Summary

This report, focusing on the urban challenge, brings together concrete case studies from cities around the world which are struggling, but also in many cases succeeding in tackling issues from waste and transportation to river and air pollution. Capturing and sharing experiences and lessons learnt is essential. Therefore the experiences of these 12 urban areas—from coastal cities such as Alexandria, Egypt, Bayamo in the Caribbean island of Cuba and a sub-Saharan setting such as Nakuru, Kenya to the rapidly developing city of Yangzhou, China and an industrialised one like Calgary, Canada—are more than a good read. They offer lessons on what has worked, what may work and what may fail elsewhere—lessons that can, if sensitively and carefully considered, offer mayors and managers of urban environments across continents the chance to test innovative ideas that others have proved successful elsewhere. The report uses the unique approach of highlighting the simple message of,“Why this Case Study is Important”. It also showcases some intriguing options for sustainable urban development. The city of Bayamo in Cuba, faced with a situation where motorised transport was available to just 15 percent of local commuters, has in 2004 reverted to horse-drawn carriages. Horse-drawn services now take care of around 40 percent of local transport needs, demonstrating that motorised transport is not the only solution to a public transport problem.