UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)
|
| UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) |
|
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This document is made available by the United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA), in collaboration with the Population Information Network
(POPIN). For further information please contact UNFPA at 220 East 42nd
Street, New York, NY 10017 USA; tel: 212-297-5254; email: vlassoff@unfpa.org
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RECOMMENDATIONS
of the
SYMPOSIUM ON INTERNAL MIGRATION AND URBANIZATION
IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: IMPLICATIONS FOR HABITAT II
UNFPA Headquarters, New York
24-26 January 1996
RECOMMENDATIONS
SYMPOSIUM ON INTERNAL MIGRATION AND URBANIZATION
IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: IMPLICATIONS FOR HABITAT II
INTRODUCTION
Preparations for Habitat II so far have only superficially
addressed population issues related to human-settlements concerns
such as rapid rates of urban growth and rural-urban migration. To
give more attention to population linkages and in a spirit of
encouraging policy coordination based on recent important United
Nations international conferences devoted to socio-economic issues,
UNFPA sponsored a scientific symposium on internal migration and
urbanization in developing countries. The twin objectives of this
symposium were to update global knowledge concerning those
demographic phenomena which bear heavily on human-settlement policy
and to provide the Habitat II preparative process with a valuable
input from a renowned body of scholars which could serve delegations
to the Preparatory Committee in their deliberations of the Habitat
Agenda. It would also contribute to follow up activities of the
Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and
Development. For actions to be undertaken congruent with the
Programme of Action, a better understanding of current trends in
urbanization and population distribution and their link to human-
settlement issues is needed.
The Symposium brought together well-known experts in the field from
around the world. The Carolina Population Center of the University
of North Carolina provided the technical coordination for the meeting
which took place 24-26 January 1996 at UNFPA headquarters in New
York.
PREAMBLE
1. Human beings must be recognized as the centre of sustainable
development, so the principal aim of development should be to improve
the quality of life of all people. Over 95 per cent of future
population growth will occur in developing countries, almost three-
fourths of that in urban areas. Nearly one billion people migrate
within national borders each decade, making internal migration
between human settlements a defining characteristic of the late 20th
century. Nevertheless, net migration from rural to urban areas
accounts for less than half the population growth of cities: around
60 per cent of urban growth is due to the excess of urban fertility
over urban mortality. By the year 2005 more than half the world's
population will live in cities. Accompanying the rapid urban
population growth in the late 20th century is the emergence of large
urban agglomerations with over 10 million people. Eleven of the
world's 14 current mega-cities are in the developing countries;
thirteen more will emerge in the next 20 years, all in the developing
world.
2. The worldwide process of urbanization is directly tied to
social and economic change. Urbanization in itself is neither good
nor bad. In approaching the phenomenon of urbanization, the key
task is to preserve, harness and build on the good things about
cities (their productivity, efficiency and dynamism) while
controlling those aspects that are deleterious (such as poverty and
inequality, environmental degradation, and inadequate shelter,
especially for the poor). Growing urban poverty continues to be a
major negative aspect of urbanization in much of the developing
world. Increasing inequality, homelessness and environmental
degradation are growing in some areas, while municipal and national
governments appear less and less capable of effectively confronting
them. Since the 1980s the number of poor has risen more rapidly in
urban than rural areas in both Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America,
and urban poverty continues to be widespread through much of Asia.
Inequality in cities is increasingly visible, with the sight of the
rich barricading themselves behind high walls or behind guarded gates
in both the developed and developing countries, while the numbers of
homeless and those barely housed at all in slums rise, sometimes
right next door. The sheer speed and diversity of the processes of
change affecting cities makes the development or application of new
management tools essential. But it is very difficult to achieve this
in the face of rapid urban population growth. Therefore, it is
essential for governments to determine to what degree natural urban
growth and net in-migration are contributing to overly rapid urban
growth and to undertake pro-active measures to alter these trends.
GOALS AND PRINCIPLES
Spatial Mobility
3. Spatial mobility is an option to improve the life chances of
a wide section of the world's population. Recognizing that the free
movement of people and the process of urbanization are essential
elements of a productive economy, public policy should not aim at
transforming population distribution and spatial mobility patterns
per se, but rather at facilitating movement that results in improved
life chances for a wide spectrum of the population and at meeting the
needs of people and enterprises in the locations where they establish
themselves.
