Nairobi, 28 January 2005 — UN-HABITAT and the European
Commission this week pledged greater collaboration to help African countries
address the challenge of rapid urbanization on the continent.
Participants at a three-day regional meeting in Nairobi said that with
most African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries facing rapid urbanization,
the huge challenges faced could only be effectively addressed through
greater collaboration between the governments and other partners.
Discussing the theme, Urbanization Challenges in Africa, the workshop
explored the possibilities of future collaboration between the Brussels-based
ACP group of countries, the EC - the European Union’s executive
arm - and UN-HABITAT.
The meeting attracted 110 participants. They included representatives
of 16 African countries, 10 ministers and seven mayors, as well as representatives
of EC country delegations who actively participated in the discussions.
African countries at the workshop included Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya,
Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa and Tanzania.
The participants described the meeting as timely because the challenges
of urbanization were overwhelming and had to be addressed.
UN-HABITAT emphasized that in an increasingly urbanizing Africa, the promotion
of sustainable human settlements development encompasses the goals of
economic growth, social equity, poverty reduction, cultural and ethnic
cohesion, infrastructure provision and environmental protection. This
requires strategic and forward-looking planning, consensus building and
strong political commitment.
The European Commission said that, with ownership at the core of EU development
policy, ACP countries had a central role in all stages of the development
process. In addition, it advocated enhanced collaboration and commitment
from all actors, national, municipal and donors. Commission officials
said they looked forward to the Millennium Review that will assess progress
on the urban issues and targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Both the EC and UN-HABITAT announced their intention to reinforce their
collaboration, in particular by identifying areas for raising the profile
of urban issues.
The regional workshop formed an integral part of the process of strengthening
the cooperation between UN-HABITAT and the EC on implementation of the
Habitat Agenda and the Millennium Development Goals in urban areas of
Africa. Rapid concentration of urban populations in largely unplanned
cities, sprawl of agglomerations into wide geographical areas and rapid
growth of metropolitan areas are among the most significant aspects of
the current demographic transformation in Africa. Worldwide, more than
half of the global population will be living in urban areas by 2007 with
40 per cent of them children under 15, and 60 per cent of the total living
in African cities.
There should be no doubt to both African political leaders and development
partners at large, that the urban environment will strongly influence
the world of 21st century. As a result, African urban and rural populations
will be increasingly interdependent for their political, economic, social
and environmental well-being.
Africa now has the world’s highest urbanization rates with an annual
rate of urban growth of about 4 percent - almost twice that of Latin America
and Asia. Currently, 37 per cent of the total African population lives
in cities, but the figure is expected to rise to 53 per cent by 2030.
The participants took note with satisfaction of the cooperation agreement
between UN-HABITAT and the secretariat of the ACP countries, signed in
Brussels, Belgium, on 25 October 2004 and confirmed the relevance of the
areas of cooperation contained in this agreement.
During the workshop, the participants raised several areas they thought
warranted urgent attention as they directly affected the people. These
areas included: Housing policies, urban planning and management, environmental
urban management, post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction, participatory
urban governance, housing and infrastructure finance, urban safety, urban-rural
linkages, urban water and sanitation, decentralization and strengthening
of local authorities, HIV/AIDS, and urban development indicators and statistics.
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