UNITED  NATIONS	HS
	Commission on  Human Settlements	Distr.  GENERAL  HS/C/17/3  26 February 1999  ORIGINAL: ENGLISH

In designing the format of the present report on the implementation of the Habitat Agenda, the Commission on Human Settlements identified four major subject areas. The first two correspond to the Habitat Agenda's main goals: adequate shelter for all and sustainable human settlements development in an urbanizing world. The third area deals with the capacity- and institution-building required to make lasting improvements in the processes and actions followed to pursue them goals. Finally, the report explores the present situation with regard to the international cooperation and coordination needed to help countries in their own efforts in implementing the Habitat Agenda.

The report documents significant developments at the local, national, regional and global levels in the implementation of the broad and ambitious plan of action adopted by the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II), held in Istanbul from 3 to 14 June 1996. However, it also highlights important gaps and weaknesses that need to be overcome if the Habitat II follow-up process is to become an example of solid international commitment and cooperation.

1. On 7 May 1997, the Commission on Human Settlements adopted resolution 16/2 on follow-up to the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) and the future role of the Commission on Human Settlements. In this resolution, the Commission recommended to the General Assembly that it should decide, inter alia, that at its seventeenth and eighteenth sessions, the Commission would focus on monitoring the implementation of the Habitat Agenda and assessing its impact by addressing the following substantive areas of the Habitat Agenda:

    (a) Adequate shelter for all, incorporating also the monitoring of the Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000;

    (b) Sustainable human settlements in an urbanizing world, incorporating also the monitoring of chapter 7 of Agenda 21;

    (c) Capacity-building and institutional development;

    (d) International cooperation and coordination.

That recommendation was endorsed by the Assembly in paragraph 14 of its resolution 52/192 of 18 December 1997.

2. The present report does not claim to offer an exhaustive description of the post-Habitat II follow-up process. It does, however, attempt to offer an overview of programmes, activities and initiatives directly related to the four substantive areas of the Habitat Agenda identified by the Commission and undertaken, or further developed, after the Conference and, in particular, since the sixteenth session of the Commission.

3. An effort has also been made to identify the linkages between in-country activities and supporting agencies of the United Nations system, including UNCHS (Habitat).

4. The attention of the Commission is also called to two other reports of relevance to this agenda item which have been prepared for the current session of the Commission. The first one is the theme paper on international cooperation for the implementation of the Habitat Agenda (HS/C/17/6), an informative and issue-oriented report which has been elaborated in parallel with part IV of the present document. The second document is the state-of-the-world's-cities report (HS/C/17/2/Add.1), which is based, inter alia, on the responses to a detailed questionnaire on Habitat II follow-up action sent to all Governments, local authorities and major Habitat Agenda partners.

5. Information on Habitat II follow-up activities, including those undertaken in cooperation with agencies of the United Nations system and with Habitat Agenda partners is also contained in the reports of the Executive Director on the activities of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) (HS/C/17/2), cooperation with agencies and organizations within the United Nations system, intergovernmental organizations outside the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations (HS/C/17/11) and cooperation with partners (HS/C/17/7).

6. The Commission on Human Settlements, as the inter-governmental body responsible for coordinating, evaluating and monitoring the implementation of the Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000, last reviewed the implementation of the Strategy at its sixteenth session. This short review, therefore, covers the period 1997-1998. A comprehensive final review of the implementation of the Strategy will be presented to the Commission at its eighteenth session.

7. The information available suggests that follow-up activities on the Habitat Agenda's goal of "adequate shelter for all" have strengthened the focus of the implementation of the Global Strategy with specific reference to promoting the principles of enablement, partnership and participation, as well as on topics related to the realization of housing rights, improvement of the access of low-income groups to elements of shelter delivery (such as land, finance and building materials) and the diversification of shelter policy to more effectively address the needs of vulnerable groups and people with special needs. The implementation of the Habitat Agenda has also strengthened the trend of utilizing the shelter sector as a driving force for the promotion of economic development and as an effective entry point for poverty eradication and social development. However, despite the fact that a majority of countries adopted shelter policies in concurrence with the recommendations of the Global Strategy and the Habitat Agenda, progress in carrying out programmes to improve the shelter conditions of low-income groups - particularly in the developing countries - has, in general, been slow and not facilitated in a sustainable way and on a sufficient scale. This problem continues to be compounded by forced evictions, demolition of informally-built settlements and upgrading schemes that often result in depriving slum and squatter dwellers of affordable, albeit inadequate, accommodation.

