The Habitat II Conference on Human Settlements succeeded in all of its major goals of putting the problems of human settlements at the center of local, national and international agenda and sharing solutions aimed at improving life in human settlements, says Habitat Secretary General Wally N’Dow.
Included in the process for the first time were representatives from cities, the private sector, other local authorities, grassroots organizations and non-government organizations (NGOs), instead of just national governments.
“This conference recognized the changing global patterns of life, recognizing that solutions also must be found at the local level,” says Dr. N’Dow. “National governments and international agencies cannot solve nor pay for the solutions to these massive urban problems.”
Representatives of 171 countries met in Istanbul from June 3-14 in the last major U.N. conference of the century. Some 16,400 people participated in the debates and other sessions.
“Habitat II has revolutionized how the U.N. will conduct future conferences,” Dr. N’Dow says. “The United Nations and its conferences have grown beyond being a forum for just countries, and will from here on better reflect the dynamic cities and local organizations.”
The burgeoning growth in global population, which will rise from today’s 5.6 billion to some 8.5 billion by 2025, can only be sustained in cities. The Habitat II Conference recognized this new reality, that the Earth’s rural areas cannot absorb an additional three billion people, because the land cannot support them without devastating environmental consequences.
Dr. N’Dow adds that “the major theme of the conference is that cities are the world’s future and that they can be made liveable. A second theme is that half the world’s people still live in rural areas, and the same improvements in the way people live can be applied to these areas as well. “
The problems of human settlements are many — the world population is growing at the rate of a quarter of a million people daily. Currently, some 100 million human beings, most of them women and children, are homeless. Overall, at least 600 million people live in shelters that are life or health threatening in developing world cities.
“This Habitat conference, however, has demonstrated conclusively that all of this hardship is completely unnecessary, that the resources exist to put a roof over the head and bring safe water and sanitation, for less than $100 per person, to every man, woman and child on this planet,” says Dr. N’Dow.
As a way to disseminate information on how to improve human settlements, the conference sponsored the “Best Practices” awards for 12 special urban development projects, the best of more than 600 nominations from cities in 80 countries.
The criteria for the “Best Practices” cities were:
The awards are meant to encourage experimentation around the world’s cities. Exhibits about each of the 12 award winners were put on display during the conference, where other local authorities and groups could examine and learn from them.
In addition, specialized UN agencies such as the International Labour Organization and the World Health Organization, along with the World Bank and other international agencies, made major contributions to the ideas for improving human settlements that were discussed at Habitat II.
Dr. N’Dow emphasized that another major advance of the conference was in its emphasis on the crucial role of women in the sustainable development of human settlements.
Women constitute 70 percent of the world’s 1.3 billion absolute poor, and 50,000 women and their children die daily as a result of poor shelter, water or sanitation. “But thousands of women have come to Istanbul, many from the grassroots level, to seek deeper commitments from the international community to change the conditions that keep the majority of women powerless and poor,” says Dr. N’Dow. “We have kept this commitment. The primary role of women in human settlements has been strongly recognized by this conference.”
“The empowerment of women and their full and equal participation in political, social and economic life, the improvement of health, and the eradication of poverty are essential to achieving sustainable human settlements,” says the final Habitat document.
Dr. N’Dow adds that the delegates bridged differences during the final work on the “The Habitat Agenda: Goals and Principles, Commitments and Global Plan of Action,” and that this itself was a sign of the vitality of the U.N. system.
“Anyone who believes that our global conferences consist of dry debate with the outcome preordained did not sit in on any of the spirited discussions that went on during Habitat,” says Dr. N’Dow.
The primary disputes arose over the definition of the “right to housing,” the question of whether developed countries should greatly increase aid to developing ones to improve shelter, and women’s reproductive rights.
“We have resolved most of these questions, through vigorous debate and consensus,”says Dr. N’Dow. “A major reason why debate was so spirited was because of the fresh infusion of voices into this U.N. conference, from city and other local officials, NGOs and grassroots organizations.”
“The Global Plan of Action” puts the primary responsibility on countries for carrying out the Habitat program, but cities are also given a central role.
“The Habitat Agenda is a global call to action at all levels,” the final document says. It offers, within a framework of goals and principals and commitments, a positive vision of sustainable human settlements — where all have adequate shelter, a healthy and safe environment, basic services, and productive and freely chosen employment. The Habitat Agenda will guide all efforts to turn this vision into a reality.”
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