THE QUEST FOR DEVELOPING A NEIGHBOURHOOD SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT TOOLS

Abstract: Developing nations lack the technological skill, infrastructure, and ability to tackle or plan for environmental and social sustainability or resilience to emerging global adversities (UN, ND; Utoikamanu, 2018; El Hajj, Montes, & Jawad, 2021). Cities house more than 50% of the planet's population in neighbourhoods and can suffer from global and local manmade and natural catastrophes (United Nations, 2020)— with urban migration to cities expected to increase (Obebe, Kolo, Enagi, & Adamu, 2020). Rapid urbanisation and pandemics are posing a growing number of challenges to both rich and impoverished neighbourhoods globally (United Nations, 2020; C40, 2020; TDHCA, 2007; UN-Habitat,, 2018). The global neighbourhood challenges, especially in developing countries such as in South Africa, include pollution poverty, energy poverty, digital poverty, environmental degradation, and socioeconomic inequalities in the post-apartheid era (ESCAP, Chapter 9: South and South-West Asia, 2005; ESCAP, Environment and Development Series 2018, 2018; Baloch, Danish, Khan, & Ulucak, 2020; EC, ND; Lemon, 2021; UN, ND). Furthermore, 1.34 billion inhabitants migrate to African cities by 2050 (Cartwright, 2015). There is an urgent need to strengthen the environmental and socioeconomic capability of the neighbourhood to increase community engagement and the assessment framework for sustainable development. The importance of the neighbourhood scale as a recovery-point in the development of a sustainable urbanity cannot be overstated (Dawodu, Akinwolemiwa, & Cheshmehzangi, 2017). These challenges amplify three reasons for developing an assessment tool that aid in building resilient and sustainable neighbourhoods.