UN-HABITAT
Remarks by Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka,
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations,
Executive Director UN-HABITAT
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Association of Siberian and Far East Cities Forum in Novosibirsk, Russia, 10-11 November 2006
Your Worship, Mr. Vladimir Gorodetsky, Mayor of Novosibirsk, President of Association of Siberian and Far East Cities,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It gives me great honour to thank Your Worship, Mr. Vladimir Gorodetsky, the Mayor of Novosibirsk, for your kind invitation to participate in this Forum and to celebrate with you the historic 20th anniversary of your Association. The oldest inter-regional Association of municipalities in Russia, your distinguished group covers a territory larger than Europe!
We are living in extraordinary times. In 1950, one-third of the world’s people lived in cities. Just 50 years later, this rose to one-half and will continue to grow to two-thirds, or 6 billion people, by 2050. Cities are now home to half of humankind.
They are the hubs of much national production and consumption – economic and social processes that generate wealth and opportunity. But they also create disease, crime, pollution, poverty and social unrest. In many cities, especially in developing countries, slum dwellers number more than 50 per cent of the population and have little or no access to shelter, water, and sanitation, education or health services.
Put another way: Never before in history has the world witnessed such a rapid growth of urbanisation. Soon we will be living in a world with 360 cities that have populations greater than 1 million. How we manage this situation is arguably one of the biggest problems confronting humanity in the 21st century
More than ever, therefore, local authorities need the support of central governments, and more than ever before, they need to speak with one voice from a united platform to ensure that their urgent concerns are heeded.
UN-HABITAT as a focal point for Local Authorities within UN system, has worked closely with them for over a decade. We are aware that it can no longer escape the world’s attention that local authorities must deal with the myriad problems cited above problems on the ground. As Mayors, councillors, city managers and local public servants you, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, are at the front line in the war against urban poverty.
UN-HABITAT’s cooperation with local authorities has always been conducted at many levels be they operational, political, normative, institutional, monitoring or implementation. At the operational level, UN-HABITAT has developed many activities in towns and cities, mostly in developing countries (Africa, Latin America and Asia), addressing the needs of local authorities in terms of capacity-building, urban policy reform, environmental planning, monitoring, housing and slum upgrading programmes, water and sanitation, infrastructure, and other basic services.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure therefore to congratulate Association of Siberian and Far East Cities on the occasion of this 20th anniversary. It is not easy to be a pioneer. And your association is well known for its innovative approaches in providing cities with informational support for their activities, in exchange for the experience of others, or as we say in UN-HABITAT, for sharing their best practices, in organising training for local civil servants.
I need not remind you that since 1996 with the adoption of the Istanbul Declaration, and five years later, the Millennium Declaration and the Declaration on Cities and other Human Settlements in the New Millennium, our efforts have focused on strengthening the role and international status of local authorities. Key progress here came with the establishment of the United Nations Advisory Committee of Local Authorities (UNACLA). UNACLA’s membership of Mayors and Presidents of local authority associations has been instrumental in placing the urban challenge high on the international agenda, as well as many national agenda’s around the world.
Then, in 2003, UN-HABITAT established a high-level Group of Experts on Decentralization (AGRED) to guide the international dialogue on decentralization and to provide further advice to the Executive Director on strengthening of local authorities. In collaboration with members of AGRED, we have established a draft set of Guidelines on Decentralisation. As you meet here today, we are in the process of finalising these guidelines with our AGRED partners for presentation to UN-HABITAT\s 20th Governing Council in April 2007.
It is my fervent hope that you will invite and encourage your national government to adopt these guidelines. They will constitute the first blueprint for decentralisation and strengthening of local authorities in Russia and around the world.
Friends,
As you gather here today, in our home city Nairobi, experts from around the world are gathering under the umbrella of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCC) to discuss climate change and the impact it is having on our world.
There are many mega cities in the world today (Shanghai, Dhaka, Mumbai, Calcutta, Karachi , Alexandria, Buenos Aires… and others) that are at risk because of problems of coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion into fresh water supplies, freak storms and hurricanes, rising sea levels – all factors that lie behind disasters.
Experts have warned that as climate change threatens to change the face of the planet, big cities loom as giant potential flood or other disaster traps,especially for billions of slum dwellers and urban poor. They live in the most dangerous parts of cities, and are thus always the most exposed and the most vulnerable.
The toll in other natural disasters, such as the recent Indian Ocean tsunami and the Pakistan earthquake, both disasters where UN-HABITAT is working to rebuild with the international community, is unspeakable in terms of lives lost, and property and livelihoods destroyed.
UN-HABITAT also plays a major role in post-conflict and post disaster urban rehabilitation. In places recovering from conflict, this includes Sudan, or rebuilding Lebanon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Rwanda, Serbia, and Somalia.
And after natural disasters or war, our work involves, one of the key lessons we at UN-HABITAT and other agencies have learned is that it is important to build back better, to work hard with local authorities to incorporate proper long-term planning for sustainable development with the best protection against repeat disasters from the outset – indeed from the moment the humanitarian rescue operation begins.
Friends,
We in UN-HABITAT are only too aware that the cities of Russia and their citizens had to endure many hardships during the transition period, in which decentralisation and empowerment of local authorities played pivotal roles in the democratic market orientated reforms in your country.
Local Authorities must be strengthened to be able to do more for their citizens. And I see many areas where UN-HABITAT can add value to the efforts of your great Association.
A new Agreement of Cooperation between UN-HABITAT and the Government of the Russian Federation signed this year welcomes interested local authorities to join Biennial Programmes of Cooperation between UN-HABITAT and Russia. Please do get in touch with Rosstroy, UN-HABITAT partner Agency in the Russian Government, if you feel interested and ready to work in joint projects. A special programme implementation unit started working on coordinating implementation of the Programme of Cooperation for 2006-2007.
I look forward to enhancing our future cooperation and wish you every success in your deliberations.
Thank you.