BBC News | Friday, 16 June 2006, 11:47 GMT
 Slums have existed in what is now the developed world since the Industrial Revolution. Currently, about 36% of Africa's population lives in urban areas but the continent is experiencing urbanisation rates twice as high as those seen during the West's industrial revolution. It is predicted that Africa will be an urban continent by 2030. The UK government's Commission for Africa concluding report warned: “These slums are filled with an increasingly youthful population, unemployed and disaffected. Africa's cities are becoming a powder keg of potential instability and discontent.” -- “Operation Production” of Global Slum Dwellers; perhaps future Criminals & Terrorists? |
Anna Tibaijuka, head of the UN Habitat agency, urged governments and donors to take more seriously the problems of at least a billion people.
Worst hit is Sub-Saharan Africa where 72% of urban inhabitants live in slums rising to nearly 100% in some states.
If no action is taken, the world's slum population could rise to 1.4bn by 2020.
Habitat - the UN's human settlements programme - is hosting an Urban Forum in Vancouver next week on how to stem the crisis.
Its report is billed as a ground-breaking survey of urban growth, making a clear distinction between slum and non-slum development for the first time in UN history.
According to Dr Tibaijuka, speaking to reporters in London, slum-dwellers suffer a double disadvantage: they both live in misery and their plight often goes unreported given the traditional focus on the rural poor in the developing world.
 “... population factors are indeed critical in, and often determinants of, violent conflict in developing areas. Segmental (religious, social, racial) differences, migration, rapid population growth, differential levels of knowledge and skills, rural/urban differences, population pressure and the spatial location of population in relation to resources -- in this rough order of importance -- all appear to be important contributions to conflict and violence... Clearly, conflicts which are regarded in primarily political terms often have demographic roots. Recognition of these relationships appears crucial to any understanding or prevention of such hostilities.” |
Some states, the report notes, have already taken significant action to improve conditions, notably in Latin America where about 31% of urban people are classified as living in slums (figures for 2005) - down from 35% in 1990.
Such progress is welcomed as part of the UN's Millennium Development Goal of achieving a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers by 2020.
Among the report's findings:
- Expectations of better access to education are unmet for most slum-dwellers; a 2003 study found that one in five children in the Nairobi slum of Kibera had no access to primary schools
- Poor sanitation, described as a "silent tsunami", means illness and death are rife; in one part of Harare, 1,300 people share one communal toilet with just six squatting holes
- In Cape Town's slums, children under the age of five are five times more likely to die than those living in the city's high-income districts
- Young adults living in slums are more likely to have a child, be married or head a household than their counterparts living in non-slum areas
FIVE CHIEF FEATURES OF A SLUM |
"Rural poverty has long been the world's most common face of destitution but urban poverty can be just as intense, dehumanising and life-threatening," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in an introduction to the report.
Upgrade and prevent
A slum is defined by UN Habitat as a place of residence lacking one or more of five things: durable housing, sufficient living area, access to improved water, access to sanitation and secure tenure.
“People move to the cities not because they will be better off but because they expect to be better off” |
Slums have existed in what is now the developed world since the Industrial Revolution and 6% of its current urban population also fall under Habitat's definition.
However, the growth in slums is unprecedented, Habitat finds, and the nature of the problem has also changed.
Of the urban population of South Asia, 57% live in slums though this is down on the 1990 figure of nearly 64%.
Dr Tibaijuka told journalists that urbanisation in itself was not the problem as it drove both national output and rural development.
 The symptoms of overpopulation colliding with finite or scarce resources (i.e. ecological overshoot resource wars) include: energy depletion, food shortages, species extinction, politically correct fascism, Immigration and emigration, terrorism, starvation, poverty, disease, crime, economic & political instability, pain and misery... |
"People move to the cities not because they will be better off but because they expect to be better off."
The only effective way to upgrade slums and prevent new ones emerging, she said, was to persuade governments to improve infrastructure.
While help from international donors was required, she also argued that governments could take relatively cost-free action such as reforming property laws.
Source: BBC
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BBC News | Tuesday, 20 June 2006, 15:25 GMT 16:25 UK
 “People move to the cities not because they will be better off but because they expect to be better off” -- Anna Tibaijuka, executive director of UN Habitat » » » » BBC's Interactive Map: Urban Growth: Urban explosion: Trace the past and future growth of the world's biggest cities |
The number of people living in slums will double to two billion by 2030 if urgent action is not taken, the third World Urban Forum in Vancouver, Canada, has been told.
The figure was given by Inga Bjork-Klevby, the Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, in a special session in which members of parliaments around the world discussed the problems facing their cities.
There are currently one billion slum dwellers, but soaring urbanisation will be behind the increase if it is not managed properly, Ms Bjork-Klveby said.
"Some have chosen to ignore or even destroy these settlements," she said.
"We need a common vision for reducing the burgeoning poverty in cities."
Defeated farmers
 Common Sense?: In less developed countries, lack of access to birth control, as well as cultural traditions that encourage women to stay home and have babies, lead to rapid population growth. The result is ever increasing numbers of poor people across Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere who suffer from malnourishment, lack of clean water, overcrowding, inadequate shelter, and AIDS and other diseases. Save the Planet; Control Population |
Next year, for the first time in human history, more than half the world's population is expected to be living in urban areas.
Senator Rodolfo Biazon of the Philippines said that in his country, as in many others in the developing world, one of the reasons for the surge in slum dwellers was that increased globalisation has meant farmers are now no longer able to make a living from the land.
