14th Strategic Meeting of the Habitat Professionals Forum
was organised in Nairobi 28 March 2009 prior the 22nd Governing Council of UN-HABITAT
(30 March - 3 April 2009)
Habitat Professionals Forum
Introduction
The Habitat Professionals Forum has been established and put on the road as
a repetitive phenomenon under the auspices of UN-HABITAT on the initiative
of International Society of City and
Regional Planners, IsoCaRP, International
Federation for Housing and Planning, IFHP, International
Union of Architects UIA , International
Federation of Surveyors, FIG, Commonwealth
Association of Surveying & Land Economy, CASLE, Centre for African Settlement Studies and
Development CASSAD and Arabian Urban Development Institute AUDI. The Forum was
organized under the auspices of UN-HABITAT with the enthusiastic support
of Dr. Klaus Töpfer, then Ag. Executive Director of UN-HABITAT and presently
United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Director-General of the United
Nations Office at Nairobi and is now supported by Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, the new
Executive Director of UN-HABITAT.
Definition
The word Forum means a place or a platform, where
information is brought together in order to communicate with others. Not a
club with members, but a series of meetings, organised on regular basis, for a
large group of professional people working directly on the grass-root level of
housing and urban development, on the topics of the Habitat Agenda. These
meetings will signify a global focal point, where people can learn and meet
equal spirits, and which results are channelled to appropriate bodies: the UN-HABITAT and its member governments, but also to the generally supporting
organisations for developing support everywhere in the world.
What is happening at these meetings?
The Habitat Professionals Forum’s meetings are the
platforms to review and assess progress made in the concrete implementation of
the Habitat Agenda. Not as an issue of principal policy, but of plain
practice. What is happening, why do things work or don’t work? This is the
focus.
But the Forum also treats items of the UN-HABITAT's Work Programme, makes critical connotations and creates better understanding,
possibly leading to adjustments in priorities and orientation.
A platform serving a two-way communication:
- From the established Global Plan of Action of the UN-HABITAT, which
resulted from Istanbul and following meetings of the Commission, to the
professional field in the concrete local situations where problems have to
be solved;
- From the local situations, the "shop-floor" where developments
in the quality of urban life take place and are being encountered and
worked at directly by professionals, reporting on both positive and
negative trends to be taken into account at the UN-HABITAT level.
Put in other words: on the one hand there is the function
of stimulating the awareness of vital general and global trends, so that the
professional field may be better prepared, and on the other hand there is the
monitoring and signal function which gives information about improvements,
effectiveness of measures, and the emerging of alarming developments.
Goals and objectives
The forum is explicitly aimed at interchange between
professionals in the field and the government of the UN-HABITAT. It
organises a direct orientation of the Forum towards the UN work. It monitors
the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. Professionals from different
countries, working directly for the improvement of urban living conditions,
and influencing decision making in their home situations, will be able to
learn from each other here, support each other and be given a common
reference, to strengthen their position. It should help the Habitat Agenda to
follow the spontaneous and autonomous dynamics in our societies through time
and contribute to making it really living instrument for progress.
Who will be involved?
The Forum will bring professionals in the broad field of
urban development together to discuss the best policies to implement the
Habitat Agenda. Professionals selected by their motivation, by their
professional skills and responsibilities. This means that there will be
participants from local authorities, social services, subsidisers, but also
non-governmental representatives such as interest groups, researchers,
architects, consultants, and lawyers. There will be experts from financing,
governance, capacity building, environmental protection, infrastructure,
housing, informal settlement up-grading, public participation, conservation
and rehabilitation of the cultural heritage, technical co-operation, disaster
mitigation and the other strictly connected professional fields.
What will be the results?
This Forum shall be a priceless source of information for
all parties involved in the Habitat process. It provides a means to
communicate directly to where the problems of the Habitat Agenda are: on the
shop floor of urban renewal in the bigger cities of the world.
How to reach out?
It is the intention that the Habitat Professionals Forum
will be organised on a regular basis in different places in the world, and
will be open for all executive levels in urban development. It reaches out to
where the established international professional NGOs like the ones that took
the initiative for this Forum can’t succeed so well, because of the
unavoidable elitarian selection due to travel costs. Forum events will be held
everywhere in the world, as a part of congresses or as separate regional
gatherings in those countries where the need for professional exchange is
high, and travel costs are generally prohibitive to the executive officers in
urban development.
Where and how often should it take place?
An important feature of the Habitat Professionals Forum is
its geographical spread, its chosen locations in world regions where the
Habitat Agenda has its first and most important targets: the large cities in
the developing countries.
Organisatorial structure
Further elaboration is still needed concerning the
organisatorial and financial structure, including a responsibility-structure
in which a Steering Group is involved in the development of the substantial
programmes per event.
A group that by its composition will guarantee the backing
of the large international professional associations with consultative status
to the UN, the support of the UN itself and continuity of the Forum as a
phenomenon in the professional world.
Essential elements in the organisation are:
-
The operationalisation of the platform function
-
The location of a central focal point at the UN-HABITAT
-
The Formal connection to UN-HABITAT
Operationalisation of the platform function
The Steering Group as it is functioning at this moment
includes representatives of the initiating organisations and is chaired at the
moment by the International Federation of housing and Planning. The group is
developing a programme of a Forum once a year. Of course, these meetings will
aim to produce spin-off effect of bilateral contacts and may be smaller
gatherings to follow up on its issues.
Possible structures for Forum events may be various. It is
important that every opportunity is used, that the needs of local professional
participants are met, and the input is inspiring and instructive.
Contact Address
Habitat Professionals Forum
Mr. Derek Martin
Secretary General
International Federation for Housing and Planning IFHP
Wassenaarseweg 43
NL-2596 CG The Hague
NETHERLANDS
Tel. + 31 70 328 2085
Fax + 31 70 324 4557
Email: d.martin@ifhp.org
Web site: www.habitatforum.org
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