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Weekly Urban News Update
September 25, 2020
In This Update
Governments and NGOs Launch City Climate Finance Gap Fund
Russian Landlords Struggle During COVID-19
Coronavirus Devastates Mexico City Neighborhood
Street Vendors in India Continue to Suffer from COVID-19 Fallout
Community Mapping in Makako Helps Residents Assert Rights
Community Trailblazers Podcast Features IHC Global President/CEO Judith Hermanson
In the News And Around the Web
Governments and NGOs Launch City Climate Finance Gap Fund
On Wednesday, the City Climate Finance Gap Fund was launched by German and Luxembourg government ministries, the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, the Global Covenant of Mayors, ICLEI, and C40 Cities. The Fund will support city and local governments implement climate-smart projects by offering technical services and accelerating investments in developing economies. Cities account for 70% of the world’s CO2 emissions and experts estimate that $93 trillion in sustainable infrastructure investment is needed to meet the 2030 climate goals. The Fund aims to ultimately unlock $4 billion of investment in climate innovation.

Read more here.
Russian Landlords Struggle During COVID-19
Landlords in Russian cities are struggling as job losses stemming from the COVID-19 outbreak have lowered rental demand. Unemployed tenants are unable to pay rent, remote work has lowered demand to live in major cities, and the pandemic has meant the absence of foreign students who comprise a significant portion of renters. Approximately ten million people live in rented accommodation currently, yet only half plan to continue to rent in the next two years. One Moscow real estate agent explains: “Many clients of mine lost their tenants after the quarantine measures…But those landlords who cut prices by 20-30% compared with early this year have found new tenants again.” 

Read more here.
Coronavirus Devastates Mexico City Neighborhood
Coronavirus is devastating the Iztapalapa neighborhood of Mexico City, the country's coronavirus epicenter. Iztapalapa is the most populous and densely populated district in Mexico and home to Central de Abasto, the largest produce market in the Western Hemisphere. City officials never closed Central de Abasto during lockdown, which employed 100,000 people in March. As of May, they estimated that one of every 10 people put on a ventilator in Mexico City had been in the market. However, officials did shut all other 354 outdoor markets in Iztapalapa which left 40,000 workers unemployed. 

Read more here.
Street Vendors in India Continue to Suffer from COVID-19 Fallout
Street vendors in India are continuing to suffer from the fallout of COVID-19. Although India, the country second-hardest hit by the virus worldwide, has reopened, concerns about coronavirus are keeping customers away. In some parts of the country, authorities have forbidden elderly vendors from returning to work as they are considered high-risk for virus contraction. In June, the government launched a loan scheme to help five million of the country’s ten million vendors, but many feel the amount offered is insufficient. One vendor explains: “It’s a lot of effort for just pocket change. They don’t realize how much we have to spend on raw material, transport, and helpers.” 

Read more here.
Community Mapping in Makako Helps Residents Assert Rights
Community-mapping is helping residents of the Makako settlement in Lagos assert their rights in the face of gentrification, expanding real estate projects, and evictions. Although Makako is situated in the center of Lagos and home to 250,000 people, it has remained a blank spot on maps until now. The nonprofit Code for Africa is training young people to fly drones and collect geodata, creating a detailed and publicly available maps, and running a map-driven, data journalism campaign on living conditions in the settlement. The initiative will also help build disaster resilience in Makoko, where a third of the community lives on stilts along a lagoon and are especially vulnerable to climate shocks.

Read more here.
Community Trailblazers Podcast Features IHC Global President/CEO Judith Hermanson
IHC Global President and CEO Judith Hermanson was featured on the Community Trailblazers Podcast, an initiative of the American Academy of Housing and Communities, which features distinguished Academy Fellows who have had a major impact on world affairs, federal policy, and the development of community culture through courageous action to bring about change. Judith spoke about the Smart City Just City initiative as well as the Sustainable Development Goals, the challenge of inequality as a destabilizing force around the world, and using innovation and creativity to implement systems change to improve the lives of all city dwellers. 

Read more here.
In the News and Around the Web

  • Are Cities Defunding Their Police Departments? CityLab examines which American cities are decreasing or increasing police funding.

  • UN-Habitat Launches Safer Cities Challenge: UN-Habitat launched a 40 Days Safer Cities Challenge to raise awareness about safety in cities and urban crime and promote concrete, innovative action.

  • ICYMI: The Launch of the International Water and Sanitation Caucus: IHC Global wrote about the launch of the U.S. Congressional International Water and Sanitation Caucus last week.
Pictured: The Central de Abasto market, the epicenter of Mexico City's outbreak.
(Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times)
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