United Nations		ADDENDUM
GENERAL ASSEMBLY		Supplement No. 8 (A/44/8/Add.1)
Forty-fourth session		1 June 1989
Official Records		NEW YORK

I. Introduction

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1. In paragraph 7 of its resolution 43/181, of 20 December 1988, the General Assembly requested the Commission on Human Settlements, as the body designated to co-ordinate the implementation of the Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000, to report biennially to the Assembly on progress made in its implementation. The present report is the first being submitted by the Commission on Human Settlements in response to that resolution. It covers the period between the formulation of the Strategy by the Commission on Human Settlements at its eleventh session, in April 1988, and the review of progress at its twelfth session, concluded on 3 May 1989.⁽¹⁾

II. Background

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2. The main objective of the Strategy is to facilitate the provision of shelter for all by the year 2000. "Shelter for all" means affordable shelter for all groups in all types of settlements, meeting the basic requirements of affordability, tenurial security, structural stability and infrastructural support, with convenient access to employment and community services and facilities. Each Member State will have to adopt its own timetable for the implementation of its national strategy, but the general framework for the Strategy is as follows:

• (a) 1989-1991: Formulation of national shelter strategies, design of new institutional arrangements and implementation of national programmes;
• (b) 1992-1994: Introduction of new institutional arrangements and strengthening of existing national programmes;
• (c) 1995-2000: Full-scale operation of national programmes and progressive strengthening of institutions beyond the year 2000.

3. The main principles of the Strategy may be summarized as follows:

• (a) Enabling policies, whereby the full potential and resources of all governmental and non-governmental actors in the field of human settlements are utilized, must be the heart of national and international efforts. The public sector, rather than attempt to shoulder the entire burden of shelter production and distribution, should concentrate on those areas, for example, infrastructural provision, which other sectors are usually not able to provide, while encouraging and facilitating the shelter-production efforts of other participants, including the formal and informal private sector, small entrepreneurs, community-based organizations, voluntary organizations and private individuals;
• (b) Shelter and development are mutually supportive and interdependent and policies must be developed in full recognition of the important links between shelter and economic development;
• (c) Sustainable management of the environment should be an important factor in designing programmes for shelter provision and urban development;
• (d) Women, as income earners, home-makers and heads of households, have a crucial role in solving human settlements problems, which should be fully recognized and reflected through equal participation of women in elaboration of housing policies, programmes and projects.

The Strategy includes a Plan of Action and proposed timetable for implementation (see annex to the present report).

4. The operational focus of the Strategy is on national action by all Member States. National shelter strategies will devise appropriate institutional arrangements, define targets for shelter output, allocate resources to meet these targets and set out the responsibilities and time-frame for implementation. International support is crucial for the success of the Strategy, but must be designed to enhance national capacities to formulate and implement national action components of the Strategy. The Strategy can be reinforced by technical co-operation between developing countries.

III. Implementation of the Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000 (1988-1989)

A. Launching of the Strategy

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5. The Strategy was launched at a special ceremony held at United Nations Headquarters on 16 February 1989. In recognition of the system-wide relevance of the Strategy, participants at the launching ceremony included the executive heads or other senior representatives of relevant United Nations organizations and departments, among which were the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Department of International Economic and Social Affairs, the Department of Technical Co-operation for Development and the World Bank. Also participating were representatives of non-governmental organizations and the academic community. In his message on the occasion, the Secretary-General emphasized that the global community was entering a new phase in its continuing effort to combat one of the world's most critical economic and social problems - homelessness and inadequate shelter. He urged Governments to do their utmost to live up to the commitment they had made in adopting the Strategy and he also urged international organizations, non-governmental organizations and other concerned agencies to give their full support to this critical endeavour.

