collaboration on the global commons.

Urbanization should be based on the judicious and equitable extraction of resources from the outlying regions to create employment and improved social opportunities. The distributive role can be enhanced through providing services broadly, including the population of the associated regions through sustainable transport networks; systematic integration of migrants into the urban economy; regulating access to outside entrepreneurs and investments with cost recovery in environmental services for their sustainable provision. The distributive role of Kathmandu has an immense, potential capacity to absorb population due to its inclusive nature supported by traditional social networks and the traditional culture of sharing poverty. The Kathmandu region is highly competitive with economic drivers such as tourism and handicraft; equipment & machinery; textile, garment & leather; financial intermediary; wholesale & trade; health & social works; government function; and household sector.

Due to globalization and environmental concerns, the distributive role of cities has increased during the recent past. Cities can create enormous wealth at the cost of natural resources of the larger areas outside its boundary. At the same time land values are increasing. Balanced development ensuring inclusiveness of the population of the larger rural urban areas becomes possible only when we enhance the distributive role of the major cities. This spatial dimension of inclusiveness is generally overlooked. The cities’ ability to absorb migrants consistently and sustainably is a prerequisite for inclusive urban development.

Cities can become less inclusive due to increasing income and outside competition especially regarding the purchasing power of the weaker economic sector relating to urban services. An increase in income can create more demand for infrastructure and services. However, there is a growing disparity in access and service levels of basic services as most people have limited access to high standard infrastructure. In poor and smaller cities, where sharing poverty and traditional culture prevail, people have a tendency to unite to provide themselves with necessary urban services. Sharing poverty here means more equitable access to urban goods and services in community spirit, even when the total supply is severely limited.

In this context, it is necessary to understand what went wrong during the transformation of Nepal or Kathmandu to the present economic set up. In Kathmandu there is a marked increase in exclusion as modern standards are being introduced. This was not the case earlier.. Inclusive strategies can not only reduce exclusion but make it possible to avail most services to a broader set of beneficiaries in an affordable way.

Economic growth in Nepal is spatially differentiated with its high correlation with urbanization in different parts of the country. Nepal has been under political transition for more than a decade that has stimulated migration to cities. Yet, there is economic stagnation, with the rate of economic growth below 4% per annum over the last two decades. Urbanization is easily understood and accepted as an inevitable process. However, where the increasing population will be located in the future is not easy to predict. This will depend on economic opportunities that are created through the location of investments in infrastructure and industry as well as policies on trade and transit. Investments, not necessarily in Kathmandu, but in areas with greater growth potential and higher multiplier effects will yield greater return in the long run. Such investments will make urban development more effective and inclusive.

This paper is organized in six parts. Part I is an introduction to urbanization in Nepal. Part II provides an in-depth analysis of the trend of urbanization in Nepal and explains its economic causes and impacts. It discusses spatial, demographic, and economic implications of urbanization. Part III identifies different perspectives and roles of cities. It highlights cities increasing distributive roles and the need to integrate their peripheral areas as well as ensuring equitable access to urban services. Part IV makes an economic analysis of key urban regions including the Kathmandu Valley. It shows how the inclusive nature of its development has contributed to cluster development[. It also deals with the emerging threat to inclusiveness due to increasing deficiency in urban infrastructure. Part V deals with the ways and means of providing infrastructure in a more productive, affordable and inclusive manner. It also shows that planned urbanization of the peripheral regions will enhance inclusiveness. This is followed by a discussion on institutions and fiscal sustainability. The Part VI is a conclusion summarizing the main findings.

2.              Urbanization

Nepal is the fastest urbanizing country in South Asia. The urban sector contributes two thirds of the national GDP. The national spatial transformation is characterized by a fast growing population and increased density in the Kathmandu Valley with a clustering of economic activities in the Eastern and Central Terai as well as the Western Hills. Nepal’s urbanization, although a recent phenomenon, has been influenced by different factors at different times. There have been frequent changes in policy focus most notably in the priority accorded to spatial integration. The trend of urbanization is presented in Table 1 below.

Year	Total pop. (Millions)	No. of  municipalities	Urban pop. (‘000)	Level of urbanization (%)
1961	9.4	16	339	3.6
1971	11.6	16	462	4
1981	15.2	23	962	6.3
1991	18.1	33	1,629	9
2001	23.2	58	3,228	13.9
2011	26.5	58	4,524	17.1

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The levels of urbanization given above are based on the official classification of municipalities. There are urbanized areas in village development committees and rural areas in the municipalities. This makes it difficult to rationalize the analysis of urbanization in Nepal. For instance the level of urbanization at present considering 58 municipalities is 17.1%. This will increase to about 20% if we include the proposed new 41 municipalities. The definition of an urban area is a designated municipality and emerging towns.

