STATEMENT BY DR. WALLY N’DOW, SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE
UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON HUMAN SETTLEMENTS (HABITAT II)
AT THE OPENING OF THE CONFERENCE
ISTANBUL, TURKEY, 3 JUNE 1996
Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Honoured Partners, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Today, after a long journey, we have come home. It is fitting, Mr. President, that the road we travelled should end here in Istanbul, a city of the past, a city of the future, “a city of destiny,” for in a very large sense it is the destiny of our global community — where we will live and how we will live in the new world of tomorrow — that we have come here to determine.
We are fortunate, Mr. President, that you will be at the helm guiding us as we join hands as partners to launch this memorable and historic undertaking for the betterment of the human future. I congratulate you on your election as President of the Conference, and I extend to you, to your Government and to all the people of Turkey, our gratitude for the extraordinary effort that you and they have made to bring us to this moment. I know I speak for everyone gathered here in saying we are deeply in your debt, and thank you most sincerely for your support.
Allow me also to congratulate the other officers who have been elected to serve on our Bureau — the Vice Presidents, the Rapporteur-General, the Chairpersons of the Main Committees. I look forward to working with you to assure the certain success of this our great undertaking.
Mr. President, Distinguished Delegates, all of us who have been involved in the preparatory process for this Conference will, I am sure, identify with my expression of sincere gratitude to Mr. Martti Lujanen, the Chairman of the Preparatory Committee who, with the able support of his colleagues in the Bureau — the Vice Chairpersons and the Rapporteur — worked ceaselessly but patiently, enthusiastically but tactfully to steer us through a sometimes turbulent preparatory process to this point of near-success. We owe the achievements to date to their singular effort.
I want also, Mr. President, to pay due tribute to my illustrious predecessor, Dr. Arcot Ramachandran, first Executive Director of UNCHS (Habitat), who initiated the idea of the second Habitat Conference 20 years after Vancouver, and to the Commission on Human Settlements, which embraced the idea and recommended it for approval by the General Assembly.
To our host city of Istanbul — its Mayor, its officials, its people — there is no way I can adequately express my appreciation for all the effort and the commitment you have invested to make this Conference possible. The warmth of your welcome, the graciousness of your hospitality, the lengths to which you have gone to make us feel at home — nothing I say would do justice to your contribution; therefore let me just say, thank you, thank you very much for everything.
And finally, I want to take this moment to express my gratitude to the Secretary-General, Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for the opportunity that was given me to head up this effort and for his confidence and support during the preparatory process. He has been with us every step of the way, and his leadership in this formidable undertaking is a key reason why we have been able to come so far. Indeed, we owe the appellation, “The City Summit” to the Secretary-General himself.
Distinguished Delegates, there is symbolic significance in Habitat II taking place in Istanbul, this crossroads of civilizations, of urban civilizations, which over the centuries has seen and weathered so many of those storms and challenges that characterize the urban transformation, storms and challenges not unlike those that will preoccupy us in the next two weeks.
First, though, Mr. President and Mr. Secretary-General, permit me to associate myself with your respective thought-provoking addresses which together have put into sharp focus the troubling issues this Conference must confront. You have set the stage for our discussions, challenging our collective political will and courage, and charging us to come up with imaginative and creative solutions. You have my pledge that we will.
We embark on our work knowing that there are many issues with which the United Nations is seized, but that our diverse political, social and economic systems and ideologies often make cooperation and dialogue difficult and at times even impossible. Yet there is one area, in which we share a great deal, perhaps even total commonality — our human settlements — megacity and hamlet. There, all of us — North and South, East and West — are faced with the same problems and opportunities. With all the divisiveness that all too often is the focus of attention when it comes to the United Nations, the problems of the human settlement serves as a constant reminder that beyond our borders, our different languages, our diverse cultural practices, humanity shares a common bond. It is that bond — that commonality — that we acknowledge here in Istanbul, the last stop on a journey that started in 1994 with the onset of the preparatory process for Habitat II.