8. Actions in the shelter sector present considerable regional differences. In Africa, rapid urbanization processes continue to place heavy demands on shelter and services. Generally speaking, shelter-delivery capacities are still unable to cope with this situation in most of the countries in the region. Consequently, shelter conditions continued to deteriorate. The main focus of Governments remained on the provision of serviced land for shelter production as well as on the upgrading of existing informal settlements.

9. A few countries were able to comprehensively address shelter issues. The Republic of South Africa decided to revise and diversify its shelter policy and strengthen implementation processes particularly at the local level. Following the new Housing Act of 1997, the shelter-delivery process received clearer guidance and is considered a key programme for poverty alleviation and employment generation. In addition to the establishment of new institutions and the improvement of the existing ones in the shelter sector for more effective delivery systems and financing mechanisms, subsidy programmes were established to cater for the most vulnerable groups. Actions were also initiated in line with the realization the right to housing with specific focus on the prevention of illegal evictions and promotion of access to information.

10. In other African countries (such as Ghana, Morocco, Namibia, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe), there are several ongoing internationally supported activities to promote participation and empower communities in shelter provision and upgrading. The United Republic of Tanzania launched an information and data-collection initiative in the human-settlements sector to review and improve its policies particularly related to housing production and provision of serviced urban land. With the support of Shelter Afrique, the same Government has recently initiated a feasibility study for the development of a market-oriented housing finance system.

11. Shelter-upgrading initiatives in Egypt, Morocco and Senegal have generated successful results. Upgrading activities in the Metropolitan Area of Agadir, Morocco, contributed not only to the improvement of shelter conditions of the low-income groups living in squatter and slum areas, but also to the integration of these groups into the social and political life of the city. The El Monira project in the Giza Governorate, in Egypt, contributed to the improvement of living conditions of more than 500,000 people. The Dalifort Pilot Project in Senegal continued to contribute to the improvement of living conditions of the affected groups by promoting security of land tenure and by facilitating improvements in infrastructure and environmental conditions.

12. Provision of serviced land and upgrading activities have taken priority in the South-East Asia and the Pacific region, with increased involvement and contributions of community-based and non-governmental organizations. In Bangladesh, the Grameen Bank extended its reach by increasing the number of its members to over 2 million, and the cumulative housing units built with the assistance of the Bank reached 400,000. China continued its extensive housing construction and improvement programmes both in urban and rural areas and intensified action for the development of new housing finance schemes. These activities contributed to the increase of the average living space in dwellings, as well as of access to basic services. There is, however, still a serious need for housing provision in China, particularly in rapidly growing urban centres. Recent natural disasters also increased this need and strengthened the focus on promoting the capacity of the existing housing stock to resist such disasters.

13. The housing shortage in India by 2000 is estimated to be around 41 million units, with more than 15 million units needed in urban locations. The Housing and Urban Development Cooperation (HUDCO) has strengthened its assistance for housing construction and upgrading to the economically weaker groups through the involvement of non-governmental and community-based organizations. Many local initiatives, such as in the cities of Mumbai and Calcutta, have resulted in large-scale upgrading activities and workable alternatives to evictions. The Government of India is working closely with some United Nations organizations/agencies (such as UNCHS (Habitat), the Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund and the World Bank) and the Asian Development Bank to implement the shelter-related recommendations of the Habitat Agenda, focusing on the promotion of public/private partnerships in shelter delivery and provision of basic services.

14. In line with the ageing population trend, the average size of households is declining in Japan where improvements in residential standards were accomplished according to the current five-year housing construction programme. Citizens' movements and the participation of the civil-society organizations in shelter-development processes increased rapidly in the Republic of Korea and Nepal. In Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand, the participation and contribution of communities and civil-society organizations to shelter and environmental development became more effective with new initiatives such as the "Earning From Cleaning" approach in Karachi the "Sindh Community Shelter Project" (SCSP) in Pakistan, the campaign for a "Just and Humane City" in the Philippines, and the "Urban Community Environment Activities Project" (UCEAP) in Thailand. The Government of Saudi Arabia continued its massive low-income housing construction programme to settle new urban residents.