Figure 1: Map of Nepal showing municipalities and their population in 2011

Table 2 lists the municipalities with either a population of more than 40,000 or density higher than 20 persons per ha. There were 30 municipalities with populations greater than 40,000 in 2011. There are only 14 municipalities with a density greater than 20 persons per ha. There are only 11 municipalities with a density greater than 20 persons per ha and population more than 40,000. Out of these, five are in Kathmandu Valley. The six outside the Valley are Birgunj, Nepalgunj, Pokhara, Janakpur, Biratnagar and Kalaiya. The greatest economic consequence of such a classification of municipalities is that within the declared municipal area, agriculture is not considered an urban function. Therefore land is more exposed to pressure to urbanize usually without the ability to satisfy the demands for adequate services necessary to support its ability to contribute to economic growth. Despite urbanization, rural features persist in most of the municipalities. Infilling in such areas with urban uses leads to fragmentation of agricultural land with increased loss of farmland without their conversion to planned urban areas. This creates more problems in the placing of urban infrastructure in the future.

Table 2: Municipalities with population > 40,000 or density > 20 persons per ha. (2011)

No	Municipality	Density (Persons/ ha.)	Population
1	Kathmandu	203.6	975,453
2	Lalitpur	147.4	230,050
3	Bhaktapur	127.9	81,748
4	Madhyapur	75.9	83,036
5	Birgunj	65.5	135,904
6	Nepalgunj	59.0	72,503
7	Banepa	44.8	24,764
8	Pokhara	48.1	255,465
9	Kirtipur	45.6	65,602
10	Janakpur	40.5	97,776
11	Biratnagar	34.6	201,125
12	Rajbiraj	33.2	37,738
13	Malangwa	26.8	25,102
14	Kalaiya	23.1	42,876
15	Bharatpur		143,836
16	Dharan		116,181
17	Butwal		118,462
18	Dhangadhi		101,970
19	Bhimdatta		104,599
20	Hetauda		84,671
21	Damak		75,102
22	Itahari		74,501
23	Triyuga		70,000
24	Ghorahi		62,928
25	Siddharthanagar		63,483
26	Tulsipur		51,537
27	Birendranagar		47,914
28	Lekhnath		58,816
29	Mechinagar		57,545
30	Gulariya		55,747
31	Tikapur		56,127
32	Ratnanagar		46,367
33	Byas		42,899
	Total		3,761,827

There used to be a policy to discourage development of towns at the Nepal – India border in favor of foothill towns during the 1980s. This caused border towns to stagnate. Instead, the foothill towns prospered due to investment in road connectivity and government policy. As a result of the East-West Highway, foothill towns grew and still continued to grow. There has also been an attempt to develop north-south urban corridors. However, the economic forces that resulted from development of the East-West Highway have established linkages between settlements in the east west direction that provided economic opportunities for the migrants from the hill areas.

Forming cluster economies that enhance the ability to create jobs is central to urbanization. However, “natural resource endowments do not provide a satisfactory explanation for concentration.” (Joshi 1985: 57) With the growth of productive activities, Kathmandu has become crowded, beyond its infrastructure capacity. After a certain stage of agglomeration, there can be economic growth with clusters of mutually supportive economic activities. The emerging economy can gain the economic power to legitimize a growing disparity in access to basic services unless there is an explicit policy that promotes access to services. Institutional development and market forces can sustain investment in cluster development with the support of the government. However market forces may not be either desirable when viewed from the perspective of being environment-friendly nor promote social inclusiveness in terms of service delivery Growing disparity of access to and acute deficiency in infrastructure are thus the key adverse impacts of urbanization. The emerging threat to long-time inclusiveness within Kathmandu needs to be addressed through deconcentration of activities from Kathmandu to other potential urban regions.

Nepal is divided into five development regions, each with three eco-regions (mountain, hills and terai) making a total of 15 sub-regions also known as planning regions. (Joshi 2009) The regional distribution of population and urban population in 2011 are presented in Table 3 and Table 4. The total population of the mountain region has increased to 1.8 million accounting for little more than 6% of the total population of the country. The area of Nepal is 51,817 sq. km. It is sparsely populated with 34.3 persons per sq. km. Although the mountain regions have resources, they are not ideal places for human settlements. However, people may go there for recreation or harnessing resources, since they are endowed with bio-resources with good potential for eco-tourism.

