Commission on Population and Development

Forty-first Session

4^th & 5^th Meetings (AM & PM)

DELEGATES SHARE NATIONAL EXPERIENCES AS COMMISSION ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT

ADDRESSES URBANIZATION IN SECOND DAY OF WEEK-LONG SESSION

 

As the Commission on Population and Development continued its five-day session today, delegates shared their national experiences in addressing the world’s unprecedented urbanization and its development implications.

With a history-making half of the world’s population expected to be living in urban areas by the end of this year, speakers reviewed trends in population growth and considered various types of internal migration, describing its implications for population distribution.  While agreeing that urbanization presented many opportunities, participants in the debate also pointed out serious challenges, including the proliferation of slums, environmental degradation and extreme poverty.

The Population Welfare Secretary of Pakistan, the world’s sixth most populous country, warned that, unless supported by vigorous policy interventions, the positive role of urbanization could be overshadowed by the deterioration of the physical environment, which would widen the gap between demand for and supply of essential services.  Pakistan hosted three quarters of the world’s 3.3 billion urban dwellers, and its urban population was intensifying the pressure on its already stressed employment situation, proper housing, food supply and clean water and sanitation facilities.

Bulgaria’s Deputy Foreign Minister pointed out that, in dealing with those challenges, local authorities should be responsible for preparing coherent master plans and mobilizing investment in housing, urban facilities and services.  The State’s task was to ensure solidarity between various areas, lay the foundations for partnership with local authorities and coordinate the implementation of national and local policies.  While it was necessary to incorporate urbanization and internal migration into national development frameworks and poverty reduction strategies, it was unfortunate that the negative demographic, economic and social effects of urbanization had been neglected so far, which was one of the main causes for Bulgaria’s demographic crisis.

Most speakers agreed that urbanization must be managed in such a way as to maximize its potential benefits and make cities better places in which to live.  Areas deserving priority attention included the improvement of services like health, transportation, education, sanitation and drinking water.

In that connection, China’s Director-General for International Cooperation, National Population and Family Planning Commission said that, although her country’s fertility rate had declined from 5.8 at the beginning of the 1970s to the present 1.8, population growth remained strong.  As the world’s most populous developing country, with population expected to reach 1.5 billion in the 2030s, China was experiencing population migration and mobility of the largest scale in human history.  It was estimated that, in the next 20-30 years, there would still be more than 300 million people migrating from rural to urban areas, pushing the urbanization rate up to 53 per cent in 2020.

China was taking measures to stabilize its low fertility level, adjust the size of its population, achieve balanced population development, improve its population structure, upgrade education and health, and ensure population security, she said.  The Government also intended to promote voluntary and orderly mobility by encouraging migrants with steady jobs and residences in priority development areas to settle down.

Several speakers also noted that good governance and sound urban policies could help to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development, advocating the need to address both urban and rural development in an integrated way in order to provide the best chance for success.

South Africa’s representative said in that regard that his country sought to increase alternative choices to rural-urban migration within the context of rural development strategies, while reducing backlogs in urban infrastructure and social services and making adequate provision for future increases in the urban population.  The national spatial development perspective of 2001 promoted the use of Government resources to enable people to move where they could live better.

The Director of Population Studies and Household Surveys at Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office listed the regeneration of downtown areas and old industrial quarters, restrictions on motorized private traffic in inner cities and new public spaces among the factors that had made life in Swiss city centres appealing to the population.  Three quarters of the population now resided in urban agglomerations, where more than 80 per cent of all jobs were to be found.  The public transportation system had succeeded in keeping pace with the rapid expansion in traffic volumes, thanks to high investment in the rail network, particularly suburban railway systems.

Also participating in today’s debate were representatives of the Russian Federation, Austria, Kenya, Belgium, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Armenia, Jamaica, Ghana, Poland, Uruguay, Canada, Portugal, Botswana, Morocco, Spain, Philippines, Cuba, Mexico, India, United States, Italy, Qatar and Sri Lanka.

Delivering two keynote addresses were Mark Montgomery, a Senior Associate with the Policy Research Division of the Population Council and Professor of Economics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, who spoke about urban growth and poverty; and Helen Zille, Mayor of Cape Town, South Africa, who cited her own city in discussing urban governance, lessons learned and challenges ahead.

The Commission will address programme implementation and the future programme of work in the field of population at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 9 April.

Background

The Commission on Population and Development continued its five-day session today, holding a general debate on national experience in population matters and hearing two keynote addresses on follow-up actions to the recommendations of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).

Statements

EVGENIA KOLDANOVA, Deputy Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, said the management of land use required legal instruments to ensure access to land and sound planning techniques for urban development, including infrastructure.  Local authorities should be capable of preparing a coherent city master plan and mobilizing private investments for housing, urban facilities and services.  The State’s task was to ensure solidarity between territorial areas, cities and populations; to lay the foundations of the partnership between itself and local authorities; and to outline and coordinate the implementation of national and local sectoral policies.  Bulgaria agreed with the Secretary-General regarding the need to incorporate urbanization and internal migration into national development frameworks and poverty reduction strategies.

Turning to her country’s national experience, she said Bulgaria’s population was decreasing constantly, mainly due to the ever lower birth rates, the ageing of the population and wide migration flows.  Unfortunately, the negative impact of urbanization in the demographic, economic and social areas had been neglected so far and was one of the main causes of the national demographic crisis.  The depopulation of villages, which was strongest in border regions, would create a serious problem for development.  Conditions in the villages required alternative employment possibilities, based on natural resources, tourism and local services.  Further options could be provided through better access to jobs in neighbouring towns.  The effect of the current migration processes was predominantly negative: the population was concentrated in a small number of settlements, while 144 settlements had become depopulated by the end of 2004.

She said that, in order to overcome the territorial imbalance, the Government had formulated a national demographic strategy, which envisioned measures to reduce regional disproportions by creating regional capacities for dynamic economic development; mobilizing institutional capacities and resources in the realization of the regional development policy; and conducting differentiated regional policies in underdeveloped regions.  The plan also addressed the rational distribution of local infrastructures and services; the development of sustainable and united city centres; the elaboration of an integral programme for the economic and social development of borderline and semi-mountainous regions; the optimization of the big city population concentrations; the improvement of housing for the Roma population; and the preservation of the ecological and ergonomic living environment.  The Government was also elaborating a programme to solve the problem of “ghettoization” through urban planning.

ZANE DANGOR, Chief Operating Officer, Department of Social Development of South Africa, recalled that, last year, his country had hosted the Fifth General Assembly of the African Union’s Population Commission, and fully supported its outcome document, the Johannesburg Declaration.  South Africa had also hosted a conference on Population and Development in Africa: Research and Policy Dialogue for Action, producing the Mafikeng Declaration, which endorsed the Johannesburg text.  In addition, the Enhanced Framework of Implementation and Related Outputs, emanating from the 2005 African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development, remained an important vehicle by which to guide sector responses to the continent’s urbanization challenges.

