Managing our towns and cities
has never been an easy matter.
And as they grow at unprecedented rates transforming our planet in this new Millennium from a largely rural to an urban world, the role of local authorities becomes ever more important. More than ever before, local authorities need the support of central governments, and more than ever before they need to speak with one voice from a united platform to ensure that their urgent concerns are heeded.
We at UN-HABITAT therefore welcome the creation of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) as a new organization that will speak on behalf of local authorities and articulate local concerns with one voice on the international stage.
The challenge we face confronts millions of our fellow citizens living on the fringes and in the poorer neighbourhoods of towns and cities across Africa, the Arab States, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. In the developed world and the transition countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the challenge is no less daunting as city grows into city, large tracts of rural land get gobbled up and giant industrial complexes grind away with outmoded technology causing ever more pollution.
In October 2003, UN-HABITAT, the UN Agency for Cities and other Human Settlements, published the Global Report on Human Settlements 2003. The report shows that sub-Saharan Africa today has the world’s largest proportion of urban residents living in slums. These slums are home to 72 per cent of urban Africa’s citizens. That percentage represents a total of 187 million people. World-wide, slums are home to 1 billion people. Over the next 30 years, that figure could rise to 2 billion if no action is taken.
Slums represent the worst of urban poverty and inequality. Yet the world has the resources, the know-how and the power to reach the Millennium target of achieving a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by the year 2020. UN-HABITAT is tasked with coordinating action towards meeting this goal.
Today, Africa has the world’s fastest annual rate of urbanisation. The annual average urban growth rate is 4 per cent, twice as high as Latin America and Asia. Already, 37 percent of Africans live in cities, and by the year 2030 this rate is expected to rise to 53 per cent. In a process known as the urbanisation of poverty, more and more people are seeking a better life in towns and cities but in Africa urbanisation has occurred in an environment of consistent economic decline over the past 30 years.
So the challenges of sustainable urbanisation in our world are many and varied: security and safety, environmental degradation, growing slums, lack of human and financial resources at the municipal level, insufficient decentralisation of powers and resources, and poor urban governance that leads to divided cities. We need to ensure better access to urban services so that everyone has adequate shelter, clean water and sanitation. Those are basic needs and human rights.
It can no longer escape the world’s attention that local authorities must deal with these problems on the ground. Mayors, councillors, city managers and local public servants of all kinds are the front line in the war against urban poverty. Without strong capabilities and financial resources at the local level, many of the problems that are assigned highest priority at the national and international levels, will not be solved.
If well managed by their mayors and councillors, cities can be true engines of growth for the social, cultural and economic advancement of the world.
This is why I am delighted that local authorities are steadily gaining more and more recognition. Local authorities in Africa, elected Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, Mayor of the South African capital, Tshwane (Pretoria), President of a new umbrella organisation of local governments in Africa to lead the continent at the UCLG Founding Congress. Mayors from America, Asia, Europe are also represented by their regional associations in the UCLG.
Many of UN-HABITAT’s various programmes have during the last decade developed substantive initiatives to support local authorities in many parts of the world. UN-HABITAT will continue to offer its cooperation to local authorities in the United Nations system and on the broader world stage right down to street level. The advent of the UCLG is indeed an historic political development. It is why we take this opportunity to present a special issue of Habitat Debate for this congress. I wish the UCLG every success as a crucial new organization for promoting local action to achieve global goals — and for coordinating local authorities internationally to improve the lives of urban residents.
Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka
Executive Director