15. In Western Europe and other highly industrialized regions, actions in the shelter sector focused mostly on issues related to the improvement of residential standards, revitalization and modernization of the inner city housing and better utilization of the existing housing stock. Most countries in this group have cited different aspects of shelter development as priority areas in their national plans of action to implement the Habitat Agenda. Austria, for example, has focused on amendments in pertinent laws and regulations to increase effectiveness of public assistance in the housing sector to those who are in need of such support. Finland has prioritized the housing of the elderly people, shifting emphasis from the production of new buildings to maintenance and renovation. Spain's plan has specified as priority areas the issues of facilitating access to housing, encouraging the reuse of the existing housing stock, improving energy and environmental efficiency, and considering housing as being inseparable from its environment. The Netherlands has cited affordability, ensuring that adequate and affordable accommodation is available to lower income and vulnerable groups in society, as one of the three priority areas of its national plan. Housing-provision activities in Ireland have increasingly been directed to depopulated inner-city areas. The Government of Denmark continued its support to the construction of new housing units for public use, taking also into consideration the needs of youth and elderly persons. Most of the countries in this region have initiated actions to prepare local Habitat Agendas with components pertaining to the delivery of housing and services. All countries in this group regard the approach of using indicators useful in the analysis of urban and shelter development. There are differences of view, however, on the coverage and context of indicators approach, as well as on the areas where they can specifically be used as instruments for monitoring progress.

16. Facilitating reforms in the housing, building and financial sectors have been the main thrust of activities in the human-settlements field in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Privatization of land and housing stocks, development of legal and institutional frameworks and effective cadastral systems, promoting housing-finance mechanisms and renovation/modernization of existing housing stocks have been the areas of particular focus in most of these countries. In its national plan of action to implement the Habitat Agenda, Estonia, for example, cites as priority areas "better housing finance systems to increase affordability and availability of housing on the market" and "administration and maintenance of the housing stock after privatization". In the Czech Republic, the new policy is yielding results through special housing for older persons and persons with disabilities, and through better financing schemes and rental deregulation, all contributing to housing improvement and construction. The Government of Lithuania is in the process of developing legislation to promote public-sector support for home ownership as well as for rental housing. In this relation, State guaranties are granted to banks that will provide long-term housing credits and operationalize mortgage systems. Country profiles on the housing sector in Bulgaria, Poland and Slovenia are being prepared with the aim of assisting Governments in improving the performance of these sectors and providing practical information to those with a special interest in investing in these areas such as international lenders and private-sector entrepreneurs, from both within and outside these countries.

17. In the Latin America and the Caribbean region, actions related to shelter development focused on rehabilitation, the linkage between poverty reduction and housing programmes, and the formulation of effective measures in addressing the needs of the lowest-income groups. Several countries initiated new financial and regulatory mechanisms to facilitate shelter provision and to support local-level shelter-improvement activities within the broader spectrum of urban development. In Colombia, for example, national credit institutions for shelter development improved their ability to effectively manage their financial portfolios both in terms of lending and loan recovery. New programmes were also initiated on informal settlements upgrading and resettlement of dwellers affected by natural disasters. In Nicaragua, progress has been accomplished in the national cadastre system, with emphasis on the issue of land titling as the prerequisite for promoting equitable access to shelter and services. In most countries in the Caribbean region, the focus was on harmonized planning and improvement of housing standards to better suit the affordability of low-income groups. As part of national programme of decentralization in Haiti, urban development schemes have been prepared for major cities with emphasis on municipal land banking for immediate and future shelter development. Major shelter development initiatives with external assistance continued in Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador. Civil-society organizations sustained their involvement and contributions to shelter development in all countries of the region. The Habitat Regional Office and the Habitat Disaster Management Programme have promptly responded to requests for rehabilitation programmes in the regions affected by Hurricane Mitch and the Colombian earthquake of 25 January 1999.

