Habitat II: city summit to forge the future of human settlements in an urbanizing world.

"Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, be it ever so humble, there's no place like home; a charm from the skies seems to hallow us there, which, sought through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere."

--J. H. Payne

"The strength of a nation is derived from the integrity of its homes."

--Confucius

For most human beings, as the old saying goes, "there is no place like home". Yet by the turn of the century, one half of all the world's people will be making their homes in cities, where growth rates topping 1 million people per week have resulted in a long list of afflictions: some 40 per cent of city dwellers worldwide do not have access to safe drinking water or adequate sanitation, while urban poverty rates in some areas top 60 per cent of residents.

These alarming statistics are compounded by unemployment, homelessness, growing insecurity, rising pollution and increasing vulnerability to disaster. Indeed, primarily due to a deteriorating urban environment, more than 500 million people worldwide--half of whom are children--live in substandard housing or have no homes at all.

To find ways to deal with this urban overload and to help ensure in the twenty-first century that all people have access to homes that provide adequate shelter in a healthy and safe environment, UN Member States will convene in Istanbul, Turkey, from 3 to 14 June 1996, for the second UN Conference on Human Settlements. Commonly known as Habitat II and called the "City Summit" by UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the Conference will focus on two major themes: sustainable human settlements development in an urbanizing world and adequate shelter for all.

"The City Summit encompasses many issues", the Secretary-General said. "There are hard questions to answer. How can we improve the governance and finance of human settlements? What policies are needed to improve conditions for the poorest people, families and communities? How can we ensure basic hygienic conditions in urban areas, while avoiding long-term damage to the environment? Can we ensure that, by a target date, adequate shelter will exist for all? What must be done to mitigate the effects of natural disasters and war? Can the cycle of deprivation, conflict, devastation and failure to develop be broken?"

The answers to these questions must be focused on urban areas, for cities are where most of the world's population will live and work, where most economic activity will take place, and where most pollution will be generated and most natural resources consumed.

Significant advances

Since the first UN Conference on Human Settlements, held in Vancouver, Canada, in 1976, there have been significant advances in the approach to addressing human settlements issues. The UN General Assembly in 1978 created the UN Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat)--UNCHS--to help both individual countries and the global community improve housing conditions and manage urbanization.

Habitat was instrumental in drawing up the Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000 to coordinate global efforts to facilitate the provision of adequate shelter for all by the end of the century. This Strategy was formally adopted by the General Assembly in 1988 and provides the focus for Habitat's work. Yet, despite two decades of efforts, rapid urbanization has outpaced the ability of Governments to provide housing, and living conditions for the urban poor have continued to worsen.

Conference aims

Thus, Habitat II aims to achieve what the first Conference did not, by addressing pressing human settlements issues with a more localized approach, and solving housing and urbanization problems within the overall context of sustainable development. The long-term objective of Habitat II is to arrest the deterioration of global human settlements conditions and ultimately improve the living environment of all people on a sustainable basis, with special attention to the needs of women and vulnerable social groups, whose quality of life and participation in development have been hampered by the exclusion and inequality affecting the poor in general.

In addition, the General Assembly has affirmed that Habitat II should:

* review trends in human settlements policies and programmes undertaken to implement the recommendations adopted at the first Conference;

* conduct a mid-term review of the implementation of the Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000;

* review implementation of Agenda 21--the wide-ranging action plan adopted by the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development, the so-called Earth Summit--with respect to human settlements; and

* review current global trends in economic and social development as they relate to human settlements, and include recommendations for future action at the national and international levels.

The Conference, says Habitat II Secretary-General Wally N'Dow, is about "striving for shelter for as many people as possible and addressing the challenging task of planning the urban world". Moreover, he has stated, "Habitat is not just about inadequate housing and decaying infrastructures, not just about dangerous streets and environmental neglect and much more. In the final analysis, Habitat II is about attitudes, about leadership, about the willingness of society to meet the needs of humanity, the needs we all share with our neighbours in this `global village' we call home."

Therefore, according to Dr. N'Dow, the Istanbul gathering will be more than a conference; it will represent a recognition "that if we want to save the future, we have no choice other than to find answers today to one of the most neglected and urgent problems of our time, one that goes to the very heart of our every day lives--how we live, where we live, and above all, if we live at all".

