logo logo
Donate
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Social Justice
    • Racial Justice
    • Climate Justice
    • Disability Justice
    • Economic Justice
    • Health Justice
    • Immigration
    • LGBTQ+
  • Civic News
  • Nonprofit Leadership
    • Board Governance
    • Equity-Centered Management
    • Finances
    • Fundraising
    • Human Resources
    • Organizational Culture
    • Philanthropy
    • Power Dynamics
    • Strategic Planning
    • Technology
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Leading Edge Membership
  • Newsletters
  • Webinars

The Fragility of Cities and What to Do About It

Cyndi Suarez
November 28, 2017
Pexels. Public domain.

November 27, 2017; CityLab

Robert Muggah, a security and development specialist, has developed the concept of fragile cities to highlight the need for cities, countries, and regions to address the manifold challenges facing the world’s growing urban population. The challenges are widespread. Earlier this year, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (the investment arm of Bank of America), “referring to a roughly $75 trillion infrastructure gap,” found that 80 percent of the world’s cities “show signs of fragility.”

Writing for CityLab, Muggah explains,

Fragility is the manifestation of a convergence of multiple stresses…such as homicide, lack of potable water, or pollution…As these risks accumulate, they undermine a city’s social contract and in extreme cases can push it to the brink of collapse. All cities are fragile to a greater or lesser degree—it is not the preserve of power urban agglomerations alone. Nor is fragility a permanent condition, as the case of Colombia’s remarkable rebound shows.

Such cities offer “insights into the health of nations.” However, measuring a city’s fragility is tricky due to the interplay of factors. Muggah’s 15-year research covers 2,100 cities with populations of at least 250,000. He identifies 11 risk factors, which include:

  • The speed of population growth
  • Levels of unemployment
  • Income inequality
  • Access to basic services (electricity, water, sanitation)
  • Homicide rates
  • Terrorism
  • Conflict events
  • Concentration of poverty (beyond 40 percent)
  • Deficits in law enforcement and criminal justice
  • Weather-related shocks

In his TED Talk, he says, “You don’t need to be on the front line…to get a sense that our planet is spinning out of control.” In an attempt to counter the feeling that “international instability is the new normal,” he proposes that we focus on cities, especially fragile ones.

According to Muggah,

Most people today live in cities, not the countryside. Just 600 cities, including 30 megacities, account for two-thirds of global GDP. But when it comes to cities, the conversation is dominated by the North—that is, North America, Western Europe, Australia, and Japan—where violence is actually at historic lows. As a result, city enthusiasts, they talk about the triumph of the city, of the creative classes, and the mayors that will rule the world.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Now, I hope that mayors do one day rule the world, but the fact is we don’t hear any conversation really about what is happening in the South. And by South, I mean Latin America, Africa, Asia, where violence in some cases is accelerating, where infrastructure is overstretched, and where governance is sometimes aspiration and not a reality.

Some diplomats and development experts and specialists, they talk about 40 to 50 fragile states that will shape security in the 21st century. I think it’s fragile cities which will define the future of order and disorder.

The most fragile cities are rapidly urbanizing cities, which don’t have the time to develop adequate services for a growing population. African cities top the list with 92 percent of them identified as having very or medium fragility. The top three are all in Somalia: Mogadishu, Kismaayo, and Merca. Asia comes in second with 85 percent. The fewest fragile cities are in Canada, Japan, Australia, the US, and Norway.

Muggah notes, “The transition of Colombia’s cities from fragility to resilience is breathtaking.” Colombia’s capital, Bogotá, “was rated by FDI Intelligence as one of Latin America’s top destinations for foreign direct investment and a City of the Future.” Medellín, Colombia’s second-largest city, won the World City Prize in 2016 and the World’s Most Innovative City in 2013, “beating out New York City and Tel Aviv.” Muggah hopes that Colombia offers a “hopeful lesson…that urban fragility can be designed out.”

He concludes,

It requires forward-looking city plans, agile decision-making structures, and solutions that are inter-systemic…an approach known locally as “urban acupuncture.” Strategies involved highly targeted community policing, municipal infrastructure improvements, better public transportation, and integrated public spaces such as “library parks” that combined green areas, community centers, and learning facilities.

The US may be at the bottom of the fragility list, but we have many of the risk factors, and they are growing. Further, the case of Puerto Rico, while not often considered a US case study, is very much so. It may be as fragile as you can get, with near-total collapse of government and basic services. In an interconnected world, it is not long before we experience the impact of seemingly far-flung locales in our cities. It behooves us to keep an eye on what Global South cities are learning. It seems they are the innovators.—Cyndi Suarez

About the author
Cyndi Suarez

Cyndi Suarez is the former president and editor-in-chief of NPQ (Nonprofit Quarterly). She is author of "The Power Manual: How to Master Complex Power Dynamics", in which she outlines a new theory and practice of liberatory power. Suarez has worked as a strategy and innovation consultant with a focus on networks and platforms for social movements. She has 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector—in community-based, advocacy, organizing, consulting, infrastructure, and philanthropic organizations. She is passionate about elegant design and designing for power. Her studies were in feminist theory and organizational development for social change.

More about: Nonprofit NewsPolicy

Our Voices Are Our Power.

Journalism, nonprofits, and multiracial democracy are under attack. At NPQ, we fight back by sharing stories and essential insights from nonprofit leaders and workers—and we pay every contributor.

Can you help us protect nonprofit voices?

Your support keeps truth alive when it matters most.
Every single dollar makes a difference.

Donate now
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

You might also like
Trump Moves to Gut Low-Income Energy Assistance as Summer Heat Descends and Electricity Prices Rise
Conor Harrison, Elena Louder, Nikki Luke and Shelley Welton
“Advocacy Works”: Nonprofit Status-Stripping Measure Dropped from Republican Budget
Isaiah Thompson
Cancer Research in the US Is World Class Because of Its Broad Base of Funding—with the Government Pulling Out, Its Future Is Uncertain
Jeffrey MacKeigan
Endowments Aren’t Blank Checks—but Universities Can Rely on Them More Heavily in Turbulent Times
Ellen P. Aprill
US Colleges and Universities Have Billions Stashed Away in Endowments—a Higher Ed Finance Expert Explains What They Are
Todd L. Ely
Nonprofits Under Fire: How the IRS Can—and Cannot—Revoke Federal Tax-Exempt Status
Jeffrey S. Tenenbaum, Esq.

Upcoming Webinars

Group Created with Sketch.
June 26th, 2:00 pm ET

From Performance Management to Mutual Commitment

Fostering a Culture of Joyful Accountability

Register
Group Created with Sketch.
July 24th, 2:00 pm ET

Organizing in Divided Times

The Relational Infrastructure We Need to Protect Democracy

Register

    
You might also like
Conservatives Attack Nonprofits on Capitol Hill
Isaiah Thompson
Glass-paneled exterior of the Microsoft building.
Microsoft Axes Free 365 Software for Nonprofits
Isaiah Thompson
A close-up of a man with dark brown skin sitting outside in a park with a white towel around his neck. An older woman with brown skin sits next to him, wiping her neck with her towel in the heat.
Trump Moves to Gut Low-Income Energy Assistance as Summer...
Conor Harrison, Elena Louder, Nikki Luke and Shelley Welton

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright
  • Donate
  • Editorial Policy
  • Funders
  • Submissions

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.