18. The regional commissions, as part of their work programmes, initiated a variety activities related to human settlements and shelter development. The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), launched large-scale information-collection initiatives among their member States - addressing also the field of "adequate shelter for all". The Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) recently published a number of housing-sector country profiles, a report on housing finance, a number of case-studies to promote the application of renewal and housing-modernization policies, and the review on human settlements trends in Central and Eastern Europe. As a follow-up to the Habitat II Conference, the ECE Committee on Human Settlements set up the Meeting of Officials on Land Administration (ECE/MOLA) to deal, inter alia, with housing privatization and investment in housing through security of tenure and the establishment of real estate markets in countries with economies in transition. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), among other initiatives, published a report entitled "Sustainable Development of Human Settlements: Achievements and Challenges in Housing and Urban Policy in Latin America and the Caribbean". ECLAC also organized the Sixth Meeting of Ministers and High-level Authorities for Urban Development and Housing of Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Costa Rica in October 1997. In cooperation with UNCHS (Habitat), the Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA) organized a regional meeting on the follow-up to Habitat II in November 1998.

19. Organizations of the United Nations system continued their activities in supporting Member States in the improvement of shelter and services. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) continued its support for improvement in the shelter sector under its regional and country programmes. UNDP recently launched an initiative to integrate the context of the realization of human rights with the process of economic and social development - which is closely related to the realization of housing rights. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) continued contributing to shelter and environmental upgrading through its Urban Basic Services initiative. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has developed research initiatives related to the follow-up to the Habitat II Conference within the theme of "Cities: management of social and environmental transformation", where urban housing constitutes one of the substantive areas. Operational projects of UNESCO, "Revitalization of Historic Centres and Urban Development" and "Water Resources" are also related to shelter development. The World Bank has developed a joint initiative with UNCHS (Habitat) to assist countries in developing sustainable and large-scale slum-upgrading programmes which will be designed to bring basic services to the poor.

20. Local Agenda 21s constitute an invaluable platform for the local implementation of the Habitat Agenda. However, experience has shown that most local Agenda 21s have tended to focus primarily on environmental issues. As demonstrated by the experience of the Habitat Programme on Localizing Agenda 21, the implementation of the Habitat Agenda at the local level is seen as a vehicle through which this imbalance can be corrected.

21. Another important lesson is that there appears to be a general lack of knowledge on modalities for the implementation of the Habitat Agenda at the local level. Consequently, guidelines for Habitat Local Plans of Action based on a partnership approach are currently under preparation.

22. A number of other recommendations are presented in the theme paper on local implementation of the Habitat Agenda, with particular attention to local Agenda 21s (HS/C/17/5).

23. As a follow-up to the Habitat II Land Initiative for the Habitat Agenda and its New Delhi Declaration, Global Platform on Access to Land, Security of Tenure as a Condition for Sustainable Shelter and Urban Development, the Centre launched a Land Management Programme to implement the Habitat Agenda-related recommendations of the New Delhi Conference, held from 17-19 January 1996. However, resources are still needed for the full implementation of the Programme.

24. As a result of extensive consultations with partners, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) and UNCHS (Habitat).

25. Consultations with United Nations organizations, namely UNEP and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations have been held on the issue of land-use management in order to provide a coordinated response for the implementation of chapter 10 of Agenda 21. Following a United Nations-FIG round-table consultation during the Twenty-First FIG Congress held in Brighton, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 19 to 24 July 1998, UNCHS (Habitat), FAO, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and UNEP were called upon to jointly prepare a United Nations-FIG international conference on land tenure and cadastral infrastructures for sustainable development, to be held in Melbourne, Australia from 25 to 27 October 1999. Similarly, UNCHS (Habitat) is contributing to the preparation of an international conference on multi-functional agriculture and land management to be convened by FAO and the Netherlands later in the year. Both Conferences will report to the Commission on Sustainable Development at its "CSD 2000" meetings.

26. The relationship between human settlements, urban development and poverty eradication and reduction figures prominently in the Habitat Agenda. Consequently, urban poverty reduction, already a key objective of a number of UNCHS (Habitat) programmes both at the operational and research and development levels, is now one of the main thrust of the New Strategic Vision for the Centre.

27. In response to Commission resolution 16/22, on cooperation in the eradication of poverty, UNCHS was the leading international agency in the organization of the first post-Habitat II International Conference on Urban Poverty, which took place in Florence, Italy, in November 1997. The Conference debated "governance and participation", as practical tools for urban poverty reduction. It brought together partners and organizations from all over the world and launched the International Forum on Urban Poverty as a partnership among key stakeholders at the local, national, regional and international levels. The objectives of the Forum are the promotion of awareness and knowledge on urban poverty issues, the development and promotion of policies for urban poverty reduction, and the development of capacity among local authorities and communities to formulate, negotiate and implement urban-poverty-reduction programmes.