"Many developing countries' farmers are defeated by the farmers of the developed world, causing these farmers to flock to the city to find a job," he said.
"But there they find that our industries are also in unfair competition with the developed world, which leads to a growth in the slums."
Mr Biazon added that increased urbanisation is already taking its toll in the Philippines' capital Manila, where the exploding population means water is needed from rivers 100km away.
The Philippines' government has been trying to put together a "safety net" package for farmers as one of the ways to try and control migration, he added.
This was one of a number of strategies discussed by the MPs.
In South Africa, government negotiations with banks have seen 42 billion Rand set aside to help with construction, while Morocco's senate has pressurised banks into reducing their housing interest to 5%.
"We have seen slums move from one area to the next... drug pushing, prostitution, moves to the new area, and the new area becomes the slum."
But Joe Fontana, Canada's Minister of Labour and Housing, warned that while concerned parties have successfully raised awareness of urbanisation, "the fact is that those who are coming to our urban centres are deprived of basic human dignity."
"We've talked an awful lot of talk, but actually done very little," he added.
"It comes down to a question of political will... we have failed humankind by not making habitat the number one priority of governments around the world."
Source: BBC
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BBC News | Tuesday, 13 June 2006, 18:05 GMT 19:05 UK
 “All [young girls or women] opposing the wishes of the [ANC young cadres] were reminded, that it was every woman’s obligation to give birth to new “soldiers”, in order to replace those warriors killed in the liberation struggle. The idiom of the adolescents referred to these patriotic efforts as “operation production”. Because of exactly this reason it was forbidden for the girls to use contraceptives.” |
Somewhere, sometime in 2007, someone migrating from their rural home to begin a new life in a town or city will tip the global rural/urban balance, the UN estimates.
Throughout history, the world has experienced urbanisation but the huge rise in the number of people making their homes in towns and cities is a recent phenomenon.
Throughout history, the world has experienced urbanisation but the huge rise in the number of people making their homes in towns and cities is a recent phenomenon.
In 1950, less than one-in-three people lived in urban areas. The world had just two so-called "megacities" with populations in excess of 10 million: New York and Tokyo. Today, there are at least 20.
Greater Tokyo, the world's biggest city, has expanded from 13 million residents in 1950, to today's figure of 35 million.
The United Nations estimates that about 180,000 people are being added to the urban population every day. This means the world's urban infrastructure has to absorb the equivalent of the population of two Toykos each year.
North America and Europe's urban areas already account for about 70-80% of the regions' populations, and these are expected to stabilise at these levels. Developing nations are shouldering the vast majority of this burden, leaving them struggling to cope with the huge influx of people into urban areas. Some cities' populations are 40 times larger than what they were in 1950.
In the traditional model of urbanisation, which North America and Europe experienced during the Victorian era, people were pushed away from the countryside by the mechanisation of agriculture, and pulled towards urban areas by the offer of jobs and wages.
'Premature urbanisation'
Sub-Saharan Africa, which has the world's highest rate of urban migration, is not following this pattern. The size of its cities bears no resemblance to their economic wealth and are experiencing what the UN's human settlements agency, UN-Habitat, calls "premature urbanisation".
The agricultural sector is not flourishing and urban areas are not generating economic growth but failing crops, natural disasters and conflicts are forcing people to flood into towns and cities.
Currently, about 36% of Africa's population lives in urban areas but the continent is experiencing urbanisation rates twice as high as those seen during the West's industrial revolution. It is predicted that Africa will be an urban continent by 2030.
Because the urban areas are economically stagnant or in recession, local authorities do not have the money or expertise to provide services such as access to water, housing, education and healthcare.
As a result, 70% of Africa's urban population find themselves living in slums.
Africa is not alone. An estimated one billion people in Latin America, Asia, as well as Africa, live in slums or informal settlements that are not legally recognized.
Without any intervention, this number could double by 2020.
In Asia, China's urbanisation has followed the traditional drivers experienced by the West. Its industrial revolution is the most rapid the world has seen, and the Chinese government says it has helped lift more than 200 million people out of poverty.
Millions of people migrated from rural to urban areas to fill the jobs generated by the economic explosion.
Not everyone sees it that way. Anti-poverty campaigners say many workers receive low wages and live in poor conditions. An estimated 200,000 people each year move to slums on the southern outskirts of the capital, Beijing.
Seeking solutions
Although China's large-scale poverty reduction strategy could act as a framework for others to adopt, not all regions have the export markets and trade links that South East Asia enjoys. The urbanisation of poverty is blamed on failed policies. UN-Habitat says the "urbanisation of poverty" has been overlooked. Traditionally, Western aid agencies have focused their efforts on the impact of floods, droughts and conflicts affecting rural dwellers.
In an effort to focus attention on the problem, the UN Millennium Declaration set the target of significantly improving the quality of life for 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.
The UK government's Commission for Africa said that the international community had to work together to tackle the urban poverty gripping the continent.
The commission's concluding report warned: "These slums are filled with an increasingly youthful population, unemployed and disaffected. Africa's cities are becoming a powder keg of potential instability and discontent."
More than 10,000 delegates are expected to attend the third World Urban Forum, being held later this month in Vancouver, Canada.
The two-yearly meeting, organised by UN-Habitat, is viewed as a chance to share experiences and knowledge, and aims to forge partnerships that will help deliver the goal of balancing urbanisation with a city's ability to absorb new inhabitants.
The delegates are aware of the growing sense of urgency of the challenge ahead because the next time they gather, they are likely to meet in an urban world.
Source: BBC
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