As we look beyond the confines of this Conference Hall, the picture we see is not encouraging. We see that, as much as the world has changed since Habitat I in 1976, human settlements issues have remained essentially the same. The context, the framework has radically shifted, the scale has exponentially increased: more people in dire poverty, escalating destruction of the human environment, a growing need for adequate shelter, food, infrastructure, and what may well be most important of all, gainful employment — issues contributing to political instability and a fragile world peace, issues familiar to those who attended Habitat II, issues now at the heart of Habitat II, issues that demand we radically change the way we approach our human settlements problems, urban and rural.
In the course of our preparatory work for this Conference, we have all encountered the fallout of the urban explosion that in less than half a century has literally changed the face of our planet earth: cities springing up everywhere; the exponential statistics of hopelessness and inadequate shelter affecting hundreds of millions; the slums and shantytowns larger than the original cities that spawned them; and all the urban ills now spreading with the speed of a plague — poverty, crime, drugs, disaffected youth, paralyzing traffic, polluted air and water, unhygienic sanitation compounded by a growing shortage of potable water— the list is long, the ills the common denominator of urban life today.
Yet, Mr. President, bad as conditions are in the city — and no one in any country, rich or poor, can doubt that they are getting worse — the situation in many developing country rural settlements is even more desperate, and that is no less our charge. The spotlight is on our urban areas, but let no one make any mistake about it: Our task is to shine that spotlight wherever people huddle in the dark shadows of their despair — in megacity or hamlet — without the most elementary facilities for decent living. The well-being of the rural dweller is no less the business of this Conference. Their future is no less at stake in the urbanizing world of tomorrow. And with world population in the decades ahead growing at the rate of a quarter of a million people daily, the likelihood now is that by far the greater part of these rural dwellers will end up in the shadows, too, either homeless or in shelter that constitutes an insult to their very humanity.
We are here in Istanbul not merely to talk about these things. The time for talk is long past and the time for action is here. For our cities, with their densely packed concentrations of humanity, are nothing less than social time bombs, capable of setting off collisions of powerful forces that might otherwise peacefully coexist, with all that this implies for the stability of the international system and for the United Nations itself.
There is another no less serious implication, too. It is that the unresolved problems of our human settlements also threaten a new global division between rich and poor, within and between nations. And with dramatically increasing numbers of people living in poverty, it is a division that may well become the dominant characteristic of the new global urban world order, with consequences at least as dangerous as the period of East-West rivalry the world has only recently left behind.
To this must be added the sad realization that the end of the Cold War did not bring with it an era of relative peace. What we have seen, instead, has been an escalation of regional wars and conflicts, mostly internal, such as in Somalia. Afghanistan and Bosnia. Although not on the scale of a global conflagration, these wars and conflicts have nevertheless destroyed the lives, hopes, homes and human settlements of millions of people around the globe. And rebuilding peace here, in these shattered countries, means, first and foremost, rebuilding those shattered homes and families, those cities, towns and villages.
Mr. President, for all the problems and difficulties of urbanization, we cannot stop it, nor should we. Not only is it at the heart of the new world in the making, it is the engine driving it. Indeed, it has long been recognized that urban centres and the economic activities associated with them constitute the biggest contributor to many a nation’s wealth. Our “global economy” is singularly dependent on the fact that cities work, that their institutions work, that their communications work, that their laws work.
Today, no country can be a success if its cities are failures. As never before, the fate of nations and cities are intertwined. Indeed, the fate of humanity is tied to what is happening — and what will be happening — in our cities. For it will be in cities and towns where solutions will have to be found for new and old challenges, where the scourges of hopelessness, poverty, and environmental decay will have to be met, where we have to take on the challenge of social disintegration, and forge the bonds of human solidarity without which our future will be neither peaceful nor assured. It is where we must localize the ideas of Agenda 21 to build the foundations of sustainable growth and development for generations yet to come and for prosperity in a globalized economy. As Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali put it in his special message to the World Assembly of Cities and Local Authorities that preceded this Conference:
“The Habitat II Conference addresses the future of humankind in a very comprehensive and integrated way. It is bringing together the different strands of development: the issues of population movement and urbanization, employment generation, environmental infrastructure and living conditions, participation and governance, legislation and finance, and sustainable use of resources. These issues must be considered in the light of current trends in globalization, liberalization and privatization. In short, the Conference is addressing nothing less than the economic and social survival of millions of people, in particular the poor and disadvantaged, in both the developed as well as the developing nations.”