Table 3: Regional Distribution of Population 2011

Region	Mtn.	Hill	Terai	Total
Far Western	463,345	862,215	1,226,957	2,552,517
Mid-Western	388,713	1,687,497	1,470,472	3,546,682
Western	19,990	2,811,135	2,095,640	4,926,765
Central	517,655	4,431,813	4,707,517	9,656,985
Eastern	392,089	1,601,347	3,818,119	5,811,555
Total	1,781,792	11,394,007	13,318,705	26,494,504

Table 4: Regional Distribution of Urban Population 2011

Region	Mtn.	Hill	Terai	Total
Far Western	0	66,176	267,696	333,872
Mid-Western	0	74,132	248,342	322,4744
Western	0	519,430	245,411	764,841
Central	23,337	1,689,176	560,313	2,272,826
Eastern	26,658	119,196	683,953	829,807
Total	49,995	2,468,110	2,005,715	7,426,090

The share of urbanization in all the regions except the central hill and terai areas, and eastern and mid-western terai has decreased during the period 2001 – 2011. This is evident from Table 5 and Table 6.

Table 5: Regional Distribution of Urban Population 2011 in percentage

Region	Mtn.	Hill	Terai	Total
Far Western	0	!Syntax Error, 2588701.46	5.71	7.38
Mid-Western	0	1.864	5.49	7.13
Western	0	11.48	5.42	16.91
Central	0.52	37.34	12.38	50.244
Eastern	0.59	2.623	15.12	18.34
Total	1.11	54.56	44.12	99.79

Table 6: Regional Distribution of Urban Population 2001 in percentage

Region	Mtn.	Hill	Terai	Total
Far Western	0	1.82	5.79	7.61
Mid-Western	0	1.57	5.60	7.17
Western	0	10.63	5.50	16.13
Central	0.68	36.30	12.76	49.74
Eastern	0.68	2.85	15.82	19.35
Total	1.36	53.17	45.47	100.00

The share of the urban population in the Central Hill area has increased from 36.3% to 37.5%. This shows the rising primacy of the Kathmandu Valley towns. Despite the policy of deemphasizing the development of Kathmandu, it emerged as a growth pole in the SAARC Region even as early as 1990. (Joshi 1997) After that, concentration continued unabated mainly due to the political transitions that Nepal is still going through. Kathmandu has severe deficits in infrastructure. However, it has succeeded in changing its comparative advantages into competitive advantages based on clusters of economic activities; for example tourism related activities. Because of this, its population is increasing at a faster rate. Its potential to create jobs is already established. Economic activities flourished due to the rise of industry clusters and reduction in business transaction costs.

Inter-regional disparity can be reduced when we have clusters in different regions in a balanced way. Intra-regional and city level disparity will be reduced through cluster development that promotes mixed land use. What Hirschman wrote in 1958 is relevant: “There can be little doubt that an economy to lift itself to higher income levels, must and will first develop within itself one or several regional centers of economic strength. The need for the emergence of ‘growth points’ or ‘growth poles’ in the course of the development process means that international and interregional inequality of growth is an inevitable concomitant and condition of growth itself” Now we have to deal with clusters based on collaborative advantages to avoid and minimize the exploitation aspects embodied in the concept of “growth poles/points”. Clusters are potentially positive aspects of the Nepalese economy especially strategically located across the nation to benefit from the comparative advantage each possesses. However, there is no correlation between national or local investment and spatial policies. And investments continue to flow into the central region unabated.

The role of India as an important actor in shaping the Nepalese market cannot be understated. The general perception among planners is that urban development will decline as one moves away from the Nepal-India border. The future of border towns largely depends on what India will do. As it is difficult to predict the Indian response to border development, so it is difficult to predict urbanization trends of Nepal’s border towns in terms of their role in the national economy. The border towns developed when the Indian economy had functional linkages with them since they supplied raw materials. But the Nepali government did not want that sort of dependency on India so policy and investment was oriented towards foothill towns. Now, when relations improved, India was not interested in taking border towns along with it resulting in estrangement and declining economies. For a city like Biratnagar, the estimated annual increase of 4,000 people can be absorbed at a very low standard as squatters on the ample available land being converted to urban areas. The issue is how Biratnagar can better manage the process so that communities can be incrementally improved.

Bilateral relations are not based on regional economic efficiency. Collaborative efforts are not significant. Different parts of the country are urbanizing in different ways. It is necessary to identify the drivers of urbanization in different urbanized regions. Further urbanization in some of the urbanized areas such as Biratnagar and Birgunj can be induced only through the creation of employment opportunities. On the contrary, some foothill towns, though less urbanized presently, will urbanize more rapidly as they have a potential to create jobs. Nepal’s experience has shown that it is not easy to implement neither regional development strategies of the 1970s nor the more recent concept of urban economic regions. The development of a growth corridor will depend on the economic linkages between economic centers in the corridor. Linkages, however, are not the case. Cities with less population are growing faster on their own. For instance, Itahari is growing more rapidly compared to Biratnagar. It is necessary to link Itahari with Biratnagar but Biratnagar’s outreach is not visible. The case of Nepalgunj is no better.

