Exchanging ideas
Please accept our congratulations for the
excellent coverage on "Innovative
urban Financing" in Habitat Debate
(Volume 9, Issue No. 1), which is a crucial
issue.
Its wide coverage enables
those concerned directly to move in to action
on several critical fronts. The story on Building
a new local administration in war ravaged
Somalia has some points of relevance to
the process of rebuilding parts of Sri Lanka
too that have experienced the ravages of war.
The story from Kenya, Helping
house the poor in Kenya by Jerry McCann,
National Director of Habitat for Humanity,
Kenya, is an experiment that can be tried
in other developing countries including our
own.
Indicating e-mail addresses
of the writers after their name in the relevant
articles would encourage direct communication.
— Hewage Jayasena, Director, Buddhist
Socio Economic Development Institute, Sri
Lanka.
Editor's note: Many
of our writers are prominent people for whom
privacy is paramount. We are therefore not
at liberty to provide their contact details.
For the time being, we suggest that readers
wishing to get in touch with our authors should
contact us so that we can help them communicate.
Talking about slums and
women
The life of Reeva Sood (Habitat
Debate Vol. 9, No. 1, April 2003)
is one of the many examples of women residing
in the marginalized sections in developing
countries. She highlights the most conspicuous
question of life of slum dwellers and provides
the solutions. An important thing highlighted
in the article is the influence of the power
of women.
On the one hand, what we
see in most developing countries is that women
are worst affected by poverty. Not only are
they subjected to exploitation of various
kinds, but lack of proper sanitation facilities
cause many a disease in women, who are the
creators of new generation.
On the other hand, what
emerges from the article is a new facet of
women. Her determination can change societies
and, of course, the surroundings in which
they live. It is imperative for women to get
the awareness or the so-called "Chetna"
to rise up to their own self and unite to
bring in a better future for the whole community.
— Geeta Kochhar, Research Scholar
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
The right to adequate
housing
Far from progressing towards
the goal of improving the lives of slum dwellers,
it seems that the number of people who are
born, live and die in outrageous conditions
increases minute by minute.
According to data recently
published by UN-HABITAT, 924 million
people around the world live in slums. Out
of these 924 million, more than 80 per cent
live in the South, and 31.6 per cent live
in urban areas.
The right to adequate housing
should be addressed within a comprehensive
approach of economic, social and cultural
rights, where adequate housing includes the
consideration of the habitat component, access
to health services, labour and the cultural
adaptation of housing solutions.
At present, together with
international bodies, the governments carry
out different programmes designed to alleviate
the serious housing problems of its citizens.
As an example, I would like to introduce the
cases of two Latin American countries, Peru
and Uruguay. Although quite different in their
demographic and geographic environment, both
countries have implemented programmes aimed
at normalizing the housing issue. They share
an equal lack of global approach to the five
key dimensions recommended for housing by
the COFORPRI project funded by Peru and the
World Bank, and PIAI funded by Uruguay and
UNDP.
On the one hand, title deeds
are granted under risky and precarious conditions
and a total lack of access to basic services.
But areas with difficult living conditions
are normalized, thus increasing the price
of the final solutions and ignoring the integral
cost that represents the expansion of services
nets and infrastructure in the country's economy.
This brief description is
simply an example of how governments act in
order to achieve the goal of reducing slum
dwellers in terms of statistics. In the majority
of cases, the issue is not addressed through
the kind of integral approach that a complex
problem deserves.
Today, more than ever, in
the context of the severe economic crises
that Latin American countries are suffering,
there is a need to identify and encourage
groups already working on these issues in
order to share solutions and take active part
in policy making.
— Graciela Dede, Architect, Social
Watch/Control, Ciudadano, Montevideo, Uruguay.
Problems in the
UN System
I would like to raise some
problems we have with the UNsystem. When we
approach them with an idea or a project, they
tell us that their relationships are with
the states, not directly with movements or
associations. Cooperation with youth movements
directly are difficult if not impossible.
I wish UN-HABITAT will take this into consideration
in its starting relationship with youth movements,
most of them needing capacity building in
various domains.
For African Youth Network (AYN) made of regional,
sub-regional and some national youth councils
in Africa, the major problem is the lack of
material, financial, and technical means to
solve its various problems. The relationship
with UN-HABITAT can consist of being the link
between our platform and the UN system organizations
in charge of issues like: HIV/AIDS, biodiversity,
child labour and child soldiers, human rights,
disarmament, drug abuse, education for all,
girl child, globalization, governance, international
law, peacekeeping and preventing conflicts,
poverty and refugees.
Let UN-HABITAT, one of the
only UN agencies based in Africa, be the spokesperson
and have its specialists assist African youth
associations, movements or organizations set
up an exchange network on the various issues
mentioned above.
Many troubles all over the
world would have been averted if we had better
opportunities, unemployment being the biggest
problem.
The ghettoes or slums found
in almost every city, especially in Africa,
are the birth places of crime, rape, drug
abuse, prostitution, even terrorism, the last
terrorist killing in Morocco and other countries
being some examples. A project which will
consist of training young people in replacing
the existing slums step by step by having
the youth of these areas build homes for themselves
and their families will help alleviate such
problems.
About one hundred shelters
built in Lomé, the capital city of
Togo (where the African Youth Network is based),
can be the experimental city of this project.
It can be spread to many cities in the east,
west, central and southern part of the continent,
and other continents.
— Koffi TOUSSAH, Vice Chairman and
Acting Secretary General, African Youth Network,
Lomé, Togo.
Join
the debate - your views are important
We welcome readers'
letters to stimulate the debate. These
will be published under this Readers'
Forum, at the discretion of the Editor,
who may shorten or edit material to
meet space and style requirements. The
remaining issues this year will cover
Water and Sanitation for Cities
and Urban Land Policy and Management.
Write to habitat.debate@unhabitat.org,
or to the Information Services Section
(Habitat Debate), P.O. Box 30030, 00100
GPO, Nairobi , KENYA, or fax number
254-20-623477. 
We would also like
to know what you think of the new design
and contents of Habitat Debate. Please
take a few minutes to complete the form
below and send it to the above address.
The form is also available on www.unhabitat.org/hd/form.asp.
Name:
|
............................................................................. |
Organization:
|
............................................................................. |
Address: |
............................................................................. |
E-mail: |
............................................................................. |
Who you are
o Business Industry
o Central Government
o Community-Based Organization
o Government Agency
o Inter-Governmental Organization
o Library/Documentation Centre
o Local Authority
o Journalist/Media
o Non-Governmental Organization
o Researcher
o Student
o Trust/Foundation
o United Nations System
Other - please specify
|
Topics of Interest
o Environment
o Housing Rights/Security of Tenure
o Risk & Disaster Management
o Rural Linkages
o Safer Cities
o Slum Upgrading
o Statistics
o Training/Capacity Building
o Urban Poverty
o Urban Development
o Urban Finance
o Urban Governance
o Water and Sanitation
Other - please specify
|
|
|