28. The Forum associates and involves local authorities, non-governmental organizations, experts and practitioners, as well as bilateral and multilateral programmes. Its mission is to promote international and local support to partnership actions by its members, in order to empower people living in poverty to overcome their conditions and to enable governments at all levels to support this process. The Forum provides, for this purpose, a framework for consultation, consensus-building, exchange of experiences, policy advocacy, capacity-building and monitoring.

29. To reach its objectives, the Forum builds on the activities undertaken by its partners in all regions of the world, and promotes new partnerships on specific activities. A number of programmes and activities have been initiated or developed under the Forum's auspices in 1998, and regional "chapters" have been started in Africa and Asia. In October 1999, Cote d'Ivoire will host the next International Conference on Urban Poverty, in which Forum members will review progress made and outline the way forward.

30. An increasing emphasis on partnership, coordination and the sharing of collective know-how marks the most significant step forward in normative development and operational activities in the years since Habitat II.

31. At the city level, the operational activities of all UNCHS (Habitat) programmes, and increasingly so in the case of partner agencies from the United Nations system, reflect greater levels of partnership and cooperation within the Centre and with external partners (including UNEP, UNDP and the World Bank). At the internal level, the New Strategic Vision for Habitat places a strong emphasis on the complementarity among the Centre's activities at the city level and on providing a flexible and sensitive process framework into which the activities of other local and international support programmes can fit. The Centre's mandate to build capacities in urban planning and management at the local level is currently implemented through programmes such as the Sustainable Cities Programme, the Urban Management Programme and the Community Development Programme, which demonstrate new ways to increase stakeholder participation, and develop the abilities of local governments to better manage their urban environment.

32. The Urban Environment Forum, which was established in Istanbul in 1996, is proving an effective vehicle for the sharing of collective know-how, and to date has held one global and two regional meetings. The Forum meetings have resulted in the identification of a number of areas for collaborative action, and the establishment of several special topic clusters. The Forum could be said to be mirroring on a global scale the working group activities which have proved so successful at the local level.

33. The Urban Environment Forum is an exemplary instance of the United Nations doing what it does best - bringing together diverse partners to focus their collective energies on developing consensual solutions to the issues which face them. The United Nations technical cooperation paradigm has undergone a fundamental shift away from the provision of ready-made solutions towards the advancement of collective know-how. In publications such as the Environmental Planning and Management Source Book, city experiences within this new paradigm are analysed and synthesized to provide a replicable framework for implementation in other cities around the world.

34. Capacity-building and institutional development in the field of human settlements have been among the Centre's main priorities since its creation, following the first United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, held in Vancouver in 1976. The Habitat II Conference added a strong impetus to this commitment of the Centre. It has generated a significant increase in activities of UNCHS (Habitat) and its partners in this area and has placed capacity-building more explicitly than ever before on the urban development agenda of the international community.

35. Principal target groups, subject emphasis, strategies and methods have evolved considerably following Habitat II. Globally, the main trends of this process include:

    (a) Emphasis on local governments and on local non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations;

    (b) Capacity-building of political actors: local elected officials and other local leaders, in addition to management and professional staff;

    (c) Increasingly multisectoral approaches, combining, among others, living environment and poverty-reduction concerns;

    (d) Increased gender focus;

    (e) Ethical concerns: transparency, accountability, combating corruption;

    (f) A move from individual training to capacity-building, including human resource development, institutional strengthening and supportive regulatory and legal frameworks;

    (g) An increasing role of national associations of local authorities and their global networks, and of the capacity-building non-governmental organizations and their respective networks, as providers of training and institution-building support to local governments;

    (h) An increasing number of regional programmes and other initiatives aimed at strengthening national and local training institutions - building capacity to build capacity;

    (i) A growing use of new technologies, with special regard to the Internet.

36. The New Strategic Vision for Habitat takes as its point of departure the existence of specific programme activities in each of these areas, and advocates both their mainstreaming throughout the whole work of the Centre and their adoption for its normative and policy advocacy role.