Here today, in Istanbul, we stand before a new reality. The recipes of the past can no longer suffice. A new global social contract for building sustainable human settlements must be forged. Such a contract must reflect the transformation of the world’s political, economic and social environment over the past twenty years: the globalization of the market economy and the rising recognition of the role of private economic forces in development and growth, the increasing vitality and, indeed, volatility of the forces of civil society transforming once voiceless masses into an active, demanding citizenry.
We have only to look at the unprecedented growth of NGOs and other social organizations to see that any global project, or national undertaking, must today have the support of the economic, political and social forces of all society to succeed and must, therefore, reflect their needs and aspirations. Today, local authorities and communities must be engaged not as passive bystanders, but as active participants and partners. For partnership and enablement are the keys to forging a strategy for sustainable human settlements, and forging such a strategy is what the preparatory process for Habitat II has set in motion.
I am happy to say that the fruits of this effort are much in evidence here at Habitat II. We see it in the composition of official delegations and in the diversity of other participants who have worked unselfishly to make this Conference a reality. The commitment of Governments and their National Committees to the Habitat II process, was an ongoing source of inspiration to our preparations for the Conference. Our other partners, the local authorities, the NGOs, the private sector, research and academic institutions, the labour unions, foundations, women’s and youth groups, professionals — all and more — were not only resilient in the face of obstacles, they were truly the co-creators of this process, of the innovations that characterized it, and the Agenda for Action that will be negotiated by this Conference.
Let it also be said here that the response by our sister United Nations agencies and programmes to the call to make this Conference a system-wide endeavour was whole-hearted and inspiring. The preparatory process was all the richer for their contribution and commitment.
Mr. President, we live in a period where the abundance of resources is no longer a constant in our work, and we must cope with that reality. And, as we all know, the United Nations itself is a victim of this financial stringency. So it was not at all surprising that many wondered if we could deliver a global conference, especially at a time when pointed references to “conference fatigue” was the vogue. However, we were convinced that the international community, given the right mix of opportunities to contribute to the preparatory process, would rise to the challenge. The Conference we launch today testifies eloquently to the fact that it did.
Faced with diminished financial contributions from the traditional donors, we appealed to all our partners for essentially in-kind contributions by requesting them to initiate, organize and host relevant activities. This partnership approach bore precious fruit, including invaluable contributions to the preparation of the Global Plan of Action — the Habitat Agenda that will be at the heart of our labours both here in Istanbul and beyond.
In retrospect, it is indeed gratifying that Governments, the private sector, local authorities, NGOs, women’s coalitions, youth, the entire civil society of many nations, banded together in mutually supportive partnerships to forge and successfully advance a very demanding preparatory process. As part of the process, too, we encouraged Governments to create an enabling milieu that facilitated cooperation among all partners in the preparatory process. Once again, Mr. President, the response carried us a long way forward in the search for solutions to make our cities, productive, sustainable, equitable and healthy.
I would like to share with all participants the great satisfaction I felt as I visited the various regions as they engaged in the Habitat II process. From the largest metropolis to the smallest village, from the smallest nation state to the largest country, from the most depressed slum to the most fashionable quarter, I found government officials at all levels — national to municipal — business executives and associations, women’s groups, young people, professionals, labour unions — the list is long and covers a cross-section of community and neighborhood life — all engaged and committed to the goals of the Habitat II Conference and to making their settlements livable not only for themselves, but for generations yet to come.
I pause at this juncture, Mr. President, to salute all the Governments, organisations, private sector institutions, foundations and individuals whose generous contributions to Habitat II, in cash and in-kind, made today possible.