The level of urbanization in all the mountain regions, and mid western and far western development regions is low. Their GDP’s are also low. These regions represent isolated economies not integrated with the national economy. It is necessary to reach these rural regions through the creation of small centers that will help build linkages in the future by bringing their products to the market economy. Their products seldom are duly paid for. These regions not only require the provision of basic services but also markets and demand for their products. For such regions, linkage centers are recommended, which will help them to urbanize in a planned way. We may recommend policies for urbanizing rural regions; but it will be difficult to implement them as it is not likely that such policies can be backed by sufficient investments. Instead of thinking about remote regions, the policy of deliberate urbanization should accord priority to peri-urban areas first, that will harness rural-urban linkage potentials for the inclusive development of the region as a whole. It makes little sense in trying to form corridors out of isolated economies when the urbanization of the rural regions surrounding a city is being ignored.

Integration of peripheral areas with the concept of growing city regions can help to harness the potentials of urbanization, support inclusiveness and make local economies stronger. Corridors, especially when they are too long, are more difficult to maintain as viable economic entities compared to extended city regions and their peripheries. This shows that city regions should be supported to grow to make the corridors function well. It is not the competitiveness of an individual city but the degree of collaborative efforts among cities in proximity that increases the regional and national competitiveness.

The more urbanized regions of the country are Central Hills (Kathmandu region) and Central Terai with Kathmandu – Hetauda – Bharatpur – Birgunj – Janakpur as the potential corridor and the Eastern Terai with Biratnagar – Itahari – Dharan as the potential corridor. Similarly, Western Terai and Western Hill are other urbanized regions with Bhairahawa – Butwal – Pokhara as the potential corridor. These five regions accounted for 76.8% of the urban population in 2011. This figure was 75.8% in 2001. If the proposed 41 municipalities are also considered, the figure will still increase.

Figure 2: Map of Nepal Showing City Regions and Economic Corridors

People have limited choices and options. This author considers that the disparity is increasing and that there is low efficiency in government spending. This means other urban regions although presumed to function as economic centers do not get the necessary investment.

Economic transformation of the nation has been slow as it has failed to create cities that attract industries and investments. Kathmandu’s economy is presently growing fast. However, failure to consider infrastructure as an input to its productive sectors will make it difficult to sustain the growth. The growth of high-rise apartment buildings without due consideration to the provision of off-site infrastructure and their environmental impacts have aggravated the problem of transport and other services. The low competitiveness of cities has caused stagnation. There is a tendency for sectors as well as cities to compete among themselves instead of engaging in collaborative efforts and functional specialization. Inclusive cities are likely to be more competitive because cities with high number of low-skilled, poorly educated, marginalized populations are at a competitive disadvantage and problems of squalor, poverty, pollution and communicable diseases deter private investment and economic expansion. Inclusiveness should be enhanced through collaboration among sectors, people, and spaces.

The corridor formed by the foothill towns requires investment. On the other hand, the north south corridor will help to widen the east west corridor. If connectivity is the key concern, the junctions of north-south and east-west roads will be the focus of city regions in general terms. Expansion of city regions and widening of corridors joining city regions will help to enhance the competitiveness of cities.

Despite its strategic location and potentials, Biratnagar is stagnating at present and the impact of Kathmandu’s economic activities is little. However Biratnagar is identified as a major regional economic center. Its economy is planned to be transformed with the implementation of projects like the expansion of the airport, ring road construction, a Special Economic Zone, a dry port, and an Integrated Check Point and Railway, among others. It is likely to have a boost up in the public sector as well. Trans-boundary collaborative efforts will help to unlock its potentials.

1.              Inclusiveness

A distinctive feature of ancient towns in Nepal is their social cohesiveness. In the past, there was little economic segregation; the rich and the poor were integrated within the spatial and social systems. Their inclusiveness was due to the fact that they were intertwined with the prevailing ways of life. The experience of such towns is relevant to any city in the world and can be used to enhance their inclusiveness.

There is an increased threat to inclusiveness due to the breakdown of traditional relationships such as the extended family and clan relations. The key question is: How can the threat to inclusiveness be avoided without not having to sacrifice modern development? How are policies developed and implemented in an inclusive manner so that the benefits of economic growth of our cities meet the needs of the majority of the population. The concept of the inclusive city is linked with sustainability. The best way to deal with this issue is to make investments that include pro-poor activities to mobilizing the poor. If policies channel the supportive investments towards this end, the conventional ways of providing infrastructure and services can be revised and avoid the spiraling price escalation of infrastructure and services in poor cities. Preparing inclusive, commercially viable projects may improve Nepal’s limited access to the global economy.

People can organize themselves to create a community; a neighborhood. They share their joys and woes in it. They fulfill their needs through it. They participate in the community activities. They serve their community according to their interest and ability. All, irrespective of their age, sex, and creed, can work to create a better environment to work and live in. A city is composed of many neighborhoods. A sustainable city can be built out of its inclusive communities.