An urbanizing world

That sentiment is no exaggeration. According to the 1996 Global Report on Human Settlements, An Urbanizing World, housing shortages and poor housing conditions, including unsafe water and poor sanitation, are responsible for 10 million deaths every year worldwide. Waterborne diseases alone kill 4 million infants and children annually, states the report, which was released recently by UNCHS.

More specifically, 320,000 people were afflicted and nearly 3,000 killed by the cholera epidemic in Peru, which could have been prevented by sanitation improvements; a 1994 plague outbreak in Surat, India--a comparatively prosperous city--was attributed mainly to unsanitary housing conditions. The homeless in the industrialized world are now a common phenomenon: in London, for example, life expectancy among the homeless is more than 25 years lower than the national average.

Furthermore, while poor urban housing conditions are a global problem, conditions are worst in the developing countries of Asia, Latin America and Africa, which will be home to the 10 largest cities in the world by 2015. Overall, 80 per cent of the world's urban residents will live in developing countries by 2025, according to the Habitat report.

In short, the issue of urbanization "cannot be addressed unless we face up to the issues behind it", Dr. N'Dow said at a colloquium on Habitat II in Vancouver on 28 October, "for we cannot look at urbanization in isolation. We must look at it in the context of a world caught up in a historic transition, a dynamic process of change in which urbanization is not the cause of our problems, but a mirror reflecting them, a microcosm in which, paradoxically they are magnified."

Furthermore, he continued, despite the problems of urbanization, "we cannot stop it, nor should we. It is at the heart of a new world in the making. It is in many ways in fact the engine driving it." Habitat's Global Report on Human Settlements agrees, stating that massive urbanization is the only way the world can survive the massive population increase. According to the report, urban areas offer a higher life expectancy, lower absolute poverty, greater access to education and health care, more effective resources use, and lower cost per household for waste disposal and other services.

It is not urbanization itself that is to blame for the problems associated with cities, concludes the report, but the failure of governmental institutions to manage rapid change and to tap the knowledge and resources available among the population within each city. In the absence of good governance and effective management, cities become unhealthy and dangerous places, where expansion takes place haphazardly, often with urban sprawl over the best quality farmland.

The Habitat Agenda

The challenge of Habitat II, thus, has as many dimensions as human settlements themselves. To address the diversity of issues and present concrete commitments for action, Habitat II participants will adopt a final document, to be known as the Habitat Agenda. The Agenda will comprise a Statement of Principles and Commitments, and a Global Plan of Action for the next two decades, with special focus on remedial action in the next five years (1996-2000).

The Agenda's concerns and aims include:

* improving governance and participation by encouraging Governments and local authorities to embark on partnerships with urban dwellers to improve management of cities;

* meeting housing and infrastructure needs to improve the situation for the more than 1 billion people in the world who live in inadequate conditions--without piped water, electricity, security of land tenure, access to roads or health facilities;

* improving the urban economy by reducing poverty and creating jobs through a more participatory urban planning approach that takes stock of local skills, technologies and materials;

* incorporating environmental concerns since sustainable development in the twenty-first century will, to a large degree, depend on how cities, towns and villages everywhere interact with the environment and utilize natural resources;

* increasing awareness of gender issues, since women suffer disproportionately from poverty and lack of infrastructure, and often have unequal access to resources such as property, credit, training and technology, even though they are usually responsible for improving the living standards of their children; and

* mitigating disasters through better planning, access to affordable urban land and improved construction methods that can reduce the extent of catastrophes.

"To overcome current problems and to ensure future progress in improving environmental, social, economic and political conditions in human settlements, we must begin with a recognition of the challenges facing cities", asserts the preamble to the draft final document. "The Habitat Agenda issues a global call to action. It offers, within a framework of principles and commitments, a positive vision of sustainable human settlements--where all women and men have adequate shelter, productive and freely chosen employment, a healthy and safe environment and access to basic services."

New partnerships

A unique feature of Habitat II is the strong encouragement from States for the active participation of local governments, the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations and the academic and scientific communities. These partnerships are vital for more effective planning, resource mobilization and investment in all aspects of shelter and human settlements development, and for distributing the benefits of economic growth more equitably.

"Although Governments at all levels often lack legal, institutional, financial and human resources to respond adequately to rapid urbanization, many local authorities are taking on these challenges with open, accountable and effective leadership and are eager to bring their citizens into the sustainable development process", states the preamble to the draft Agenda. "Enabling structures that facilitate independent initiative and creativity, as well as encourage a wide range of partnerships, must be promoted."