6. The Commission on Human Settlements, at its twelfth session, held at Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, from 24 April to 3 May 1989, adopted a set of indicators prepared by the Centre to guide Governments and international organizations in monitoring the implementation of the Strategy. Indicators for strategy formulation include definition of rational goals, political commitment and the strategy formulation process. Indicators for strategy implementation, monitoring and evaluation include monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, legislative reorganization, institutional reorganization and financial reorganization. Indicators for the performance of national strategies include building and infrastructure output, equitable distribution of the total shelter and services output, community participation and environmental conditions. Governments are expected to monitor their performance in the implementation of national shelter strategies based on the above indicators.

7. The United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) has maintained contact with the network of national Habitat Focal Points, originally designated by Governments for the observance of the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. All the Habitat Focal Points have been provided with the Strategy document (A/43/8/Add.1), as adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 43/181, and their attention has been drawn specifically to the Strategy's emphasis on enabling principles for national shelter strategies, to the need for reorganization of the shelter sector through mobilization of all governmental and non-governmental resources for the production and maintenance of shelter and services, and to the need for monitoring, on a regular basis, progress on the implementation of the Strategy at the national level. The Habitat Focal Points were also provided with guidelines for the preparation of national reports to the Commission on Human Settlements at its twelfth session on progress made in the implementation of the Strategy. In order to disseminate information on the Strategy, the Centre (Habitat) has widely distributed a summary of the Strategy in four languages, commenced publication of the Centre (Habitat) Shelter Bulletin, to replace the previous International Year of Shelter for the Homeless Bulletin, and produced the Strategy work plan for the period 1989-1991 in the form of a brochure.

8. In the field of direct assistance to Governments the Centre (Habitat) is supporting technical co-operation activities in the preparation and implementation of national shelter policies and strategies with the Governments of Bolivia, Burundi, Colombia, Costa Rica, Djibouti, Indonesia, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Oman, the Philippines, Tunisia, Uganda, Vanuatu and Zimbabwe, as well as the Turks and Caicos Islands. Six of these countries (Costa Rica, Indonesia, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Uganda and Zimbabwe) are participating in a Government of Finland Centre (Habitat) support programme for the preparation of national shelter strategies, which has already attracted support from several multilateral and bilateral agencies. In co-operation with the Government of Finland and with the Office of Housing and Urban Programmes of the United States Agency for International Development, the Centre is reviewing the experiences of a number of countries in different regions in the formulation and implementation of national housing policies.

9. Following a meeting in February 1989 'between the Executive Director and the senior management of the United Nations Development Programme, a joint UNDP/Centre (Habitat) task force has been established, to expand joint activities in the field of human settlements and urbanization, with special reference to global and regional activities and co-operation with and among Member States. The focus of this exercise will be on assistance to countries in the formulation and implementation of national shelter strategies. In order to generate system-wide co-operation to assist Governments, the Centre (Habitat) organized a consultative meeting of 12 organizations and agencies of the United Nations system, held at Geneva in July 1988, on the implementation of the Strategy. Further consultations are to be held on a bilateral basis.

10. The Centre (Habitat), with support from the Governments of the Netherlands and Norway, has been holding a series of subregional seminars on women's housing issues, with the objective of mobilizing women's contributions to shelter production and to the installation, operation and maintenance of infrastructure. One of the purposes of these seminars has been to promote follow-up among national women's groups to overcome such problems as women's lack of access to credit, barriers to women's ownership of property and constraints to women's employment in the shelter sector. A global workshop is planned to map out future activities to improve women's shelter conditions.

11. Work has commenced on the establishment of a global network of training institutions in the housing sector. The first step has been to compile a directory of training institutions, and this will be followed by a series of subregional meetings to discuss such issues as the assessment of training needs, the preparation of training curricula and training material, the exchange of trainers between developing-country institutions and the application of new training methods in the housing sector. A co-ordinating group, representing donor agencies in the training field, will be involved in the exercise. Plans are under way for the holding of training seminars on the Strategy in co-operation with the Governments of Bulgaria and the German Democratic Republic.

