Functionally Effective Legal Urban Frameworks: Identifying Models And Implementation Paths In Urban Development

Overall, the project will help address urban legislation issues, knowledge gaps and tool development that are impending good urban governance and urban development. The project will be beneficial to support the implementation of UN-Habitat's legislative reform processes at country level and to provide UN member states with knowledge material and training packages to improve their urban legal frameworks. The direct short- term benefits produced by the project outputs and their utilization are:

1. Improved Government effectiveness in particular the quality of policy formulation and implementation, reinforcing the link between public policy and law;
2. Reinforced rule of law through the increased implementation of urban legislation;
3. Tackle the legal and institutional exclusion of poor and marginalized people from property rights and tenure security, economic opportunities, basic urban services (water, sanitation, and electricity) and from the right to participate to the city decision making process;
4. A simpler and clearer urban legal system will reduce corruption and discretion of public officials; and,
5. Better understanding by city leaders of the constraints of their current legal and institutional framework.

Objectives and expected outcomes of the project include:

1. Improve quality of physical planning and development control law at national and local levels. (By developing an implementation oriented approach to its core elements, in a manner that reflects the three pillars of the United Nations: peace and security; development; and, human rights and the rule of law).
2. Improve functional effectiveness of Legal Urban Frameworks in at least 2 targeted states. Functional effectiveness (i.e. practical impact in delivering agreed policy in the most efficient manner possible) in legal frameworks to deliver poverty reduction (through enhancement of equity or “substantive equality” based approaches to investment, service delivery and the framing of the public function of institutions), protection of public space and public ownership of buildability rights, accountability, equity and inclusion for vulnerable groups and long term sustainable development by supporting national and local governments to formulate and implement laws and regulations that:

• Identify clear and achievable priorities appropriate to resource poor settings; 
• Enhance local government capacity; 
• Promote clear and balanced resource allocation processes responsive to local and national need; 
• Facilitate environmental sustainability; and, 
• Are scalable as capacity grows. Special emphasis will be placed in street design, plotting and building codes, with particular attention to implementability.

3. Enhance a clear understanding of city leaders of the constraints of their current legal and institutional framework.Partnerships are considered fundamental to the success of the project.Collaborating Partners: Internal UN-Habitat relevant Branches; Member states and partner local governments seeking to reform their urban law frameworks. UN-Habitat has also received expressions of interest from several private sector companies and academic members of its UrbanLex partnership. A broad partnership will be sought for implementation.