Urban Population Growth
4. Recognizing that a root cause of many of the problems faced
by governments and local authorities in managing urban settlements
is rapid population growth, an important goal should be the reduction
of that growth. The unusually high proportion of young people in
urban populations in the developing world provides momentum for high
growth in the future and ensures that the need for a variety of urban
services and demand for employment will continue to rise rapidly.
Given that most people who migrate are seeking a better way of
lifeþand usually are successful in achieving that goal, thereby
contributing to social and economic progressþattempts to restrict
internal migration flows at the receiving end are usually both costly
and ineffective. Therefore, efforts to reduce urban population
growth should focus on programmes that are conducive to lowering
rates of urban fertility.
Policies
5. Given that the proportion of urban population growth
attributable to natural increase (that is, the excess of births over
deaths) is estimated to be around 60 per cent, and even higher in
some countries and regions, governments wishing to reduce urban
population growth should give priority to policies aimed at reducing
fertility by, among other things, improving the availability and
quality of reproductive health services, including family planning,
in urban areas. Since in many countries high population growth in
rural areas fosters out-migration and is generally also due to high
rates of natural increase, policies to improve access to health
services and family planning in rural areas should also be pursued.
Since lower fertility is generally closely tied to higher levels of
education, policies to improve access to education, and to ensure
equal access for boys and girls, are also crucial in the reduction
of population growth in both rural and urban areas.
VULNERABLE GROUPS
6. Given that urban settlements are the destination for various
categories of migrants, including those staying only for short
periods or moving back and forth between different settlements, local
authorities are encouraged to recognize that the impact and needs of
different types of migrants will vary. They should devise
appropriate measures to improve the situation of temporary migrants
by promoting, inter alia, the improvement of transportation systems,
dormitory services in places of destination, credit systems, and
training and technical assistance for family members remaining behind
in places of origin.
SUSTAINABLE LAND-USE
7. Increasing land prices associated with the relatively fixed
supply of urban land in the face of rapid urban population growth,
inter alia, has come to represent a major problem for urban land
management in general which limits the access of the poor, including
in-migrants, to safe shelter with access to urban transportation and
employment. Governments need to develop land and zoning policies as
well as taxation and incentive policies to use land in built-up areas
more efficiently, including vacant sites, as well as to guide the use
and development of new land in the periphery along transportation
routes for growing populations. At the same time, the rate of growth
in the demand for residential land should be addressed by policies
to moderate urban population growth through improved reproductive
health programmes, including family planning.
POVERTY REDUCTION AND EMPLOYMENT CREATION
8. In many developing countries, investments in fields important
to the eradication of urban poverty, such as basic education,
sanitation, drinking water, housing, adequate food supply,
transportation, energy and other infrastructure for rapidly growing
populations, continue to strain already weak economies and limit
development options. The unusually high number of young people in
urban populations, a consequence of high fertility rates and patterns
of rural to urban migration involving younger workers, requires that
productive jobs be created for a continually growing urban labour
force under conditions of already widespread unemployment and
underemployment (ICPD, 3.15).
9. In order to improve the plight of the urban poor, including
migrantsþmany of whom work in the informal sector of the
economyþgovernments and non-governmental organizations are urged to
improve their income earning capability by facilitating access to
employment, credit, production, marketing opportunities, vocational
training and transportation, with special attention to the situation
of female workers and women heads of household. In addition,
infrastructure important for improving the quality of life of the
low-income sectors needs to be improved, including facilities for
basic education and health care, including reproductive health care
and family planning, as well as low-cost rental housing. Child-care
centres and special protection and rehabilitation programmes for
street children should be established as necessary.
10. In many developing countries increasing numbers of women are
migrating as independent migrants to urban areas. Many of these
women are abandoned women, including divorced and separated women,
who face great insecurity and risk in their day-to-day existence.