He said his country remained equally committed to the promotion of subregional population and development activities, and to collaboration with Governments of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in implementing and elaborating the 2004 Maputo resolutions of the Southern African Ministers’ Conference on Population and Development.  South Africa had been admitted as the twenty-third member of Partners in Population and Development: a South-South Initiative, and fully aligned itself with the Partners’ 2007 Rabat Declaration on Universal Access to Reproductive Health for the Attainment of the ICPD Goals, as well as the Millennium Development Goals.

South Africa’s population policy of 1998 included a major strategy on migration and urbanization, he said.  It sought to increase alternative choices to rural-urban migration within the context of rural development programmes and strategies, while reducing backlogs in urban infrastructure and social services and making adequate provision for future increases in the urban population.  The national spatial development perspective of 2001 promoted the use of Government resources to enable people to move where they could live better.

The distribution of South Africa’s population, estimated at 48.5 million, was highly uneven, affected by the historical aberration of apartheid management and the resultant geographies of uneven economic development, he said.  The rate of urbanization had increased from 53.7 per cent in 1996 to 61 per cent in 2001, while 20 per cent of the population in the major cities comprised recent “in-migrants”, or people who had not resided there in 1996.  Natural increase remained a key consideration for urban population growth.

Demographically, the urban populations tended to include proportionally more young adults and other economically active persons, whereas the rural populations included proportionally more children and older person, he said.  Cities were the areas of most rapid economic growth and South Africa was essentially a “spatially divided economy”, with the first economy well developed and sufficiently resourced, and the second characterized by poverty and lack of skills, economic opportunity and employment.

HAO LINNA, Director-General for International Cooperation in the National Population and Family Planning Commission of China, said her country’s total fertility rate had declined from 5.8 at the be beginning of the 1970s to the present 1.8, effectively mitigating the pressure of excessive population growth.  In 2007, China’s economic aggregates had been the fourth largest in the world.  The country had achieved impressive improvements in health and education, and the poverty rate had been reduced to 2 per cent.  The Government also paid significant attention to the development of community and rural health services.

However, population growth remained strong, with total population expected to peak at around 1.5 billion in 2033, she said.  As the world’s most populous developing country, China was experiencing population migration and mobility of the largest scale in human history, with rural-urban migration having become a major factor of urbanization.  It was estimated that in the next 20-30 years, there would still be more than 300 million people migrating from rural to urban areas, pushing the urbanization rate up to 53 per cent in 2020.

Noting that China was undergoing a transition of social development, she said rapid economic growth enhanced integrated national strength and promoted all-round social development on the one hand, while on the other, acute problems and conflicts still required the Government’s earnest consideration.  They included growing pressure on employment and social security; persistent institutional obstacles to special migration and social mobility of the population; the lack of a uniform urban and rural labour market; a poor social security system for old-age support; and gaps in the provision of public services to migrants.

She said the Government would incorporate population development strategies into national socio-economic development programmes, while adhering to the principle of human orientation and attaching priority to people’s livelihoods, promoting institutional innovation and prioritizing investment in holistic human development.  Measures would be taken to stabilize the low fertility level, adjust the size of the population, achieve balanced population development, improve population structure, upgrade education and health, and ensure population security.

The Government would guide voluntary, orderly and stable mobility, she said, adding that migrants with steady jobs and residences in priority development areas should be encouraged to settle down.  In order proactively to respond to population ageing, China would also make efforts to improve its old-age support and social service systems, formulate and implement strategic plans for ageing development, promote community old-age services and gradually improve the basic old-age support insurance system in urban areas.

V. F. KOLBANOV ( Russian Federation) said it was estimated that his country’s population would decline by 10 per cent by 2025, and 25 per cent by 2050, which was unacceptable.  Russia had a vast territory and was constantly building up its economic potential.  It had set itself the task of halting the natural population loss in the coming two to three years and stabilizing and even reversing it.  In the past year, President Vladimir Putin had endorsed a demographic policy concept through 2025, and demographic policies had become central to all social policies.  The new concept charted a programme for system-wide action in housing, public health, migration and income-related activities.   The objective of the new concept was to significantly reduce mortality –- by a factor of at least 1.6 per cent -– primarily among people of working age, to halve infant and maternal mortality, and increase the overall birth rate by at least 1.5.

Last year, special actions had been implemented to stimulate the birth rate, which had increased, and allowances had been raised to encourage people to have children and educate them, he said.  A State birth certificate provided access to free medical assistance during pregnancy and delivery.  Women who had two or more children received a so-called maternal family capital of 250,000 roubles, equivalent to the average income for 1.5 years.  Starting in January 2010, following the birth of a child, that maternal capital could be used to acquire housing or to educate the child.  The results so far had been good.

He said that, in 2007, the number of births had increased by more than 8 per cent as compared to 2006.  The Russian Federation had not seen such a large annual increase for 25 years.  There had also been an increase in the number of families with two or more children, and a decrease in premature deaths.  Special programmes had been launched to expand housing construction and provide for the intensive development of rural areas, in order to improve quality of life and minimize the decline in rural population.  Population redistribution and urbanization deserved specific attention and further study.  Life in rural areas must be qualitatively improved, and efforts undertaken to encourage the exchange of experiences so as to elaborate effective measures for demographic and socio-economic development.

CHRISTIAN EBNER (Austria), endorsing yesterday’s European Union statement, said the basis for all his country’s population policies was consistency with human rights, including women’s rights.  Urbanization could bring about many positive aspects, including the facilitation of social change and improved access to education, health and transportation.  However, rapid urbanization still posed challenges, and Austria welcomed the thorough study of the subject contained in the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) State of World Population report, which highlighted misconceptions about the causes of urban poverty.  The Austrian Development Cooperation supported the work of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) with the aim of overcoming those challenges.

Regarding bilateral cooperation, he said his country focused on the provision of water and sanitation, as well as decentralization.  It also valued the United Nations Capital Development Fund’s important work in local development programmes, which supported national decentralization efforts in the least developed countries.  Urbanization also posed challenges in industrialized countries in the areas of long-term care for the elderly, reconciliation of family and work, and access to health services, in addition to ensuring reproductive and sexual health and rights.  As urbanization undoubtedly burdened the environment, it was necessary to foster a change in production and consumption patterns.  Austria emphasized the importance of gender mainstreaming in residential construction, safety in public spaces and gender-sensitive transportation planning.

MUHAMMAD SHARIF, Secretary, Ministry of Population Welfare of Pakistan, aligning himself with the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, said urban transformation would have a significant economic, social, demographic and environmental impact, particularly in developing countries, where the increase in urban population was occurring rapidly.  The Secretary-General’s reports referred to a positive correlation between urbanization and development, but that relationship was not spontaneous and required careful analysis, data collection, research and discussion.

