June 13—-A unique combination of international, national and local partners came together yesterday evening to launch the third phase of the UNDP/UNCHS(Habitat)/World Bank Urban Management Programme(UMP). The UMP is a long term global technical assistance programme, committed to strengthening the contribution that cities and towns in developing countries make towards sustainable human development including economic growth, social development and the reduction of poverty. Dr. Wally N’Dow, Secretary General of the Habitat II Conference was joined by Mr. Gustave Speth, Administrator, UNDP, Mr. Mike Cohen, Special Advisor to Mr. Ismail Sarageldin, Vice President of the World Bank, Minister Jan Pronk, Minister for Development Cooperation, Government of the Netherlands and Mr. Norbert Berger, Mayor of Cologne and First Vice President of the International Union of Local Authorities(IULA). The attendance of over four hundred people including national delegates, representatives of the United Nations agencies, Non Governmental and Community Based Organizations, academics and professionals as well as members of the press clearly indicated a strong interest in improved urban management.
In his opening address Dr. N’Dow expressed great pleasure that the launching was taking place in Istanbul while Habitat II was in progress. “The value of this is symbolic: as we are entering a new era in our thinking on urban issues, the Urban Management Programme also renews itself to provide support to the implementation of the Habitat Agenda over the next five years,” Dr N’Dow said. He stressed that the UMP, during its 10 years of operation, had become a unique partnership effort comprising the three multilateral agencies, UNDP, UNCHS and the World Bank, as well as ten bilateral support agencies that had come together to make it the largest worldwide programme of technical cooperation on urban management.
“The UMP is a major programme focussing on the human development side of urban development rather than on physical investment,” the Habitat II Conference Secretary General noted. “This is particularly important as we start realizing how the complexity of urban problems is rapidly increasing,” he said.
Mr. Shabbir Cheema, Director, MDGD, UNDP, in his presentation on Phase 3 explained that the UMP was a shining example of collaboration between United Nations organizations. He stressed that urban policy designed through a participatory process was good politics because it created ownership by all of those whom it affected. He explained that effective global programmes required country based activities to feed into the learning process. “An investment of $12 - 15 million in the design of more effective and responsive policies could promote more effective investments by communities, cities, national governments and the international community,” Mr. Cheema said.
Speaking on behalf of UNCHS, the Executing Agency for the UMP, Mr. Daniel Biau reminded the audience that the UMP had been born in Istanbul ten years after the first Habitat Conference in Vancouver and ten years before Habitat II. It was at Habitat in Vancouver that the problems of urban settlements and the proliferation of slums and urban environmental issues had dawned upon the world. Mr Biau noted that in its first phase the UMP had initially focussed on sectoral challenges that had accumulated as a result of the failure of traditional urban planning, especially master planning. In its first phase the UMP had focussed on land, finance and infrastructure as key components of the urban development process. “In addition, UMP-Phase 1 tried to influence central governments more than local government,” he said. “Management was replacing master planning , but municipal development was not on the agenda.” Mr Biau explained that UMP-Phase 2 had gone further by supporting the decentralization process with attention placed on environmental improvement and poverty reduction. In the third phase the UMP would be continuing this process with the added dimension of good governance. This he considered a vital development in the UMP’s approach because it identified participatory, transparent, rational and efficient governance as essential to improving the environment and to overcoming poverty.
In the video presentation entitled, “Managing the Cities of 21st Century” that followed the audience were given vivid images of the problems besetting cities in the developing world as well as a succinct summary of the strategies the UMP would embrace to achieve effective and sustainable urban management systems to resolve them.
The first of the institutional partners to give their perspectives on Phase 3 of UMP was Mr. Gustave Speth, Administrator, UNDP, who pointed out that the third phase of the UMP implied a past and a future. “It implies successes as well as a continuation of the pressing need to respond to the immense challenges coming from the field,” he said. Noting the direct links between urban development and economic development, Mr Speth highlighted the need to look beyond economic growth and achieve sustainable human development. “We need to look at political realities, income generating opportunities and targeted assistance for the poor and restructuring national and city budgets to focus on human priority areas,” he stressed.
Speaking on behalf of Mr. Ismail Sarageldin, Vice President of the World Bank, Mr. Mike Cohen, his Special Advisor said,” The World Bank has thrown out a challenge to governments to work on three urban priorities: providing urban services to the poor, improving urban environments, and decentralizing their activities in a sustainable manner.” In keeping with this policy thrust of the Bank it was important in his view that the UMP-Phase 3 itself became more decentralized and responsive to national and local contexts where the real needs were. “It is in this framework that we hope the UMP will earn the confidence of our bi-lateral partners,” he concluded.
The Netherlands Minister for Development Cooperation, Mr Jan Pronk observed that in developing countries local authorities lacked the human resources, capacity, information and funds to take appropriate action on the huge problems that confront their cities and because many developing countries have highly centralized administrations, policy could not offer an adequate response to local needs and opportunities. However, he stressed that decentralization, in and of itself, was not enough to solve urban problems. “It is a positive move,” he said, “provided that the local authority is close to the people, which is unfortunately not always the case. Good governance depends upon the incorporation of democratic principles in order to strike a balance.” Minister Pronk concluded, “It is not up to officials and policy-makers to decide under what conditions the urban poor should develop. But you can help the poorest city dwellers to voice their ideas and to take on the responsibility for their own development.”
Mr. Norbert Berger, Mayor of Cologne, speaking in his capacity as First Vice President of IULA, urged the UMP to do more to have an impact on local authorities in order to reach citizens especially the urban poor. Noting that the UMP was very ambitious in view of its limited resources he said, “It is very important to give local authorities a role in the design of the Programme. IULA and its members are very eager to work with the UMP.”
Following a brief question and answer session Dr Wally N’Dow formally launched the third phase of the programme wishing it every success in its central role in implementing the Habitat Agenda.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
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URBAN MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME
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