Similarly, whether women come as independent migrants or as spouses
of male migrants, they often bear the burden of providing basic
services in their household, such as water, food and energy for
cooking. These women often do not have access to such services
through formal channels and have to spend considerable time and pay
more to obtain these services. Local governments, official agencies
and non-governmental organizations are urged to improve the provision
of such basic services on a "user pay" basis.
11. Because out-migration from certain types of human settlements
may increase the vulnerability of people remaining behind, especially
of women who become de facto heads of household and their children,
governments should seek ways to improve their situation by, inter
alia, facilitating the transfer of migrants' remittances through
credit institutions and by fostering investment in productive
activities in places of origin.
ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE AND HEALTHY HUMAN SETTLEMENTS
12. Urban areas are great consumers of resources as well as
cynosures for people. Water, food, energy, and the raw materials for
urban industrial activities and housing all come from the surrounding
area, and often from distant rural locations. In turn, cities dump
wastes into the air and bodies of water that flow downstream,
establishing environmental relationships with other areas as
environmental sinks. The achievement of ecologically sustainable
relationships between cities and the surrounding areas requires not
only the development of better waste management policies but regional
planning and conservation (including the conservation of agricultural
land and natural environments). The nature of these resource
linkages between urban and rural places, and the policy trade-offs
and costs, needs to be better understood. This requires the develop-
ment of more efficient and sustainable regional and national
policies, which would benefit from new and innovative research.
13. In order to make large urban agglomerations more viable
environmentally and more sustainable economically, there needs to be
closer coordination between the authorities concerned with the
spatial distribution of economic activities and human settlements and
those concerned with environmental planning and degradation.
SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS
14. In paragraph 103 change "both within cities and between
cities, and in more areas" to "both within and between cities and
between urban areas and their wider linked regions". In paragraph
104 change "managing transport in our human settlements" to þmanaging
transport within and between cities and rural settlements".
15. In paragraph 124, add a new point: (a) Strengthen intra-
regional and inter-urban transportation and communications systems
to facilitate population mobility, including temporary movements and
commuting.
IMPROVING URBAN ECONOMIES
16. Commuting can be an important mechanism to sustain individual
migrants and their households without increasing housing demand and
congestion, especially in large urban agglomerations. Consequently,
governments and local authorities are urged to facilitate commuting
by, inter alia, extending transportation systems.
17. In order to enhance the functioning of urban economies,
governments, local authorities and the private sector should promote
the provision of adequate infrastructure, including self-help
housing, in peripheral areas around large cities to facilitate the
creation of employment and productive activities in such areas.
Better infrastructure and transport will encourage the development
of small-scale commerce and manufacturing as well as the emergence
of additional rental housing.
18. Governments that have adopted structural adjustment
programmes to enhance the functioning of their economies are urged
to assess the impact of such programmes on urban settlements and take
appropriate measures to reduce the negative effects of such
programmes, particularly on the urban poor.
BALANCED DEVELOPMENT IN RURAL SETTLEMENTS
19. Governments wishing to create alternatives to out-migration
from rural areas should establish the preconditions for development
in rural areas by actively supporting access to ownership or use of
land and access to water resources, especially for family units,
making and encouraging investments to enhance rural productivity,
improving rural infrastructure and social services, and facilitate
the establishment of credit, production and marketing cooperatives
and other grass-roots organizations that give people greater control
over resources and thus help to improve their livelihoods.
Particular attention is needed to ensure that these opportunities are
also made available to migrants' families remaining in the areas of
origin (ICPD, 9.6).
20. Governments should develop economic and institutional links
between urban centres and their surrounding rural areas by, inter
alia, improving infrastructure (roads, electricity, water supply,
telecommunications), expanding education and reproductive health
services, including family planning, and providing technical
assistance for the marketing and commercialization of rural products.
Such programmes may include measures to facilitate commuting in lieu
of migration to urban centres.
21. To help create alternatives to out-migration from rural
areas, governments should also recognize and safeguard traditional
rights over common lands, forests and water resources. In addition,
governments as well as the private sector should promote education,
training and off-farm employment opportunities in rural areas,
ensuring equal access for men and women. Finally, governments should
end policies that fix food prices at levels lower than market prices,
which discriminate against rural producers, worsen rural poverty, and
contribute unnecessarily to out-migration from rural areas.