Expressing expressed appreciation for the role of UNFPA in advancing the Commission’s goals and objectives, he said the Fund supported key population, urbanization and sustainable activities.  It was also one of the major sources of financial and technical assistance to Pakistan’s population programmes, in a partnership dating dated back to 1971.  Pakistan was the world’s sixth most populous country and presently contributed 1.8 per cent of the global urban population.  With its current population of 160 million, it was the fourth largest country in Asia and the second largest in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).  It was also categorized among 25 countries that were home to three quarters of the world’s 3.3 billion urban dwellers.

As in other countries, rural-urban migration was rising in Pakistan, he said, noting that the country’s urban population had doubled, from 17.8 per cent in 1951 to 34 per cent in 2005.  The focus of the Government’s policy, therefore, was to generate work opportunities in both urban and rural areas.  To slow the pace of internal migration, more work opportunities were being created in rural areas.  The Government also sought to promote the indigenous industrial sector, provide food security and subsidize various inputs and credit schemes, among other things.  Other priorities included the provision of basic rural needs like roads, electricity, gas, telephone and water supply, in which there had been some success.

He said the urban population was intensifying the pressure on the already stressed urban employment situation, proper housing, food supply and clean water and sanitation facilities.  At the same time, the average annual population growth rate of urban areas was continuously declining, owing to higher literacy rates, awareness and availability of family planning and reproductive health services.  Unless supported by vigorous policy interventions, however, the positive role of urbanization could be overshadowed by the deterioration of the physical environment, widening the gap between the demand for and supply of essential services and the lack of infrastructure.

STEPHEN WAINAINA, Economic Planning Secretary, Ministry of Planning and National Development of Kenya, said his country’s population had more than tripled since independence, and was projected to reach 36.5 million by 2010.  However, the population age structure revealed that 42 per cent of the population was under the age of 15 and some 4 per cent were over 65.  The youthful population created high demand for services in education, health, food and shelter.  Since youth also formed an important resource for the country’s future development, it was important to invest in young people, capitalizing on the demographic dividends.  Investing in human capabilities converted human liabilities into human assets, and it was envisaged that the country would break the intergenerational cycle of poverty.

Some 59 per cent of the country’s population lived in rural areas, he continued, adding that Kenya had adopted explicit policies and programmes to foster a more balanced spatial population distribution in an integrated manner.  Those measures included policies to reduce migration to urban areas, such as the District Focus for Rural Development Strategy, rural electrification, rural works and access roads, and the Rural-Urban Balance Strategy.  While urbanization had proceeded tremendously over the past four decades, due largely to rural-urban migration and socio-economic disparities between urban and rural areas, the process had been dominated by one primary city -– Nairobi, which was four times bigger than Mombasa, the next largest centre.  Urbanization was perceived both negatively and positively; on the one hand, cities were seen as centres of prosperity, contributing to the economic development of the country, while on the other, they were seen as containing slums, informal settlements and abject poverty.

Internal migration contributed to urban growth, he said, adding that the movement of people was changing the demographics of both host and sending communities.  The complexity of the situation was reflected in rising feminine migration, the diversification of migration destinations and the transformation of labour flows.

OLIVIER BELLE ( Belgium) said the Secretary-General’s report showed that urbanization was rising, offering some opportunities, but also presenting certain challenges.  Belgian cities had to meet many of those challenges and the Government had developed a federal policy to address them.  The basic goal was to improve the living conditions of those most in need.  Efforts had been made to provide shelter and promote social-inclusion policy.  Belgium had developed a partnership between the central and local authorities, having established so-called “city contracts” in some 15 cities.

A holistic approach was needed that would involve various sectors of society and promote harmony, he continued.  Many countries were promoting decentralized governance with increased popular participation in public decisions.  Helping vulnerable populations to help themselves was a difficult challenge.  Belgium’s international development cooperation efforts had been pursuing that objective for a number of years.  For example, its technical cooperation teams were helping the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Viet Nam to find solutions to urban development issues, including water supply and combating pollution.  Rather than dictating solutions, Belgium was trying to promote dialogue between major stakeholders and to promote good governance.

EDUARDO RIOS-NETO ( Brazil) said that, from 1960 to 1990, some 42 million people in his country had migrated from rural to urban areas.  In the same period, millions had left north-eastern states like Minas Gerais for Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, frontier areas in the state of Parana and the northern and centre-west regions.  The urbanization rate had grown from approximately 30 per cent in 1940 to 55 per cent in 1970, reaching about 80 per cent in 2000.  In that period, the share of urban populations living in metropolitan areas had declined, while that of non-metropolitan areas had grown.

He said the positive side of that migration process had been social mobility, noting that regional labour markets had also seen a great deal of integration.  The growth of the informal labour sector was not explained by migration, neither did it comprise exclusively internal migrants.  It was also difficult to cite migration as the primary cause of high income inequality.  Urban zoning of formal housing in the core metropolitan areas caused an exclusionary spatially segregated process with the sprawl of under-serviced dwellings in the periphery of metropolitan areas.  That was considered a major cause of the decline in urban amenities and the rise in violence in Brazil’s large cities.

Recent experiences showed that good social policies and urban infrastructure based on equal access and citizenship rights could reverse that process, he said.  Unfortunately, mayors tended to adopt a labour migration model that considered the social provision of urban services as a device to attract more migrants.  The outcome was a degradation of urban amenities, with urban growth in the periphery and irregular land settlements.  Hopefully, the Brazilian experience of population uprooted due to internal migration could contribute favourably to the design of policies in other countries.

SISWANTO AGUS WILOPO, Deputy Chairman, National Family Planning Coordinating Board of Indonesia, said that his country, with a population of 232 million people, was not only the fourth most populous in the world, but also the largest archipelago.  Based on recent studies, 68 per cent of Indonesia would be urbanized by 2025.  It was expected to have 5 mega-cities and 23 cities with populations exceeding 1 million people by 2020.  Many analysts had suggested that Indonesian cities could follow the abnormal-growth model of Jakarta, the capital, whose urbanization had spurred economic growth, while also creating myriad socio-economic problems.  With the national economy centralized there, three fourths of the national monetary circulation was controlled from Jakarta, yet its social infrastructure was strained and the number of its slums had increased.

By 2015, Jakarta was expected to be the fifth largest city in the world, he said.  Yet it was widely agreed that the city had not provided the ideal for Indonesia’s urban growth, and that its growth path would surely undermine efforts for a better Indonesian community and for wider development objectives, hence reducing the positive impacts of urbanization.  While seeking a model that could support national development, the Government had been applying policies in the area of population growth, economic incentives, transmigration and social policies to address urban and rural development.

Investing in education and health, including reproductive health and voluntary family planning, was a priority, he said.  All stakeholders were striving for sustainable urbanization with a strong emphasis on public-private partnerships.  Indonesia must be continuously innovative in enhancing productivity in rural areas, so that their transition into urban communities could produce minimal negative social impacts.  The growing use of information and communications technology should continue to be used as a means to educate both the rural and urban poor.  Banking facilities should also be expanded in rural areas.  The upcoming Financing for Development Review Conference in Qatar should encourage the international community’s participation in the greater mobilization of domestic resources, including the transfer of skills in rural banking and finance.

