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UN / SDG 11 CITIES HUMAN SETTLEMENTS
STORY: UN / SDG 11 CITIES HUMAN SETTLEMENTS
TRT: 03:04
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 14 JULY 2023, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters
14 JULY 2023, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Executive Director of UN-Habitat and the Vice-President for Partnerships from the Economist Impact:
We face a high possibility of SDG 11 not being achieved in the next seven years. Sustainable Development Goal 11 of the 2030 Global Agenda focuses on creating sustainable cities and communities. Since half of the world's population currently live in cities this task is extremely important.”
4. Med shot, journalists in the audience
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Executive Director of UN-Habitat and the Vice-President for Partnerships from the Economist Impact:
“Over the past 20 years, 165 million more slum dwellers have emerged. The total number has reached a staggering 1.1 billion people, and 90 percent of them live in Africa and Asia. Housing is not only a problem of mega cities in poor countries, developed countries also face a lot of housing challenges, with at least 318 million citizens who are unhoused.”
6. Close up, journalist asking quesiton
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Executive Director of UN-Habitat and the Vice-President for Partnerships from the Economist Impact:
“To meet the growing housing demands in 2030, we need to build 96,000 housing units every day. However, we need not only physical housing unit, but also to ensure that people have access to basic services, such as water and sanitation. Globally 2.2 billion people still like off safely manage drinking water and 3.4 billion lack of safe sanitation.”
8. Close up, journalist asking question
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Executive Director of UN-Habitat and the Vice-President for Partnerships from the Economist Impact:
“To put this right, I'm calling for a Paris Agreement on housing. Just as the 2015 treaty which transformed climate change diplomacy, we need a global set of standards to guide nationally determined action – or NDAs – to fill the growing gaps in access to adequate housing between now and 2050. Achieving the first target alone can bring us back on trying to achieve SDG 11 by 2030.”
10. Wide shot, briefing room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Krzysztof Szczerski, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Poland to the United Nations and co-chair of the Group of Friends of UN-Habitat:
“From all this crisis that we are facing today – multiple crisis as you know in the in the world today –, some of them cities are the victims of the crisis, but some of them actually the cities are contributors to the crisis. And you notice from the data from this report, you can see that 70 percent of the CO2 emissions come from cities. So, sometimes, we are the victims, but sometimes we are also the generators of the crisis, and we want to be solutions to the crisis.”
12. Wide shot, briefing room
The world is failing to provide adequate housing and achieve SDG 11 to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, according to a new UN-Habitat report by UN-Habitat.
The report was launched on Thursday (13 July) at the High-level Political Forum currently underway in New York. Titled “Rescuing SDG11 for a resilient urban planet”, the report delves deeper into issues around the achievement of Goal 11.
Briefing journalists on Friday (14 July), Executive Director of UN-Habitat and the Vice-President for Partnerships from the Economist Impact, Maimunah Mohd Sharif, said, “We face a high possibility of SDG 11 not being achieved in the next seven years.”
Sharif also noted that “since half of the world's population currently live in cities this task is extremely important.”
The chief of UN-Habitat said that “over the past 20 years, 165 million more slum dwellers have emerged” and “the total number has reached a staggering 1.1 billion people, and 90 percent of them live in Africa and Asia.”
She noted, however, that “housing is not only a problem of mega cities in poor countries” and “developed countries also face a lot of housing challenges, with at least 318 million citizens who are unhoused.”
According to Sharif, “to meet the growing housing demands in 2030, we need to build 96,000 housing units every day.”
The Executive-Director added, “We need not only physical housing unit, but also to ensure that people have access to basic services, such as water and sanitation. Globally 2.2 billion people still like off safely manage drinking water and 3.4 billion lack of safe sanitation.”
“To put this right, I'm calling for a Paris Agreement on housing. Just as the 2015 treaty which transformed climate change diplomacy, we need a global set of standards to guide nationally determined action – or NDAs – to fill the growing gaps in access to adequate housing between now and 2050. Achieving the first target alone can bring us back on trying to achieve SDG 11 by 2030”, said Sharif.
The Permanent Representative of Poland to and co-chair of the Group of Friends of UN-Habitat, Krzysztof Szczerski, also briefed the journalists, saying that, of the many challenges facing the world today, “some of them cities are the victims of the crisis, but some of them actually the cities are contributors to the crisis.”
Szczerski added, “And you notice from the data from this report, you can see that 70 percent of the CO2 emissions come from cities. So, sometimes, we are the victims, but sometimes we are also the generators of the crisis, and we want to be solutions to the crisis.”
According to the new report, globally, 2.8 billion experience some form of housing inadequacy. 165 million more slum dwellers have emerged globally over 20 years, reaching almost 1.1 billion in 2020. Housing is a problem in the global North as well, at least 318 million are homeless.
Improving inadequate housing conditions is a core component of SDG11. Only one region, Australia and New Zealand, fully met indicator 11.1.1 on slums. Sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Southern Asia are lagging in meeting most targets.
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