Contents
Introduction 2
Take part in World Habitat Day 2004 3
Previous World Habitat Day Celebrations 5
Scroll of Honour Award - Previous Winners 6
World Habitat Day 2003 Report 9
• Introduction
• Secretary-General’s message
• Executive Director’s message
• Habitat Scroll of Honour Winners for 2003
• Celebrations around the world
Introduction
Every year, since 1985, when it was designated by the General Assembly, World Habitat Day has been celebrated on the first Monday in October. This day has been set aside by the United Nations for the world to reflect on the state of human settlements and the basic right to adequate shelter and to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat.
The theme of this year’s World Habitat Day will be Cities – engines of rural development. It underlines the importance of mutually beneficial linkages that are essential for the development of both cities and rural areas. In this reciprocal relationship, urban markets provide a powerful incentive for increased rural production and income, while expanding rural markets create increased demand for production of goods manufactured in urban areas. In the long run, cities drive secondary and tertiary investment of capital derived from primary production in rural areas.
This year, the global ceremonies will be coordinated from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Monday, 4 October 2004. The choice of Nairobi, Kenya, for the global celebration of the World Habitat Day this year, is to highlight the phenomenal rate and social-economic significance of the urbanization in the developing world, of which Kenya is representative, mirroring the experience of many other developing countries.
Cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America have the fastest urban growth in the world. This is why, in choosing the theme, Cities – engines of rural development, we want to underline the importance of treating urban and rural issues holistically because they form part of a dynamic system in which the linkages have to be strengthened. We also draw on lessons learnt and best practices from the highly industrialized cities of Europe and North America where 80 per cent of the total population now live in urban areas.
The theme Cities – engines of rural development thus seeks to generate ideas on integrated approaches which reinforce the beneficial interrelationships rural and urban areas as it is only by considering cities and urban areas as part of a continuous dynamic system that we can truly create sustainable development both cities and rural areas.
Organize a World Habitat Day 2004 event
Organize a World Habitat Day 2004 Event
World Habitat Day provides an excellent opportunity to highlight key human settlements issues. We would like to thank all our partners who in the past years have organized awareness raising activities on World Habitat Day. In 2003, for instance, World Habitat Day was celebrated in over 50 countries. The celebrations were widely reported by the media around the world and this helped immensely to highlight the problems of Water and Sanitation in the World’s Cities.
This year, we call again on our partners in central government, local government, civil society and the private sector to take part in organizing activities to raise awareness and stimulate debate on the theme of Cities - engines of rural development.
Guidelines
As a guide, here are some of the activities that you can help organize:
1. Governments may use the mass media, particularly newspapers, radio and television, to draw attention to World Habitat Day celebrations through press releases, press conferences, video and audio spots. Posters can also be used.
2. Partners may draw attention to the problems and issues relating to rural-urban migration, the significance of linkages between urban and rural areas, through press articles, radio and television documentaries and panel programmes with policy makers, government officials, academics, journalists, other professionals, and community representatives. Public information campaigns, and use of popular theatre can also help to create awareness of the problems and issues.
3. Governments, local authorities, NGOs and CBOs may use the Day to publicise, reward and demonstrate tangible improvements resulting from reinforced mutual relationships between rural and urban areas, such as improvements in the living conditions of urban and rural poor populations.
4. Universities could organize competitions to find solutions to the problems, while essay and painting competitions could be organized in schools on the theme to create awareness and a sense of belonging in institutions of learning as well as seek solutions.
5. The Day could be marked by fund raising, recreational and entertainment activities like football matches, concerts, etc., and the proceeds used to upgrade and extend services for the poor communities.
6. Postal authorities could issue special stamps to mark the Day.
7. Educational authorities could, in collaboration with appropriate ministries, introduce rural-urban development issues into school curricular.
Support from UN-HABITAT
As the lead agency for the World Habitat Day celebrations, and to support the country-level activities, UN-HABITAT is developing information material on the theme and will provide an information kit including a poster, and a short video on the theme, which can be used by national world Habitat Day focal points, national Habitat II focal points, all relevant government institutions, NGOs, CBOs, private sector companies, the media, educational institutions, and other interest groups. Information kits will be mailed to partners including Embassies and High Commissions, Inter-governmental Organizations, United Nations Information Centre offices, UNDP country offices and other UN agencies.