DATUK FAIZAH MOHD TAHIR, Secretary-General, Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development of Malaysia, described internal migration in her country as “selective” in terms of gender, age and area, predominantly involving males in the 15 to 34 age group.  The level of urbanization in Malaysia was expected to reach 85 per cent in 2050.  Realizing that migration was centred in urban areas, the Government had taken measures to ensure that all regions would have a fair share of the benefits of development.  It had initiated five new economic development corridors last year, in order to reduce interregional migration.  Malaysia was also committed to ensuring that urban development would contribute towards protecting natural resources through its ability to support large numbers of people while limiting its negative impacts on the environment.

Efforts were being made to improve the coverage and quality of urban services, she continued.  Through the local Agenda 21 programme, civil society and the private sector would be exposed to sustainable development issues and eventually involved directly in development planning that would be implemented under the related Action Plan.  Participation by local residents, the private sector and non-governmental organizations would be intensified in such activities as recycling solid waste and creating a clean and sustainable living environment.

She said efforts to eradicate urban poverty were guided by the Urban Poverty Strategic Action Plan, formulated in 2004.  However, constraints in addressing those issues remained, particularly for those lacking access to amenities, knowledge and skills.  To address those obstacles, the Government had formulated the Urban Poverty Eradication Programme, under the Ninth Malaysia Plan for 2006-2010, which would combat poverty in a more holistic manner.  The Government also intended fully to eradicate extreme poverty throughout the country by 2010.

Urban growth had given rise to a need for innovation in the delivery of reproductive and social health for the young, she said, noting that her country had made much progress in that regard since the International Conference on Population and Development.  The Government had endorsed a set of reproductive health and social education guidelines and set up adolescent sexual and reproductive health centres in 2006.  More than 14,000 adolescents had registered under that programme.

LENA TERZIKIAN ( Armenia) said that, in 2003, her country had adopted the Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme 2003-2015, in an attempt to address poverty, inequality, powerlessness and the civic disengagement resulting from the country’s dire economic conditions in the early years of independence.  Subsequently, rapid economic growth at an average rate of 12.9 per cent for the last five years had compelled a review of the poverty reduction strategy paper.  However, consistent double-digit economic growth and a significant reduction in poverty and inequality had exacerbated the disparity in development between urban and rural areas.

She said Armenia’s capital had transformed into a vibrant city, and the second and third largest cities quickly approaching revival.  However, rural poverty levels had exceeded those of urban centres.  Half of the country’s poor still lived in rural communities that had higher levels of social isolation and lacked access to information, markets, education and health services.  Although rural poverty had declined significantly, a vast amount of work still remained.  Cluster-based rural development projects, especially in border areas, had proved effective in eradicating extreme poverty.  Border villages were strategically important for Armenia and vital for the country’s security and overall sustainable development.  Armenia’s Rural Development Programme aimed to boost regional economic prospects and attractiveness, thus revitalizing rural communities, reversing traditionally strong urbanization tendencies and minimizing “out-migration”.  If those tendencies continued unimpeded, they might result in unequal distribution of population and the depopulation of village communities, which would have a negative impact on Armenia’s geo-strategic and economic security.

EASTON WILLIAMS ( Jamaica) said the Government’s long-term development plan aimed to make Jamaica a developed country by 2030 and placed renewed emphasis on sustainable development and the primacy of population distribution, urbanization and internal migration matters in the planning process.  The country had embarked on the construction of a long-term general equilibrium model, being facilitated by the Millennium Development Institute, to provide policy guidance as Jamaica moved towards developed-country status.

The country had made a strategic decision to launch the UNFPA 2007 report in a fast-growing town of Old Harbour, which had great potential for further growth, he said.  In order to make a difference, the Planning Institute of Jamaica had established a national multi-agency working group comprising high-level representatives and mandated to design an integrated approach to national urban and rural planning.  The Prime Minister had also taken steps to facilitate and consolidate the process by relocating departments and agencies with national planning portfolios to his office.

Jamaica shared many characteristics of urbanization, internal migration and development that were common to the Latin American and Caribbean region, he continued.  The age and gender structure of its urban population were more suited to development than those of the rural areas, suggesting that the urban population had less “economic burden” and greater potential for savings and investment than its rural counterpart.  Urban households in the Caribbean tended to be smaller and recorded higher levels of income and consumption per capita than rural areas.  They also had a lower proportion of people living in absolute poverty than rural areas.  A national household sample survey had been conducted annually over the past 20 years to provide data on poverty and other variable living conditions.

ALHAJI AHDEM AWUDU YIRIMEA, Deputy Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Environment of Ghana, said the fast pace of urbanization in his country was a major concern and migration contributed to it.  The Government had taken steps, with financial and technical support from its development partners, to address major challenges of urbanization through projects that addressed the infrastructural needs of urban communities.  Ghana was developing an urban transport policy and assessing the challenges of water supply.  Other important initiatives to promote balanced development and stem rural-urban migration included the designation of selected communities as growth centres and the implementation of an effective decentralization policy.

The Government also supported the establishment of a migration research centre at the University of Ghana, he said.  In addition, the Foreign and Interior Ministries had established divisions to coordinate migration issues.  The National Population Council, in cooperation with the National Development Planning Commission and the Local Government and Health Ministries, was organizing a forum on population distribution, urbanization and development in August this year.  A number of non-governmental organizations were also working in the areas of urban sanitation and housing, and with street children.  Unfortunately, their activities were neither fully synchronized nor well coordinated.  The August forum would contribute to the development of an appropriate policy response to the challenges of urbanization and human settlement.

Morning Keynote Address

MARK MONTGOMERY, Senior Associate, Policy Research Division of the Population Council and Professor of Economics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, spoke about the health of urban populations in low- and middle-income countries, addressing issues of absolute poverty in both rural and urban areas; improving the lives of slum-dwellers; unmet basic needs in water supply, sanitation and housing; and child survival, maternal health, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in the context of the Millennium Development Goals.

He said growth in low- and middle-sized cities was not just the result of internal migration, it was also influenced by health-related factors.  Speakers today had talked about reproductive health programmes aimed at allowing urban residents to adjust fertility programmes to desired level, and the need to differentiate among different sized cities.  Urban residents in developing countries did not live mainly in agglomerations or mega-cities, but the situation of small- and medium-sized towns had yet to be investigated fully.

Under way in many countries was a transformation as profound as urbanization -- the transformation of the political economy, or decentralization, which the representatives of Indonesia, Malaysia and Ghana had discussed, he said.  Decentralization, which was very difficult to manage, brought to the fore -- where urbanization was concerned -- the municipal and other lower levels of government.  If health policies had formerly been the domain of national Governments, today they involved local and municipal authorities.

He said that in today’s era of urbanization and decentralization, it was no longer possible to speak of urban and rural populations in terms of averages.  The diversity within cities and towns, across neighbourhoods and within rural communities must be acknowledged.  A look beneath the surface revealed large pockets of urban poor in cities that closely resembled those of rural areas.  In urban slums, the health risks, in some cases, were elevated far above those of some rural areas.

