Dr. Paul Jones, Senior Lecturer and Program Director, Urban and - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

• Dr. Paul Jones, Senior Lecturer and Program Director,

Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney Wednesday, 30 November, 2011

Aims of Presentation:

Examine the nature of Pacific urbanisation – what is it,

what defines it, what makes it so unique?

What drives the Pacific urbanisation process? Examine trends in economic growth in urban areas ‐ the

importance of the contribution of urban economic activity to GDP, sectoral shifts, urbanisation as the spatial translation of the production economies of urban areas, etc

• 1. WHAT IS PACIFIC

URBANISATION?

urbanisation is a process of

social, economic and environmental change

• transition associated with the movement of people from

rural areas to towns and cities = social, economic and environmental change

• urbanisation and the resulting urban form and structure of

Pacific towns and cities can be viewed as the spatial translation of the production structure of their economies

WHAT IS PACIFIC URBANISATION?

Minister Dekena from PNG, 2010 – urbanisation is

modernising communities, villages, districts and towns so that the benefits of urbanisation are widespread, rather than being enjoyed by a small percentage of the population

thus urbanisation = spreading the benefits that higher

densities - economic agglomeration can bring

Pacific urbanisation = “urban is

civilization and civilization is modern and modern is service delivery” (Kep, 2011)

PACIFIC URBANISATION = understanding the diversity and commonalities of the 3 main sub regional contexts

Melanesia Polynesia Micronesia Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia - 3 main social, cultural, ethnic and geographical groupings of the Pacific – BIG AND SMALL ISLANDS

WHAT DEFINES PACIFIC URBANISATION?

the beginnings of Pacific towns and cities lies in colonial

creations - they are colonial imperatives, not island imperatives

geography - PLUS economic activity and land tenure strongly

influence how Pacific towns and cities urbanises

strong role of rural urban migration flows

and little economic growth means for many Pacific countries that development is POPULATION LED - not economic development as the main driver of urban change

WHAT DEFINES PACIFIC URBANISATION?

Islands still predominantly rural – subsistence Pacific urbanisation shaped by varying socio

cultural orders - norms, values, attitudes, aspirations – along a rural urban continuum

WHAT DEFINES PACIFIC URBANISATION?

the PNG concept of the cultural permeation of urban

areas - that is, how socio cultural orders play out, shape and express themselves in Pacific urban areas

expressed in differing

“rural –urban” arrangements for marriage, births, deaths, language, dress, appearance, kinship arrangements, land

WHAT DEFINES PACIFIC URBANISATION? HOW DO WE CONCEPTUALISE URBAN?

What does the spatial term urban mean in the Pacific context?

In June and July, 2011, images and thoughts associated with the term ‘urban’ from students from the University of PNG, Port Moresby, and the University of the South Pacific, South Tarawa. urban drift, bars and nightlife, lost identity, values gone, empty villages, big man disappeared, money talks, insecurity, big island, fast lane, ID cards, rubbish and rubbish, divided cities, Japanese cars, overcrowding, hubs

• f education, wantoks lost.

PACIFIC URBANISATION DRIVING GROWTH

the rise of the ‘rural villages in the city’ =

squatter and informal settlements = rural in nature and identity

settlers live and behave via

norms and values practised in rural villages

• increasing number of

enclaves with distinct connections to rural kin and location

MAIN URBAN DEVELOPMENT - SQUATTER AND INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS DRIVING GROWTH

• main source of Pacific town and city urban growth – they

are the future form of urban development for many PICs

• % squatters and informal settlements - Port Moresby 45-

50% (over 100 settlements), Honiara 35%, Suva 15-50%, Port Vila and Luganville 30%, South Tarawa 30%,etc

• exist to varying degrees in all Pacific towns and cities -

now a permanent feature of Pacific urban structure

• the rise of the ‘rural village in the city’ – live in identifiable

urban villages with kin from rural areas ........................... * the emergence of ‘village cities’

The emergence of ‘Village Cities’ in Melanesia - Port Moresby with 40-50%

• f population in

settlements

SQUATTER AND INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS – “rural village in the city”

The emergence in Melanesia

• f

‘Village Cities’

Major implications for urban development and management Port Moresby

• 2. WHAT DRIVES THE

URBANISATION PROCESS?

Rates of urbanisation (% urban) are determined by three factors:

• Rural to urban migration – flows from rural to areas defined

as urban

• Natural growth rates (births - deaths, fertility, etc)
• Reclassification of rural areas to urban - the inclusion of

peri urban areas Increasing focus on rural to urban movement

WHAT DRIVES THE URBANISATION PROCESS?

Rural urban migration – why?

