Today, the Global Meeting of the Sustainable Cities Programme (SCP) -- held under the auspices of the Alexandria Governorate and hosted by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) -- concludes. Al-Ahram Weekly takes the opportunity to consider some of the concerns posed by unsustainable citiesFor the disposessed
In an exclusive interview with Al-Ahram Weekly, UN-HABITAT Executive Director Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka explains how the urban poor can be assets in urban development
Q. In your address today you spoke of the importance of "broad-based and meaningful public participation" in developing sustainable cities. In many developing countries including Egypt, however, urban planning decisions are made at the top. Shanty town settlers face forced eviction and have little say in their future. What is the connection between democracy and sustainable urban development?
A. The UN believes that a society can only develop if it looks at every aspect of that society as a resource. Vulnerable groups are seen as a problem -- instead we should perceive of them as energy to solve the problem. This is good urban governance. That is the message we are giving countries.
We are of course against arbitrary eviction. All it does is transfer the problem from one place to another, and you just create another area of squatters. Of course we want urban planning to take place. But we believe cities cannot be sustainable without sustainable assets, without stable communities.
Q. More investments tend to be put into middle and upper class neighbourhoods instead of disadvantaged areas. How can this be addressed?
A. Yesterday I was in Cairo and met Mrs Suzanne Mubarak who is at the forefront of an initiative to build decent housing in dispossessed areas. The involvement of top officials in slum upgrading is crucial, especially in a city like Cairo where around 60 per cent of its inhabitants do not live in affluent areas.
There has been a market failure in providing low-income groups with housing. We are trying to change this through promoting welfare programmes that upgrade shanty areas, and by encouraging the private sector to invest in housing for the poor. But we must first understand why there has been this colossal failure of the market to fulfill this need so far.
One reason is the legal environment which in many cases allows the poor to be exploited. In many countries in Africa people who do invest in housing for the poor charge relatively large sums for very poor services. Why is this possible? Because rent regulation does not extend to unplanned settlements. There is a paradox in this, but it is true. Not prescribing housing regulation allows profiteering to take place in slum areas. Studies in Nairobi showed that those who invested in slums made back their money in nine months while the average in other neighbourhoods is 10 to 14 years.
Addressing this is a political activity because it counters vested interests that aim to keep the status quo. This is a very complex situation.
A depressed neighbourhood can result in mayhem and riots. Urban slums lack proper sanitation facilities. Living in a slum means you suffer from a lack of dignity and privacy. HIV/AIDS spreads and all forms of ill health. All kinds of abuses occur because of lack of privacy, especially for women.
The UN aims for cities without slums. We have a very ambitious plan to improve the lives of 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. Currently there are approximately one billion people living in slums. This accounts for one third of the world's urban population.
Q. Structural adjustment and economic liberalisation have resulted in the withdrawal of the state in providing many basic services such as housing, sanitation services and health care. Can the private sector be expected to fill the gap?
A. It is never a panacea. There is room for the private sector, but there are no illusions that the private sector can solve the situation. The challenge is to strike a balance between public and private -- to find a partnership between both. Let us be honest, there are many cities where the public sector has not delivered basic services. So the question is not whether to privatise or not, but how to privatise. There are different ways to go about this but ultimately there has to be a regulatory capacity in place.
Q. In several instances where privatisation has been successful, in water management for example, quality has been compromised.
A. A rational private sector is looking for profit, a rational public is looking for efficient services. With the right regulatory framework both can be achieved. In some cases the process of privatisation was undertaken too quickly and without the consideration of oversight capability.
Q. Tanzania, your home country, was one of the first to implement the Sustainable Cities Programme (SCP). What benefits has SCP had?
A. My country is one of the least developed in the world and Dar es Salaam was growing very fast. Slums were mushrooming everywhere. We [SCP] went into a neighbourhood and empowered its inhabitants. We got them involved in putting in sewage lines and then we came to agreements for minimum demolition to increase accessibility so that an ambulance, for example, could get in to the area. In all these projects we employed people from the area as an employment generation component of the programme. It would not make sense to bring in employment from outside a neighbourhood where people are looking for a job. It has worked extremely well.
Q. And how do you evaluate the situation of SCP in Egypt?
A. The participation of all of these ministries at the highest level in the meetings that took place today is very encouraging. The governor of Alexandria, [who is the former governor of Ismailia, the only governorate to date in Egypt to implement SCP] has been very dynamic in dealing with housing problems. I have met with the minister of housing also, and I am very encouraged by what I see.
Interview by Fatemah Farag
C a p t i o n :
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 2 - 8 October 2003 (Issue No. 658)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/658/fe2.htm