Inclusiveness can energize and regenerate a community; and help create pleasing environments that add value to cities. Cities can provide residents with opportunities and choices not only to survive but also to reach their full potential. Employment is key to improvements in the quality of life and access to urban services and amenities. The local economy should be able to manage disparity and provide opportunities for its citizens.

Nepal’s traditional towns are becoming less inclusive over time as they modernize. There is an erosion of cultural and religious values as well as a shift to unsustainable ways of living such as high-rise apartment building at places where there is acute shortage of employment, services and chaotic transport systems that have threatened urban life in many ways. Inappropriate location of high rise building has resulted in unsustainable living. Such developments are largely underutilized despite the government’s support. To combat the problem of sprawling, intensive development in selected nodes through land pooling projects preferably with high-rise apartments within it should be promoted. Currently, the exposure of ancient towns to outside economies has not only made them less inclusive but also weakened their economy. However, if carried out through sustainable, inclusive policies that need not be the case for the opportunities created in tourism, value-added small business development and industry compatible to the historic context.

Cities face increasing and diverse sets of problems relating to different groups such as the youth, senior citizens, and disabled people and so on. Their needs and problems are naturally different. As inclusiveness depends on the ability to avoid the exclusion of any group, awareness on population programs will help to enhance it. The need for a current information base is crucial to sound urban management. It is necessary to satisfy the needs of different age-groups of the population. Nepal needs to create policies and programs that reflect the perspectives of different groups of people. “For what most people see and often want in cities is not what planners, decision makers and elite groups see and want. It varies for children, for workers, for immigrants for people of different ages, incomes, occupations, and cultural backgrounds.” (Rodwin 1981: 13)

The movement of people from one place to another for various purposes is increasing and facilitated by the relative ease of travel. Internal migration may impact the place of origin due to the loss of its economically active group of people and the transfer of assets. While opportunities to work abroad and send remittances back are increasing, it also has a price to pay in terms of the family and the conditions in which foreign labor lives. While there is the need to expand opportunities in the place of origin, making it more inclusive, the capacity of cities to absorb migrants and the natural increase of current residents needs to be enhanced. Skill development and training programs are to be encouraged. It takes time for new immigrants to be integrated into a new place. This makes it necessary to dig deeper as to what happens to the receiving space and the space that is losing population. 

Kathmandu Valley has numerous sites of great archaeological, historic and religious values. Culture is a major asset in both crowded historic towns and isolated villages with people living in close harmony with nature. Their cultural charm is found in the form of diverse festivals around the year. The monuments are a part of the people’s daily life. Indigenous people can perpetuate their culture and help integrate their culture into their changing cultural and built environment.. The local people along with their aspirations and energies extend the life of their ecosystem with culture. On one hand, it is necessary to transform the traditional ways making them more sustainable. On the other hand, it is necessary to adapt sustainable modern alternatives to local conditions. Such measures will help to find sustainable ways of providing services and ensure sustainability of building and urban design. In order to enhance access and mobility, viable public transit system should be developed. Safe, functional and green connections will help to restore the public realm and make them more inclusive.

Heritage sites and well-maintained and usable open space are virtually the only urban places where people of different income level have equal access. Although the historic towns of Kathmandu Valley are good examples of an inclusive cities, there is an increasing threat. Some of the factors that sustain their inclusiveness may be summarized as follows:

• Traditions with strong resistance to change;
• Cohesive and all-inclusive design;
• Encouragements for pedestrians;
• Culture of sharing poverty;
• Sharing of urban space with opportunities for mixing together due to cultural and religious activities throughout the year; and
• Changes with ability to destroy the inherent character of the settlements have so far not thrived.

The role of the government must change from a doer to a facilitator and support the community to develop their inclusiveness. It should understand that modern changes will be resisted in the absence of adaptation measures; and all sorts of conflicts of interest will make development more costly and unsustainable.

2.              City Clusters and Inclusiveness     

Clusters can be either spontaneously induced or be planned development. They may emerge as a result of investments in infrastructure, a government decision, a new technology, the existence of research and development (R&D) centers and universities, or a chance happening. Early commercial success leads to the entry of other players keen to be part of the successful actions. Nothing succeeds like success. When municipalities become productive, others will extend their hands for increasing the competitiveness of the cities. A successful cluster can keep on increasing, as revenue streams finance more commercial activities and infrastructure. For instance, the cluster economy of Kathmandu has been developed in partnership with government. It represents an impressive body of knowledge that can be used very effectively to stimulate and support local economic development. Cluster initiatives are generally aimed at nurturing collaborative instincts and trust, and building a critical mass of relevant companies to achieve better outcomes than would otherwise be possible.

