ESG Imaginaries to Make Cities Work
‘ESG Imaginaries to Make Cities Work’ is a webinar series co-organised by ESG in collaboration with Habitat Forum – INHAF
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ESG Imaginaries to Make Cities Work
A series of webinars on developing ESG Imaginaries to Make Cities Work is the outcome of a collaboration between ESG and Habitat Forum India – INHAF.
Organised through July and August 2022, the webinars contextualise emerging challenges of urbanisation in frameworks of governance solutions. Leading urban researchers and administrators from across India and the world engage in thematic discussions relating to sectoral and cross-sectoral dynamics of imagining cities as sustainable and inclusive spaces. This is particularly critical at a time when the majority of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and over 60% of India’s population will be urbanised in the next decade or two.
- The first webinar on “Waste and Governance” was held on 7th July 2022 and its report is accessible here and the video recording here.
- The second webinar was on “Challenges of Securing Urban Commons” held on 14th July 2022, and its report is accessible here and the video recording here.
- The third webinar was on “Mobility and Infrastructure” held on 21st July 2022, and its report is accessible here and the video recording here.
- The fourth webinar was on “Making Cities of The 21st Century Inclusive” held on 17th August 2022, and its report is accessible here and the video recording here.
Week 3 Of ESG Imaginaries To Make Cities Work: Mobility & Infrastructure
ESG has worked with street communities to reclaim streets as public commons, to protect street vendor rights, to promote pedestrian and cycling rights, to secure urban greenery – especially tree lines and heritage spaces, all to promote the idea of a city that would ensure inclusivity is central to such public spaces and infrastructure. The argument has been and continues to be that there must be deep democratisation of decision making relating to mobility and infrastructure development so that the promise of Article 39 B – that ownership and employment of material resources best serve the common good – is actually an argument for protecting commons, ensuring good health, promoting environmentally viable and equitable livelihoods, and ensuring the city is a construct that is socially responsible, economically viable and ecologically wise.
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Week 2 of ESG Imaginaries to Make Cities Work: Challenges of Securing Urban Commons
ESG has worked with this problematique of the commons and demonstrated how securing them can be a win-win for all. Working with communities to resist privatisation of commons, such as lakes, and then asking for a policy to protect them with Public Trust Doctrine and the principle of intergenerational equity as the basis, has resulted in path breaking outcomes – rehabilitation of lakes as inclusive commons and as sacred spaces that deserve community and statutory protection to advance ecological and water security.
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Week 1 Report: Waste And Governance
The 1st webinar as part of the ESG Imaginaries To Make Cities Work was on the theme Waste And Governance and held on 7th July 2022 (5-7 pm). Kirthee Shah, Founder President of INHAF set the tone by explaining the background to the series. The webinar was anchored by Leo F. Saldanha, Coordinator and Trustee of ESG, and Bhargavi S. Rao, Trustee and Senior Fellow at ESG, who also provided an introduction to ESG’s diverse efforts on governance of waste management, and its implications to governance overall. Respondents were Prof. Amita Bhide, Dean, School of Habitat Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences; Rizwana Hasan of Bangladesh Environmental Law Alliance; Maitreyi Krishnan of Manthan Law and Shibu Nair of Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives.
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Week 1 of ESG Imaginaries To Make Cities Work: Waste And Governance
For over two decades, ESG has focussed on the emerging urban environmental and socio-economic challenges and has been working with multiple communities, government agencies, academia, media, etc. The approach has always been about finding viable and inclusive solutions to vexatious problems advocating deeply democratic processes that draw on intersectoral, interdisciplinary, intersectional experiences, knowledge and histories. Bangalore and other cities today are in a mess as they follow highly centralised governance approaches that drift from existing legal provisions in which the various local publics find no place to imagine their futures as part of a collective imagining of the city’s future.
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