Recent
statistics show however that although Africa and Asia remain the
least urbanized regions of the World, the greatest increase in
urban growth over the next three decades (an estimated 94.5%) will
occur in these regions, which list some of the poorest countries
on earth, and have recorded the fastest urban growth rates in the
last two decades. In
1990 for instance, 72 per cent of Latin America’s 441 million
people were urban dwellers, by 2005, the region will be home to
the second largest number of urban residents.
By 2025, however, Latin America will have fewer urban
residents than Africa, even though 84 per cent of its population
will be urban.
In
contrast to Latin America, only
one third of the population of Africa was urban in 1990.
The most urbanised regions are Southern Africa (46%) and
Northern Africa (44%). Western
Africa and Central Africa are 33 per cent and 32 per cent urban
respectively. However
just 19 per cent of the population of Eastern Africa resides in
urban areas. This
range and rank order is projected to be maintained until 2025,
(although at a higher level) when the percentage urban population
is projected to vary from 41 per cent in Eastern Africa to
66 per cent in Southern Africa.
From
a relatively modest 83 million urban dwellers in 1970, Africa’s
urban population increased to a substantial 206 million in 1990.
Projections for 2005 puts its urban population at 400
million, and it will double again in the subsequent years, to 857
million by 2025. By
2000, Lagos, Nigeria was estimated to have become the first
African city to be among the World’s ten largest, along with two
other newcomers – Beijing and Jakarta. These three urban agglomerations displaced Buenos Aires,
Seoul and Rio de Janerio from the 1990 World’s ten largest
cities list made up of Shanghai, Bombay and Seoul from Asia, Sau
Paulo, Mexico City, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janerio from Latin
America, and Los Angeles in North America.
Their population ranged from Tokyo’s 25 million to
Rio’s 10.9 million.
This
rapid rate of urbanization has engendered several challenges and
problems to humanity, particularly in the South, and moreso in the
four Member Programme countries and regions (Brazil, Francophone
Africa, Mexico and Nigeria).
Human settlement problems are of multidimentional nature.
It is recognized that adequate shelter for all and
sustainable human settlement developments are not isolated from
the broader social and economic development of countries, and that
they cannot be set apart from the need for favourable national and
international frameworks for economic development, social
development and environmental protection, which are interdependent
and mutually reinforcing components of sustainable development.
World
leaders, meeting five years ago at the Habitat II Summit in
Istanbul acknowledged that “the most pressing global
environmental economic and social issues of the present century
will come up in the World’s rapidly growing cities. Having examined both the
opportunities and the challenges of urbanisation, the Habitat
Agenda concluded that cities properly planned and managed, hold
the promise for human development and the protection of the
world’s resources through their ability to support large numbers
of people while limiting their impact on the natural environment.
This position underscores the interdependence of human
settlements and sustainable development processes which are also
mutually suportive. Infact
“Sustainable Human Settlments Development in an Urbanizing
World” was one of the two themes of Habitat II, the other being
“Adequate Shelter for all”.
The theme of this Regional Session is therefore a logical
follow-up to the Istanbul Declaration, and the period also
coincides with United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS)
commemoration, this year of HABITAT II +5 with a Global Campaign
on Good Urban Governance flagged off in Abuja, Nigeria in April
2001. With the urban
population of Nigeria’s 120 million people increasing at an
estimated growth rate of 5 per cent yearly, observers around the
World have been excited that a successful campaign in Nigeria will
boost the propagation of the Good Urban Governance Concept.
Sustainable
Human Settlements and Challenges of Urbanization
Sustainable
development of human settlements combines economic development,
social development, and environmental protection with full respect
for all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right
to development, and offers a means of achieving a world of greater
stability and peace, built on ethical and spiritual vision.
Sustainable Human Settlements ensure economic development,
employment opportunities and social progress, with the least
possible detrimental impact on the environment. They should not exceed the carrying capacity of ecosystems,
nor should they inhibit the opportunities of future generations.
In essence, the sustainability of human settlements entails
the maintenance of biological diversity and cultural diversity,
promotion of human health, as well as air, water and soil
qualities at standards sufficient to sustain human life and
well-being for all time.
The
growth of cities and towns causes social, economic and
environmental changes that often go beyond city boundaries.
Habitat II deals with all settlements – large, medium and
small, and reaffirms the need for universal improvements in living
and working conditions. However,
to overcome current problems to ensure future progress in the
improvement of economic, social and environmental conditions in
human settlements, there is the need to first recognize the
challenges facing cities and towns.
The most serious problems confronting cities and towns and
their inhabitants enumerated by the Habitat II agenda include:
(a)
inadequate financial resources
(b)
lack of employment opportunities
(c)
spreading homelessness and expansion of quarter settlements
(d)
increased poverty and a underming gap between rich and poor
(e)
growing insecurity and rising crime rates
(f)
inadequate and deteriorating building stock, services and
infrastructure
(g)
lack of health and educational facilities
(h)
improper land use
(i)
insecure land tenure
(j)
rising traffic congestion
(k)
increasing pollution
(l)
lack of green spaces
(m)
inadequate water supply and sanitation
(n)
uncoordinated urban development and
(o)
an increasing vulnerability to disaster
All
these (not exhaustive) have seriously challenged the capacities of
Governments particularly those at developing countries, at all
levels, to realize economic development, social development and
environmental protection, which are all components of sustainable
development – the framework for achieving a higher quality of
life for all people.
The
foregoing are some of the issues to be addressed at the session
with case studies on best practices and local efforts at combating
problems attributable to urbanization in the four Member
Programmes – Brazil, Francophone Africa, Mexico and Nigeria.
Public
and private sectors’ initiatives in mass housing provision; and
urban services and infrastructure management in selected Nigerian
cities are some of the areas that will be discussed at the
session. The
implementation of the “Sustainable Ibadan Project, one of the
initial twelve cities selected all over the world for the
demonstration of the Sustainable Cities Programme (SCP), by UNCHS
will also constitute a case study at the session.
The other cities in Africa which are participating in the
programme are Dar-Es-Salam in Tanzania, Ismailia in Egypt, Accra
in Ghana and lately, Lusaka in Zambia.
Methodology
Various
working methods will be adopted to optimize the outcome of the
session, they include –
·
Case-Specific
Country Reports: These will help the Associates to better understand the
urbanization concept and trends, with a multi-disciplinary
analysis, and make them recognise that human settlements and
sustainable development processes are mutually supportive and
interdependent.
·
Field
Visits: There
will be a 11/2-days field visit during the session by
associates
(in site visit groups) to projects and programmes that demonstrate sustainable human settlement
development challenges; and efforts at mitigating them.
This is to strengthen the experiental component of the learning process which is
now a trademark of LEAD training.
Site Visit Group reports will be presented to plenary
session.
·
Team-building
and Networking Skills: These
activities will reinforce
the cooperative spirit of the Associates as partners and
future leaders.
·
Working
Groups: Will
focus on discussion of the sub-themes of the session and provide
working group reports to the plenary.
·
Interest
Groups: This informal
grouping aims at developing links among associates with identical
background for possible future cooperation and concerted efforts
in promoting sustainable development.
This may be sector-based, rather than the LEAD Interest
Groups which are subject/issues based.
The former will include government, business, media, NGOs,
academic and others.
Time
Frame:
November 4
– 10, 2001