Kathmandu characterizes the emergence and evolution of functional clusters. The birth of a cluster can often be traced to historical cultural sites and the availability of raw materials, specific knowledge in R&D organizations, or traditional know-how; the specific or sophisticated needs of a group of geographically concentrated customers or companies; or the location of companies or entrepreneurs carrying out some important new technological innovations. The first stage in cluster development may involve new company spin-offs, leading to a geographic concentration of other competitor companies at a similar stage of development. Once a critical agglomeration of firms has been established, external economies are created in a cumulative process. The first indication of emerging external economies is the creation of a set of specialized suppliers and service companies. The growing exclusiveness can have adverse impacts on its economy.

The growth of the cluster often creates a demand for nonmarket services and the formation of new organizations that serve several companies in the growing cluster. The development of external economies increases the visibility, prestige, and attractiveness of the cluster, but, in the case of Kathmandu, signs of diseconomies in a sector-wise way are already visible. It has become necessary to relocate some of the activities to the outlying areas. A byproduct of relocation is the provision of infrastructure that supports new urban growth and economic development. This investment can also help alleviate poverty. Competition between various industries can bid up prices of materials and factors of production — land, labor, and capital. The labor supply is affected due to strong labor unions. Services and amenities become more costly due to over congestion so that more taxes are imposed. (Joshi 1985: 56) However, clusters can be remarkably resilient as long as businesses and governments cooperate to rejuvenate and transform the cluster. Cities become more competitive as they learn to share infrastructure and public services; access to natural resources; and skills and social capital. To appreciate the development potential of city clusters, it is important to go beyond the size of cities (as measured by population) and consider their relative economic function, power, and influence in national, urban, and regional development.

Rural-urban linkages should be utilized to make the whole region more competitive. For example, competition between industries bid up the prices of capital and labor in Kathmandu. It becomes necessary to think at scale and develop the region as a whole based on synergy. The comparative advantage of the core depends on its access to the resources of the region as a whole. Its market can be defined by the purchasing power of the region as a whole. The growth of Kathmandu region has not helped the rest of the country. It is the receiver of raw materials. It does not foster the development of lead sectors in the economy with high multiplier effects and high forward and backward linkages. The forward linkage of tourism for instance could be limited to better relations with other countries that may not lead to more investments. The backward linkage is substantial as it will urge more investments in infrastructure. However, if these could have been used by other business and household sectors it would have been better.

With regards to the rapidly urbanizing areas, it is necessary now to realize that the concept of growth corridors is not the efficient option. To make this self-financing, it is necessary to create city regions at different points of the corridor. By increasing the area of the city region, it may become possible to finance corridor development. An economic base and its resilience can be enhanced through the development of agro-processing industries and the development of export zones in border towns; which requires developing towns in the corridor as city regions with the integration of their surrounding rural areas. Agro-processing industries in city regions will help enhance livelihood opportunities in the rural regions and more people can be retained there. Cities in the terai can export their agri-products to the hills and can provide processing and packaging services for the hill raw products. Similarly trekking and eco-tourism will generate some income in the rural areas. Handicrafts are another potential sector for enhancing competitiveness. Potentially urbanized areas like Pokhara should focus on strengthening and expanding the city region. It is a fast growing important economic center with the potential to reinforce the Bhairahawa – Butwal – Pokhara corridor. Otherwise, the national urban policy to create urban economic regions will be as futile as creating regional development centers in the 1970s.

Inclusiveness helps to harness comparative advantages to make cities competitive. Nepal has the comparative advantage in terms of hydro-power, but it has not been able to utilize it, and power shortage is the major bottleneck for industrial transformation. Different factors that determine the competitiveness of cities are related with the demands of the global economy and are hence tied up with the integration of Nepal’s economy with the same. Enabling markets towards universal access to services with a view to minimizing the evils of urbanization should be the goal.

3.              Infrastructure and Inclusive Service Delivery

The failure to manage urbanization in dense urban areas has led to what might be called collective and inclusive poverty. Dirt roads, polluted rivers, garbage dumping in public places, and traffic congestion with air and noise pollution affect the entire population. However, poverty in the poorer locations is alarming; and the poor are most affected due to environmental deterioration. As conventional ways have proved to be not effective in meeting the infrastructure needs of growing regions and cities, traditional ways such as water supply through wells, water spouts etc., agricultural use of solid wastes or energy from traditional sources, can co-exist and fill in the gaps. The blending of the two should be based on combined sustainability. It is not necessarily good for a society in transition to modern ways of living, although it may be inevitable.