37. The decentralization and strengthening of local authorities and their networks is receiving particularly strong attention in many countries. This includes policy advocacy and strategy development and also direct capacity-building programmes. A Symposium on Education and Training for Local Government, held in Durban, South Africa, in March 1998, followed by the East African Symposium on Decentralization and Local Governance, in May 1998, both organized by the Commonwealth Local Government Forum in collaboration with UNCHS (Habitat), the Municipal Development Programme (MDP) and other partners, are examples of such policy-advocacy and strategy development meetings in Africa. Similar activities have taken place in Asia, with the meeting on capacity-building for sustainable cities in Asia organized by the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok in June 1997, and in Europe with two meetings on local government capacity-building for European transition countries, held in Bucharest, Romania, in November 1996 and November 1997. The "Commonwealth Plan of Action for Capacity Building to Implement the Habitat Agenda" was presented to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Edinburgh in November 1997. The Plan is an initiative of the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council supported by the Development Planning Unit (DPU) of University College London.

38. The Centre is also cooperating with programmes and activities led by other international networks and institutions. Meetings held in 1996 and 1997 in Romania led to the initiation of the "Regional Programme for Capacity-Building in Governance and Local Leadership for European Transition Countries", implemented by the Foundation for Local Development and Public Services, Romanian non-governmental organization, with funding from the Open Society Institute, a private foundation.  Similar capacity-building programmes are ongoing in Africa (MDP), mainly with World Bank support and in Latin America, the Training Support Programme for Local Development in Latin America (SACDEL), the Municipal Training Programme (PCM), and the programme on Development of Medium-sized Municipalities in the Andean Group (MINGA) implemented by the International Union of Local Authorities (IULA)/Latin American Centre for Local Government Training and Development (CELCADEL), Quito, Ecuador. Several national associations of local authorities, (Canadian, Danish and Dutch, among others), have important capacity-building programmes for foreign partners. The IULA Association Capacity-Building Programme launched in December 1997, is another recent addition to global and regional programmes implementing the Habitat Agenda through capacity-building and institutional development.

39. Another important tool in the strengthening of local authorities is a new generation of twinning arrangements which move from the political and ceremonial level to capacity-building and institutional development. Examples of this new trend are municipal partnerships of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities such as Guelph-Jinja (Uganda), Kitchener-Cebu (Philippines) and York-Soyopango (El Salvador); several Local Agenda 21 Charter projects of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) (including Bremen, Germany, and Windhoek, Namibia; Tampere, Finland, and Mwanza, United Republic of Tanzania; and Utrecht, Netherlands, and Leone, Nicaragua) and cooperation between Nakuru, Kenya and Leuven, Belgium, within the UNCHS (Habitat) Localizing Agenda 21 programme.

40. Popular participation and civic engagement is a special focus of several capacity-building programmes concentrating on local-development non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations, such as the Institutional-strengthening and Capacity-building for non-governmental organizations (FICONG) programme covering all Latin American countries, initiated prior to Habitat II, the new Environment and Development in the Third World (ENDA) regional programme of capacity-building, training and support to local associations active in ten West African countries, or the  Habitat International Coalition (HIC) Women and Shelter Network training and follow-up of gender catalysts in different regions. Within UNCHS (Habitat), the DANIDA-funded Community Development Programme has developed a series of country-specific training strategies and tools that aim at building capacity for equal partnerships.

41. The Huairou Commission and the HIC Women and Shelter Network play a special role regarding the principle of gender equality, the promotion of gender-sensitive human-settlements development, and the inclusion of women. To build the necessary capacity, they have been implementing training on gender-aware programme/project formulation and implementation for local government officials and human-settlements workers in selected countries with the continuous support of the UNCHS (Habitat) Women and Habitat Programme.

42. Capacity building for human settlements management and for metropolitan planning and management received, following the Habitat II Conference, a new priority among the international capacity-building institutions, which created, in 1997, the Urban Capacity Building Network (UCBN). The founding organizations are the Development Planning Unit of UK, the Human Settlements Department of the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand, Brazilian Institute of Municipal Administration (IBAM) and Lund Centre for Human Settlements (LCHS) of Lund University, Sweden, in collaboration with UNCHS (Habitat). The Network has organized several major events on Capacity-building for better cities, and several capacity-building programmes and activities supporting the objectives of the Habitat Agenda.

