EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As hotbeds for technical and technological innovation, benefiting from instantaneous exposure, metropolises are in the best position to bring together partners and funding, and promote hybrid models of pooling resources for investments in services. In the absence of clear, agreed rules for equalization at the national or local level, this can mean reductions in the financial resources available to smaller cities or those not judged to be strategic or of high priority by policymakers. In response, and to ensure access to services, local authorities, but also other stakeholders in the area, are constantly employing strategies to access financing that may be in changing, coordinated, compartmentalised or even contradictory. Among the challenges faced by metropolitan governments, insufficient or poorly conceived land management constitutes a significant handicap as it renders essential, long-term strategic planning difficult, or even impossible. This is notably the case for several African cities, two important examples of which (Dakar and Antananarivo) are explored in the report. Based on these trends, and through numerous examples, this chapter tries to prioritize the identification of strategies, instruments, and management models, as well as the financial models that facilitate universal basic service provision in metropolitan areas. It also raises some questions about the benefits and risks associated with these practices. How do we guarantee and implement universal access? What conditions and resources need to be brought together, following what social and political agreement and organization? Containing examples of the most radical segregation (gated communities, favelas/slums) as well as the most dazzling urban science (Bus Rapid Transit, Metrocable, etc.), metropolises, in all their diversity, may not offer universal solutions, but they do provide examples to
explore and emulate. (See, among others: Medellin, Bogota, Sao Paulo, Portland, Tokyo, Shanghai, Vancouver, and Melbourne). Management models Given the combined effects of neo-liberalism and structural adjustment on the organization of public services, the levels of investment and demand required today, the growing complexity of standards and the imperatives of sustainability, metropolises find themselves obligated to renew their approaches to basic services, especially through the implementation of new forms of partnership and provision. Administrative organization and operation reconsidered To fulfil their responsibilities, maintain their attractiveness, and correct the disjuncture between identified needs, available revenues, and limits to institutional manoeuvring, certain metropolises have begun to engage in reforms to reposition the role of the city as the organizing authority over basic services. Such reforms include changes to accounting and computerization procedures; improved standards of service to users and client relations; stronger internal competencies and better managed human resources (e.g. in some Chinese cities like Shanghai, but also in Sao Paulo and Cape Town). These changes in practice create favourable and empowering conditions for exploring new partnerships that are more diverse, equal, and effective: delegations and 足public-private partnerships (PPPs); public-public; public-small private operator; public-community based organization (CBO) or non-governmental organization (NGO). The legal frameworks for these partnerships today are already in place, most of the time. They are favoured by central governments as a means to withdraw from