Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoUnifeed
UN / HUMAN SETTLEMENTS LAUNCH 2009
STORY: UN / HUMAN SETTLEMENTS LAUNCH 2009
SOURCE: UNTV/ IRIN/ UNHCR/ WORLD BANK
TRT: 2.19
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
DATELINE: 9 OCTOBER 2009, NEW YORK CITY/ FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN building
9 OCTOBER 2009, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, dais
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Sharad Shankardass, UN-HABITAT Spokesperson:
“If we are all going to face climate change, and if we are all going to do something about slums, it is absolutely critical that urban planning comes back to center stage. As you will hear I think that’s kind of gone into the periphery under market forces.”
FILE - IRIN - AUGUST 2007, KARACHI, PAKISTAN
4. Various shots, crowded city scenes
5. Various shots, slum dwellers
9 OCTOBER 2009, NEW YORK CITY
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Naison Mutizwa-Mangiza, lead author of UN-HABITAT Global Report on Human Settlements 2009:
“One of the main arguments we are making in this report is that in many countries planning is actually seen as irrelevant. Because, if you look at developing countries, planning is based on ideas and standards borrowed from the north, from the affluent north, and they are totally irrelevant. The poor see planning as cumbersome, and they have absolutely no hope of building housing which conforms to these standards.”
FILE – UNHCR - 30 JULY 2009, SENAKI, GEORGIA
7. Various shots, construction crew building home
9 OCTOBER 2009, NEW YORK CITY
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Naison Mutizwa-Mangiza, lead author of UN-HABITAT Global Report on Human Settlements 2009:
“The idea is not to expand further, but to use the available land to increase density, and then also to use public transport, sustainable public transport as a way to, you know, enabling densities to be increased, so that people have access to all the different places that they need to go to. So, it’s a bit like retrofitting, we have to reengineer our cities, to retrofit them by increasing density and you can do that by introducing public transport systems.”
FILE – WORLD BANK - JULY 2008, MARIKINA, PHILIPPINES
9. Various shots, city scene with modern transportation system
The spokesman for The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), said today (9 October) at the launch of the agency’s Global Report on Human Settlements 2009, that “it is absolutely critical that urban planning comes back to center stage” in order to tackle both climate change and the predicament of urban slums.
The report notes that traditional approaches to urban planning - particularly in developing countries - have largely failed to promote equitable, efficient and sustainable human settlements and to address twenty-first century challenges, including rapid urbanization, shrinking cities and ageing, climate change and related disasters, urban sprawl and unplanned peri-urbanization, as well as urbanization of poverty and informality.
Naison Mutizwa-Mangiza, lead author of the Report said that “in many countries planning is actually seen as irrelevant”, adding that traditional planning is based on ideas and standards borrowed from “the affluent north” and the poor see it as “cumbersome”.
The report identifies innovative approaches that are more responsive to current challenges of urbanization.
Mutizwa-Mangiza observed that in order to grow sustainably, cities need “to retrofit” by increasing density instead of expanding geographically, and “by introducing public transport systems.”
The report concludes that new approaches to planning can only be meaningful, and have a greater chance of succeeding, if they effectively address a variety of challenges, are participatory and inclusive, as well as linked to contextual socio-political processes.
The Global Report on Human Settlements is the most authoritative and up-to-date assessment of conditions and trends in the world’s cities and other human settlements. This year’s report focuses on “Planning Sustainable Cities”.
Download
There is no media available to download.
