KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY LN SISULU MINISTER OF HOUSING AT CITY DEVELOPMENT WORLD AFRICA 2006
7 November 2006
Sandton Sun Intercontinental
Johannesburg
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Chairperson
Senior officials in government
Chief Executive Officers representing various companies from the private sector
Invited guests
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am pleased to have been invited to attend the Conference which is ideal for those of us who are keen to invest in the building of our collective future. I believe the Conference is intended that we should learn from each other and thereby gain ‘deeper insight’ into the development challenges we face. For me this was sufficient, and in fact, it was compelling to honour the invitation. For here is present a good mix of all those who in the structure of our society matter in development. City and Regional Investment and Development Agencies are here. Local government specialists including property developers and property owners, property investors, city transport operators and authorities, facility and asset managers, systems integrators and auditors; I have been told that they are all here, as indeed they should be if we are dealing with city development. The setting therefore holds a promise for a good substantive interaction. Today everybody that matters in the developing of cities, is here, I hope.
At the opening of the 1976 United Nations Conference on Human Settlements in Vancouver, the Prime Minister of Canada, the late Pierre Elliot Trudeau, had this to say:
“Human Settlements are linked so closely to existence itself, represent such a concrete and widespread reality, are so complex and demanding, so laden with questions of rights and desires, with needs and aspirations, so racked with injustices and deficiencies, that the subject cannot be approached with the leisurely detachment of the solitary theoretician.” (Vancouver, May 31st, 1976)
This complex reality has, for these past three decades, posed difficult challenges that cross both developmental and disciplinary divides. All nations and citizens are confronted with these challenges whether they are from rich or poor nations, developed or developing, international, continental and local.
This conference could not have come at a more opportune time, as we all grapple with these complexities. Decisions we take will have enormous impact on our future. We are at a critical phase in our development. The year 2007 will mark a turning point in human history. According to the State of the World Cities Report 2006/07:
“the worlds urban population will for the first time equal the world’s rural population. Although it is difficult to predict on which day or moth this milestone will herald the advent of a new urban millennium: a time when one out of every two people on the planet will be a City-Zen”.
These cities are facing unprecedented challenges. Their very existence is threatened by the consequences of climate change. Their social cohesion and stability is being tested by social exclusion, inequities and shortfalls in housing and basic services. The quality of life and health of their inhabitants are increasingly affected by congestion and deteriorating air and water quality and are also areas of concentration of the deficiencies of human existence that the MDGs seek to correct.
As African Ministers for Housing and Urban Development, we have been keen to emphasis that we should avoid the overemphasis on urbanisation as a negative development to see its benefits.
Cities are sites for extraordinary cultural, social and political progress in the world, and for the world’s prosperity. As a result, we have been arguing for sustainable cities as an essential condition for meeting the goals as set out in the Millennium Declaration. The theory is that sustainable cities will maximize opportunities for growth .
Urban growth needs to be understood from its positive impact on the growth of the cities. Urbanization provides an opportunity for increased economic activities, through diversification of means of incomes, expansion of options for affordable services and widening horizons for skills acquisition.
In 2005, the world’s urban population was 3.17 billion out of the world total of 6.45 billion. Current trends predict the number of urban dwellers will keep rising, reaching almost 5 billion by 2030. Between 2005 and 2030, the world’s urban population is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 1.78 per cent, almost twice the growth rate of the world’s total population. On the other hand, the rural population is decreasing at an average annual rate of -0.32 – a decrease of more than 155 million people over 15 years.
The trend of intense urbanisation has now shifted to the developing regions of Asia and Africa. In–migration and natural population increase are contributing to a rapid urban transformation of these regions. Annual urban growth rates are the highest in sub-Saharan Africa (4.58 %). In Northern Africa they are estimated at 2.48%).
Asia and Africa will continue to dominate global urban growth through to 2030. Currently the least urbanized regions in the world, with 39.9% and 39.7% of their populations living in cities in 2005, respectively, by 2030, both regions will become predominantly urban. The urban population of Africa (748 million) will by 2030 be larger than the total population of Europe at that time (985 million).
Within the international context, at the beginning of October, we all in the developing world welcomed the good news that Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi national who received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize said the following:
The one message that we are trying to promote all the time, (is) that poverty in the world is an artificial creation. It doesn't belong to human civilization, and we can change that, we can make people come out of poverty and have the real state of affairs. So the only thing we have to do is to redesign our institutions and policies, and there will be no people who will be suffering from poverty. So I would hope that this award will make this message heard many times, and in a kind of forceful way, so that people start believing that we can create a poverty-free world. That's what I would like to do.
In a world that has become increasingly concerned about issues of stability, crime and the disintegration of societies, the recognition could not have come at a better time. It was significant not only on account of the fact that an individual from one of the most poverty stricken countries was being recognized but also for the forceful message it communicated that in dealing with poverty it is not only desirable but also possible and urgent to transcend conventional wisdoms.
South African cities as part of the continent and the globe experiences similar challenges faced by the world cities. South Africa’s urbanisation is increasing at 2.09% per annum. The nine major South African cities contribute about 36% to the overall national population. For South Africa, it is estimated that 70% of the people will be residing in urban areas by 2030[1]. The current numbers indicate that increase access to economic opportunities coupled with perceived better standard of life in urban areas will continue to attract migrants to urban areas.
