State of the World 2007 [antikvár]

Foreword Anna Tibaijuka Executive Director, UN-HABITAT When I first came to UN HABITAT with a background in agricultural economics and international trade negotiations, I brought my own set of professional and personal prejudices. Like many other development theorists, I felt that although úrban development was important, mral development was the first priority. Like many people of my generation in Africa and around the world, I thought of úrban areas as a necessary evil. Though they were economic centers, cities led to overcrowding, pollution, and, inevitably, slums. I had given little thought to the possibilities, even less to the problems and process of urbanization. However, in the years since I became Executive Director of UN-HABITAT I have traveled far and wide. I have experienced firsthand the appalling results of rapid chaotic urbanization. In city after city, I have been stranded in traífic jams; I have visited men in hospitals suffering from preventable diseases caused by industrial pollution; I have seen slum dwellers living in conditions that do not bear describing and met young women who were raped on their way to the closest public toilet shared by over 500 people; I have walked through flattened terrain that once housed whole communities destroyed by floods and other natural disasters. Whereas in 1950 New York and Tokyo were the only cities with more than 10 millión people, today there are 20 megacities, most of which are in the developing world. As cities sprawl, turning into unmanageable megalopolises, their expanding footprint can be seen from space. These hotbeds of pollution are a major contributor to climate change. Though urbanization has stabilized in the Americas and Europe, with about 75 percent of the population living in úrban areas, Africa and Asia are in for major demographic shifts. Only about 35 percent of their populations are úrban, but it is predicted that this figure will jump to 50 percent by 2030. The result is already there for all to see: chaotic cities surrounded by slums and squatter settlements. Of the 3 biliion úrban dwellers today, it is estimated that 1 biliion are slum dwellers. What is worse, if we continue with business as usual that figure is set to double by 2030. If ever there was a time to act, it is now. Though cities are important engines of growth and provide economies of scale in the provision of services, most of them are environmentally unsustainable. In addition, in this age of increasing insecurity, with more than 50 percent of their residents living in slums without adequate shelter or basic services, many cities are rapidly becoming socially unsustainable. The U.N. General Assembly first explicitly cited its concern at the "deplorable world housing situation" in 1969, and it declared humán settlements a priority for the twenty-