Over the past 15 years, much had been learned about the progress of poverty alleviation efforts, he said, noting that some gains had been made in combating extreme poverty in rural areas.  The number of extremely poor people had declined by roughly 150 million, but in that same period, the number of urban poor had grown by about 50 million.  As for percentages, there had been a modest but real decline in rural areas, but little discernible improvement in urban centres.

Suggesting that the urban health system should be considered comprehensively, including its relationship to poverty, he said its most distinctive element was that, in urban populations, large groups of people were spatially concentrated, a situation that would continue to pose health risks unless and until those populations were protected by public health infrastructure.  Cities were imperfectly covered today, lacking the most basic needs, such as water supply and sanitation.  Other features of the urban health system included its monetization and the prominence of the private sector.  The quality of health care, therefore, was often thought of as adequate, but it was a mistake to make that assumption, especially in small- and medium-sized cities, about which far too little was known.

In the ensuing exchange, Norway’s representative asked about the general economic effects and of decentralization on health.  Mexico’s delegate pointed out that migratory flows in his country were presently moving towards medium-sized cities, where the migrants, mainly young people, often did not find the necessary reproductive health services.  Where could they be found?

Mr. Montgomery first addressed the net impacts of decentralization, saying he had no doubt that Indonesia and the Philippines held lessons for many other countries.  Decentralization was inherently difficult to evaluate, as it took many forms and was a relatively recent phenomenon, having begun in the early 1990s.  Health systems had formerly been organized vertically, but as decentralization had taken hold, several stresses, strains and gaps had emerged.  Even with careful forethought, a decentralization system was supported by a new system of intergovernmental transfers from national or mid- to municipal-level governance, and responsibilities were often transferred without appropriate budgetary allocations.  In health, difficult questions emerged concerning technology and socio-economic aspects.  There were not very many studies on that question, but they could be on the way.

Regarding the situation in Mexico, he said urban reproductive health services had yet to receive the attention it deserved within the health sector.  As one looked at women and adolescents in urban areas, it was not obvious that they were able effectively to control their fertility or protect themselves from disease.  Abortion rates were surprisingly high and there were signs that the message was taking hold, but a great deal of work remained to be done.

Belgium’s representative, referring to the poor health of slum dwellers, asked whether that was related to their isolation from family and community -- and thus isolated from information, guidance and support -- once they reached the bigger cities.

Mr. Montgomery said it was well recognized in the literature on migration that there was a disruption period of up to three years when migrants entered an unfamiliar urban environment, but the health difficulties illustrated today also applied to long-term city residents.  That suggested long-term deficits in information, which seemed to prevent even relatively stable city residents from gaining effective access to services.

Afternoon Keynote Address

HELEN ZILLE, Mayor of Cape Town, South Africa, and former Education Minister of Western Cape Province, spoke on the topic “Urban governance, lessons learned and challenges ahead: the case of Cape Town”, noting that, in her country, more people had lived in cities than rural areas since the early 1990s.  Everybody in South Africa agreed with the thesis that urbanization could reduce poverty and promote development under specific circumstances.  It was impossible to roll back urbanization and necessary to address it.

Cities in the modern world succeeded to the extent that they linked their populations with the national economy and the national economy with the global economy, she said.  It was very difficult to promote sustainable quality-of-life improvements for growing numbers of urbanizing people without adapting to the realities of the global economy.  To make the most of urbanization’s opportunities, city governments must relate to all their people.  In particular, they must extend urban services and infrastructure to all in order to retain, attract and grow capital and skills, and increase the opportunities available to all citizens.

Crime syndicates had been quicker to adjust to the reality of a globalized economy than “good investing citizens”, she said, adding that the “narco-state syndrome” was entrenching at a significant scale in many developing cities, including Cape Town.  The globalized narcotics economy was having a more devastating impact on poor urbanizing communities than even HIV/AIDS, with attendant problems of escalating crime.  Some 80 per cent of crime in Cape Town was linked to substance abuse.  After a decade of optimism and growth, many South African cities now faced new challenges, including perceptions of instability and uncertainty, growing urban poverty, increasing crime, conflict and corruption.  Local authorities had a key role to play in halting that trend, as did the State and the private sector.  The challenge was to “right-size” the State to fulfil its functions, facilitate competitive market entry by producers and consumers, and build partnerships with civil society.  That model was known as the “ development State” approach and it required high skill levels in Governments and dedicated cooperation with the private sector to fuel economic growth -- the single greatest priority.

She said it was possible for a city to prevent decline by following policies conducive to retaining and attracting capital and skills -- the prerequisite for policies that improved services and opportunities for a growing number of the urban poor.  That was what Cape Town was trying to do.  With its 3.3 million people, the city was still experiencing 2.5 per cent population growth, at least half of that through migration.  Despite a $3 billion budget, Cape Town’s infrastructure was under great strain, which was why its five-year integrated development plan had a central key focus on infrastructure-led economic growth.

The city provided generous free basic services to the poor, financed by cross-subsidies, she said.  They included electricity distribution, water and sewage systems, storm water systems, solid waste disposal, emergency services, land servicing for housing developments, primary health care and community clinics, urban planning, municipal transport planning and roads, traffic safety, and by-law enforcement.  Cape Town had just gone through a 10-year positive cycle as a result of confidence in South Africa’s macroeconomic policies, a functioning private health system, effective management of the natural environment for tourism and significant growth in the security industry.  The city’s academic institutions helped to produce the kind of skills that were required.  On the other hand, Cape Town’s challenges included its role as a political and economic refugee centre, the shortage of skills and escalating skills exodus, 25 per cent unemployment, a long waiting list for formal housing and 222 informal settlements around the city, and a highly complex regulatory environment and red tape.

Among the urban strategies that could harness urbanization as a force for poverty reduction was the need to open all systems to public scrutiny to ensure accountability and prevent corruption, she said.  It was also necessary to encourage the development of competitive and efficient markets to provide services, and identify and remove constraints to private sector investment, for example in electricity generation.  Subsidies were needed for service delivery to the poor.

HANIA ZLOTNIK, Director of the Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, moderated the ensuing dialogue as questions were raised about Cape Town’s housing, police, the powers of municipal authorities, the relationship between rural and urban areas in South Africa and the interaction between the Cape Town authorities and various city districts.

Ms. ZILLE, responding to other questions, said South Africa had a national cities network and local government association.  The relationship between rural and urban areas was crucial and there was a symbiotic relationship between villages and cities.  The city itself was divided into 23 sub-councils.  With many people living in extreme poverty and others in luxury, an important challenge was to have those with means pay for the privilege of living in the city, while the city authorities invested most of their means in programmes for the poor.  The top priority was to provide basic services to all the city’s people.