The challenge for all of us is how do we ensure that we can unlock the economic potential of our cities so that they are able to fulfill their responsibility as engines of growth for all.
Our problem is that we are urbanising faster than we are able to grow the cities. This is the crisis facing us. This means therefore that we have got to ensure maximum growth of cities so that they are in a better position to absorb the urbanising citizen, so that we can curtail the present problem of the urbanisation of poverty. Already, it is reported that though a proportion of people living in poverty has declined from 51.1% in 1995 to 48.5% in 2002, the number of those living on less than a $1 per day has increased from 9.4% in 1995 to 10.5% in 2002[2], with most of these residing in urban areas.
The question we have to address urgently is: “can we accept this projected state of the world and continent, where in just 14 years one out of every three people living in the world cities will live in impoverished, overcrowded and insecure living conditions? How in the context of intense urban growth are cities to confront these local challenges while advancing the global imperatives and goals of sustainability?”
With roughly 80% of urban residents in the lowest-income countries already living in slum conditions and given the projected demographic trend whereby this population of slum dwellers is expected to increase to 1.4 billion by 2020, meeting the MDG Target 11 must be much more focused and involve a two-pronged approach– upgrading today’s slums and planning alternatives to slums for the future.
The situation has resulted because as the world becomes increasingly urbanized so does poverty and homelessness increase. Current projections are that the urban population will grow to two-thirds, or six billion people, by 2050. The implications for population densities, spatial distribution, and economic activity are immense and far reaching, providing thus the background to increased instability and the breakdown of law in many parts of the world. For in belying what conventional economists regarded as a natural process of growth bringing prosperity (according to the World Bank an ‘economic, political, and social necessity’) urbanization has instead laid bare not only the contradictions in our development but also our inability to of necessity infuse into urban planning and development the imperative of arresting and reversing what is presently rampant and run-away slum growth.
More than 200 million people became new slum-dwellers in our cities and towns in the decade between 1990 and 2001, for example. And close to 3 billion, representing about 40 percent of the world’s population would be in need of housing and shelter by 2030. In Africa, those who reside in slums constitute 72 percent of the urban population, indicating the precariousness of the situation.
If we are to reduce the development of new slums, how can we also open up vast tracts of land for new, affordable housing, ensuring liveable places for the poor with affordable transport to jobs? How do we ensure efficient, clean and affordable transport networks to connect the living and working spaces? And, how do we best govern these vast tracts of urbanism that spill over existing political boundaries into other jurisdictions, while ensuring that these cities raise revenues to support the whole?
Insecurity and risk does undermine the long-term sustainability of cities worldwide, in political, economic and social terms. Multiple forms and new manifestations of violence in cities stemming from polarization and exclusion, require us to reach out beyond the traditional policy realm of cities. How do we address this multiple layering and new complexity? Safety, security and justice are often outside the purview of local authorities and are highly centralized. However, many forms of crime in cities cut across local and national boundaries so there is now a heightened need for cities and national governments to cooperate closely on crime prevention and enforcement. Cities need to make efforts to create cities without violence, crime, insecurity and engage with all spheres of governments on issues of immigration, border security, and gun control legislations.
Cities worldwide, whether rich or poor, confront the challenge of civic engagement and how to effectively foster an inclusive governance process in their local political environment. An inclusive approach to governing cities requires a deepening awareness of the intersection between civil society and government and the creation of new institutions and processes for fostering inclusiveness, empowerment and engagement.
These include some of the major considerations that the cities in the continent need to take care of. These will assist the cities in the creation of the urban cities that are socially just environmentally sustainable, economically vibrant and politically open and accountable with public safety and inclusiveness.
A 2004 study by UN-HABITAT highlights that despite the positive achievements in the last few years in getting governments and development partners to recognize the need for improvements in shelter and infrastructure both multilateral and bilateral assistance for housing and urban infrastructure still falls far short from the requirements.
Because of the inaccessibility of the finance needed to help them to get homes and therefore out of poverty the poor have evidently been finding ways of organizing themselves to either exert their power or empower themselves. Thus here lies the critical challenge that has posited the themes of stability and security and poverty on the other hand as the two most dominant from the beginning of the 21st Century.
Thus even though it is widely recognized that in a world of liberalized trade and finance cities have now become the fulcrum for investment, communication, commerce, production and consumption the emergence of two dual worlds standing in full contrast of each other now wholly threatens our civilization.
It is in recognition of this fact, which sadly remains oblivious to some, that as African Ministers dealing with housing needed to urge the international community in 2005 to inject more resources into housing and urban infrastructure, pleading in this regard for committed partnerships.
Truth be told, outside of the United Nations, we have not seen any campaigns or programmes by either the private sector or non-governmental organizations aimed at communicating or monitoring the outcomes relating to slum prevention and upgrading of the World Summit in 2005.
And so, it would perhaps be appropriate to use this occasion to implore media companies such as Terrapinn, the organizers of the Conference, to utilize the advantage they have in reaching out to those that matter in the development of partnerships.
There is need to increase and expand innovation and skills within the construction sector. And there is need too to reach out to commercial property investors including financial institutions to continually sensitize them of the huge challenge we face.
It is for these reasons that I look forward to the outcomes of this conference. That we might all move a step closer to resolving the problems that we face, because they are in our power to resolve.
I thank you.