12. The Centre (Habitat), in co-operation with the Commonwealth Science Council, has organized national workshops for the formulation of standards and specifications for local building materials in African countries. The experience gained and follow-up activities will be discussed in a regional workshop, in May 1989, in the context of the Network of African Countries for Building Materials and Technologies. Beside promoting information flow among member countries of the Network, the thrust of the work will be on the transfer of technology for improvement of current capabilities in the production of local building materials.

B. National action

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13. In addition to those countries which are collaborating with the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) in the technical co-operation programme for the preparation of national shelter strategies, 20 countries are formulating programmes with their own resources or with assistance from bilateral agencies.

14. Starting from 1990, the observation of World Habitat Day in Member States is expected to be the occasion for national reporting on the monitoring of national shelter strategies. A consolidated biennial monitoring report on the Strategy will be prepared by the Centre (Habitat) for consideration by the Commission on Human Settlements. That report will be considered by the Commission at its thirteenth session in 1991, which will also be the forum for the global review of the Strategy.

C. Regional action

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15. The Strategy calls for action by intergovernmental organizations in support of national action.

16. The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), at its forty-fourth session, adopted resolution 268 (XLIV) on shelter strategies towards the year 2000, in support of the Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000. The Executive Secretary of ESCAP has been requested to assist regional members in the formulation of shelter strategies and facilitate exchange of experiences. The Executive Secretary is also to report progress on the implementation of the shelter strategy, in alternate years, beginning in 1990. In support of the Global Strategy, ESCAP has initiated two projects, one on promotion of community-based housing finance and the other on prefabrication of building components, both for low-income groups.

17. The African Development Hank has decided to formulate a policy to guide its operations in the field of human settlements, based on the principles and guidelines of the Strategy, and the Centre (Habitat) is collaborating with the Hank in the preparation of such a policy. The Company for Habitat and Housing in Africa (Shelter Afrique) is providing financial assistance for projects that have special emphasis on shelter and services in Africa.

D. Action by non-governmental organizations

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18. Various non-governmental organizations are undertaking activities that promote the implementation of the Strategy, and the Centre (Habitat) has been closely associated with a number of these. Habitat International Coalition (HIC) has adopted a policy document which sets out the focus of HIC activities in human settlements, namely, the launching of a charter of housing rights, the protection of people against eviction without alternative arrangements, the support of enabling strategies in the provision of shelter and services and the fostering of the role of women in human settlements. The Mega Cities Project, based at New York University, has started a search for innovative solutions, both governmental and non-governmental, to the many social, economic, physical, administrative and other problems in the planning, development and management of large cities in the industrialized and developing countries. The search is being undertaken by a co-ordinator in each of 13 selected cities, supported by high-level multi-sectoral co-ordinators of the Mega Cities Project. The Centre (Habitat) is developing close ties between this non-governmental organization project and the Centre's joint Habitat/UNDP/World Bank project on urban management. The Canadian Federation of Municipalities held a seminar on urban management, focusing on the types of assistance that could be provided by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to developing countries, and will hold a second seminar on this subject in October this year. Among other non-governmental organization activities planned for the near future, in which the Centre (Habitat) is taking an active role, are the Third International Shelter Conference being organized by the National Association of Realtors of the United States of America, together with the International Federation of Real Estate Developers, an international competition for low-cost solutions to shelter being organized by the International Union of Architects and an international conference on the Strategy being organized by the Canadian Institute of Planners.

19. Parliamentarians from industrialized and developing countries interested in improving human settlements have held three meetings, the last one at Cartagena de Indies, Colombia, during the twelfth session of the Commission on Human Settlements. They have reviewed the role of parliamentarians in the implementation of the Strategy, in particular the legislative and institutional changes necessary to launch action at national and local levels.

IV. Planned action

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20. The implementation of the Strategy is an international undertaking and international support will be necessary to facilitate national action and to set up an efficient programme for co-ordinating activities. The Commission on Human Settlements at its twelfth session had before it document HS/C/12/3, indicating the plan of action for implementation of the Strategy and the Centre's role in co-ordinating activities, providing technical co-operation, carrying out monitoring and evaluation, developing human resources, holding high-level seminars and workshops for communication media representatives, producing technical publications and disseminating information. The document also indicates the estimated financial resources required from the voluntary contributions to support the implementation of the Strategy.