On housing, she said the issue boiled down to whether the resources available would be used to do a lot for a few or a little for many.  Doing a lot for the few inevitably meant investing in housing for the “not so poor”, which meant displacing the poor and creating a conflict of interest.  It was, therefore, preferable to focus on ensuring decent access to basic services for all city inhabitants, including those in the slums.

Statements

ALINA POTRYKOWSKA, Secretary General, Governmental Population Council of Poland, said her country had substantial demographic potential, but the dynamics of natural and real population growth, while diminishing over the last decade, had always been high.  Family formation patterns, reproductive attitudes and behaviour had changed, life span had extended, and a decline in fertility had accelerated the ageing of society.  The nature of those changes confirmed that the demographic transformation was an advanced process, with the following phenomena deserving special attention: narrowing of replacement of generations; accelerated ageing process; and decline in the death risk among adult and elderly populations.  Demographic processes were of fundamental importance in outlining the country’s long-term development strategy.

Regarding population numbers, she said her country occupied the thirtieth position globally and ninth position in Europe.  Intensive demographic changes, initiated at the start of Poland’s socio-economic transition, were being monitored.  Poland had become very attractive for settlement and over the past decade it had experienced a significantly higher inflow of people from other countries.  However, the tendency towards permanent emigration remained strong, and in 2006, more than 10,000 people had left.  That represented a nearly two-fold increase over the previous year.  Temporary emigration was much more important and an estimated 2 million people had done so by the end of 2006.  That had many demographic, economic and social consequences.  The need to analyse international migration in Poland flowed from accession to the European Union and globalization.

She said that integration with the European Union had invigorated economic development.  That revival had contributed to high economic growth and Poland was also becoming more attractive to foreign investors.  However, high unemployment rate still created problems for the Polish economy.  Taking into account the character of the Polish labour market, that problem could well deepen.  Human resources would be the greatest advantage in the country’s development over the next 30 years, and their distribution would play a decisive role in the regional structure of transformation and, as a consequence, in changes to the country’s spatial organization.

ALICIA MELGAR, Director, National Institute of Statistics of Uruguay, said her country was not typical of Latin America, as it was small with low birth and mortality rates, which had resulted in the ageing of the population.  An estimated 500,000 citizens now lived outside the country and the distribution of those remaining in Uruguay was influenced by economic and social circumstances, with some 90 per cent living in urban centres.

The capital, Montevideo, was among the focuses of attraction for internal migration, but that concentration was not sustainable due to rising housing costs and falling wages within the city, she said.  Another major phenomenon was the growth of irregular settlements and significant levels of poverty.  That presented a serious challenge for the Government, which had not had a population policy until recently.  Expenses for health and social security were a great burden for the Treasury.  The provision of services for irregular settlements was also a problem.  Uruguay was now dealing with those challenges as a matter of priority.

HENRI-PAUL NORMANDIN ( Canada) said that, over the past 10 years, his country had recorded gains in removing socio-economic barriers for the urban indigenous population by working through partnerships with aboriginal communities and other stakeholders under the Urban Aboriginal Strategy.  Canada was working closely with UN-HABITAT and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.  It was also interested in furthering cooperation with other States and international networks to share best practices and lessons learned in the area of urban indigenous issues and migration.  This year’s World Urban Forum would be an important venue to further that dialogue and seek ways to enhance cooperation.

He supported the view that initiatives to improve sexual and reproductive health care and services, including in the area of HIV/AIDS, were an essential prerequisite for achieving international poverty reduction and development goals.  Such initiatives should respond to the issues, needs and responsibilities of women, men, boys and girls, while ensuring equitable access to programmes, care, services and education at all levels.  The three health-related Millennium Development Goals could not be achieved without strong and sustainable health-care systems in developing countries, and strengthening those systems was, therefore, a priority for Canada.  The Canadian International Development Agency was working with developing countries and international organizations to strengthen health systems and increase the number of front-line workers.  Given the detrimental impact of the global human resources shortage for health in many countries, especially those in Africa, Canada was also actively engaged in developing health workforces at the country level.

PEDRO COSTA PEREIRA ( Portugal) said his country, like many in Europe, had experienced increased urbanization throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, leading to the development of two major urban zones, Lisbon and Oporto, each with more than 1.5 million inhabitants.  The 2001 census showed that more than half the Portuguese population lived in places with 2,000 or more inhabitants.  Population distribution had been a cause of concern for the Government, which had witnessed huge population growth along the coast, mainly in suburban areas, combined with a population decline in rural areas, especially in border and mountainous regions.  A significant number of recent immigrants, particularly from Eastern Europe, had moved to the rural areas, mitigating the depopulation effect.

Portugal’s cities were multicultural centres, requiring the inclusion of intercultural perspectives in urban planning, he said.   Unfortunately, the urban poor often had little choice but to take shelter in ramshackle structures constructed in the most polluted, dangerous or marginalized areas.  In 1993, a re-housing programme had been initiated to address the proliferation of illegal housing in the cities, with the aim of eliminating slums.  Since 2004, a new programme had been implemented to provide Government funds for the reconstruction of houses destroyed by natural disasters.  The national action plan of territorial and urban planning, oriented to 2025, had the strategic goals of preserving and adding value to biodiversity and natural resources; reinforcing Portuguese territorial competitiveness and its integration into Europe; ensuring territorial equity when providing infrastructure; expanding information and communication networks; and reinforcing the efficiency of territorial management, promoting the informed, active and responsible participation of citizens and institutions.

SAMUEL O. OUTLULE ( Botswana) said his country had increasingly been transforming into an urban society, but rapid urbanization brought with it a number of developmental and environmental challenges, the most important of which was responding to the ever growing demand for social amenities like water, housing, sanitation and health services.  The most disturbing challenge was the rapid increase of villages surrounding the urban areas.  Due to the harsh climate and the severity of the desert environment in western Botswana, population density in that part of the country was very low.  The majority of the population lived in the fertile eastern region.

In 1998, Botswana had adopted a national settlement policy that provided guidelines for national physical planning and a framework to guide the distribution of investment, he said.  The policy aimed to reduce the rate of migration to towns by planning for the provision of a similar level of infrastructure and services to villages and towns, the provision of incentives for the location of job-creating activities in rural areas and the improvement of access to loans and financial resources for the rural population.  Botswana had also implemented a national rural development policy to guide and coordinate various rural development issues and programmes.  The objective of that policy was to reduce rural-urban migration and promote a more spatially balanced distribution of the population.  Its implementation was overseen by a council whose membership consisted of public and private sector representatives and was chaired by the Minister for Finance and Development Planning.  Meanwhile, Botswana continued to make concerted efforts to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and was on course towards fulfilling the objectives of the ICPD Plan of Action.

ABDELLAH BENMELLOUK ( Morocco) said his country had undergone fundamental reforms aimed at improving its human development indicators and establishing an enabling environment for sustainable economic growth to meet the needs of a growing population.  Since 1960, that population had risen by more than 18 million inhabitants to 29.8 million in 2004.  However, the rate of annual growth had dropped from 3.3 per cent during the 1950s and 1960s to 1.1 per cent in 2007.  The reason for that decline was a drop in general fertility, which had begun in the 1970s.  To slow the exodus from the rural areas, the Government sought to develop those areas by improving their access to electricity, opening a highway network and improving communications and transportation.