43. A particularly innovative approach is strategic structure planning, combining the joint development of a long-term vision on the sustainable development of the city with immediate environmental planning and management actions and broad-based consultations pioneered by the UNCHS (Habitat) Localizing Agenda 21 and Sustainable Cities programmes. In support of this process, several projects are under implementation where capacity-building activities target the local authority's technical and political staff and their relationship with other key urban actors.

44. UNESCO's training project "Growing up in cities" is a training and awareness programme for municipal elected personnel and municipal functionaries to take into account children's aspirations concerning urban planning. Periodic regional courses of the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) provide updating and training for physical planners. The UNDP Capacity 21 and Public Private Partnership for the Urban Environment programmes are currently introducing in their programmes capacity-building components on local urban development.

45. In the area of domestic financial resources and economic instruments, there has been a marked increase of training and development of manuals specifically focusing on local government financial management. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is particularly active in this area. A comprehensive series of manuals produced by the Local Self-Government Assistance Centre in Slovakia, with the support of the International City Management Association and with USAID funding, is probably the best example. USAID has also assisted production of a manual on a related topic in South Africa. Land registration and cadastres are a related area of capacity-building which has globally attracted increased attention after Habitat II. Also, a number of technical cooperation initiatives have been assisting targeted cities through action plans for rationalization and leveraging of municipal finance and for adapting measures for strategic and equitable revenue collection and expenditure control.

46. Electronic information technology holds a special importance for ensuring a global impact of the Habitat Agenda. The LOGOV (Local Government and International Development Resources Centre) global communication and discussion network, and its Latin American branch GOLDE (Local Government and Decentralization in Latin America), both operated from the School of Public Policy of the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, are particularly successful examples of internet-based interactive techniques.  CITINET in Asia, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities globally, or the Local Government and Public Service Reform initiative in Central and Eastern Europe, are examples of a large and rapidly growing group of organizations using their home pages for wide dissemination of capacity-building tools. UNCHS (Habitat) manuals/handbooks are also increasingly distributed through the web sites of Habitat and of its partners. A number of new national and international networks of local government capacity-building institutions also contribute to a significant increase in the availability of high quality manuals/handbooks in a variety of national languages.

47. As with the other substantive areas of the Habitat Agenda overviewed in this report, it is virtually impossible to provide a detailed account of both progress achieved and difficulties encountered under each of the many recommendations contained in the chapter on international cooperation and coordination.

48. While the report of the Executive Director on international cooperation for the implementation of the Habitat Agenda (HS/C/17/6) deals at more length with this key issue, some general considerations can be made on the reasons why international support to the implementation of the Habitat Agenda has not yet matched the expectations raised at the Habitat II Conference.

49. First of all, global and regional economic development have gone in the opposite direction that anticipated in the Habitat Agenda, which encouraged the international community to promote, inter alia, a higher degree of stability in financial markets, a reduction of the risk of financial crises, and lower interest rates, as well as an environment in all countries that attracts foreign direct investment and encourages savings and domestic investment. Recent financial crises in both transitional and rapidly industrializing economies have put on hold domestic propensity for long-term investment, including housing and urban infrastructure, as well as social programmes designed to protect vulnerable groups, including the urban poor living in sub-standard and health-threatening environments. In addition, stringent macro-economic policies adopted by major industrializing countries to avert potential internal crises amplify the dimensions of this global negative effect on development investment and social programmes.

50. This situation, coupled with the overall decrease in international aid for development, poses serious problems to the realization of one of the key recommendations of this section of the Habitat Agenda - strengthening and improvement of technical and financial assistance to developing countries to promote sustainable development. In addition, the increased competition for shrinking development funds among different development sectors poses a serious challenge to the implementation of another key recommendation of the Habitat Agenda: raising the priority of adequate shelter for all and sustainable human-settlements development among multilateral and bilateral donors and mobilizing their support for the national, subregional and regional plans of action of developing countries.

51. Paradoxically, these constraints also point to avenues of opportunity for international support in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda.