DECENTRALIZATION
22. Demands upon scarce resources in urban areas can be better
met when the energy of individuals is marshaled to the maximum. Time
and again, people in the developing world have demonstrated immense
energy and creativity in establishing their own shelter once provided
with access to the necessary inputs and credit on reasonable terms.
23. To create an enabling context for local development,
including the provision of services, governments should consider
decentralizing their administrative systems. This also involves
giving responsibility for expenditure and the right to raise revenue
to regional, district and local authorities. While vast improvements
in the urban infrastructure and environmental strategies are
essential in many developing countries to provide a healthy
environment for urban residents, similar activities should also be
pursued in rural areas (ICPD, 9.4). In addition, effective
decentralization also requires that governments promote the
enhancement of local fiscal and management capacities through
training programmes.
METROPOLITAN PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
24. With regard to urban areas, priority must be given to
increasing the capacity and competence of city and municipal
authorities to manage urban development and to respond to the needs
of their citizens, especially the poor, for basic infrastructure and
services. To finance such infrastructure and services, governments
in partnership with the private sector should provide an appropriate
framework for equitable cost-recovery schemes and increasing revenues
by broadening the tax base. Since such policies tend to fall mostly
on the lower income groups, equity requires that cost-recovery
schemes embody cross-subsidization at the city-wide level, as well
as more effective taxes on higher income consumption.
25. Governments should strengthen the capacity for land
management, including urban planning, at all levels in order to take
into account demographic trends and encourage the search for
innovative approaches to address the challenges facing cities, with
special attention to the pressures and needs resulting from the
growth of their populations (ICPD, 9.17).
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION
26. Existing knowledge of both the underlying causes of rural-
urban population movements and of their consequences is limited and
superficial at best in virtually all developing countries. The major
cause of this is the lack of appropriate data sets and careful
analyses of migration. It is desirable to carry out studies of both
the determinants and consequences of migration to better formulate
policies to alter itþstudies of the consequences to assess whether
there is any reason to alter it and studies of the determinants to
assess how to alter it. Better knowledge is crucial for improved
policy formulation. This in turn requires new, specialized data
collection about trends in migration, urbanization and population
distribution.
27. Given the crucial importance of having better information on
the characteristics of migrant flows, their causes and consequences
at the level of individual migrants, households, and the human
settlements involved, it is important to promote the collection of
relevant data on internal migration. To that end, the development
of an international programme of National Migration, Immigration and
Urbanization Surveys is recommended. In addition, particular
attention has to be given to the quantification of all types of
internal spatial mobility, including rural-rural, rural-urban, urban-
rural and urban-urban migration, whether temporary or longer-term in
nature. A better use of population censuses and various types of
nationally representative surveys to study particular aspects of
internal migration should be fostered, inter alia, by ensuring that
the data collected are adequately tabulated and disseminated, by
providing access to the basic data by researchers and local
authorities, by generating data for small administrative areas, and
by supporting the detailed analysis of existing information for
policy formulation. Given that migration flows are highly sensitive
to local and national changes in economic opportunities as well as
to environmental degradation and political factors, programmes of
regular data collection are recommended in countries subject to rapid
changes in such factors.
GENERAL POLICY ISSUES
28. Governments formulating population distribution policies
should ensure that the objectives and goals of those policies are
consistent with other development goals, policies and basic human
rights. Therefore, governments, assisted by interested local,
regional and intergovernmental agencies, should assess on a regular
basis how the consequences of their economic and environmental
policies, sectoral priorities, infrastructure investment and balance
of resources among regional, central, provincial and local
authorities influence population distribution and internal migration,
both permanent and temporary (ICPD, 9.3).
29. Most government policies and investment programmes affect the
spatial distribution of population and migration flows. Examples of
such interventions include macroeconomic and pricing policies,
sectoral production priorities, infrastructure investment and credit
policies. Governments should assess the extent to which the spatial
impacts of such policies contribute to or counteract any existing
spatial distribution or migration policies.