• Real or perceived inequalities in different areas
• ‘Push factors’ such as family and clan issues, lack of work,

etc

• ‘Pull factors’ such as employment opportunties, (real or

imagined), education, kin and clan, bright lights etc AND

• Poverty – replacing rural poverty with urban poverty:

urban is seen as a better alternative than rural poverty

WHAT DRIVES PACIFIC URBANISATION: TRANSPOSING RURAL TO URBAN POVERTY

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 Cook Is. 2005/06 Fiji Is. 2002/03 Kiribati 2006 FSM 2005 Palau 2006 PNG 1996 Samoa 2002 Solomon Is. 2005/06 Timor Leste 2001 Tonga 2002 Tuvalu 2005 Vanuatu 2006 %

Urban and Rural Basic Needs Poverty Incidence

Urban Rural

* Impact of GFC – elevated urban poverty

• nto the development agenda

* Less subsistence in urban than rural areas

• 3. WHAT DRIVES PACIFIC

URBANISATION? ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

How well are towns and cities

performing regarding GDP?

Assessment problematic as economic planners do not assess

GDP at the urban spatial level on a systematic basis

Despite their inefficiencies and

constraints, Pacific urban areas are engines of economic growth and significant contributors to GDP

PACIFIC URBANISATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

• national GDP produced directly or indirectly in

urban areas - 80% in Port Vila and Luganville, Rarotonga 60%, 60% in Fiji urban, Apia 70% and South Tarawa 60%

URBAN ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

• as a general trend, the share of GDP derived from agriculture

has been declining, while the proportional share of GDP from services, such as tourism, and for some countries, resources, has been increasing.

• for some, such as PNG, there has been an increase in GDP

derived from natural resources, including activities associated with mining, forestry and fishing. The service sector accounts for the largest share of GDP in most countries, nearly with PNG the main exception.

• the shift in GDP distribution has been increasingly focused in

urban areas

URBAN ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

PIC

Agriculture % Industry % Services % 2004 2005 2006 2004 2005 2006 2004 2005 2006 PNG 26 42 42 39 39 39 35 19 19 Fiji 15 15 15 26 26 26 59 59 59 Kiribati 14 14 7 11 11 7 75 75 86 Tonga 29 29 29 15 15 15 56 56 56 Vanuatu

• 16
• 19
• 82

East Timor 32 32 32 15 15 15 53 53 53

Sectoral distribution of GDP, 2006 – selected PICs

URBAN ECONOMIC ACTIVITY SUPPORTS THE RURAL ECONOMY

urban based economic activities have strengthened the viability of rural economic development by providing markets, processing centres and trans-shipment points for rural products, natural resources and other goods.

Urban form and structure of PICs = the spatial translation of the production structure of their economies.

URBAN ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

Main urban sectors generating GDP

• services - including finance, business, tourism,

information, and accommodation;

• transport and communications
• industry and construction
• public administration
• Urban areas are

direct and indirect hubs of support for economic activity and national GDP

URBAN ECONOMIC ACTIVITY – informal

• Major role played by expanding urban informal sector - in

Melanesia, market places (urban and rural) play a major role

• Exchange, bartering, paid and unpaid including village and

community work – not just cash transfers

URBAN ECONOMIC ACTIVITY - INFORMAL RESILENT AND STRONG Four Mile Settlement – Port Moresby

cooked food, drinks including alcohol, marijuana, stolen goods, second hand clothing, prostitution, animals (raising of dogs, pigs, cats, chickens and ducks), store food and goods, buia and beetle nut, cigarettes, tobacco, fish and crabs, vegetables, fruits, sago, sweets and lollies, gambling (cards, darts, bingo), billums (shoulder bags), string making, coconut brooms, illegal household connections to water and power, land ‘sales’ and plot allocation, money lending and petty crime

SUMMARY - Pacific Urbanisation: Driving Growth and Development

• In many PICs, urbanisation is population led rather than

driven by economic development opportunities – e.g. squatter camps surviving on urban subsistence

• Need to understand urbanisation – but move on to

addressing urban management and planning ‘solutions’

• Urbanisation and change

cannot be divorced from wider structural issues including Fragile-Weak states:

• The condition of urbanisation

reflects wider national issues

SUMMARY - Pacific Urbanisation: Driving Growth and Development

• Pacific urban is complex, messy and rich

in cultural diversity

• Despite stuttering or badly managed PIC

economies, urban economies are still engines of growth

• water supply, sanitation, drainage, waste management,

power, roads, bridges etc - form the urban lifeline and underpin urban economic growth - yet, there is little analysis

• n drivers of urban GDP - the connectivity of formal and

informal economic activities - and their relationship to specific programs of urban investments

SUMMARY - Pacific Urbanisation: Driving Growth and Development

• distinction between liveability and sustainability blurred in

most urban areas: hardship and poverty place the natural environment under pressure – day to day survival takes precedence over longer terms plans and policies .

SUMMARY - Pacific Urbanisation: Driving Growth and Development

• Badly managed urbanisation reaffirms that the gap between

rich and poor is growing - divided towns and cities which are not inclusive are the norm - and there is a growing urban underprivileged class especially in Melanesia urban. THANK YOU