Let us know about your event
Please let us know if you wish to organize a local awareness-raising event by sending an Email to . We would greatly appreciate it, if you could include in your Email, as many details as possible about your planned event. Also, when World Habitat Day is over, please send us a report on your event, with details of media coverage and photographs if possible, and we will post these on the World Habitat Day pages of our website so that all our partners and the public can get a global view of the World Habitat Day celebrations around the world.
Thank you for your continued support.
Previous World Habitat Day Celebrations
1986 / Shelter is my Right / Nairobi / USG, UNCHS (Habitat)
1987 / Shelter for the Homeless / New York / SG, UN
1988 / Shelter and Community / London / Archbishop of Canterbury
1989 / Shelter, Health and the Family / Jakarta / President of Indonesia
1990 / Shelter and Urbanization / London / Hon. Sir Geoffrey
1991 / Shelter and the Living Environment / Hiroshima / Mayor of Hiroshima
1992 / Shelter and Sustainable / UN, New York / SG, UN
Development
1993 / Women and Shelter Development / UN, New York / SG, UN
1994 / Home and the Family / Dakar / President of Senegal
1995 / Our Neighbourhood / Curitiba / Mayor of Curitiba
1996 / Urbanization, Citizenship and Human Solidarity / Budapest / Minister of the Interior, Hungary
1997 / Future Cities / Bonn / Federal Minister for Regional Planning, Building and Urban Development, Germany
1998 / Safer Cities / Dubai / Director General Dubai Municipality, UAE
1999 / Cities for All / Dalian / Minister of Construction, China
2000 / Women in Urban Governance / Jamaica / Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Land and Environment
2001 / Cities without Slums / Fukuoka / Governor of Fukuoka Prefecture
2002 / City-to-City Cooperation / Brussels / H.R.H. Prince Philippe
2003 / Water and Sanitation for Cities / Rio De Janeiro / Mayor of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Scroll of Honour Award - Previous Winners
2003
Mrs. Margaret Catley-Carlson, Canada
Weihai Municipal Government, China
Mr. German Garcia Duran, Colombia
Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, India
Ms. Nasreen Mustafa Sideek, Iraq
Pamoja Trust, Kenya
Mrs. Sankie D. Mthembi-Mahanyele, South Africa
Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative, Council (WASH), Switzerland
Ms. Zena Daysh, Commonwealth Human Ecology Council (CHEC), UK
Ms. Teolinda Bolivar - Venezuela
2002
C2C between Nakuru and Leuven, Belgium
Brazilian Institute of Municipal, Administration (IBAM), Brazil
Baotou Municipal Government, China
CITYNET based in Yokohama, Japan
Dutch Habitat Platform, Netherlands
Mayor Joan Clos, Spain
ENDA Tiers Monde Dakar, Sénégal
René Frank USA
John Hodges (Special Citation)United Kingdom
2001
Hangzhou Municipal Government, China
Ms. Pastora Nuñez Gonzalez, Cuba
Bremer Beginenhof Modell, Germany
Fukuoka City, Japan
Father Pedro Opeka, Madagascar
Centre on Housing Rights and Eviction, Switzerland
Television Trust for The Environment (TVE), UK
Asiaweek, Hong Kong
Chairperson and The Cooperating Committee for Japan Habitat Fukuoka Office (Special Citation)Japan
2000
Ms. Ana Vasilache, Romania
Ms. Caroline Pezzullo, U.S.A.