Notes

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1. See resolution 12/1 of the Commission on Human Settlements, adopted on 3 May 1989, entitled "Implementation and monitoring of the first phase, 1989-1991, of the Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000", contained in the report of the Commission on Human Settlements on the work of its twelfth session (Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-fourth Session. Supplement No. 8 (A/44/8), annex I A).    [Go back to text]

ANNEX

Background

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1. More than 1 billion people, over a quarter of humanity, have shelter unfit for human habitation. This number will expand dramatically unless determined measures are taken immediately. The International Year of Shelter for the Homeless, successfully observed in 1987, confirmed the need to intensify national and international efforts to produce, deliver and improve shelter for all, with particular emphasis on meeting the needs of the poor and disadvantaged. The right to adequate shelter is universally recognized and constitutes the basis for national obligations to meet shelter needs. The General Assembly of the United Nations therefore decided in its resolution 43/181 to launch the Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000 (GSS).

Objective

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2. The main objective of GSS is to facilitate the provision of shelter for all by the year 2000. "Shelter for all" means affordable shelter for all groups in all types of settlements, meeting basic requirements of tenurial security, structural stability, and infrastructural support, with convenient access to employment and community services and facilities. Although each country will have to adopt its own timetable, the general framework for the GSS is as follows:

• 1989-1991: Establishment of national policies and strategies. Design of new institutional arrangements.
• 1992-1994: Introduction of new institutional arrangements, and strengthening existing national programmes.
• 1995-2000: Full-scale operation of national programmes. Progressive strengthening of institutions for activities beyond 2000.

Main principles

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3.

• (a) Enabling policies, whereby the full potential and resources of all governmental and non-governmental actors in the field of human settlements are utilized, must be at the heart of national and international efforts. The public sector, rather than attempting to shoulder the entire burden of shelter production and distribution, should concentrate on those areas, e.g. infrastructure provision, which people are usually not able to provide for themselves, while encouraging and facilitating the shelter-production efforts of other participants, including the formal and informal private sector, small entrepreneurs, civic and community groups, voluntary organizations and private individuals;
• (b) Shelter and development are mutually supportive and interdependent, and policies must be developed in full recognition of the important links between shelter and economic development;
• (c) The concept of sustainable development implies that shelter provision and urban development must be reconcilable with a sustainable management of the environment;
• (d) Women, as income-earners, home-makers and heads of households, have a crucial role as contributors to the solution of human settlements problems, which should be fully recognized and reflected in equal participation of women in the elaboration of housing policies, programmes and projects.

National action

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4. The operational focus of GSS is on national strategies to be developed by all Governments. A national shelter strategy will define targets for shelter outputs and resources to meet these targets and will set out the responsibilities and time-frame for the implementation of necessary measures.

International action

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5. International support is crucial for the success of GSS. Such support should be based on the recognition of the beneficial implications of GSS for national, regional and global development, as well as for international co-operation, and must be directed towards enhancing national capabilities to formulate and implement national action components of GSS. GSS can be reinforced by technical co-operation between developing countries.

Co-ordination, monitoring and evaluation

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6. GSS is a commitment for the world community and a mandate for the entire United Nations system, the overall co-ordinating role being given to the Commission on Human Settlements. Governments will monitor progress towards the implementation of GSS based on indicators, to be identified by the Commission on Human Settlements. The United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) will monitor the relevant programmes and activities at the global level. GSS will be revised as necessary by the General Assembly, on the recommendation of the Commission on Human Settlements, in the light of progress reported by national Governments.

7. Each Government requiring technical support in the implementation of its national shelter strategy will formulate a technical co-operation project for funding from country-programme funds of the United Nations Development Programme or from other multilateral or bilateral donor contributions.