|
Mrs
Anna Tibaijuka
Under
Secretary General
Executive
Director -UN-HABITAT
Message
on the Occasion of World Habitat Day:
City
to City Cooperation
 Every year since
1985, when it was first designated by the General Assembly, World Habitat Day
has been celebrated on the first Monday of every month. This year we are asked
to reflect about how city to city cooperation can benefit the state of our cities
and human settlements. Though the global observances are being held in Brussels,
Belgium, where they are being jointly hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of the Government of Belgium and the European Commission, all over the world
there are equally important celebrations and meetings that aim to highlight
the urgent need for city to city cooperation.
With over half
of the world's population now living in cities and towns, the United Nations
has prioritised sustainable urbanization. Only a few weeks ago at the World
Summit on Sustainable Development, the Political Declaration and the Implementation
Plan endorsed the need for adequate shelter alongside other priorities such
as Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture and Bio-Diversity. Earlier last year,
at Istanbul + 5, the Special Session of the General Assembly, Governments issued
a Declaration on Cities and other Human Settlements in the New Millennium which
also endorsed the specific Millennium Declaration target of making a significant
improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. An indication
of how seriously the international community takes the problems of urbanization
was the recent up-grading of the former UN Centre for Human Settlements to a
full Programme, UN-HABITAT.
What all this means
is that UN-HABITAT is now poised for action. In keeping with the call of the
World Summit for Sustainable Development, this year's theme of city to city
cooperation, or C2C as it commonly known, is an attempt to encourage new forms
of partnership to deliver the millennium development goals. C2C is the basis
for people to people diplomacy and cooperation leading to peaceful human settlements.
Cities and local
authorities have been fostering international cooperation since the foundation
of the first international association of local authorities in 1913. Early exchange
among cities in developed countries was followed by links with cities in developing
countries. Today, C2C may take place between cities in neighbouring countries
or between cities at opposite ends of the globe. Town twinning is one of the
earliest examples of C2C. In recent years the scope of C2C has widened considerably,
on the initiative of city leaders with the encouragement and assistance of international
associations and networks of local authorities. Moreover, there are an increasing
number of community to community exchanges taking place between cities in the
developing world.
There are a number
of international agencies and organizations that are working with UN-HABITAT
to encourage the exchange of skills and lessons learned. For example, Sister
Cities International represents over 700 US communities who are working with
1,500 cities in over 121 countries. SCI is hoping to encourage many more. The
Commonwealth Local Government Good Practice Scheme is also supporting many projects
that link local councils and associations. At the same time, UN-HABITAT is working
with many other international associations of local authorities, such as the
International Union for Local Authorities (IULA), the World Associations for
Cities and Local Authorities Coordination (WACLAC), the United Towns Organisation
(UTO), City Net and many others are on city to city exchange. UN-HABITAT is
also eager to encourage informal exchanges at every level.
In a world where
total local government revenue per person in highly industrialised cities can
often be 208 times more than that in some African cities, C2C is an effective
way of mobilising large scale development resources. It is also a way to actively
exchange 'best practices' and to improve the management capacity of cities in
the developing world. North or South, cities can learn from each other. I therefore
call upon all of you to think about how these exchanges can be encouraged. From
sanitation to social housing, from computer management packages to public transport
planning, from slum upgrading to housing finance, there is an urgent need to
transfer skills to municipalities in developing countries. Without such transfer
it will be difficult to meet the millennium development goals; it will also
be increasingly difficult to maintain peace in our cities and human settlements.
If we are to meet
the challenge set by world leaders in Johannesburg, then all of us, governments,
local authorities, the private sector, non-governmental organisations, and ordinary
communities are going to have to find innovative ways of working together. On
this World Habitat Day, I therefore call upon all Habitat Agenda partners to
work with together to ensure that City to City Cooperation will help meet the
challenges of the urban millennium.
For further
information, please contact1: Mr.
Sharad Shankardass, Spokesperson, or Ms. Zahra Hassan, Press & Media Liaison,
Press & Media Relations Unit, Tel: (254 2) 623153/623151, Fax: (254 2) 624060,
E-mail:
habitat.press@unhabitat.org,
Website:
www.unhabitat.org
1
WHD3/02
|