Mrs. Jacqueline daCosta, Jamaica
Women and Peace Network, Costa Rica
Ms. Mary Jane Ortega, Philippines
International Union of Local Authorities, based in the Netherlands
Ms. Sheela Patel, India
Mr. Charles Keenja, Tanzania
Ms. Mmatshilo Motsei, South Africa
1999
Ms. Habiba Eid, Egypt
Mr. Bo Xilai – Mayor of Dalian, China
National Slum Dwellers Federation, India
Mr. Alvaro Villota Bernal, Colombia
President Rudolf Schuster, Slovak Republic
Mr. Pierre Laconte, Belgium
Mr. Millard Fuller, USA
Hon. Kwamena Ahwoi, Ghana
Operation Firimbi, Kenya
1998
Programa de Mobilizacão de Comunidades, Brazil
Fu-Nan River Comprehensive Revitalization Project Chendu, China
Mayor Mu Suixin, Mayor of Shenyang, China
Forum Européen pour la Sécurité Urbaine, France
Prof. Akin L. Mabogunje, Nigeria
Vladimir A. Kudryavtsev, Russia
Association des Habitants d’el Mourouj 2, Tunisia
1997
Sen. Oscar López Velarde Vega, Mexico
Mother Center Stuttgart, West Germany
South African Homeless People’s Federation, South Africa
Mayor Huang Ziqiang, China
Reinhard Goethert and Nabeel Hamdi, USA/United Kingdom
Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Canada
Mr. Peter Elderfield (Special Citation), United Kingdom
Mr. Radinal Moochtar, Minister of Public
Works (Special Citation)
Indonesia
1996
Hou Jie, Minister of Construction (Special Citation), China
Peter Kimm (Special Citation)
Water and Sanitation for Cities – Report on World Habitat Day 2003
The global observances for World Habitat Day 2003 were marked in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, under the theme “Water and Sanitation for Cities”. At the same time, equally important commemorations were held in different countries around the world highlighting the urgent need to improve water and sanitation conditions amongst the urban poor living in slums across the major cities of the world.
In his message on the occasion, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan reminded governments that by agreeing to the Millennium Development Goals, they had pledged to halve the number of people without clean water and decent sanitation by 2015, and to improve the living conditions of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.
Audiences in many Rio neighbourhoods heard first-hand of water and sanitation problems in a rapidly urbanising world, because at least 1 billion people world-wide suffer from the dangers and indignities associated with the lack of clean water and adequate sanitation. Delegates in Rio de Janeiro took time to visit the Cajú neighbourhood, a favela or slum that is home to almost 800 families, and typical of the slums where almost 20 per cent of the city’s 1.1 million residents live.
In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Johannesburg, South Africa; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Tbilisi, Georgia; and scores of other countries around the world, World Habitat Day was celebrated with fanfare, pomp, ceremony and warnings from local and world leaders of worsening conditions in urban slums.
UN-HABITAT used the occasion to launch its flagship biennial publication The Global Report on Human Settlements, which focuses on The Challenge of Slums. In Rio de Janeiro, UN-HABITAT also unveiled the Spanish version of the publication Water and Sanitation in the World’s Cities: Local Action for Global Goals, and a commemorative musical CD called Rivers of Rio. Also launched were the Brazilian Campaign on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), and the Brazilian Campaigns on Security of Tenure and Urban Governance.
The Secretary-General, Kofi Annan’s message on
World Habitat Day 2003
WATER AND SANITATION FOR CITIES,
6 October 2003
The theme of World Habitat Day 2003 — “Water and Sanitation for Cities” — highlights the need to provide the urban poor with clean water and decent sanitation.
In a rapidly urbanizing world, where already half of the world’s population lives in cities and towns, at least 1 billion people suffer from the dangers and indignities associated with the lack of clean water and adequate sanitation. In Africa, as many as 150 million residents, or 50 per cent of the urban population, do not have adequate supplies of water, while 180 million lack adequate sanitation. In urban Asia, 700 million people, again half the urban population, lack clean water, and 800 million are without adequate sanitation. In Latin America, the figures are 120 million and 150 million respectively. Everywhere, poor people tend to pay much more than the rich for water. Moreover, many governments, international financial institutions and aid agencies have concentrated their efforts on rural areas, assuming that the poor in cities are comparatively privileged when it comes to the provision of water and sanitation, whereas it is becoming increasingly clear that the number of inadequately served urban dwellers is much higher than officially acknowledged.
Increased investment is critical, whether small-scale projects at the local level or national efforts to build up essential infrastructure. Community participation, good governance and public-private partnerships are equally important. And since as much as 50 per cent of a developing country’s urban water supply can be wasted through leakage or poor administration, greater emphasis must be placed on management strategies, which can increase efficiency, improve maintenance and, through better billing systems, raise the income of local authorities. To be truly equitable, water management strategies and practices must extend to the national and regional levels, and encompass all water users, including agriculture, which accounts for more than three-quarters of all freshwater consumption.
Cities and towns have always been centres of opportunity, but without adequate shelter and basic services, urban environments can be among the most life threatening on Earth. In agreeing on the Millennium Development Goals, Governments pledged to halve the number of people without clean water and decent sanitation by 2015, and to improve the living conditions of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. On World Habitat Day, let us all pledge to do our part to ensure adequate sanitation and clean water for all the inhabitants of the world’s cities.