Annan urges conference to make African urbanization sustainable

The third Africities summit, meeting in Yaounde, Cameroon, this week, gives participants a chance "to address some of the underlying factors that have hindered sustainable urbanization in Africa," according to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

In a message delivered today at the opening by Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), he urged the conference to "do your utmost to make African cities places of opportunity and prosperity for all."

Seven years ago world leaders charted the Habitat Agenda to make human settlements safer, healthier, equitable, sustainable and productive through empowerment, transparency and participation, Mr. Annan told the conference, meeting through Saturday.

"But when world leaders held a five-year review, they concluded that poverty, environmental degradation and other factors were continuing to obstruct efforts to build sustainable urban settlements," he said.

Last month UN-HABITAT's latest "Global Report on Human Settlements" showed that between 40 per cent and 70 per cent of the urban population in Africa was living in slums. These areas were characterized by overcrowding, substandard housing, hazardous locations, insecurity of tenure, social exclusion and lack of basic services, Mr. Annan said.

"Those numbers should alarm us all," he said.

UN-HABITAT was working on all of those areas, especially on access to safe water supplies and sanitation, he said.

According to Africities organizers, the more than 1,500 participants were elected officials from local governments and executives from financial institutions in Africa, as well as representatives of international development institutions and international cooperation organizations.