The state of the young in any city is the litmus test for its level of sustainability and vibrancy. At the19th session of UNHABITAT's Governing Council in May this year, Governments formally asked UN-HABITAT to strengthen and advance our work in the engagement of youth in urban governance, address the problem of youth at risk, and to develop actions with special focus on capacitybuilding and poverty alleviation.

The Focus - Why youth and UN-HABITAT?
by Anantha Krishnan
In a world where the number of young people has become the largest in history relative to the adult population, the need to take urgent and ever more innovative approaches to the problems facing them is greater than ever.

International Youth Parliament - Striving for an equitable, sustainable and peaceful world
By Sofiah MacKay and Sarika Seki Hussey
In less than 15 years, Participatory Budgeting has become a topic of debate and a major field of innovation for those involved in democracy, governance and local development issues. This article by Yves Cabannes explores recent tendencies and measures the contributions Participatory Budgeting is making to the Global Campaign on Urban Governance. It also highlights issues currently under discussion in Latin America

Changing the world: with children and for children
by Ximena dela Barra
The developing world is experiencing the largest ever generation of children and youth. Around 1 billion people - one out of every six on the planet - are between 10 and 19 years of age, 85% of them in developing countries. Because of the considerable drop in fertility rates, the children of today will constitute the largest-ever generation of active people. This is perhaps the greatest development opportunity the world cannot afford to miss.

Youth are an asset
by Steven Miller
There are more than 1 billion people in the world aged between 15 and 25. Nearly 40 per cent of the world's population is below the age of 20. Eightyfive per cent of them live in developing countries, where many are vulnerable to extreme poverty. And, the rate of urbanization is by far the greatest in developing countries. By 2015 it is expected that developing countries will account for over 75 per cent of the world's urban population.

Young women and urbanization
by Lucia Kiwala and Matilda Arvidsson
Deborah, 18, has always dreamed of a better life and better job prospects in Nairobi. But she is also discovering the grim realities of today's rapidly urbanizing world - a world in which young people like her often end up in slums that are potentially dangerous places for young women.

Young people at risk in an urbanizing world
by Sabine Ravestijn
In today's rapidly urbanizing world, the risks facing young people are varied, indiscriminate and growing, especially in the developing world.

Children behind bars - inside a Cape Town prison
By Liz Cowan
I am a social worker who spent more than a year working in the juvenile section - Medium A - in Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town, a place where Nelson Mandela was held before his release. I learnt a few things about gangs during my time there.

Making a living from garbage
By Violette Riungu
James came to the dumpsite through friends. He abandoned his parents' home when they failed to pay school fees for his secondary education: "I love this work although my family doesn't know what I do for a living. It is embarrassing dirty work according to them, and, if they get wind of it, they will be ashamed of me," he said.

Even in Vancouver, life can be tough
by Tomas Ernest
Canadian cities, like many around the world, are faced with pressures of increased urbanization, changing economic and social circumstances, mass migration and the need for more private and public investment. Even in a prosperous country like Canada not all Canadians benefit: there is persistent poverty in certain neighborhoods and the homelessness problem continues to grow.

India's new youth policy
by Jehagir Merwanji "According to the World Health Organization, 33 per cent of India's total population of over 1 billion people is between 10 and 24 years of age. India is not only one of the most heavily populated countries, it is also one of the poorest. Despite their demographic importance, the majority of young people in India have been neglected. A National Youth Policy was formulated in 1988 and later revised into a new draft, which aims at strengthening young Indians' cultural identity and opening their minds to scientific curiosity. But even before its official release, the policy had already been criticized for its vagueness."

Getting down in a Rio favela
by Roselyn Mburu & Nicholas You
The first Universal Forum on Cultures will be held in Barcelona, May to September 2004. Best Practices will form part of this vast event of concerts, conferences and exhibits to celebrate human ingenuity and resourcefulness in tackling critical social, cultural and environmental problems. A group of hip-hop artists will be brought to Barcelona to talk about these and other issues.They will participate in the world's first inter-cultural Best Practices rap-jam session.

Empowerment in Brazil
This initiative empowers young black youth (aged 14-21 years) from low-income families by training them as Afro-Brazilian Beauty Specialists. The objective of the initiative is to generate alternative sources of income for young black girls, thus reducing poverty levels from communities on the periphery of Rio de Janeiro. The process not only provides the women with technical skills, but also builds their self-esteem as a minority group.

Women and Parks in Austria
Women sociologists and planners adopted an environmental behaviour research to make a Vienna park safer and more pleasant for girls. A public participatory process involving the girls, local and external experts resulted in a gender sensitive re-design of Einsiedler Park and St. Johann Park.

Helping children in Chile
Kolkata (City of Joy a.k.a. Calcutta), with a population of 13.2 million, is one is one of the largest cities in the world. It's the capital city of the Indian State of West Bengal. More than a 100,000 children living in streets, red light areas and slums were left unattended and stayed away from schools. These vulnerable children were involved in menial labour, exposed to sexual exploitation and never had access to formal education.

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.

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.

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.

Problems in the UN system
I would like to raise some problems we have with the UN system. 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.

Join the debate
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.

Operational Activities Report 2002
by David Satterthwaite and Gordon McGranahan, Earthscan, London, 2003
In collaboration with UN-HABITAT, the authors describe a water and sanitation situation in major cities of the developing world much worse than anyone had imagined. It is a problem compounded in part because of skewed statistics.

		- Operational Activities Report 2002 - Food Security - Partnership...Building on...City to City Cooperation - Guidelines...National Campaign on Secure Tenure

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