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Conference places urban poverty on top of Africa’s agenda
Durban, 4 February 2005 – UN-HABITAT’s Executive
Director, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, told delegates attending the African Ministerial
Conference on Housing and Urban Development that African countries were
poorer now than they were in the early 1960s, partly because the continent
had been not been integrated into the world trade system on favourable
terms.
Mrs. Tibaijuka added that the unfavourable terms of trade had, in turn,
created phases of urbanization on the continent related in part to the
shifting phases of Africa’s position in the world economy.
UN-HABITAT’s Executive Director said that urban poverty was one
of the biggest challenges facing African countries and that currently
two-thirds of Africa’s urban population lived in informal settlements
without adequate sanitation, water, transport or health services. UN-HABITAT
projections indicate that Africa’s population will cease to be a
predominantly rural in 2030. Africa’s urban population is increasing
at above 3 per cent, and in just a decade, 40 per cent of Africa’s
people will live in urban areas, most condemned to slums and shanties.
“These figures harshly draw our attention to the fact that the majority
of city dwellers are widely doomed to live in poverty and also in poor
environmental conditions,” Mrs. Tibaijuka said.
The Executive Director said that urban poverty was the cause of many
social ills and threatened to break up the social fabric of African communities.
Slums, she said, are “places where hunger prevails, and where young
people are drawn into anti-social behaviour, including crime and terrorism,
for lack of better alternatives.”
Ms. Bience Gawanas, the African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs,
warned delegates attending the conference that Africa may not be able
to meet the Millennium Development Goals, despite being endowed with abundant
natural and human resources. She said that apart from being the most rapidly
urbanizing continent, Africa had the highest birth rate and the highest
morbidity and mortality rates in the world. She said that the trend could
be reversed if African countries “work hard, together and in partnership
with the international community”.
South Africa’s Deputy President, Mr. Jacob Zuma, in a hard-hitting
brief remark, said: “The existence of shack inhabitants and slum
settlements on the continent remain a constant reminder that we have not
fully achieved the goal of restoring the right to human dignity to all
our peoples. We cannot ignore the indignity suffered by families living
in shacks with no ablution facilities and no sanitation, no water, electricity
or any other basic services we take for granted ourselves.”
Mrs. Tibaijuka, who is one of the 17 members of the Commission for Africa
set up by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, assured the ministers and
leaders attending the conference that she would bring their concerns to
the attention of the Group of Eight industrialized countries, with urban
poverty topping her list of priorities.
The conference, which ends today, is expected to finalize and adopt an
Enhanced Framework of Implementation in Promoting Sustainable Cities and
Town in Africa that will reflect Africa’s common position on urbanization
and housing, as well as the continent’s own urban agenda.
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