Events in the international community

Special Session of the UN General Assembly:
Istanbul+5: Reviewing and appraising progress five years after Habitat II

New York, 6-8 June 2001

The General Assembly of the United Nations held a special session in June 2001 to review and appraise implementation worldwide of the Habitat Agenda, adopted in Istanbul in 1996. The Agenda is based on the view that economic development, social development and environmental protection, as interdependent and mutually reinforcing components of sustainable development, can be realized through solidarity and cooperation within and between countries and through effective partnerships at all levels. Work in this area is coordinated by the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements.

The ILO's concerns in relation to the Special Session focused on the need to address the fast and dangerous speed of urbanization worldwide and the related social exclusion and increase in urban poverty, which are intrinsically linked to unemployment and the quest for jobs and to environmental degradation. The ILO believes that there is a strong chance of significantly reducing poverty by increasing the levels and the quality of employment among the poor in cities. Access to decent work as an antidote to social exclusion forms the basis of ILO support for employment intensive strategies and social integration, which are crucial to efforts to address these issues. Many speakers at the Special Session called for employment creation programmes that reach the urban poor and for social protection strategies to prevent growing cities from falling further apart.

The ILO statement to the Committee of the Whole at the Special Session focused on the centrality of employment in upgrading human settlements and reducing urban poverty. Specific mention was made of the potential for job creation in the area of improving the urban living environment by applying labour-based methods and utilizing community-based and small-scale enterprises for the delivery of public services. The ILO expressed interest in collaborating with other agencies and providing tools and instruments for closing the urban employment gap through policies that also help to upgrade and enhance the environment. The statement, copies of which were distributed to delegates, referred to related ILO activities such as the High-Level Policy Network on Youth Employment, the Global Employment Forum to be held in November 2001 and the general discussion on the informal sector due to be held at the International Labour Conference in June 2002. 

The ILO contributed a technical background paper that was widely distributed at the Special Session, entitled Cities at Work: Promoting employment and social inclusion in urban settlements in developing countries, which addresses the link between urban poverty and urban employment, and the question of how those involved could work together to increase the decent employment opportunities for the urban poor. It pulls together strategic directions and practical approaches to job creation generated by the ILO and others over the past five years. The aim of the paper is to make a case for policies and strategies that put jobs at the heart of urban upgrading: if cities are to work, then the work of the poor must be improved. More and better job opportunities must be created in response to the huge demand for improved living conditions and a clean environment in urban settlements. Providing institutional frameworks in which people can create and take advantage of opportunities to earn a decent living for themselves and their families should be a priority of the future urban agenda. The paper reviews the most relevant ILO programmes and achievements in employment promotion in urban areas over the past 5 years.

The ILO also circulated a recent ILO paper entitled Both sides of the bridge: public-private partnership building to deliver environmental services, which descibes ILO support, in the framework of a wider UNCHS programme to enhance sustainable urban development, to a local government initiative to improve solid waste manegement in a manner that maximizes employment creation among the urban poor. The result today is better services and more jobs.