Summary: 4 November 2009, New York - Statement on behalf of the European Union by Mr. Jakob Ström, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Sweden, at the 64th Session of the General Assembly Second Committee, on agenda item 54: Implementation of the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) and strengthening of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), United Nations
Mr Chairperson,
I am honoured to speak on behalf of the European Union.
The Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilization and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia as well Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Armenia and Georgia, align themselves with this statement.
The multiple crises the world is facing are severely challenging the livelihood of the world's urban poor and pose additional challenge to the fulfilment of the MDGs, in particular in Africa. Human settlements development and management are negatively affected by the strong economic recession. Access to decent and affordable housing and basic urban services is critical to reducing poverty, improving health and strengthening gender equality among poor urban populations. Hence, the EU
acknowledges sustainable urban development, in particular the necessity to adequately address the social challenges of urbanization, as a prerequisite for reaching the Millennium Development Goals.
Urbanization is steadily increasing - three million people per week are added to cities of the developing world - and it is expected that, over the next fifty years, approximately two-thirds of the world's population will be living in urban areas. At the same time, poverty is urbanizing - the number of slum dwellers is about to reach one billion and continues to grow rapidly. Cities today are not prepared to meet the challenges this massive urbanization trend implies. Hence, innovative
solutions for integrated urban planning and management involving all stakeholders are sorely needed.
Cities play a key role in climate mitigation and adaptation. They are major contributors of greenhouse gas emissions and many are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Moreover, cities are often most severely affected by disasters. The adaptive capacity of cities is critical. This entails more appropriate land-use planning, more accountable urban management and further development of affordable public infrastructure as well as good urban governance. The urban population will face
many challenges related to climate change, such as increased floods, landfalls, water scarcity and sea-level rise. The human dimension of climate change must in this respect be highlighted and the adaptation capacity of urban dwellers strengthened.
In this light, the European Union supports UN-Habitat's intention to increasingly work with local urban authorities to support their efforts of reducing the ecological footprint of cities as well as improving their safety and resilience to the effects of climate change. There exists thus, as acknowledged by UN-Habitat, an increasing need to combine the green and brown agenda and integrate further the issue of sustainable urban development in the overall framework of sustainable development
including climate change issues. The European Union welcomes in this regard the Cities and Climate Change Initiative of UN-Habitat aiming at strengthening cities' and local governments' capacities to respond to climate change.
The European Union believes that embarking on a path towards sustainable urban development requires the collaboration of all parties at national, regional and international levels, as well as a renewed commitment to implementing the Habitat Agenda. In this regard, UN-Habitat should continue to assist Member States in achieving the goals agreed by the international community, including those relating to adequate shelter for all, slum upgrading and prevention through the provision of adequate
housing, along with access to infrastructure such as water and sanitation and sustainable urban development.
UN-Habitat plays an important role in enhancing the living conditions of slum dwellers, an aim captured in MDG7 target 11 - to achieve significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. However given recent UN estimates which predict 3 billion slum dwellers by 2050, it is clear that the need for action goes above and beyond the MDGs and has acquired a new urgency. The role of UN-Habitat on the shelter cluster for post disaster reconstruction should therefore be
emphasized.
The European Union recognizes that UN-Habitat's decision to concentrate its work on core focus areas will help the Organisation to play a leadership role and act as a catalyst to promote sustainable urbanization. UN-Habitat's normative mandate, its contribution to establishing best practices and its role as a forum for dialogue and expertise will be strengthened as a result of this decision, as will establishing the preconditions favourable for funding housing for the poor. In this regard, we
want to emphasize the importance of local ownership and underscore the responsibility of programme country authorities in the implementation process as well as the need for public-private partnerships and investments in housing and urban development.
Mr Chairperson,
The European Union welcomes the progress made so far in implementing the Medium-term Strategic and Institutional Plan (MTSIP) for 2008-2013. The plan provides an important basis for strengthening UN-Habitat in accordance with its comparative advantages and limited resources on the one hand and as a basis for completing its internal institutional reform on the other hand. We strongly encourage the continued comprehensive implementation of the Medium-term Strategic and Institutional Plan and take
special interest in the full-fledged application of results-based management.
The appropriate delivery of basic services is a fundamental feature of any sustainable urban development. The EU welcomes the consensus reached on this point at this year's session of the Governing Council. Complementarity between the guidelines on basic services and the guidelines on decentralisation should be assessed and pursued. We wish to underscore the role of local authorities for effective delivery of basic services, also in collaboration with further actors such as community based
organisations (CBO) and private sector actors.
We further welcome the governance review that has just been initiated following a decision at the 22nd Governing Council. This joint exercise is to be seen in the context of MTSIP and we look forward to seeing how the findings of the review can be used for improvements of UN-Habitat governance. The European Union appreciates the recently made evaluation of the previous four World Urban Forums and looks forward to it having an impact on the upcoming World Urban Forum 5 in Rio de Janeiro in March
2010.
Mr Chairperson,
The European Union notes the proposal of UN-Habitat to consider in the General Assembly the convening of the United Nations conference on housing and sustainable urban development (Habitat III), in 2016. We acknowledge that the conference has the potential to bring the political momentum required to the matter of sustainable urban development.
Moreover, the European Union wants to stress the importance of strengthening work on gender equality in sustainable urban development. Women constitute the majority of the urban poor and face more barriers and challenges than men in the urban context. Societies as a whole stand to gain from strengthening women's land and property rights and reinforcing their involvement in urban planning and decision-making. Therefore, the European Union strongly supports UN-Habitat's Gender Equality Action
Plan, which strives to ensure that gender concerns will cut across each area of the MTSIP. We are also hopeful that the Gender Equality Action Assembly to be held in conjunction with the World Urban Forum will bring substantive input to efforts under way.
Further, the role of youth should be acknowledged in the strive towards sustainable urban development. Young people will constitute a majority of the urban dwellers and need to be acknowledged and supported in their role as key urban actors and stakeholders. In this context the role of young girls should be highlighted. They are particularly vulnerable to discrimination and thus need additional support to reach their potential as key development partners. The European Union values the
UN-Habitat Youth Strategy for Enhanced Engagement as a roadmap for the promotion of urban youth empowerment.
Concluding, the European Union welcomes the report of the Secretary-General and looks forward to constructively engaging in the discussions on the work of UN-Habitat during the coming weeks.
I thank you.
* Croatia and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
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