Therefore, a key commitment and strategy of the Agenda plan of action is that of enablement, "by which all women and men work with Government at all levels, with the private sector, with other non-governmental organizations, and with each other in their own communities to determine the collective future they want, to decide on priorities for action, to identify and allocate resources fairly, to build partnerships to achieve common goals, and to ensure that goals are consistent with basic principles", according to the draft.

Reflecting this strategy, the Conference proceedings will include the traditional Plenary and Main Committee, as well as a new Partnership Committee. In the new committee, representatives from local administrations, NGOs, academics, professionals in housing and human settlements, trade unions and the private sector will present views, evaluations, proposals and commitments generated in special round-table forums to the delegates of the participating nations, who in turn will convey them to the Conference Plenary.

"Now, more than ever, citizens of cities are demanding to be heard and to be given the authority to make decisions about the way their cities, towns and villages should be governed", stated Dr. N'Dow in the April 1995 issue of "Countdown to Istanbul", a newsletter published by UNCHS as part of Habitat II's preparatory process. "This new trend in urban management may not be `new'--participation and action were the cornerstones of fifth century Athenian society--but it is being widely accepted. It is the basis for Habitat's enabling strategy which encourages communities, local authorities, Governments and the private sector to come up with integrated strategies to deal with problems in a way that `enables' all urban actors to feel responsible for actions taken at the local level ... In other words, governance is no longer a top-down process; rather, it is interactive and dynamic, built on partnerships."

Best practices

Another novel initiative of the Habitat II process is the identification of "best practices for improving the living environment", representing cities from around the world, which have found successful and sustainable solutions to urban problems.

More than 700 participants at the International Conference on Best Practices in Improving Living Environments, held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in November 1995, reviewed 25 case studies from a growing list of cities around the world that have adopted new and innovative ways to solve such urban problems as the lack of adequate low-income housing, waste disposal, and air and water pollution. The criteria for "best practices" designation include: achievement of tangible improvements in the lives of residents; formation of lasting partnerships between Governments, community organizations, the private sector and international agencies; and sustainability of benefits.

The examples reviewed in Dubai--as well as in Curitaba, Brazil; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and the Paris/Ile de France region--will be the first of several hundred "best practices" being entered into a new worldwide UN database that will be made available to city managers, government officials and private urban investors.

Final preparations

The culmination of Habitat II will be the adoption of a final document which aims to guide efforts towards achieving sustainable development of the world's cities, towns and villages at all levels into the twenty-first century. The proposed document, entitled "The Habitat Agenda", contains a preamble, a statement of goals and principles, a declaration of commitments to be undertaken by Governments in support of the objectives of Habitat II, and specific strategies for implementing the global action plan.

At its third and final session (5-16 February, New York), the Preparatory Committee for Habitat II gave conditional approval to major portions of the draft Agenda. The Committee noted that, due to time constraints, portions of the final document would be submitted to the Conference itself as having been informally negotiated during the preparatory process, but not formally approved.

The issues that remained unresolved despite extended negotiations during the session included: language pertaining to the right to adequate housing; institutional arrangements for following up the plan of action; and financial resources needed for implementation.

Negotiations over the draft Agenda "have been long and hard, but we leave here with many brackets on issues and phraseology that have thus far defied our most intense efforts", said Habitat II Secretary-General N'Dow in a closing statement to the session on 16 February. In spite of those difficulties, he was confident that the negotiating process would succeed and "we will have a Global Plan of Action that reflects global consensus".

According to Dr. N'Dow, enormous progress was made in the evaluation and understanding of the notion of the right to housing, with gains made in agreement on the affirmative role of Government to help make housing habitable, affordable and accessible.

Another area of great progress during the session related to the idea of partnerships, which would be based on the willingness of national governments to work with local authorities on the Habitat Agenda. All partners would be encouraged to work with NGOs and the private sector. In fact, partnership had become a compelling theme of the conference, Dr. N'Dow stressed.

According to the Chairman of the Preparatory Committee, Martti Lujanen of Finland, the unresolved issues would be the subject of informal negotiations in the period leading up to Istanbul, and would be taken up again formally during the pre-Conference consultations. In closing the session, he stated that the question of what was meant by good or sustainable development was, in essence, political. The Conference would have to decide on the development paradigm for the towns and cities in the next century.

