India: World Bank Helps Train New Breed of Professional Urban Managers

A rag picker sorting through garbage in Delhi

Except for the very large cities, few urban managers in India’s small and medium sized towns have the professional training to tackle the many challenges their burgeoning metros face.

“If cities don’t function, economies stall,” says Barjor Mehta, a Senior Urban Specialist at the World Bank Institute – the World Bank’s knowledge and learning arm -  explaining the critical importance of efficiently run cities as drivers of development.

And, as India’s economy booms, growing numbers of its 320 million people in some 5000 towns - about 30 percent of the total population - are demanding better and more efficient infrastructure and services from their urban authorities.

Most Indian towns suffer from weak finances, inadequate infrastructure, poor services including an erratic water supply and ineffective sanitation, and face a proliferation of slums as more and more people pour in from the rural areas in search of jobs and economic opportunity.

Rapid Urbanization Makes Urban Management Complex

Urban managers on field trip

With rapid urbanization taking place across the country, it is increasingly being recognized that India needs a well-trained cadre of professional city managers who understand the myriad problems of their booming centers of growth.  

To meet this need, the World Bank Institute has facilitated the establishment of a Certification Program in City Management at the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) Hyderabad and the Yashwantrao Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA) Pune -- two of the country’s premier institutes for training administrators in modern management techniques.

An Advisory Committee with officials from India’s Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, as well as several state level officials guides the development of the program.

The program’ core curriculum covers areas such as municipal financial management, municipal services management, as well as municipal governance including procurement and contracting. Unlike other training programs, it emphasizes the testing of participants on each module.

At ASCI, two batches have already graduated with a certification in city management. A third batch has just finished the course and is now working on specific action plans for their cities as part of their graduation thesis.

Thinking Big and Thinking Strategically

Participants share experiences

The newly certified city managers are enthusiastic about what they have learnt.

“I now understand how to manage municipal service delivery particularly to the poor; how to set tariffs and target subsidies,” says Ms. M.S. Jaya, a town planner at the Goshree Islands Development Authority in Kerala.  

“The most useful aspect, though, is to learn what others are doing. Instead of working on your own, you have a reference of 25 cities from across India.”

“We often work late into the night without even noticing” adds Thiru V.P. Thandapani, municipal commissioner at the Kumbakonam Municipality in Tamil Nadu.

600 participants have already graduated from the ASCI-WBI course and gone back into their home towns to put into practice what they have learned.

Translating vision into practice

As a result, more than ten towns have started initiating water projects to achieve water supply 24 hours a day seven days a week – a first for many urban centers. ASCI coaches them through the process and provides technical assistance and knowledge from sector experts.

Participants from the City Managers Association of Karnataka have developed a framework and guidelines for public-private partnerships to ensure better energy efficiency.

These guidelines have been disseminated to all urban local bodies in Karnataka, and several towns have already introduced energy efficiency measures using this model.

They are also exploring a new approach to dealing with garbage by creating regional landfills that will help smaller towns in the state dispose of their solid waste effectively – another chronic problem in India’s cities. 

In Nagpur in Maharashtra, an ASCI graduate has started reforming the property tax system – an important source of city revenue. He researched self assessment systems and its applicability in the Nagpur Corporation as part of his thesis, and successfully introduced the system in his city within six months.  

Spreading the good word across the country

Newly trained urban managers in ASCI

Several states have expressed interest. The State Institute for Urban Development at YASHADA in Pune, Maharashtra offered its first collaborative course with WBI in September 2006 as part of a post-graduate diploma in urban management.

“What made me sign up at the Yashada course at my own cost was the quality of the mentors – they are our icons and role models.” says Subash Patil, system engineer at the Kalyan Development Municipal Corporation in Maharashtra.

It’s the quality of the programs combined with the possibility of networking with peers from across India that makes civil service officers join the course.

“This is the only place to get a rounded and comprehensive overview on urban governance” confirms Anil Lad, deputy commissioner at the Kalyan Development Municipal Corporation in Maharashtra.

His superiors seem to agree, as the State Government is now considering making the completion of the course one of the pre-conditions for promoting officials.

Now, Rajasthan too wants hands-on support in implementing a training and human resource development plan with the help of ASCI to ensure that its urban managers are systematically trained.

With a rapidly growing private sector, it will also be important to bring in infrastructure financing institutions and credit rating agencies to ensure that the latest information and faculty training is included.

The program represents a major step forward towards producing a crop of innovative urban managers across the country that will ultimately transform India’s urban landscape and benefit the country’s swelling urban populations.

Related Links:

>> YASHADA’s Urban Development Program

>> Administrative Staff College of India's (ASCI) Centre for Energy, Environment, Urban Governance and Infrastructure Development