Another characteristic of Morocco’s present demographics was urban migration, he said, adding that the attraction of urban centres was irresistible.  There had been 250 urban centres in 1982, 370 in 1994 and 391 in 2004.  A trend towards feminization showed women increasingly participating in urbanization.  Researchers believed the main causes were economic, but family reasons also appeared to be decisive.  Drought was another reason for the rural exodus.

Aware of the irreversible character of urbanization, he said, public authorities had mobilized in the last 30 years to confront uncontrolled urban development by establishing socio-economic programmes to prevent the spread of unhealthy habitats in favour of decent housing, particularly for low- and middle-income households.  To meet the challenge of sustainable development and economic growth, the Government had launched the National Institute for Human Development in 2005 to reduce poverty, fight social inefficiency and encourage citizens’ participation in a transparent and democratic approach to meting the development needs of their communities.

WERNER HAUG, Director of Population Studies and Household Surveys, Federal Statistical Office of Switzerland, said three quarters of the Swiss population now resided in the country’s urban agglomerations, which extended from the core cities far out into formerly rural areas.  Economic activity was also concentrated in those agglomerations and more than 80 per cent of all jobs were to be found in them.  The growth of the services economy, as well as expanding commuting options between the home and workplace were the principal reasons behind continued urbanization, which was also sustained by international migration.  Life in urban centres had regained its appeal with the regeneration of downtown areas and old industrial quarters, restrictions on motorized private traffic in inner cities and new public spaces.  The Swiss public transportation system had succeeded in keeping pace with the rapid expansion of traffic volumes, thanks to high investment in rail networks, particularly suburban railway systems.

Overall, Switzerland had a fairly well-balanced population distribution with a dense network of medium and small cities, he said.  Nevertheless, some trends were considered unsustainable in the medium and long term.  For instance, decentralized institutional structures, with three levels of spatial planning authority and democratic decision-making processes at the national, cantonal and communal levels, had led to uncoordinated urban and rural development.  People increasingly had to travel long distances to their places of work, and the countryside had lost much of its rural character without having gained urban qualities.  The quality of air and water had deteriorated in some places, and specific microclimates and natural habitats were becoming endangered.  Switzerland was now working on a new spatial development policy, bringing together all actors in a participatory consultative process.

MARIA DEL CARMEN ALCAIDE, President, National Institute for Statistics of Spain, said her country had traditionally emitted international migrants and was now a destination for immigration.  In the last 10 years, it had received over 4 million international migrants.  Spain’s case was unique, since it was a destination point for two different types of migration: economic migration from less developed countries and retirees from central and northern Europe.

That extraordinary growth represented an enormous challenge to the country’s statistical system, and the National Statistics Institute had responded by using three different approaches, she said.  First of all, the Institute had access to a national population database, which had been obtained by integrating and coordinating more than 8,000 municipal population databases.  It had become the nucleus of demographic statistics and the main data source for recent immigration flows.

She said the national immigration survey targeted citizens who resided in Spain, but had been born in other countries, she said, highlighting the importance of international cooperation and international organizations for the study of immigration.  The efforts of international organizations should be supported by the establishment of designations, concepts and harmonized methodologies, which would increase the availability of comparable information.

TOMAS M. OSIAS, Executive Director, Population Commission of the Philippines, said the country was a fast-urbanizing society where 48 per cent of the total population had been living in urban areas in 2000, compared with 37 per cent more than two decades ago.  The country was expected to be more or less 65 per cent urbanized 12 years from now.  The urban population had grown rapidly at an annual rate of about 5 per cent from 1960 to 1995, and had since slowed to approximately 3 per cent annually.  Smaller towns and cities were starting to have higher population growth than the larger cities, indicating that migration had started to favour smaller urban centres as destinations.

He said urbanization in the Philippines must be faced realistically, as a phenomenon that created opportunities and challenges, rather than a threat and a burden.  At the core of its current blueprint for development were positive measures and strategies that took on the challenge of optimizing urbanization’s gains.  Regional development, as a response to the high concentration of development in urbanized areas, had been enshrined in the policy and administrative agenda of every administration.

The Philippines also recognized that managing rapid urban population growth was a matter of concern, especially for the local government units, he said.  Indeed, local governments were now at the forefront of making their own cities work.  The use of various models and good practices in managing the changes brought about by urbanization were now being intensified and promoted to empower local government units to reap the benefits of urbanization.  Cooperation among cities and adjacent municipalities was also being pursued as a way to improve governance and manage urbanization.

RODRIGO MALMIERCA DIAZ ( Cuba), aligning himself with the Group of 77 and China, said his country’s population was decreasing and its fertility rate had been below replacement level for 30 years.  In 2007, mortality had continued to decline, with life expectancy at birth over 77 years.  The child mortality rate was barely 5.3 for every 1,000 live births and the under-age-5 mortality rate was 7 for every 1,000 live births.  The maternal mortality rate was 31 for every 1,000 live births.  The volume of internal migration had declined, in accordance with the recommendations of the International Conference on Population and Development.

He said that in the first half of the 1990s, the volume of internal migrants had ranged between 170,000 and 190,000 persons per year.  The later decline was a trend that continued today and had reached its lowest level in 2007, with some 66,000 internal migrants.  The capital’s population was decreasing and the relative incidence of its population in the total number of the country’s inhabitants had decreased as compared to previous decades.  Moreover, small- and medium-sized cities continued to grow, although the level of urbanization was not growing as the rural population rose.

There were some unwanted internal migration trends towards areas requiring less labour force and away from those that did not require it, specifically farming areas, he noted.  Overcoming those trends required the organization and harmonization of social needs and individual decisions, which was being done and should continue.  Ageing was the main population challenge facing Cuba.  The “over 60” population group had reached 16.6 per cent of the country’s total population.  That trend was most marked in the rural areas and demanded special attention because of its strategic significance for sustainable development.

ELENA ZUNIGA HERRERA, Secretary General, National Population Council of Mexico, said one of the main aims of national population policy had been to encourage the territorial distribution of the population in keeping with the potential of sustainable regional development.  Mexico had experienced rapid urbanization resulting from high demographic growth and, above all, mass migration from the countryside to the cities.  The main feature of that had been excessive concentration of the urban population in the country’s three main metropolises.

In recent decades, there had been a “new geography of internal migration”, owing to the increased diversification of productive activities within the national territory, she noted.  Nowadays, most flows were of urban origin aimed primarily at medium-sized cities with 100,000 to fewer than 1 million inhabitants.  That had helped to increase the distribution of urban populations to various regions throughout the country.  Mexico also had one of the most extensive and vigorous urban systems in Latin America, comprising 363 cities with more than 15,000 inhabitants, in which more than 72 per cent of the national population lived.

