‘Be Prepared for a Huge Urbanization Process – It’s Like a Tsunami’

Human Wrongs Watch

The United Nations called for the development of national urban policies to ensure developing countries are not overwhelmed by urbanization, which he compared to a tsunami for its staggering growth which can surpass cities’ capacities to manage it.

“What we are seeing now is a huge process of urbanization in the south which goes hand in hand with development. You cannot have one without the other. The problem is that the institutional architecture cannot keep pace with urbanization,” said the Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Joan Clos at the opening of the 6th World Urban Forum in Naples, Italy, on Sept. 3, 2012.

“If there is no proper anticipation urbanization becomes a mess and if you try to correct the problem afterwards it costs a lot to fix. Countries are overwhelmed by urbanization. It’s like a tsunami. Urbanization goes faster than the capacity to manage it,” Clos said. “We need to re-design our cities to face these challenges.”

Clos stressed the importance of urban planning at national, state, and local levels to avoid informal settlements and slums, as well as high concentrations of people in mega capitals.

He stated that planning policies would help countries provide their citizens with jobs and prosperity while still tackling environmental challenges.

Urban Future

The World Urban Forum was established by the United Nations to examine one of the most pressing problems facing the world today: rapid urbanization and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies, the UN said.

Organized jointly by UN-Habitat, the Government of Italy, the Campania Region and the city of Naples, the theme for this year’s meeting, which will be attended by more than 3,000 participants, is The Urban Future.

Banks to Invest $175 Billion in Transport

On 20 June 2012, the The eight largest multilateral development banks (MDBs) announced at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) that they will invest $175 billion in sustainable transportation systems over the coming decade.

“These unprecedented commitments have the promise to save hundreds of thousands of lives by cleaning the air and making roads safer; cutting congestion in hundreds of cities; and reducing the contribution of transportation to harmful climate change,” said UN-Habitat chief, Joan Clos.

“They will create more efficient passenger and freight transportation, spurring sustainable urban economic growth.”

The pledge was made by the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the Latin American and African Development banks, and four other MDBs, the UN reported.

“Never before have these institutions collaborated on such a global scale. The breakthrough that we are witnessing allows us to plan for the one billion people who will move to cities over the next 20 years, and the one billion people still living in poverty,” said the joint convener of the Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), Cornie Huizenga, who also organized the SLoCaT Rio+20 campaign which led to the eight MDBs’ commitment.

Pollution, Accidents, Climate Change…

According to the SLoCaT Partnership – made up of UN-organizations, development banks non-governmental organizations and business sector organizations – the pollution in the air, road accidents and transport related climate change can cost between five and ten per cent of gross domestic product per year.

“Transportation investments create the DNA of our cities,” the Global Policy Director and Founder of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, Michael Replogle, said in an interview.

“They determine really where we can live and work and how we can develop our economies. If the transportation investment is made in a way that allows sustainable development we can have urbanization that reduces our consumption of scarce resources, protects our health and delivers happier, nicer cities,” he said.

“The old paradigm for transportation has not worked, it has been a failure for development so the banks are understanding that we need transportation more sustainable to avoid unnecessary travel by smarter planning, to allow people to have shorter trips, to walk and bike an encourage the use of cleaner vehicles,” Replogle added.

Read also:

Urban Population in 2050: 1.2 Billion in Africa, 3.3 Billion in Asia

The World’s Largest Refugee Complex, Unwanted

Dispatch from Hell

Millions of Urban Children at High Risk of Violence, Exploitation and Trafficking

World Youth: No Jobs, No Education; Big Frustration, Scare

Africa’s Rapid Urbanisation – Magnet of Hope or Misery Time Bomb?

2012 Human Wrongs Watch

Filed under: Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Mother Earth, The Peoples

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