Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-13-Speech-2-311"
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"en.20071113.32.2-311"2
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"The rapid growth of urban areas is a continuing trend in developing countries.
The Commission provides financial aid for various groups from the African, Caribbean and Pacific states. This is directed at global initiatives and programmes aimed at improving the shantytowns, namely the ‘Cities Alliance’ and the UN programme ‘UN-Habitat’. The aim of the Cities Alliance is to enhance the impact and the effectiveness of cooperation on urban development by improving the living conditions of the urban poor and developing programmes for improving the shantytowns to urban and national standards.
The Commission became involved in the Cities Alliance in 2007. This initiative focuses on poor towns and on the poor people who live in them. The ultimate goal is to promote sustainable urban development. The Commission uses the Alliance to encourage an inclusive and participative approach to urban development and to promote its objectives for the improvement of the shantytowns.
In 2007 the Commission approved a grant of EUR 4 million from the ninth European Development Fund to support a regional programme for the modernisation of the shantytowns. This programme is aimed at improving dialogue, promoting regional, national and local exchanges and sharing experiences on political measures for the improvement of shantytown areas. The programme provides financial support for regional shantytown improvement plans, feasibility studies and the strengthening of existing facilities and resources.
The Commission has been particularly active in its efforts to improve the conditions of those living in shantytowns, especially as regards the provision of water and sanitation. Improving access to water and sanitation in urban and semi-urban areas is clearly an integral part of our sectoral policy. In the specific case of the urban poor, special emphasis is placed on improving the performance of those who operate and provide decentralised and municipal services.
In Africa, where the majority of public and municipal services perform poorly, the general organisation and financial management of this sector needs to be reformed in order to improve the level of supply, especially if this area is to attract investment. These public services have to be strengthened, especially when it comes to the setting of tariffs, the collection of payments and the operational aspects associated with maintaining the system.
You know that we have also established a Water Facility, which is funded through the ninth European Development Fund and which provides the poor and most vulnerable citizens living in urban and semi-urban areas with access to water and sanitation. There have been two calls for proposals aimed at providing the poorest and most vulnerable with access to water and sanitation services. Some 175 projects have been implemented on the basis of a Commission allocation of EUR 416 million for all the ACP regions concerned. Out of this total there have been 38 projects for actions in urban areas and 29 for actions in semi-urban areas.
Water is the focal point of most of these projects, with this facility being supported by drainage and sanitation services. A total of some EUR 191.7 million has already been invested in the Water Facility for urban and semi-urban zones. Because of the impoverished status of a large number of the beneficiaries living in the shantytowns and poorest parts of the zones concerned, most, if not all, of the projects provide some form of benefit to the poor in that tariff adjustments are included as part of the package.
Something else that I might add as I near the end of this long narrative that has been arranged for me is that I met the UN-Habitat Executive Director and had a lengthy conversation with her. I used this meeting primarily to enlist her support in the preparation of the Development Days due to be held towards the end of next year. The main topic will be local powers and decentralisation – this being one of the main themes, the second being media and development – and I asked her to join us in preparing this theme because the question of extreme densification in town centres and capital cities is a real development issue.
In this connection, and this is something that I particularly wanted to talk about, there is also the serious problem of land use planning in the developing nations, and this issue should provide us with a new central theme for our development policy. We are working very hard on this and I will probably be making a statement on this specific subject – namely land use planning in the developing countries – in the near future because it is an issue of real importance. Take Kinshasa, for example, which is a city of more than six million people. It is now all too evident that Kinshasa has become unmanageable in terms of security, the provision of services, sanitation projects and so on.
We are therefore very aware of the relevance of the question raised by the honourable Member.
In the course of recent years the number of people living in towns and cities has increased considerably. Of the developing countries, Africa is also the region that has seen greater urban growth than anywhere else in the world. Its urban population has tripled over the last 25 years and is set to double again by 2030.
This huge demographic shift has resulted in the rapid spread of shantytowns and unhealthy slums, often on difficult terrain, on the fringes of the cities.
Job insecurity, the informal market for housing and land and the lack of specialist services are all problems that particularly affect the poorest urban dwellers and are indicators of how capable these urban areas are to provide a secure environment for the local population and for growth.
Combating poverty in the context of the Millennium Development Goals is a key objective of the Commission’s development policy and is something that guides the Commission in all its initiatives in this area.
The Commission supports durable urban development through good governance and good urban management. Aid to urban areas is provided as part of the fight against poverty and improvements to the quality of life of those living in shantytowns are therefore delivered in the context of a global approach that is based on better urban management.
The Commission’s urban strategy seeks to help those living in shantytowns by way of a series of programmes that are implemented in the various geographical areas covered by our development programmes. This includes Latin America, which has benefited from the URB-AL Programme, and Asia, which has its own Asia Urbs Programme.
It is a long answer, and I am a little afraid that Members will not be patient to listen until the end of my speech, but I will speak more slowly."@en1
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