Savings on transport costs are certainly one positive result of location. Mixed land use helps to impact the poor’s access to affordable, higher density shelter options that would result. It is more efficient to provide services in a dense and compact area. This used to be the beauty in the design of the medieval towns. Urban sprawl has not only destroyed valuable agricultural land but it has also made the provision of services costly and inadequate. The price of public transport is not affordable to many resulting in poor people walking long hours for work and for getting access to essential services.

Every region of the nation is urbanizing in its own way. In the process, opportunities are created but they are not shared equally. Research should be undertaken to relate service delivery with affordable standards and access as well as pricing policies. It should be directed towards increasing competitiveness in the supply of infrastructure and services and ensuring equitable pricing and fiscal policies. It should deal with issues of cost sharing through a rigorous study of innovative approaches like land pooling. For an analysis of fiscal sustainability, how investments are planned and made need to be studied. Ways of monitoring the costs of urbanization should be devised in order to recover costs. Various tools of impact analysis with a focus on the role of participatory planning should be used to increase affordability and reduce exclusion. It should devise tools to identify feasible projects and ways of financing them.

One consequence of economic development can be efficiency. Productivity can increase at the expense of labor so fast that there is less labor required; and the rich with little effort can manage lots of assets and the production system. As a result, the number of poor has increased and wages have declined. This has eroded inclusiveness.

4.              Fiscal Sustainability of Municipalities and Institutions

There is an acute shortage of infrastructure and municipalities are not in a position to finance even basic infrastructure and service projects. The local resource base is still weak; although attempts were made to improve fiscal sustainability of the municipalities, they are seldom related to enhance their economic performance. Fiscal sustainability can be achieved only through reconciling the productive capacity of cities with planned urbanization. The long-term source of urban financing depends on the ability of local government to capture the wealth created through urbanization. It will not be easy for Nepalese cities to attain fiscal sustainability without inclusive service delivery because the overall affordability to pay is not adequate and there is a general lack of willingness to pay more for better services. A large number of the urban poor are engaged in the provision of services which makes cities more affordable to the more fortunate ones. Had there been no informal sector, prices of essential goods would become less affordable.

Due to poor management, there is a problem of local government fiscal sustainability. Cost recovery of most investments in infrastructure is rather poor. Under the patronage of government, cities try to maximize revenue collection within their allowable yet limited sources.

Revenue collection is not tied up with development initiatives. They seem to have apparently reached a saturation point within the given institutional environment. The meager amount collected is also shared with different tiers of government. As a result, due to serious flaws in the provision of services, productivity is not increasing. This anomaly has resulted in irregularities. The grants from the government come to the municipality in a bureaucratic way. In this context, the only way available to access basic services is to form partnership between stakeholders in urbanizing appropriate areas and share the benefits in a business-like manner. This will help enhance the fiscal sustainability of municipalities. They should be empowered to form partnerships not only with economic sectors but also with other spatial units forming collaborative efforts to launch projects that urbanize areas in a planned way generating more resources. It is wrong to presume that further urbanization in the complex urban areas will generate more resources to the desirable extent that will enhance fiscal sustainability. The overall competitiveness of the nation is at stake. The local resource base needs to be widened and deepened to ensure fiscal sustainability. Instead of creating opportunities for sustainable development and financing, tax is collected wherever possible without bothering about the future earnings. The policy is not based on sustainable earnings and the ability to pay tax.

Fiscal sustainability can be enhanced though inclusive urban development that broadens the basic service fee base of low-income users. Cities survive because of the services of the weaker section. The cost of servicing the city increases with exclusion. If people engage themselves in the provision of services as part of a service delivery system, these services will remain within the affordable reach of the people at large. 

5.              Conclusion

The analysis of urbanization in Nepal has shown that most parts of the country are rural with a very low level of urbanization. Only 11 municipalities out of 58 had a population of more than 40,000 and a density greater than 20 persons per ha according to the census of 2011. About one fifth of the national area has four fifths of the urban population. A large percentage of municipal land is under agricultural use. This has led to the premature conversion of farmland into urban uses. The competitiveness of agro-based activities has been affected. Provision of infrastructure has been less cost-effective.

Urbanization in different parts of Nepal differs widely. It is not easy to urbanize the vast rural areas, through a balanced development with sustainable use of environmental resources, in the near future due to political uncertainties resulting in the lack of viable urban development policies. These will have to be developed as rural regions for the time being. Out of the 15 planning regions, the most urbanized ones are Central Hill, Eastern and Central Terai and Western Hill. This has been influenced by changing resource conditions, access to infrastructure, and frequent changes in policy through the long transition phase to democracy and the difficult relationship with India. Urbanization in Nepal will largely depend on policy, investment and market forces with the trend of further concentration in these regions. Small city regions could be developed but sufficient investments are not foreseeable for corridor development.

