The Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) has called on governments at various levels to engage and collaborate with indigenous professional planners to embark on physical planning to enable Nigeria absorb the projected negative socioeconomic impacts on its towns and cities.
According to its president, Nathaniel Atebije, proactiveness is key to sustainable development, adding that political will is imperative to success, while funding is the fulcrum on which implementation of plans and policies oscillate.
Speaking during the commemoration of the World Habitat Day, the NITP president urged the government and the people of Nigeria to stringently imbibe the principles of circular economy and adopt the “Rs” of waste management which include reduce, reuse, refuse, recycle, recover, repurpose and rethink to give the enabling environment, create resilient urban economies and facilitate cities’ roles as drivers of growth and recovery.
He described World Habitat Day as a day to reflect on the state of human settlements in every part of the world.
“It sets to assess the level of achievement in meeting with the basic rights to adequate shelter, and reminds the world of its shared responsibility to protect the future of human habitat,” he said.
Nations, he said, are expected to take proactive actions that would shape the future of settlements through appropriate policies, programmes and action plans to promote sustainable development.
The choice of the theme for this year’s event, ‘Resilient Urban Economies: Cities as Drivers of Growth and Recovery,’ he said, was not only apt but timely, noting that it was essentially focused on how cities could position their economies to benefit residents.
He said it stemmed from the shocks and stresses that urban economies had suffered with the breakout of diseases and plagues of COVID –19 and climate change as well as those of local and international aggressions/insecurity such as wars, banditry, and insurgency.
He pointed out that challenges which seemed to be unabated had impacted negatively on the economies of where they exist and indeed beyond the immediate shores of the countries to other nations
“Cities are known to be centers of innovation and engines of growth. It has been projected that about seven billion people will be living in cities by 2050.
When cities become vulnerable due to physical, social and economic problems, Atebije is of the opinion that driving towards sustainable development becomes jeopardised and the livability of such human agglomerations becomes a big challenge.
He cited how the Ukrainian-Russian War has affected not only the economies of most cities and towns in Ukraine and global wheat supplies but the economies of most European countries.
He also emphasised that armed conflicts in some parts of Africa had affected the economies of most cities and towns in African countries.
“We cannot forget negative economic shocks from natural disaster like hurricane, flooding, earthquakes, strong monsoonal winds, landslides among others,” he said, adding that the inflationary pressure on the Nigerian economy and the citizens also have negative socio-economic impacts on the towns and cities.
According to him, such cities are currently experiencing economic slowdowns, saying it has become essential to identify actions that cities could take to boost economic recovery and how to position themselves to tackle these challenges.
“It should be noted that 2023 has been a particularly challenging year for urban economies. There is a noticeable decline in the growth of global economy and cities, whichare thus affected by this decline.
“This becomes very worrisome because cities contribute immensely to the national economy of any nation and the future of many countries will be determined by the productivity of its urban areas.
“Cities thus, can play the pivotal role in boosting economic recovery.
For this economic growth and recovery to be sustainable, there is need for cities to absorb, recover and prepare for the future economic shocks.
“It is crucial that this should also be packaged under the green recovery framework that scales up private and public investments to finance the transition to a climate neutral economy in post Covid world.
“Furthermore, efforts should be made to local finance framework for cities and communities, to help distribute existing funding and finance to where it can deliver the greatest impact.
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