The road to Istanbul has been marked by many innovations. One of seminal importance has been a pioneering change in the rules of procedure — a change that, as you Mr.President, Excellencies and Distinguished Delegates know, was initiated during the preparatory process and subsequently endorsed by the General Assembly in recognition of the important role of local authorities and NGOs, both in the debate and in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. As a result, all the organizations and institutions of civil society will receive unparalleled recognition at a UN conference, nominating their representatives to participate in a formal session — in this case in the work of Committee II. This will give them an unprecedented avenue of expression through the special “hearings” the Committee will hold to listen to their views, ideas and recommendations.
It would be difficult to overstate the importance of this change within the context of this Conference, particularly in enabling local authorities to take the floor in their own right. They speak for countless millions of men and women in the cities and towns across the planet, the true constituents of Habitat II, and we need to open our doors — and our minds — to their hopes and aspirations.
Habitat II, moreover, will break new ground as a conference in its focus on demonstrated solutions. In many ways, the “Best Practices” initiative has begun the process of identifying where commitments have already been made to improve human settlements around the world. Hundreds of communities and cities world-wide, in developed and developing countries alike, have taken part in a mutual learning process and exchange of concrete experiences on how to solve common problems. It has brought the world together and forged bonds of future cooperation between and among far-flung cities and communities. The “Best Practices” initiative underscores as little else that this Istanbul Conference will be an action conference dedicated to solutions, not to a litany of woes.
Furthermore, as part of the national preparatory process, cities and countries have begun to collect indicators on housing and urban conditions so that their national plans of action and future policies and programmes are shaped by priorities that, in turn, are shaped by accurate data and information. This will be a crucial element to the effective implementation of the Habitat Agenda, and provides tangible evidence once again that we are not here to talk about the problems, but to do something concrete about them.
Also, in collaboration with prominent regional and global financial institutions, we set out during the preparatory process to elaborate new and innovative financing strategies for human settlements development. Our aim has been to allow countries to tap into new capital and financial markets, especially in the area of infrastructure, where large scale financial requirements will be essential.
Finally, the road to Istanbul has been marked by a major effort in public education and awareness raising to bring the issues before the Conference to the attention of the wider international audience. That this effort has succeeded in creating a strategic breakthrough in global awareness of the importance of human settlements to sustainable development and economic growth, is, I believe, evidenced in the many organizations and partners that have converged on Istanbul. On this we must now build.
Your Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, our aim in this preparatory period has been to build the foundation for continuity and implementation in the post-Istanbul period. We have developed and honed the tools and mechanisms that will be vital to success. It is crucial, therefore, that at this Conference we accelerate our momentum by marshalling our political will and commitment to see the job through.
A key part of that job is directly tied in with the fact that Habitat II brings to an end a remarkable continuum of United Conferences held in this final decade of the century. In essence, it is a continuum that is rewriting the UN’s economic and social agenda, providing us with a more holistic, more humane message about our global problems and the cooperative solutions they require in the new century. And in this respect, these conferences are a unifying force in finding new pathways for human welfare and in advancing peace and stability.
More than half a century after it was founded, the UN needs to reposition itself in terms of its mandate. It must seek a new legitimacy based on new needs and new demands, some of them not even contemplated when the Charter was written: New York and children; Rio and sustainable development; Vienna and human rights; Cairo and population; Copenhagen and poverty; Beijing and women. All were milestones on the road to social progress, each giving testimony to the concern shared by humankind to stem the tide of human misery, despair and deprivation. All make up the global agenda of work that every decision-maker and every citizen must face up to in the decades ahead. All come home in Istanbul, for it is in our human settlements that the battle must be fought and won, where we must negotiate our very survival. That is what Habitat II is all about.
Mr. President, the draft Habitat Agenda before this Conference identifies those human settlement issues considered to be of greatest importance and highest priority around the world. As a consequence of the preparatory process during which it evolved, it truly gives voice to the aspirations of global civil society.
