Needs intensify as money tightens

Sixth Session of United Nations Commission on Human Settlements, Helsinki, Finland, 25 April-6 May 1983

The Sixth Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Settlements (UNCHS) was attended by delegates from 49 member states of the Commis- sion and 33 non-member states, as well as by observers from various UN bodies and specialized agencies, international agencies, intergovernmental and non- governmental organizations, and liber- ation movements.

The origins of UNCHS, which is in effect the successor to the former UN Committee on Housing Building and Planning, may be found in the UN Conference on the Environment, held in Stockholm in 1972, which led to the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The Stockholm conference was principally concerned with the ‘natural’ environment, but one of its main recommendations was that a UN Conference on Human Settlements should be held in four years time, in order to consider problems of the ‘built’ environment.

Recommendations

After extensive preparations covering all regions of the world and making use of the experience and staff of the former Centre for Housing Building and Planning, the Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat) took place in Vancouver, Canada, in June 1976. It was at Habitat that, for the first time at the global level, the limitations of purely ‘economic’ or ‘financial’ plans were stressed - plans which, even though successful in GNP terms, usually left many of the urban poor, as well as a majority of rural populations, no better or even worse off than before.

The first of the many ‘Recommend- ations for national action’ put forward by Habitat stated that:

all countries should establish, as a matter of urgency, a national policy on human settle- ments, embodying the distribution of population and related economic and social activities over the national territory.

CITIES August 1983

The conference led to the setting up of the UN Centre for Human Settlements, retaining the name Habitat and based with UNEP in Nairobi, and the creation of a Commission on Human Settle- ments with a total of58membernations serving for terms of three years. The Commission first met in 1978 and has met annually since then.

Habitat is not concerned with the actual financing of development (which is the responsibility of individual governments supported by other UN agencies, the World Bank and similar organizations), but with the provision of professional and technical advice, the initiation of appropriate solutions and urban prograrnmes, the develop- ment of institutions, the training of staff, and the preparation and dissemi- nation of information.

Its activities are financed from and dependent on a special fund, managed by a Foundation, to which countries make voluntary contributions, and the fact that developing countries are responsible for 50% of such contri- butions, compared with from 5% to 10% in the case of other UN agencies such as UNEP, is clear evidence of the importance which they attach to Habitat and its activities in the human settlement and shelter fields. Although Habitat depends on the involvement, cooperation and support of both developed and developing countries, its principal concern is with Third World planning and development issues.

The consideration of short-, medium- and longer-term programmes of activities, and their financing, always forms an important part of UNCHS Sessions. However, the opportunity is being taken increasingly to consider specific aspects of human need, or of urban planning and development. Documents prepared in advance form the basis for such discussions, and also prove to be of value in their own right as working or reference documents.

This is in addition to the growing

Conference reviews

number of publications which Habitat produces dealing with specific subjects, as well as the series of directories and guides concerning sources of infor- mation and institutions of all kinds.

During the Fourth and Fifth Sessions in Manila and Nairobi in 1981 and 1982 the subjects under examination were:

0 the role and contribution of the construction industry;

0 the provision of infrastructure in slum and squatter areas and rural settlements;

0 the planning of human settlements in disaster prone areas; and

0 the transportation needs of the poor in urban and rural areas.

This year the subject selected for con- sideration was perhaps the most fundamental one of all, Land, but because of its complexity governments were consulted on which aspect should be studied. The theme chosen was ‘land for housing low-income and disadvantaged groups’, and this subject was examined in some detail in advance of the Sixth Session by a group of specialists at a meeting in Tallberg Sweden, sponsored by the Govem- ments of Finland and Sweden.

The excellent report of this seminar, ‘Land for housing the poor’ supple- mented the Habitat documentation, helped to focus the attention of delegate towards specific aspects of the problem, and put forward a series of recommendations for action by governments. These include the acquisition and delivery of land at costs affordable by the poor, its registration, its secure tenure, and its incremental development.

The other main subject discussed at this Session was that of Housing. At the Fouth Session in Manila in 1981 the Hon R. Premadasa, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, proposed that special attention should be paid to the millions in the developing world who either have no recognizable homes or are living in unacceptable conditions. This proposal was approved by delegates and confirmed later by the General Assembly which designated 1987 as the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless (IYSH).

It is intended that there should be

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Conference reviews/Recent policy articles

three phases for the IYSH programme. The first, leading up to 1987, will con- solidate and evaluate the existing knowledge of the subject, and establish projects to test and demonstrate new ways of providing shelter and associated services. Second, during 1987 the results of such experience will be made available in order that developing countries can develop or strengthen national shelter policies and pro- grammes to meet the needs of the poor.

Third, the development andconstant application of such policies and pro- grammes in order that real improve- ments can be made in the shelter and neighbourhoods of all poor and deprived families and communities, helping to bring them up to acceptable levels by the year 2000. Once again the success of this programme will depend on the dedication and political will of individual governments of developing countries, together with the financial support and professional cooperation of both multilateral and bilateral aid programmes.

