Habitat III is the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development to take place in Quito, Ecuador, from 17 – 20 October 2016. It is estimated that by 2050, 66% of the world’s population will be living in cities. About Habitat III - https://www.habitat3.org/the-new-urban-agenda/about
ISSUE PAPER ON INCLUSIVE CITIES – Poor, Gender, Youth, Ageing +
Direct Link to FULL 10-Page Paper: https://www.habitat3.org/bitcache/6152487d463cc5f9b70ac32fc32321cf31f59953?vid=542862&disposition=inline&op=view
SUMMARY
Urbanization provides the potential for new forms of social inclusion, including greater equality, access to services and new opportunities, and engagement and mobilization that reflects the diversity of cities, countries and the globe. Yet too often this is not the shape of urban development. Inequality and exclusion abound, often at rates greater than the national average, at the expense of sustainable development that delivers for all. Two key types of drivers are needed to combat the rise of urban exclusion and put cities on a better path.
The first is political commitment to inclusive urban development at multiple levels, in the face of many forces and stakeholders incentivizing uneven and unequal development. The second is a range of mechanisms and institutions to facilitate inclusion, including participatory policy making, accountability, universal access to services, spatial planning and a strong recognition of the complementary roles of national and local governments in achieving inclusive growth.
KEY FACTS AND FIGURES
- Cities often have much greater economic inequalities than countries overall1. The world’s largest cities are also often the most unequal. However, big inequalities are found in small cities in Africa and Latin America.
- More than two thirds of the world’s population live in cities in which income inequalities have increased since 19802, sometimes to worrying levels above the United Nations alert line.3
- There are serious variances in income and consumption at the urban level in the same country, and the aggregate national value can rarely describe what happens in all urban settings.4
- 1/3 of urban dwellers in the developing world (863 million people) live in slum-like conditions.5 While the slum measure does not generally apply to cities in developed countries, residents of these cities face major challenges associated with poverty, substandard housing and services, under- or informal employment, violence and more.
- Cities of the developing world account for over 90% of the world’s urban growth and youth account for a large percentage of those inhabitants. It is estimated that as many as 60% of all urban dwellers will be under the age of 18 by 2030. 6
- Poor women, especially those living in the slums, tend to concentrate in low-wage, low-skilled an often home-based jobs in the informal sectors. They also face unique barriers in accessing health and other services, thus denying them the advantages generally seen in urban living.
See above link to FULL 10-PAGE PAPER.
Извор: WUNRN – 03.09.2016
