Introductory remarks
Dr. Klaus Töpfer, Acting Executive Director of the United Nations Center for Human Settlements
It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to Berlin for this very
important global conference on the Urban Future - dubbed URBAN 21. The World
Report on the Urban Future informs us that between this year 2000 and the year
2025, the world's urban population will double from 2.4 billion (in 1995) to 5.0
billion. City dwellers will rise from 47 per cent to over 61 per cent of the
world's population. More significant is the fact that this explosive growth will
occur in the cities of the developing world where resources for their effective
provisioning and management are least available.
There will be a doubling of the overall urban population between 2000 and
2025 in Latin America and the Caribbean, in Asia and in Africa. By 2015, it is
predicted that there will be 358 "million cities" with one million or
more people, and no less than 153 will be in Asia. Of the 27
"mega-cites" with ten million or more population, 18 will be in Asia.
This urban growth presents not only immense benefits and opportunities but
also enormous challenges. Managing this tremendous urban growth is one of the
great challenges of the new millennium, and I dare suggest that a substantial
burden of this challenge rests on Habitat-related professionals such as you -
architects, town planners, land/estate surveyors, City managers and Local
political leaders. This challenge is not only technical. It is as well a
governance challenge in its political, economic and social contexts.
Habitat Professionals in their various areas of expertise are challenged to
develop and contribute policies, programmes strategies and even
tools/instruments towards improving the management of our Habitat which is
becoming increasingly urban.
This they could do by, among other things:
- developing policies, programmes and strategies to improve housing for the
urban population,
- improving and stabilizing the legal position of informal housing and their
owners and incorporating them into the mainstream of urban fabric,
- upgrading infrastructures and urban services which are the back-bones of
sustainable cities,
- improving education and increasing awareness of environmental concerns among
the population,
- developing and providing more integrated but flexible urban planning systems
or frameworks, with zoning regulations that reduce risks, negative externalities
and uncertainty to investors and developers.
There is, furthermore, the challenge of bringing about a more inclusive city
through good urban governance, which ensures wider participation and involvement
in city management by its population, greater transparency and accountability in
the management of city affairs.
This Urban 21 Global Conference could not have come at a better time as it
contributes to and complements the preparations for Istanbul + 5- the Special
Session of the General Assembly for an overall Review and Appraisal of the
Implementation of the Habitat Agenda. The Istanbul + 5 Process is about
reviewing and appraising the implementation of the Habitat Agenda so far. The
Agenda itself is a series of plans, programmes and commitments in Istanbul by
governments and their various partners on how to more effectively address the
problems and issues of the world's growing cities and other categories and
scales of human settlements. The process is also one of charting future actions
for improving and enhancing the implementation of the Agenda. The Urban 21 World
Report is a significant contribution to this process.
As I had occasion to say to you at our meeting in New York last October, I am
convinced that your Forum has important value-added scientific and professional
contributions to make to the Habitat Centre, to the Istanbul + 5 Process and to
the implementation of the Habitat Agenda.
Your Forum should, among other things, endeavour to give the Habitat Agenda,
a professional flesh-out by coming up with realistic bench-marks for some of the
recommendations of the Agenda supported by progressive, innovative and
scientific thinking, against which the Agenda's implementation could be
assessed.
I wish you fruitful deliberations.
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