Pakistan currently has 82 million people living in urban areas, of which 30 million live in informal settlements. Karachi is no different: about half of its population lives in informal settlements.
Therefore, the growing urban population in Pakistan must be accompanied by effective urban planning and development initiatives. This has become even more important following the devastating floods in Pakistan, which caused further migration from rural areas to already migrant-stressed cities like Karachi.
These observations were made during an international conference on urban resilience titled “Reimagining Resilience: The Transition to Sustainable Cities”, which was organized by the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi, in collaboration with UNDP Pakistan and Sindh Government at IBA City Campus on Wednesday.
The conference facilitated expert discussions and policy recommendations for Pakistan to effectively respond to urban resilience and development challenges. He focused on reinventing resilience to create a new paradigm for city governance.
He suggested doing this by stepping out of traditional governance and economic development approaches and creating spaces for engagement with citizens and experts to create inclusive and climate-smart cities.
The conference brought together senior government officials, national and international urban resilience advocates, subject matter experts and representatives from the Pakistani private sector and UN agencies.
Dr S Akbar Zaidi, Executive Director of IBA Karachi and Principal Investigator of the UNDP-IBA Karachi Urban Resilience Project, said that although cities are seen as hubs of economic activity, poor urban planning has left many people in need of basic services such as water, electricity, energy, health and education.
“The unregulated expansion of these communities has resulted in overloaded transport networks, which compounds the problem of poor employment opportunities for these people,” Dr Zaidi added.
UNDP Resident Representative in Pakistan, Knut Ostby, said that while Pakistan’s current urban context presents a crisis for cities and its governments, it also presents an opportunity to build resilience.
“This is critical to achieving sustainable development and ensuring that urban areas continue to serve as inclusive spaces for human development and economic growth,” Ostby added.
The keynote address was delivered by Sindh Environment Minister Ismail Rahoo who said that despite contributing less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, Pakistan is among the most vulnerable countries. He highlighted the various sustainable development initiatives of the provincial government for Karachi through public-private partnerships.
Karachi Commissioner Iqbal Memon’s speech focused on the challenges faced by policy makers due to a lack of data. The introductory session of the conference concluded with the presentation by Dr Zaidi and Ostby of the UNDP-IBA report on “Migration, Livelihoods and Resilience in Karachi: A Study on Social Cohesion and Informal Urban Settlements to Rahoo. The report is the culmination of six-month research conducted by UNDP Pakistan and IBA Karachi in two informal settlements of the city: Azam Basti and Rehri Goth.