News

08/07/2021

Space-blind strategies don’t work for COVID-19

Soo-Jin Kim, Head of the OECD’s Urban Policies and Reviews Unit

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently analysed how cities have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Soo-Jin Kim, Head of the OECD’s Urban Policies and Reviews Unit, calls for locally-adapted solutions now and for the post-COVID era.

Since March 2020, local health authorities have often dominated the headlines. Citizens’ trust in local politicians has significantly increased. Which role have municipalities played so far in responding to the COVID 19 crisis?

Soo-Jin Kim: Since the very beginning of the pandemic, municipalities have not waited for national governments to tell them what to do – they started to act immediately. They have deployed a range of measures to inform the public about necessary measures, ensure that people comply with social distancing and lockdown rules, support the shift to tele-working and take care of the most vulnerable such as the elderly and the poor. They have also worked to keep basic public services running, including the health system, and help the local economy survive the crisis. So I would describe municipalities as ‘essential workers’.

In addition, regardless of the crisis, we should not forget that municipalities are always key public actors. Subnational governments are responsible for an average of 40 per cent of all public spending across OECD countries. In federal states such as Germany or Switzerland, it’s even 50 to 60 per cent!

The OECD calls for territorially differentiated approaches to tackle the crisis instead of ‘space-blind strategies’. Why is that so?

Soo-Jin Kim: If you look at mortality rates and the number of jobs at risks, you see that the pandemic has had asymmetrical impacts across territories. We have observed large regional disparities in COVID-19 deaths. Large cities and densely populated regions were more affected in the earlier stages of the pandemic. In addition, the number of jobs that are at risk due to containment measures varies a lot across OECD regions, between around 15 to 35 per cent of all jobs. Regions that largely depend on tourism or other sectors experiencing harsh cutbacks are even more severely affected. In Hamburg, for example, the OECD estimated that more than 30 per cent of all jobs are at risk, because many of them are in international trade and merchant shipping.

So from our analysis since March 2020, we have learned that you cannot take the same measures everywhere and that scale is an important factor to consider. We need much more place-based and people-centred approaches.

Do your findings suggest that big cities are the losers of the pandemic?

Soo-Jin Kim: No, not at all, because, fortunately, many big cities also have much better capacities to recover. They have more possibilities to adjust to the crisis than rural areas. If we look at the job situation again, in many cities jobs are largely knowledge-intensive, which enables people to work from home. So these cities will be able to recover from the crisis much more easily than those with more factory jobs.

Many of the challenges that cities are facing during the crisis are not radically new. COVID-19 has rather accelerated longstanding inequalities and has put a harsh light on them. In big cities, vulnerable groups such as migrants, low-income households, women and the elderly are particularly hit by the crisis. However, higher COVID-19 infection rates in cities do not result primarily from urban density per se but rather from structural inequalities and the quality of urbanisation. The risk of contagion of privileged city dwellers is not comparable to that of the homeless or people living in poor housing conditions.

Although we are still in the midst of the crisis, municipalities are already starting to think about the post COVID-19 era. What is your advice for their strategy to build back better?

Soo-Jin Kim: Cities have to take action now, because one of the key lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic is that the costs of inaction are immense. Many cities have therefore started shaping long-term recovery strategies for a more inclusive, green and smart future. Now is the time to accelerate transitions that were already underway. The two most important transitions are digitalisation and climate change mitigation and adaptation, which are often called the “Zoom effect” and the “Greta effect”, respectively.

COVID 19 forced administrations, schools and businesses to shift to digital communication within days or weeks. Many of them were not sufficiently equipped and many still lack digital infrastructure and knowledge. Cities must therefore invest in this digital transition. Florence in Italy is setting a good example. It plans to make all of its municipal services available online as soon as possible.

Second, the climate transition has to be urgently addressed, as climate change is not waiting for us to finish dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. During the pandemic, green mobility strategies have started to boom all over the world and became politically and socially more acceptable. Bike lanes popped up in many major cities such as Paris, Milan, Medellin and Berlin. They are part of cities’ rediscovery of proximity. Brussels, Melbourne and many other cities no longer pursue a policy to increase mobility, but have committed themselves to revisiting public space, urban design and planning to make all services accessible for citizens within a 10 to 20 minute walk, including schools, medical care and shopping facilities.

The OECD has analysed the COVID-19 strategies of 100 cities. Which policies have proven to be most effective to cope with the pandemic?

Soo-Jin Kim: Unfortunately, I don’t have a magic answer to this. The world is still searching together for good solutions. However, we know that one lesson from the financial crisis in 2008/9 also applies to the current crisis: Instead of using centralised, top-down approaches, we should find solutions that are suitable to each local context. And if cities share their lessons with one another, they can inspire each other, avoid to repeat mistakes and find suitable recovery strategies. The OECD is currently providing specific support to cities and regions in the United Kingdom, the Province of South Holland around Rotterdam-The Hague in the Netherlands and in the metropolitan region of Aix-Marseille-Provence in France. 

Such a peer-to-peer exchange was also at the core of the Connective Cities Dialogue series on municipal responses to the COVID-19 crisis. How did you experience it?

Soo-Jin Kim: Connective Cities unites many municipal experts, who are willing to share their experiences and challenges. I found the online discussions were very open and participants did not intend to just showcase their expertise but were honest in sharing their struggles, too. Especially in times of crises, it is easy to be tempted to isolate oneself. Connective Cities provides an important forum for dialogue and facilitates mutual learning. To me, that’s one of the most promising ways out the crisis.

Soo-Jin Kim is Head of the OECD’s Urban Policies and Reviews Unit and Deputy Head of the Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development Division at the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities.

 


Author:
Redaktion Connective Cities


Related Content

Top