Also during the session, the Preparatory Committee approved most of the list of NGOs and local authorities recommended for accreditation to the Conference. In addition, it heard presentations of "best practices" in addressing urban problems, as well as reports from mayors on regional meetings, which dealt with the growing responsibilities of municipalities in an era of decentralized government and diminished resources.

While the first preparatory meeting had identified a list of issues reflecting the difficulties faced in society today, and the second session saw the evolution of a conference of partners, the third and final session reflected "the importance of concerted action and broad-based planning at all levels and among all partners", Mr. Boutros-Ghali said in an opening statement to the Preparatory Committee on 5 February. "We must take with us to Istanbul a document that is vital and vibrant. A living document, if you will, that not only shows the way, but provides realistic and attainable goals to which all nations can subscribe, and which all cities can implement".

The Habitat Agenda, the Secretary-General said, "will be your legacy to the future. A legacy of sustainable human, social, economic and environmental development. A legacy that is felt in the cities, towns and villages of our world in the new millennium".

Because most actions will be undertaken at the national and local levels, the draft Habitat Agenda emphasizes building capacity and developing institutions in-country, strengthening local authorities, facilitating broad participation and civic engagement, defining government responsibility, planning and managing metropolitan areas, generating financial resources, creating effective economic instruments and guaranteeing cooperation in financing sustainable development, technology transfer and information exchange. A 15 November report of the Secretary-General on the draft final document (A/Conf.165/PC.3/3) states: "Taken in its entirety, the Habitat Agenda is developing into a policy plan for improving the processes of governance and for technical cooperation in support of those processes at all levels."

The Preamble to the draft Agenda states: "As we enter the twenty-first century, our vision of a world of stability and peace must be reinvigorated. There is a sense of great opportunity and hope that a new world can be built in which social and economic progress, environmental protection and better standards of living can be realized through global solidarity and cooperation. Nowhere can these goals be better demonstrated than through the quality of living conditions in our settlements."

Acknowledging that many countries lack resources to respond to rapid urbanization, the preamble calls for the promotion of enabling structures that facilitate independent initiative and creativity, and that encourage the wide range of partnerships, including with the private sector, and within and between countries.

The draft preamble concludes: "The Habitat Agenda issues a global call to action. It offers, within the framework of principles and commitments, a positive vision of sustainable human settlements--where all women and men have adequate shelter, productive and freely chosen employment, a healthy and safe environment and access to basic services. The Global Plan of Action will guide efforts to turn the vision into reality."

Goals and principles

In section two of the draft Agenda on goals and principles, Member States are asked to commit themselves to adopting the goals of adequate shelter for all and sustainable human settlements development in an urbanizing world. The draft contains nine principles "to guide us in our actions in attaining these goals."

Commitments and action

In the final two sections, Member States are asked to make commitments to six main objectives and are provided with a detailed outline of the strategies for implementing those objectives through the Global Plan of Action.

A decade of conferences

With its focus on people and their relationship to the living environment, Habitat II is the culmination of a decade of major UN conferences that have addressed topics such as the environment, population, social development and women. The City Summit calls for action in nearly all areas covered by those conferences: improving living conditions for women, children and the disadvantaged; cleansing and protecting the physical environment; defending the rights of individuals; generating employment; promoting commerce and industry; encouraging ethnic groups to live in harmony; and enabling all people to participate in community life free from poverty and fear.

More specifically, Secretary-General N'Dow has said, Habitat II advances the idea of sustainable development, moving from the "green agenda" of the Earth Summit to the "brown agenda" where people live, focusing on the human environment. Indeed, the UN General Assembly decided in December 1992 (resolution 47/180) to convene a second UN Conference on Human Settlements, based on recommendations contained in Agenda 21.

"There is a poetic logic to Habitat II being the last stop on this remarkable road", Dr. N'Dow said at the Global Observance of World Habitat Day in Curitaba, Brazil, on 2 October. "For it will be there in Istanbul where it all comes home, where all the recommendations for actions will have to be implemented. That is why it is so important that all Governments and a wide variety of partners ... focus on tangible programmes and strategies to help people around the world pool their talents and energies to improve their communities, to make them safe, healthy, equitable places in which to lead productive lives.

"That will be the true test of Habitat II, which, if it is the last in the continuum, is also the first of a new kind of conference: a conference of partners in all walks of life--in and out of government in which they will be able to voice their views and make commitments in an unprecedented process designed to create a new pattern in United Nations decision-making."