UNITED NATIONS, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP TO IMPROVE CITIES
Press Release
HAB/141
UNITED NATIONS, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP TO IMPROVE CITIES
19970401 UN Habitat Project to Be Created At Columbia's School of International and Public AffairsNEW YORK, 1 April (Habitat) -- The Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), Wally N'Dow, and the President of Columbia University, George Rupp, have signed a formal agreement to jointly create the United Nations Habitat Project at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. The project, to be housed in the Barnard-Columbia Center for Urban Policy, will be funded by the University and through foundation support.
The unique partnership is being formed to help solve growing urban problems now common to nearly all countries. A direct outgrowth of the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) -- the "City Summit" -- the partnership, which will emphasize research and training, aims to unite scholars and public officials worldwide in this effort.
Upon signing the formal agreement, Mr. N'Dow, the Secretary-General of Habitat II, said "The United Nations Habitat Project at Columbia will go a long way to realize the hopes and goals of Habitat II. It is not enough for a conference, no matter how successful, to pass resolutions of good intent. More important is their implementation. I am delighted that Columbia will be our partner in helping the international community meet one of the major challenges of the new century".
President Rupp said, "This project offers a wonderful opportunity for collaboration between the U.N. and Columbia. We share an international orientation and an urban agenda. As we work together to address the pressing problems that confront cities worldwide we look forward to establishing an internationally accessible database, to organizing common research programs, to shaping curriculum for multiple settings and to forging a network of cooperating universities around the world."
Habitat II, held in Istanbul from 3 to 16 June 1996, was the last in the series of major United Nations conferences that have shaped the world's development agenda for the coming years. It produced a global plan of action -- the Habitat Agenda -- that provides a blueprint for creating sustainable human settlements for the twenty-first century.
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Under the agreement, Columbia will lead a global academic effort to accomplish the goals of the Habitat conference, according to the Director of the Habitat Project at Columbia, Mark Gordon. The University will serve as the international centre for research, training and information on innovative approaches to urban problems. The centrepiece of the project will be the training of local elected officials around the globe and an international clearinghouse of innovative approaches to urban problems. In addition, the University will create a network of 10 major universities to participate in the project.
Under Habitat II's Global Best Practices Initiative, urban success stories worldwide will be analysed by scholars and researchers at Columbia and other institutions. Those best practices will then be assessed to determine how they could be successfully repeated elsewhere. That analysis, along with expertise provided by the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements, Columbia faculty and other scholars, will become available worldwide through the Internet.
"There is presently a wide range of information on best practices", said Professor Gordon. "What is missing is the critical analysis of the underlying forces that affect the potential for success in other places. This will be of enormous potential use around the globe."
Another key goal of the project will be the development of a six-week intensive training curriculum on international public management to assist government and non-profit officials who wish to implement the recommendations of Habitat II, but who lack the expertise to do so.
In addition, the Habitat project will establish:
-- A formal research agenda to identify promising areas of study for accomplishing Habitat goals;
-- An International Urban Fellows programme to focus on solutions for poverty, homelessness, unemployment, pollution and violence, among other urban ills; and
-- Case studies and a quarterly magazine on Habitat-related goals and accomplishments.
According to Mr. Gordon, the University will also hold a competition among universities worldwide to participate in the programme and within two years expects to name the first of 10 university partners that will join a network of scholarly exchanges, conferences, joint research and collaborative curriculum development and training. Those University Centres of Excellence and Innovation will share expertise across a range of areas, including public management, urban affairs, environmental protection and social and economic inequality.
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