National Urban Strategy to be fast-tracked

Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination Dr Musadik Malik, according to Mettis Link News, urged a move away from drawn-out processes and technical wording toward hands-on work in climate-exposed cities and low-income areas. He made the appeal while meeting Oddy Angelo, a UN-Habitat officer from Bolivia, where talks covered urban growth, climate resilience, water and sanitation, flood control and support for vulnerable groups.

Malik criticised delays in development schemes and said policy frameworks and foreign cooperation had to produce visible results on the ground. He said the ministry would work with partners wherever sound policy input was provided, and asked stakeholders to put implementation ahead of process. He argued that contaminated water, repeated floods, weak sanitation and poor urban infrastructure called for simple, workable fixes, and that one well-designed project could change many lives.

He proposed a youth-focused business and innovation idea competition covering flood management, water and sanitation, and green industry. He also called for faster movement of the National Urban Strategy from policy to implementation, with tighter cooperation between government bodies, UN agencies, development partners, municipal bodies and affected residents. He framed the target as reducing delays, speeding up delivery and producing improvements people could measure among vulnerable groups.