However, more than half of the urban population was concentrated in just 11 cities, giving Mexico one of the highest indices of urban concentration in the region, she said.  In several of those cities, problems of pollution, urban congestion and provision of public services became more acute.  In addition, rural population continued to be widely scattered among thousands of small localities, which hampered access to basic social services.  This year, the rural population was estimated at nearly 30 million inhabitants, accounting for 28 per cent of the national total.

NIRUPAM SEN ( India) said that, according to recent estimates, a third of urban dwellers in developing countries lived in slums, and there was growing evidence that their living conditions were sometimes as difficult as those found in some of the poorest rural areas.  India agreed with the Secretary-General that the redistribution of the world’s population towards urban areas could have both positive and negative implications for the environment, social welfare and economy, depending on how it was managed.  Dealing with those changes was therefore a major preoccupation of policymakers in India and other developing countries.

Currently, 285 million Indians, about 28 per cent of the country’s population, lived in urban areas, but that number was expected to increase to 40 per cent by 2011, he said.  A fundamental assumption underlying Government policies was that rural and urban areas were interdependent and must grow together.  That echoed the call of the Cairo Conference for the adoption of a balanced attitude towards sustainable regional development with equal emphasis on rural and urban areas and the requisite administrative capacity.  India was making an enormous effort to create rural infrastructure and eradicate poverty through its rural employment guarantee scheme and “Build India” programme.

At the same time, India could not attain the Millennium Development Goals without massive investment in the urban sector and a modification of the policy framework to manage urbanization, he stressed.  That was the purpose of the 2005 Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.  Budgetary allocations for programmes to attack urban poverty through direct State intervention and the involvement of civil society and the people ran into billions of dollars per annum.

DARLENE F. WILLIAMS, Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research, Department of Housing and Urban Development of the United States, said her country balanced national, state and local interests in the urbanization process, an intergovernmental relationship that had stabilized and revitalized communities across the nation.  The 2007 census listed more than 89,000 local governments in the United States, including more than 3,000 counties and 1,100 cities with populations exceeding 25,000.  The primary goal of urbanization efforts was to ensure that federal and state regulations remained flexible and did not overburden or limit the creativity and ability of municipalities to address local problems.  To accomplish that, the federal Government promoted community empowerment as the guiding principle for housing and community development.

A major priority of urban development at the federal level was to encourage coordinated planning by state and local governments, she said.  The federal Government supplied funding and resources to states and local communities to allow flexibility in governing local issues.  That also increased capacity to address local problems comprehensively.  The federal Government had learned a lot about managing urban development through the urbanization process and trial and error.  One especially valuable lesson came from the 1960s urban renewal programme, which had been designed to give resources to local governments to undertake large-scale downtown development for new and existing residents.  Citizen movements had protested the displacement of families and the consequent destruction of neighbourhoods in central cities, and the programme had been ended.  The federal Government had later moved away from urban planning efforts and stopped mandating local planning.  Today, it only provided financial incentives to encourage cooperation at the regional level.

Agreeing with the Secretary-General’s report that urbanization was a critical element in economic development, she said that, in order to foster partnership with civil society and the private sector in managing urban development, the federal Government provided funding to a nationwide network of community-development corporations comprising hundreds of grassroots, not-for-profit organizations that focused services and programmes in specific neighbourhoods.  Federal funds also provided gap financing and allowed localities to move forward with projects they could not otherwise afford.  The federal Government also spurred economic development through the use of tax credits, which encouraged business investment in underserved areas.

ANTONIO GOLINI ( Italy) said that, out of the 11 largest Italian cities, 5 were undergoing revival, while 6 were experiencing continuous growth.  There had been a decrease in the differences of economic and employment structures and of the quality and quantity of services available in big cities, small cities and rural areas.  At the same time, there seemed to be more accentuated differences in fundamental demographic characteristics, for example those involving the elderly and foreigners.  Urban and metropolitan transformation analyses were necessarily approximate in Italy, owing to shortcomings in the fullness and timeliness of basic statistics, which were insufficient due to growing population mobility.

The capitals of 14 Italian metropolitan areas had had a total resident population of 9.4 million at the beginning of 2007, he continued.  The over-60 sub-population represented 17.3 per cent of that total and the foreigner sub-population a massive 21.7 per cent.  Since the foreign population was much younger than the Italian one, its tangible increase would contribute to the lowering of the share of people over the age of 60.  Recent United Nations projections set the current proportion of Italy’s urban population at 68 per cent, which could reach 81 per cent by 2050.

It was important to assess the population of informal urban regions, such as the one along the Via Emilia on the Adriatic coast, he said.  It was also necessary to consider the additional and often very significant population that made frequent use of the city without having a specific residence in it.  Today, human settlements were facing a new phase characterized by urban sprawl in vast areas, for which humankind was unprepared in terms of knowledge and governance.

HASSAN AL-MOHAMMADI ( Qatar) said the rapid urbanization of his country had resulted from its equally rapid economic advancement and openness to other countries.  The concentration of services and capital had led to the rapid growth of the capital, Doha, which accounted for 82 per cent of the country’s urban population.  Doha’s hegemony had literally turned it into a sort of “state city”, which deprived smaller towns and cities of their development components.  To address that problem, the Government had formulated a development strategy for other regions, based on the provision of major services to them and the curbing of internal migration to Doha.

In 2004, the State had set up a permanent commission on population and tasked it with devising policies to curb urbanization and stop the absolute hegemony of Doha, he continued.  The objective was to bring Doha’s share of the population to 50 per cent of the total and achieve the sustainable development of all Qatar’s regions.  For instance, incentives would be introduced to persuade people to settle in other regions.  The State had been making efforts to control the negative impact of urbanization and rationalize the use of national resources.  Achieving those ambitious goals was an utmost priority for the Government.

PRASAD KARIYAWASAM ( Sri Lanka) said that, in his country, where more than 10 per cent of the population were migrants working abroad, the distinction between internal and international migration was blurred and the opportunities, constraints and impact of migration encompassed both internal and international migration.  The lack of comprehensive and feasible definitions of urban and sub-urban population categories compounded the issue further.  There was, therefore, an urgent need to delineate migration patterns and identify their flows, reasons, seasonality and attraction.

Since independence, successive Governments had committed themselves to social and welfare policies both in the urban and rural areas, he continued.  Today, the country enjoyed very high literacy rates and low population growth, high life expectancy and other excellent social indicators.  However, economic growth had not kept pace with that progress and the country had only recently attained middle-income status.  The pace of urbanization remained slow.  That pace was expected to accelerate in the coming decades and the percentage of the population living in cities to rise to 42 per cent.

The challenge for developing countries was to find sufficient resources to address urgent priorities associated with the impact of urbanization and migration trends, while providing necessary support for development needs.   Sri Lanka also faced an uneven distribution of population.  In order to continue providing welfare and social services to the upwardly mobile population, the country needed to maintain a reliable database, but its efforts were hampered by the lack of financial and human resources, as well as terrorist activities in some parts of the country.

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