Development Ethics and the Livable City

1. Development Ethics and the Livable City Exploring the Ethical Dimensions of the World Bank’s New Urban Strategy Urban Anchor ~ 20 September 2001 Chloe Schwenke

2. Development Ethics • “…the normative or ethical assessment of the ends and means of development.” • “What ethical and other value issues emerge in development policies and practices and how should they be resolved?” • David Crocker

3. Some definitions • Moral ~ good/bad or right/wrong in character or conduct • Ethical ~ system or code of moral principles • Normative ~ of or establishing a norm or standard of conduct or character that should or must be followed

4. UNDP Human Rights Approach • Human Rights + Human Development • Common vision • Common purpose • “To secure the freedom, well-being and dignity of all people everywhere” • UNDP Human Development Report 2000

5. Research Question • Is there a role for the UNDP’s Human Rights Approach in the World Bank’s Urban Strategy?

6. 4 Policy Initiatives • World Bank: “Cities in Transition” ~ Urban and Local Government Strategy • World Bank: “Cities Without Slums” • Cities Alliance: “Making Cities Work for All” ~ Global Action Plan for City Development Strategies • Habitat: The Global Campaign for Good Urban Governance

7. The Global Campaign for Good Urban Governance • Focus on the promotion of inclusiveness • Supporting consensus-building governance processes between local gov’t and civil society • Establishing priorities for socio-economic development • International “Declaration of Norms”

8. Questions • “Good” urban governance? • Consensus-building around whose perception of the “common good”, articulated how? • Whose development priorities, ranked how and by whom, in what time, by what justification?

9. City Development Strategy • good governance, social inclusion, poverty reduction, a collective vision, better service delivery, transparency & accountability, security • “…intended to set new norms and standards of practice in cities…”

10. Questions • CDS: “Good urban governance is characterized by sustainability, decentralization, equity, efficiency, transparency and accountability, civic engagement and citizenship, and security…” • Who says so, and why this list? • What’s left out: justice, decency, respect for human rights, democracy, freedom, human flourishing…why?

11. WB Urban Strategy: “Livable” • the absence of extremes of poverty or inequality; • a healthful environment • personal security ~ low risk from crime and violence • inclusiveness of civil protections and opportunities for participation in the political process • cultural and recreational amenities

12. Livability • Closely tied to “decency”, “human dignity”, “quality of life” • A cross-sectoral, embracing concept • Empirical and normative • Relative and contextual • Universal or particular?

13. Questions • How does a city become, and stay, livable? At what point is a city livable? • How much is enough? • Who is responsible for the livability of a city? For the lack of livability? • What does the concept of livability do for public policy?

14. Observation • A morally justifiable, rationally consistent, ethically grounded basis should be used to make sense of, and advocate for, concepts such as livability, good governance, inclusiveness… • Some method should be used to qualitatively articulate “the common good” and convert this into public policy

15. Reality check • Who is responsible for livability in the developing world: • Most cities lack pro-active self-governance ~ city governments are not effective agents of change • Governance and public administration are sectoral & departmental • Performance of public policy evaluated mostly on quantitative indicators • Few cities are “planned”

16. Measuring quantity • What is the moral basis for setting the quantitative threshold ~ resources, rights & services, opportunities ~ that all should have? • Should such threshold standards be comparable, city to city, state to state? • What about moral issues of distribution? • Within the nation? The city? The household? Between individuals? • Who and how many people should be “sacrificed”?

17. Measuring quality • On whose moral standards? • Local or universal? • Local interpretation of universal? • Local and universal?

18. Setting moral standards • Are moral standards intuitive? • And/or… • set by (evolved from) local and/or national deliberative processes, institutions, culture and tradition, • imposed by “authority”, • agreed to by “social contract”, • derived from an ethical framework?

19. World Bank’s position • Local priorities ~ focus is on the issues of greatest local concern for livability. • National dialogue ~ depends on the formulation of a national urban strategy – placing “the urban agenda properly within the macroeconomic dialogue”. • International linkage ~ calls for close collaboration with Bank staff. • No specific ethical approach or standards.

20. Universalism • The concept of “common humanity” grounding notions of human dignity • An evolving “world community”? • “Minimum universalism” ~ accepts moral diversity but insists upon a universally valid body of core values used to judge moral life • Universal constants ~ human dignity, worth, equality • Universal standards  cultural homogeneity

21. Some Universalism? • “Some values are embedded in and underpin all human societies, and a broad consensus on them either already exists or can be secured.” • Chris Brown • “…it is no exaggeration to suggest that virtually all areas of the domestic structure of states are covered by some kind of international standard-setting.” • Chris Brown

22. If Universalism • Which set of moral standards – or ethical framework - should apply? • Some possible candidates: • Capabilities approach and “list” of qualitative indicators (Sen, Nussbaum, Crocker) • Human rights approach (UNDP, Shue) • Basic needs approach (Streeten)

23. Capabilities approach No agreed list of parameters of “the good life” No institutional basis or global support infrastructure Relatively new Largely theoretical, but persuasive Basic needs approach Narrows the development agenda to a possibly arbitrary choice of “basic needs sectors” Principle of making the poor more productive may have little to do with human flourishing Assuming universalism, narrowing the field…

24. Overlap: Rights, Capabilities & Freedoms • “If human development focuses on the enhancement of the capabilities and freedoms that the members of a community enjoy, human rights represent the claim that individuals have on the conduct of individual and collective agents and on the design of social arrangements to facilitate or secure the capabilities and freedoms”. • UNDP Human Development Report 2000

25. Definitions • Rights ~ claims that people make on each other, on social institutions, and on political authorities. • Human rights ~ claims and protections to which all people are entitled as human beings.

26. Human rights & development • “The world now accepts that sustainable development is impossible without human rights. What has been missing is the recognition that the advancement of an interconnected set of human rights is impossible without development.” • World Bank

27. Human rights • “The suspicion is that there is something a little simple-minded about the entire conceptual structure that underlies the oratory on human rights”. • Amartya Sen • “The justification for human rights is that they are meant to protect human dignity.” • Avishai Margalit

28. Reality check • “To the realist, human rights are largely irrelevant to the national interest defined in terms of power.” • Jack Donnelly • Human rights ~ “…an attempt by the powerless to restrain the powerful.” • Friedrich Nietzsche

29. Imperfect duties ~ Sen • Human rights claims not fully realizable now, but entitlements arising from such claims would be good for people to have, and ought to be provided • Moral obligation on institutions of society to constantly demonstrate progress in the discharge of duties imposed by recognized human rights, and maintain this as a policy formulation priority

30. Development cooperation • Direct contribution to realizing human rights in poor countries • 1) capacity building for democracy and promotion of human rights • 2) eradication of income and human poverty • 3) introduces an explicit rights-based approach to programming

31. Freedom from Discrimination Want Fear and insecurity injustice Freedom to Develop and realize one’s potential Participate Freedom for Decent work without exploitation Freedom of Thought, speech UNDP HR Approach and Freedoms

32. Poverty? Livability? Competitiveness? Good governance and management? Bankability? How to implement? Indicators and standards? Imposed universalism? World Bank role? Does the UNDP HR Approach Add Value?

33. UNDP HR Approach and Quality • Does the UNDP HR Approach (based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) provide the framework for describing the livable city, and setting urban development and good urban governance policy objectives on this basis? • Does any other ethical framework do the job better?