6 JUNE — Committee II continued its meeting yesterday, with representatives of local authorities, the private sector, parliamentarians, non-governmental organizations and other partners exchanging views on possible areas of partnership and cooperation. During the morning session the committee heard presentations from representatives of the World Business Forum.
The Mexican representative observed that it was rare to witness a forum of businessmen discussing urban sustainability, which is a matter of great importance for business worldwide. He said that there was need for business to help maintain urban environmental standards.
The Italian representative suggested the wide dissemination of the Habitat Agenda to all the chambers of commerce of the world, to make them more conscious of the role of the private sector in combating world poverty.
The representative of Indonesia called for more progressive environmental practices. Better environmental technology was needed because fast growing developing countries did not use much environmental technology in their processes of urbanization.
The Chilean representative said that for cities to develop in a sustainable way there was need to involve all the protagonists concerned, private business, local government, non-governmental organizations, and others in the planning and execution of various programmes and projects and in the search for solutions to the various problems of urbanization.
The delegate from France asserted that corporate leaders wanted to be involved in the handling of social issues. It was necessary, he said, to foster partnership between the private and public sectors. He called for the strengthening of databanks already in existence and the development of networks for cooperation.
The Moroccan delegation said that his country had a well-organized private sector, especially after the overhaul of this sector, involving technical and organizational training, which was done with important contribution from the private sector. He saw the sector dealing with human settlements as a productive sector and called for the establishment of long-term mortgage markets to help in housing programmes.
Mr. John Russel, an NGO representative, called for the adoption of standards, especially when dealing with such problems as the disposal of toxic wastes. Noting that industry hitherto initiated its own policy, he said that the United Nations consider the establishment of mandatory normative standards. Banks should lend money for housing projects for poor communities in areas which they served, especially as it was evident that the poor usually repaid their loans in good time.
Mr. Mark Albion of Students for Responsible Business from Boston, USA, talked of the importance of making business more human , pointing out that people who had traveled and worked in Third World countries had learned more about humanity than students at a business school in the North.
Mr. Troy Davis of Mexico wanted international corporations to respect environmental and business standards both at home and abroad.
The representative of Uganda said that there was great need for cooperation between the public and private sectors in order to fight discrimination against women, religious minorities, etc., practised by business. He talked of the need for an effective anti-corruption drive and commended the anti-corruption organization, Transparency International for the important role it was playing in this area.
The Tanzanian delegation was of the view that North-South cooperation in housing and shelter provision needed strengthening, and called for greater honesty and transparency . Whereas the North had an interest in helping the South, there were areas where cooperation could be enhanced for mutual benefit.
In the afternoon, the committee discussed a report presented by Mr. Zekai Baloglu, President of the Habitat II Foundations Forum. The forum was organized in Istanbul on 31 May and 1 June 1996 by the Third Sector Foundation of Turkey ( TUSEV) in collaboration with the European Foundation Centre (EFC), with the participation of the Council of Foundations of the United States, CIVICUS, the World Alliance for Citizen Participation and the Spanish Confederation of Foundations.
There were 290 delegates participating in the Foundations Forum, representing 210 foundations from 54 countries from all the continents. The declaration invites foundations and corporate funders to act with a view to setting up an international task force which will design and adopt an action plan which will in turn address issues of concern to the Habitat Agenda .
Various delegations took the floor to propose amendments to the declaration, while others shared with other delegations their experiences in their respective countries in this area.