Urban areas of Nepal have distinct comparative advantages in cultural tourism, services, crafts, and agro-processing, but they have not been able to turn them into competitive advantages. Lack of effective planning, limited city marketing techniques, and inadequate infrastructure are major constraints for urban growth and competitiveness.

Nepal needs to foster the sustainable growth of its urban regions, promote the development of urban regions, promote urbanizing rural regions and enhance the competitiveness of strategic urban clusters in lead activities including tourism, agro-processing and handicraft – to unleash urban-based growth and shape the spatial transformation in a sustainable way. There is overemphasis on linking regions having no economic connections with a number of so-called urban economic centers. Their influences on the surrounding areas where linkage opportunities exist are undermined.

For regions not integrated into the urban network, inputs for industries of city regions are drawn from them and their markets for their products are also their regions. Urbanization of rural regions should be facilitated not through the creation of bigger centers but through the promotion of small linkage centers. Such regions may not be able to retain either their economic base or their population as competitiveness is a relative term and all the regions cannot be equally competitive. The comparative advantage of each could provide direction to investment and inclusiveness.

Cities can form a national urban system based on an integrated economy. Such a system can unlock not yet integrated resources through the formation of market linkages with isolated economies. Cities are encouraged to expand their regions and form collaborative and thicker corridors that integrate more space into an integrated economy. Expansion of city regions and widening of corridors joining city regions will help to enhance the competitiveness of cities. This will enhance inclusiveness as most of the population can be integrated with economic development. Collaborative efforts among cities in proximity are the key to competiveness. It is sustained through the formation of clusters shown by the growth of Kathmandu region. Border towns have stagnated as clusters could not be formed and investment was denied.

To conclude, Nepal should adopt a two-pronged strategy. The first is managing the cluster economy of Kathmandu Valley through appropriate deconcentration in the light of increasing exclusion. The second strategy is inclusive city cluster or corridor development, especially, the inclusive development of the Biratnagar corridor based on trans-boundary collaboration.

References:

Joshi, Jibgar. 1985. Regional Strategy for Development: A Case Study of Nepal. Kathmandu: T. U. Press.

_______. 1997. Planning for Sustainable Development: Urban management in Nepal and South Asia. Kathmandu: Lajmina Joshi.

Rodwin, Lloyd. 1981. Cities and City Planning. New York: Plenum Press.

The new book Urban Planning in Nepal –Approaching Sustainability-authored by Dr. Jibgar Joshi, a renowned personality in the field of sustainable development and urban planning, could directly facilitate Nepali decision makers as they work out ways to develop various settlements in the country as per the spirit of federalism and modern engineering. The book, in offering a important insight into the way urban planning should be undertaken in the context of Nepal, serves actually as a tool to direct future development process. Nepal is gradually moving towards urbanization and there is no other option. Proper and timely planning is required to make cities sustainable. That is why Dr. Joshi’s book is relevant for all in academia, professions and even futurists. The author rightly mentions in the Preface to the book:  “Once considered as an extension of building as a part of civil engineering, urbanization now covers almost all the disciplines.” Dr. Joshi offers enough nutrition for many in his text, analysis and description by way of building on various 11 dimensions of urban planning. The author is very much optimistic about Nepal’s progress towards a sustainable urbanization. Dwelling on the conflict currently being felt in growing demand for and inadequate supply of services, Dr.  Joshi expresses confidence in engineers and planners particularly their skill, design, innovativeness, ICT-focused approach to respond to the conflict. Dr. Joshi advocates for province-specific and region-specific cities in Nepal. He considers the approach to be more pragmatic and to the tune of Nepal. In reference to ICT, Dr. Joshi mentions : ” ICT is used to make efficient use of infrastructure such as roads and built environment with the help of artificial intelligence and data analytics. It helps cities to learn, adapt, and innovate. It implies e-participation of all in the governance of the city. The intelligence of the stakeholders improves due to e-governance. Their improved intelligence makes them able to respond better to changing circumstances. ” The author has rightly emphasized in the book the need to transform urban planning for more effectiveness and relevance. He has offered a recipe for the same in a very interesting manner. The book could be used as text book and also a reference book. Moreover, it is a must for all those who are interested in understanding the core issues of urbanization. Dr. Joshi’s observation in the book is really appealing:  “the primary goal of planning is to enhance the public good.” Will those who are shaping planning at present for short-run political needs and manipulated popularity care to read the book? The book underlines the need for building province–specific and region–specific cities in Nepal and provides guidance to provincial leadership for this, points out senior journalist RK Regmee in his foreword on the book. Besides providing readers with updated way of looking at city development and planning, the book will facilitate the decision makers, planners and builders to refresh their thinking and construction practices about the city and developments, he rightly concludes in the foreword. Read more at: https://english.corporatenepal.com/jibgar-joshis-new-book-integrated-approach-to-urban-planning/ | Corporate Nepal – undefined