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HARARE, 5 July 2005: The United Nations Special Envoy for human
settlements issues in Zimbabwe, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka was scheduled to travel
to Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo by road on Tuesday in the
next phase of her assessment of the evictions of some 200,000 people in
and around urban areas of the country.
Mrs. Tibaijuka, the Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, met President Robert
Mugabe last week and was given the green light to meet with whom she wished
and to travel wherever she deemed necessary on her fact-finding mission
to assess the humanitarian impact and needs of the government’s
Operation Murambatsvina (Restore Order) eviction campaign of people deemed
to be living in illegal housing or involved in illegal trading.
She also looking into both the government’s arrangements for the
displaced, its capacity to address their basic needs, as well as the response
of United Nations agencies to humanitarian requirements.
On Tuesday, Mrs. Tibaijuka is expected to travel to the southern city
of Bulawayo by road with stops along the way in Midlands Province. She
also planned to visit the western Victoria Falls district.
Last week, the Special Envoy met with the Zimbabwean government’s
Ministerial task force coordinating the Operation Murambatsvina, and was
also present at the official launch at
Whitecliff farm of the new GariKai housing reconstruction programme. She
was also shown many of the new resettlement sites prepared by the government
and local authorities for new homes and markets.
She also met with many of the evictees, and saw at first-hand how they
are awaiting resettlement. On a trip to the eastern city of Mutare, she
visited the Caledonia Farm which has over 4,000 evictees. She stopped
to talk to local authority officials and the affected communities in Headlands
and Rusape as well as Mutare, where she met the Mayor, Mr. Mr. M.T. Kagurabadza.
She also held talks with the Governor of Manicaland Province, Hon. Tinaye
Chigudu, and talked to displaced families camped in the Sakubva sports
ground.
Mrs. Tibaijuka also heard submissions from representatives of faith-based
organizations, non-governmental organizations and ordinary citizens. In
the capital Harare, she met with international and local NGOs, women’s
groups, and others as she visited places were people were evicted, such
as Mbare, Hatcliffe Extension and Porta Farm.
Mrs. Tibaijuka has been working closely with UN agencies and international
organization based in Zimbabwe including FAO, ILO, IOM, UNAIDS, UNDP,
UNICEF, UNIFEM, UNFPA, the World Bank, WFP and WHO.
The aim of her visit is to listen to as many people as possible with
a view to understanding the situation without endorsing or discrediting
their point of view. Based on these meetings and the research conducted
by her team, the Special Envoy will make an impartial assessment for UN
Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan.
Background to UN-HABITAT
UN-HABITAT, the UN agency of which Mrs. Tibajuka is Executive Director,
has been charged with the responsibility for managing human settlements
development. In a world that is becoming increasingly urbanised, with
50 percent of the population already living in cities, one of the challenges
facing the international community is the well being of almost 1 billion
poor people who are currently living in slums and squatter settlements
without adequate shelter or basic services. UN-HABITAT has therefore been
involved with advising governments on how best to manage slum upgrading
and sustainable urban development.
In managing the urgent shelter needs of the urban poor, UN-HABITAT helps
international governments implement the Habitat Agenda which promotes
every citizen’s right to the city. The Habitat Agenda which was
signed by over 140 governments aims to promote inclusive cities that also
incorporate the needs of the poor into plans for urban development. Amongst
other strategies, UN-HABITAT encourages the participation of the urban
poor as one of the best ways of achieving the Millennium Development Goals
targeted at the significant improvement of millions of slum dwellers by
the year 2020.
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