52. First of all, one of the most powerful messages of the Habitat Agenda, as well as an explicit thrust of the new vision for UNCHS (Habitat), is that adequate and secure living conditions and well-managed cities and settlements are not simply the result of economic growth and socio-economic development, but its very foundation. Investment in better shelter for all, in urban infrastructure and in environmental improvement and even more importantly, in the institutional capacity that can make these investments feasible, manageable and sustainable is one of the fundamental pre-requisites for attracting foreign direct investment. Viewed in this context, the new vision being developed for the Centre and its role in supporting the implementation of the Habitat Agenda provides a strong case for a larger share of development aid to be utilized strategically in the urban sector.

53. Positive signs in this direction are coming from partner agencies within and outside the United Nations system. The United Nations regional commissions, UNICEF, WHO, ILO, UNESCO, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, FAO, UNDESA and UNEP are undertaking activities of great interest for the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. 2/

54. Major World Bank achievements from 1996 to date in the urban sector lie in the delivery of sustainable services to the urban poor, urban environmental sustainability and private involvement in the financing of urban services. The new World Bank strategy developed in 1998 emphasizes the need to apply to urban economies and local governments the same analysis, advice and strategies applied to national economies and central governments. As mentioned in paragraph 19 above, the World Bank is developing with Habitat a new "City initiative" which directly links the two principal goals of the Habitat Agenda with the Bank’s urban strategy.

55. Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom reported various cooperation activities related to the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. According to a survey conducted by the Economic Commission for Europe, Canada, Finland, Spain and Switzerland are emphasizing their efforts to introduce human-settlements concerns more strongly into their international development assistance priorities.

56. A second major development is the emerging role of local authorities and civil society partners in support of the Habitat Agenda implementation. This process, which is described in the report of the Executive Director on cooperation with partners (HS/C/17/7), includes the UNCHS (Habitat)/WACLAC initiative on a World Charter of local Self-Government. Designed to help achieve one of the Habitat Agenda's objectives - the strengthening of local authorities, the draft text of the Charter also contains provisions to enable local authorities to cooperate with their counterparts in other countries and to be involved, in the spirit of partnership, in the negotiation and implementation of international plans of action concerning their roles and areas of responsibility.

57. There is no question of the importance of the role that local authorities, through their world coordinating body (WACLAC), their international associations, and in their individual capacity, can play in support of the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. Horizontal cooperation for capacity-building, in particular, is mentioned in section III above as a growing and promising trend.

58. In addition, local authorities have also been instrumental in providing direct support to UNCHS (Habitat) in its capacity as focal point for implementation of the Habitat Agenda. Notable examples are Fukuoka, which hosts and supports the UNCHS (Habitat) Office for Asia and the Pacific; Rio de Janeiro, which hosts the UNCHS (Habitat) Office for Latin America and the Caribbean; Dubai, which has become an important point of reference and global visibility for the Best Practices and Local Leadership Programme; and Turin, which hosted and funded the Habitat II follow-up Partners' Conference "New Partnership for Action".

59. Many obstacles need to be removed to enlarge the scope of international cooperation. Various development organizations wish to assist local governments and local partners directly, but major obstacles remain as international cooperation and relationships fall under national Governments’ prerogatives. Innovative procedures have been elaborated in many countries, jointly by donors and recipients, to channel development assistance directly through civil-society organizations and local governments. Such initiatives should be encouraged, taking into account national situations and specificities, as well as the need to strengthen national institutional capacities required for coordinating development policies. UNCHS (Habitat) can play an important role in guiding and supporting these new avenues of international cooperation.

60. Cooperation and coordination activities among bilateral and multilateral development organizations on human-settlements issues are mainly initiated and developed at the global or regional levels. Often based on a top-down approach starting with protocols concluded between headquarters, they rarely irrigate local practices. Unless such coordination or cooperation agreements are imposed and organized by recipient countries and cities, the impact of global and regional protocols remains low on field strategies, approaches and programmes, and finally hardly benefits the poor, who should be the primary target of international cooperation.

61. Points for discussion on international cooperation are presented to the Commission under the theme paper on international cooperation for the implementation of the Habitat Agenda under item 7 (b) of the provisional agenda. 3/
 

 2/    Information on this topic is contained in document C/HS/17/11 (Co-operation with agencies and organizations within the United Nations system, intergovernmental orgainzations outside the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations).

 3/    Document HS/C/17/6