On our journey to Istanbul, the Habitat Agenda took shape as a framework for commitments —- an indicative plan that will serve as a guide to all key groups in making commitments to improve the living environments of all people. It acknowledges that Governments have the primary responsibility for implementation through their own actions, through enablement of partnerships and participatory processes and through coordination at each relevant level.
If there is a key to the Habitat Agenda, it is in the recognition of the fact that most of the implementing activities will take place at the local level, and must involve a variety of partners. And here States must take seriously their role of facilitator, enabler and supporter of these partnerships. This is the fundamental challenge of the Habitat Agenda for our urbanizing world. It is the challenge we will have to face together in our human settlements.
Particularly important, Distinguished Delegates, in a rapidly urbanizing world is the tracking of progress and the evaluation of national and local efforts at implementation. The United Nations system has, as a whole, a responsibility here to support national and local authorities in their efforts to implement the Habitat Agenda. Its means for doing so, I suggest, Mr. President, must be first and foremost, to strengthen and adequately equip the existing institutions which it has already established for this very purpose — the Commission on Human Settlements and its executing arm, the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat).
Mr. President, as we start our deliberations, we need to see the challenge of the 21st century in very clear terms. The challenge is to extend the process of sustainable development to the whole human family — to both those still living in poverty and deprivation and to the three billion or more demographers tell us will be added to global population in the next several decades. For this we must be prepared for change. Change is the law of life, and the changes that lie implacably ahead will give the world’s cities new problems, new perils, new possibilities. One of the reasons we are in trouble today in the city is because until very recently we either did not know, or did not care, what was happening to it, and so were not prepared for the changes.
Today, even as we grapple with the changes that have created our present urban dilemma, what may well be one of the greatest changes of all is inexorably taking place right before our eyes, and we are only vaguely aware of it. The world is beginning to undergo today a structural shift as profound as the industrial revolution— the shift from a factory based economy to a computer based economy, and this shift will be even more fateful than the industrial revolution. For whereas the shift from farm to factory spread across several generations and allowed time for human adjustment, the shift from factory to the computer as the mainspring of the economy is swift, highly compressed and, in consequence, highly traumatic. And as the Industrial Revolution gave us the Modern City, so the Micro-chip Revolution confronts us with the prospect of the Post-Modern City, with implications still unknown for the future of the nation state and national sovereignty.
We cannot hope to figure out the fate of the future city during the time of our Conference here in Istanbul. Nor is the Micro-chip Revolution on our agenda. Yet, Mr. President, I thought I should mention these matters here because we are talking about the future, and because we cannot doubt the impact of today’s new technologies on the shape and function of the city of tomorrow. Unlike what happened with the urban problems of today, we must see — and recognize — the signs of what is to come.
Mr. President, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, you will forgive me for the time I have taken, but there is so much that is in my heart that I want to convey to you. First, I want to reiterate my thanks to all Member States represented here today both for their material support and the invaluable contributions they made through their National Reports and for their cooperation and collaboration during the preparatory process. To each and everyone of you — delegates, local authorities, NGOs, the private sector, everyone who had a hand in bringing us to this day — and there were many — to each one of you goes my personal and heartfelt thanks. Finally, I am grateful to my colleagues at UNCHS (Habitat), and particularly the Habitat II ad hoc secretariat, for their hard work, dedication and support. Without their contribution, this Conference, obviously, could not have been organized.
As this Conference now gets underway, it is my hope that everyone here — delegates and representatives of national governments, mayors and other civic leaders, representatives of local authorities, NGOs, entrepreneurs, professionals, women, men and youth — will strive to bring to our deliberations the vision and the commitment that brought them to this Conference in the first place: the promise of global social progress and a brighter future for our children and all coming generations. That is a responsibility we all share.
Let me leave you with this thought: Nearly five centuries ago, I am told, there appeared here in Istanbul, in an official Ottoman register, a couplet that presciently suggested what might well be the official anthem for this Conference, if not, indeed, the urban anthem for tomorrow:
“It is true art to create a glorious city,
And to fill the hearts of its people with felicity.”
May our work here lay the foundations of the glorious cities of the future and fill the hearts of people everywhere with hope and felicity.
I thank you.