Number of slum dwellers still rising UN report finds by Anna Tibaijuka, UN-HABITAT 12:07am 19th Mar, 2010   18 March 2010    While more than 200 million slum dwellers worldwide have escaped their conditions in the past decade, the overall population of slums has swelled by nearly 60 million in the same period, a new United Nations report finds.    Some 227 million people have moved out of slum conditions, largely due to slum upgrading, since 2000, more than double the target of improving the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020 set by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were agreed upon by world leaders.    “However, this achievement is not uniformly distributed across regions,” Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), writes in the introduction to the agency’s biennial “State of the World’s Cities 2010/2011” report.    “Success is highly skewed towards the more advanced emerging economies, while poorer countries have not done as well,” she says, stressing that “there is no room for complacency.”    Overall, the number of people residing in slums has climbed from 777 million in 2000 to almost 830 million in 2010.    The report, which focuses on the theme “Bridging the Urban Divide,” characterizes efforts to reduce the number of slum dwellers as neither satisfactory nor adequate, especially given that just over half of the world’s population – or nearly 3.5 billion – now lives in urban areas.    Short of drastic action, it warns, the world’s slum population will likely increase by 6 million annually to reach nearly 900 million by 2020.    Sub-Saharan Africa is home to nearly two-thirds of the world’s slum population, with 200 million people, with South Asia, East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and South-East Asia rounding out the top five regions with the largest number of slum dwellers.    The new report also finds that urbanization benefits political leaders, public servants and the rich in Africa, Asia and Latin American and the Caribbean, leaving millions behind.    Urban planning and policies seem to favour the empowered, usually the local and regional economic elite, and in the developing world, this pattern is usually linked to historical and cultural hegemony.    “Achieving sustainable urban development is likely to prove impossible if the urban divide is allowed not only to persist, but to continue growing, opening up an enormous gap, even in some cities a gulf, an open wound, which can produce social instability or at least generate high social and economic costs not only for the urban poor, but for society at large,” Ms. Tibaijuka writes.    The report calls on governments to implement inclusive policies to narrow inequalities dividing residents of many cities in developing nations and allow them access to decent housing, transport, education, recreation, communication, employment and the judiciary.    “In an inclusive city, residents take part in decision-making that ranges from the political to issues of daily life,” it says. “Such participation injects a sense of belonging, identity, place into residents, and guarantees them a stake in the benefits of urban development.”    In-depth reviews of cities’ systems, structures and institutions, the publication argues, are vital to kick-start real change.    Anna Tibaijuka, writes in the introduction that "Government efforts to reduce the number of slum dwellers show some positive results. According to new estimates presented in this report, between the year 2000 and 2010 over 200 million people in the developing world will have been lifted out of slum conditions.    However, this achievement is not uniformly distributed across regions. Success is highly skewed towards the more advanced emerging economies, while poorer countries have not done as well. For this reason, there is no room for complacency, because in the course of the same years the number of slum dwellers increased by six million every year. Based on these trends it is expected that the world’s slum population will continue to grow if no corrective action is taken in the coming years.    This report highlights the unprecedented challenges which urbanization throws at the world’s cities today – particularly in the South – and the attendant urban divide which we all have to address collectively to stem the multiple deprivations that follow from unequal growth.    These challenges include grinding poverty, environmental degradation, income inequalities, historical socio-economic inequalities, marginalization and various forms of exclusion. Achieving sustainable urban development is likely to prove impossible if the urban divide is allowed not only to persist, but to continue growing, opening up an enormous gap, even in some cities a gulf, an open wound, which can produce social instability or at least generate high social and economic costs not only for the urban poor, but for society at large".    October 2009    Mounting urban challenges – including climate change and unplanned development – highlight the need for revitalized and planning to meet the needs of city dwellers, top United Nations officials said today, marking World Habitat Day.    “Evidence from around the world suggests that governments at all levels are largely failing to address these challenges,” with hundreds of millions of city residents becoming ever more vulnerable to rising sea leaves and other climate-related hazards, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on his message for the Day.    In both developing and developed countries, upmarket suburban areas and gated communities have increased in number while there has also been a simultaneous increase in slums, which he characterized as a “troubling trend.”    Urban planning is central to achieving this goal, “but planning will work only where there is good urban governance and where the urban poor are brought into the decisions that affect their lives,” Mr. Ban stressed.    For her part, Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), said that urban planning systems in many parts of the world have not adapted to the changing reality.    “Indeed, they are often contributors to urban problems rather than tools for human and environmental improvement,” she said.    The private sector and individual citizens who often do not prioritize the public good in their actions, powerful economic interest, inadequate training and other factors have created conditions in which urban planning has not been successful.    A UN independent expert today said planning “with and for the poor” is crucial in the fight against climate change.    “Disasters caused by extreme weather are not simply a result of natural events, but reflect also a failure of urban planning and development policies,” said Raquel Rolnik, the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, noting that some 1 billion people worldwide live in overcrowded conditions or in slums and other informal urban settlements, many of which are in areas prone to flooding or landslides.    Cities without the necessary infrastructure, she pointed out, are more susceptible to climate-related disasters.    “Land and housing for the poor should be placed in the center of urban planning in order to ensure the sustainability of cities,” Ms. Rolnik underscored. “Concerned communities need to be consulted and be allowed to participate in the decision-making process.” Visit the related web page
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