The theme for this year’s World Habitat Day is ‘Accelerating urban action for a carbon-free world’. The theme recognizes that cities are responsible for some 70 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions with transport, buildings, energy, and waste management accounting for the bulk of urban greenhouse gas emissions. Events and activities during World Habitat Day will explore how national, regional and local governments and organizations, communities, academic institutions, the private sector and all relevant stakeholders can work together to create sustainable, carbon-neutral, inclusive cities and towns.
World Habitat Day will amplify the global Race to Zero campaign and encourage local governments to develop actionable zero-carbon plans in the run up to the international climate change summit COP26 in November 2021.
Each year World Habitat Day focuses attention on the state of the world’s towns and cities. This year’s observance highlights the centrality of housing as a driver for sustainable urban development. Cities are the driving force that enables ultimate growth. However, these cities can also become a setting in which marginalisation, poverty and inequality exist. Therefore, it means only a well-planned city can bring economic growth and benefit the citizens. Access to adequate housing is an important factor in ensuring this.
Over the years, diverse themes adopted by various countries have been guiding the motive of the day to encourage grassroots action towards ending poverty housing. ‘Shelter and Urbanization’, ‘Housing for All – A Better Urban Future’, ‘Shelter for the Homeless’, and ‘Future Cities’ are some of the themes of the past years. World Habitat Day is celebrated in many countries across the world to address the problems of rapid urbanisation and its impact on the environment and human poverty. The day also intends to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat.
Currently, one billion people live in overcrowded settlements with inadequate housing. By 2030, that number will rise to 1.6 billion. Action is needed now to provide low-income families and vulnerable populations with affordable housing with security of tenure and easy access to water, sanitation, transport and other basic services. To meet global demand, more than 96,000 housing units will need to be completed every day – and they must be part of the green transition.
Academic research surveys indicate that homeownership leads to improved health, more financial stability, higher grades, higher high school graduation rates, ability to save more, increased investment in education and ability to make forward-looking choices. These benefits impact not only homeowner families but shift familial situations over generations. Decision-making around housing becomes their own: choosing to stay or move, whether it’s to have pets or an outdoor grill, basically gaining the ability to make a home.
Owning a home has more economic benefits than renting. Owning an affordable house benefits the whole community including creating jobs and drawing investment; returning money to local economies; producing financial security; improving workforce recruitment, retention, expansion, and saving public dollars.
The urgency of improving living conditions has been brought to the fore by COVID-19, which has devastated the lives of millions in cities. Access to clean water and sanitation, along with social distancing, are key responses to the pandemic. Yet in slums it has proved difficult to implement these measures. This means an increased risk of infection, not only within slums, but in whole cities, many of which are largely serviced by low-income informal sector workers living in informal settlements.
On World Habitat Day, in this crucial Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the International Community should call for heightened efforts to promote the partnerships, pro-poor policies, and regulations needed to improve housing in cities. As we strive to overcome the pandemic, address the fragilities and inequalities it has exposed, and combat climate change, now is the time to harness the transformative potential of urbanization for the benefit of people and planet.
UN-HABITAT and the Government of the Republic of Cameroon have announced that the Global Observance of World Habitat Day will take place in the capital Yaoundé today (4). The theme this year is ‘Accelerating urban action for a carbon-free world’.
The announcement follows the virtual signing of an agreement between Cameroon’s Housing and Urban Development Minister Célestine Ketcha Courtès and UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director Maimunah Mohd Sharif of UN-Habitat on August 31, 2021.
World Habitat Day has been observed across the globe on the first Monday of October since 1986, highlighting a range of issues around sustainable urbanization. The Global Observance, hosted by a different city each year, is the main focus with attendance at the highest level.
In 1985, the United Nations designated the first Monday of October of every year as World Habitat Day to reflect on the state of our habitats, and on the basic right of all to adequate shelter. The Day is also intended to remind the world that we all have the power and the responsibility to shape the future of our cities and towns. It is also intended to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat.
World Habitat Day was first celebrated in 1986 with the theme ‘Shelter is My Right’. Nairobi was the host city for the observance that year. Other previous themes have included: ‘Shelter for the Homeless’ (1987, New York); ‘Shelter and Urbanization’ (1990, London); ‘Future Cities’ (1997, Bonn); ‘Safer Cities’ (1998, Dubai); ‘Women in Urban Governance’ (2000, Jamaica); ‘Cities without Slums’ (2001, Fukuoka), ‘Water and Sanitation for Cities’ (2003, Rio de Janeiro), ‘Planning our Urban Future’ (2009, Washington, D.C.), ‘Better City, Better Life’ (2010, Shanghai, China) and ‘Cities and Climate Change’ (2011, Aguascalientes, Mexico).
Scroll of Honour
The Habitat Scroll of Honour award was launched by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in 1989. It is currently the most prestigious human settlements award in the world. Its aim is to acknowledge initiatives which have made outstanding contributions in various fields such as shelter provision, highlighting the plight of the homeless, leadership in post conflict reconstruction, and developing and improving the human settlements and the quality of urban life. The call for nominations for this year's award will be announced during the Global Observance of World Habitat Day.
The Strategic Plan for 2020–2023 re-positions UN-Habitat as a major global entity, a centre of excellence and innovation. In that respect, the organization is refocusing its niche position as the ‘thought leader’ and the go-to programme for issues pertaining to its work, setting the global discourse and agenda on sustainable urban development, driving political discussion, generating specialized and cutting-edge knowledge, shaping technical norms, principles and standards, and acting as a multiplier in the exchange of knowledge, experience and best practice in getting cities and other human settlements right.
Cities and communities around the world are increasingly pondering whether they will have to cope with recurring bouts of COVID-19 variants or if they will be able to consider a ‘new’ rather than ‘back to’ normal as infections and hospitalisations go down in their areas.
In either scenario, policymakers and officials need to not only entertain new concepts on how to advance their national and local urban policies but also be able to learn and debate them in an online and interactive format that fits today’s ‘normal’.
UN-Habitat, with its vision of “a better quality of life for all in an urbanising world,” is enabling a broad target audience of interested parties in sustainable urbanisation – public civil servants, mayors, local government officials, architects, urban planners, NGO workers, volunteers, and employees of international organisations – to achieve the above-mentioned goals.
Building on the New Urban Agenda (NUA) Illustrated handbook released in 2020, UN-Habitat’s Capacity Develoment and Training Unit launched the first NUA online course in October 2020, which introduced the participants to core concepts such as social, environmental, spatial, and economic sustainability.
Based on 70 survey responses from participants in the first course and equipped with more functionalities, UN-Habitat has launched the second module of the self-paced course, which like the previous one is open to all for registration.
Unveiling the second portion of the New Urban Agenda Illustrated toolkit at this time also coincides with the World Habitat Day and World Urban Cities Day celebrations in October, in which UN-Habitat highlights themes such as city resiliency, reversing climate change by adopting green mobility and urban development.
(UN News)
Add new comment