New OECD report | COVID-19 and Cities : Impact, Lessons Learnt, and Recovery Strategies

This report was developed by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE) [1] in collaboration with the OECD Working Party for Urban Policy and the OECD Champion Mayors Initiative for Inclusive Growth. It is an update of the earlier versions released on 27 March and 13 May, which expands the examples of measures taken by cities to respond to COVID-19 and recover from the economic and social crisis.

The report provides analysis on issues related to the economic, social and environmental impacts, lessons learned in terms of digitalisation, mobility, density, urban design and collaborative governance, and action-oriented guidance to build back better cities, building on previous work on urban resilience.

Short and medium-term responses provided by cities are clustered around six categories: i) social distancing; ii) workplace and commuting; iii) vulnerable groups; iv) local service delivery; v) support to business; and vi) communication, awareness-raising, and digital tools.

The report also includes updated information on how cities are progressively exiting the lockdown. Annex A provides more detailed information on long-term city recovery strategies. Annex B provides more detailed information on the inventoried city initiatives during lockdown and exiting. Annex C maps efforts from selected organisations and city networks to collect city responses and foster knowledge and experience sharing.

COVID-19 and Cities :

Impact, Lessons learned and Recovery Strategies

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Cities are on the frontline of responses to the COVID-19 crisis. They play a key role to implement nation-wide measures, but also provide laboratories for bottom-up and innovative recovery strategies. COVID-19 accelerated the shift towards a new urban paradigm towards inclusive, green and smart cities.

This report takes stock of cities recovery strategies from the COVID-19 pandemic, and draws 10 key lessons from the crisis to build back better cities.

1. COVID-19 had asymmetrical impacts across territories but many policy responses were place-blind and uniform, highlighting the need for place-based and people-centred approaches.

2. The health crisis turned into a major economic and social shock; and cities’ exposure and recovery depends on industrial composition, labour market breakdown and trade openness.

3. The rediscovery of proximity provides a window to shift faster from a target of increasing mobility to one of enhancing accessibility by revisiting public space, urban design & planning.

4. The crisis strikingly exposed inequality across people and places, especially in large cities, where vulnerable groups such as migrants, the poor, women and the elderly were hit hard.

5. The health problem is not related to urban density but rather to structural inequalities and the quality of urbanisation; and the urban premium will likely not turn into an urban penalty as agglomeration benefits continue to prevail;

6. Digitalisation, a major game changer during the crisis, will remain a key component of a “new normal”, although teleworking ability varies both across and within countries.

7. The “Zoom effect” and “Greta effect” accelerated environmental awareness, making the transition towards clean mobility and circular economy more politically and socially acceptable.

8. COVID-19 bears implications for governance, with citizens’ trust in governments increasing in some countries, especially for local politicians, and decreasing in others.

9. The COVID-19 shock calls for a stronger focus on resilience; preparedness to future shocks requires managing WHO does WHAT at WHICH scale and HOW for more resilient cities.

10. Global agendas such as the SDGs, the New Urban Agenda, and the Sendai Framework are both timely and relevant to reshape planning, policy, strategy and budget from the ground up.

The report is also available in French [3], Spanish [4] and Portuguese [5].

For more information, contact [email protected] [6] or [email protected] [7]

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