The Seventh Session of UNCHS. which will be held in Libreville, Gabon, from 30 April to 11 May 1984, apart from examining the progress of preparations for the 1987 IYSH and routine administrative, programme and budgetary issues, will take as the sub- jects for special consideration ‘a sys- tematic and comprehensive approach to a) training for human settlements, and b) information for human settle- ments’. The Netherlands government has offered to assemble and collate information in these fields, and to prepare the background documents on which the discussion of these subjects will be based.

At Helsinki the Sixth Session began with the reminder that in most major Third World urban settlements there are two ‘cities’, one for the elite where western standards prevail, and one for the poor, self-built cities of slums and shanty towns. Spatially, economically, socially and politically the chasm between the two ‘cities’ has never been deeper or wider.

Further, the scale of the problem is escalating, as it is estimated that 1000 million additional people will inhabit

Third World cities by the end of the century. Shelter, infrastructure and

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services will be required not only for urban communities, but for rapidly increasing rural populations as well.

This underlines both the scale of the problems facing Habitat, and the importance of the work for which it is responsible. As a very young United Nations agency it has firmly established itself, and made considerable progress during the past five or so years. Yet in

spite of the financial and staffing con-

straints under which Habitat operates,

each new Session adds further tasks to its workload.

These cannot all be undertaken, and the routine work programme of the

Centre itself may well be threatened unless Habitat receives adequate practical and financial support from members of the United Nations family in both developed and developing worlds. The poor and disadvantaged majority of Third World populations, towards which Habitat’s activities and the 1987 International Year of Shelter for the Homeless are directed, has a right to such support.

George Franklin Overseas Development Administration

London, UK

Recent policy articles C.F. Adams. Jr and J.E. Storbeck, ‘Sorting urban development strategies in a federal system’. Socio Economic Planning Sciences. Vol 17, No 2. 1983.

T.M. Airola, ‘New Jersey case study - classifying municipalities and targeting FmHA Programs’, Growth and Change.

Vol 13, No 4, October 1982.

S. Angel, ‘Upgrading slum infrastructure: divergent objectives in search of a consen- sus’, Third World Planning Review, Vol 5. No 1. February 1983.

Lourdes Arguelles. ‘Cuban Miami: the roots, development, and everyday life of an emigre enclave in the U.S. NationalSecurity State’, Contemporar) Marxism, No 5. Summer 1982, pp 2743.

H. Aldskogius, ‘Swedish urban dimensions in the 1970’s’. Geografiska Annaler, Vol64. No 2, 1982, pp 7748.

R.A. Beauregard and N.A. Paulson, ‘National industrial policy: a review of recent literature’, Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol49. No 1, Winter 1983.

R. Bell and D.W. Ronceck, ‘Census tracts and longitudinal research coping with changing census tract boundaries’, Geographical Perspectives, Vol 50, 1982.

PP l-8.

I. Bracken, ‘Flexibility in the planning process: conflicts of statutes, procedures and behaviour’, Planning Outlook, Vol 25, No 1, 1982.

M.S. Bukhari, ‘The urban land question’, Habitat International, Vol6. No %6, 1982.

M.J. Bruton, ‘The Malaysian planning system - a review’, Third World PIanning Review, Vol4, No 4, November 1982.

M. Clarke and A.G. Wilson. ‘The dynamics of urban spatial structure: progress and problems’, Journal of Regional Science, Vol 23. No 1, February 1983.

S.M. Cunningham, ‘Industrial estates as a planning tool - recent experience in Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais States, Brazil‘. Third World Planning Review. Vol4. No 1, February 1982.

F.F. Degioranni. ‘Patterns of change in housing market activity in revitalizing neighbourhoods’, Journal of the American Planning Association. Vol49, No 1, Winter 1983.

T. Gihring, ‘Accessibility choices and opportunities in Zaria, Nigeria’. Third World Planning Review, Vol 4, No 4, November 1982.

P. Gober and M. Behr, ‘Central cities and suburbs as distinct place types: myth or fact?‘. Economic Geography, Vol55, No 4. October 1982.

H.C. Goddard, ‘Recent evidence on black employment and metropolitan decentraliz- ation’, Growth and Change, Vol 13. No 4. October 1982.

L.A. Herzog, ‘Politics and the role of the state in land-use change, a report from San Diego’, International journal-of Urban and Renional Research. Vol 7. No 1. 1983. pp-93-114.

B.C. Jones and D.M. Manson, ‘The geography of enterprise zones: a critical analysis’, Economic Geography. Vol 5.5, No 4. October 1982.

T.R. Leinbach, and R.G. Cromley, ‘A goal programming approach to public invest- ment decisions: a study of rural roads in Indonesia’, Socio Economic PLanning Sciences, Vol 17, No 1, 1983.

CITIES August 1983