
THE 2021 UN-Habitat report “Cities and Pandemic: Towards a More Just, Green and Healthy Future” highlights four areas critical for sustainable and sustainable recovery from the Covid-19 health crisis.
The first is to look at poverty, says UN-Habitat executive director Datuk Seri Maimunah Mohd Sharif.
“Covid-19 has made people poorer – not only have the poor become poorer, but we also have the emerging poor, especially those in the most vulnerable areas such as coastal areas and those linked in the informal sector.”
Second, he said, is that we need to look at a new way of urban design, a new way of looking at cities.
“Sometimes when you talk about ‘urban design’, it seems like a very big concept. But during the Covid-19 pandemic, for example, many city dwellers have started cycling and many cities are rethinking their public spaces.
“It’s not that all countries, including Malaysia, are not doing it but we need to do more.”
In Kuala Lumpur, for one, Mayor Datuk Seri Mahadi Che Ngah said that they will expand and improve the bicycle lanes that they started in 2018, he said.
“According to the mayor, this is very useful during the Covid-19 pandemic because many people decide to ride a bike instead of taking public transportation to be safe.”
Covid-19 also shows how we can have a better environment.
“During the lockdown, there is less pollution in cities around the world, rivers are cleaner and there is more wildlife everywhere, even in cities,” Maimunah said.
“That’s why we encourage cities to return to nature by thinking about nature-based solutions in their urban design. The vision of UN-Habitat is to promote a better quality of life for all, which also includes flora and fauna, not only humans, for all in the urbanising world.
The third is that we need to create a “new normal” economic model.
“During the pandemic, we have seen more digitization of the e-economy, for example, growing phailing. [food] delivery services and more people working from home.
“That’s why we need new thinking for city planning and urban renewal to promote the digitalization of cities,” he said, noting that globally, half of the world’s population is still offline, meaning they do not have access to the Internet.
And fourth, he said is management.
“We have to look at the city management, our guidelines, our tools, our rules. It’s time we get back to them.”