WUFII/6/04 Urban Disasters and Reconstruction: Civil or Civil Defense? Barcelona 15 September 2004: Attended by leaders from national and local governments, NGO’s and international aid agencies, today´s World Urban Forum networking session focuses on the role of national and local authorities in peace building and institutional development. When human settlements fall into crises, through conflict, or because of disasters, institutions across the board suffer. International interests often impact those of the state, national actors impose national concerns on urban and rural actors, metro actors impose their priorities on municipal and so on down to individual victims who usually bear the heaviest of burdens of these crises. The honourable Iraqi Minister for Municipalities and Public Works, Ms. Nasreen M Sideek Berwari highlighted the need to ensure effective decentralisation of the local authorities who represent the primary interface between the people and government of Iraq. In her opening remarks, Ms. Berwari stated: “Decentralization is about our future. But decentralization is not just about a shifting of power and resources from the center to the governorate and municipal levels, as an end in itself. It is not just about reversing the excessively centralized process in place prior to April 9th 2003. Decentralization is a means to provide better services to the people, where the people themselves are more directly involved in determining what matters most to themselves. Decentralization is about the public interest.” Mr. Brock Carleton, Director of the Canadian based International Center for Municipal Development who facilitated the session, stated in his closing remarks that it was evident from the inputs throughout the networking session that “We need to have the courage to think about the future.”; referring to the challenge to build capacity, to build local ownership in an inclusive manner, to facilitate the real devolution of governance to local authorities to deliver and coordinate, to establish clear and accountable local government, and to develop integrated legal frameworks enabling all of the above in order to responsibly and sustainably address peace building following conflicts. Mr. Carleton´s comments, will be integrated into reports from previous networking events in the final plenary on the Dialogue on Urban Disasters and Reconstruction scheduled for Thursday, 16 September 2004. For further information, please contact: Sharad Shankardass, Spokesperson & Head, Press & Media Relations Unit or Ms. Zahra A. Hassan, Tel: (254 20) 623153, 623151, Fax: (254 20) 624060, E-mail: habitat.press@unhabitat.org, Website: www.unhabitat.org Or Mr. Daniel Lewis, Chief Post Conflict and Safety Section, Tel: (254 20) 623826