Urbanisation in the Commonwealth

The UN estimates that over 50 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban areas today. This is expected to increase to 70 per cent by 2050. Poverty is now growing faster in urban than in rural areas. One billion people live in urban slums, classified by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) as areas where there are deprivations in: access to safe water, access to improved sanitation, secure tenure, permanent construction for houses and overcrowding.  The poverty and poor conditions experienced by urban slum dwellers are often underestimated. Low rates of water and sanitation coverage, high child mortality and poor education enrolment sometimes go unrecognised.

Rapid urbanisation and the rate at which slums are growing are posing a significant challenge to Commonwealth countries’ development progress and their inhabitants’ quality of life. To address these concerns the Commonwealth Secretariat convenes ministerial dialogues on human settlement issues and works with a consortium of Commonwealth organisations in a group called ComHabitat, to implement practical work on indicators and capacity building.

Achievements in Commonwealth sustainable urban development

ComHabitat, established in 2005, is a partnership of the CCGHS and institutions across different levels of governance engaged in human settlement concerns. The network, representing organisations from Commonwealth central governments, local governments, professional bodies, civil society and business, aims to share approaches and advocate the concerns of developing countries for sustainable urban development. ComHabitat has since played a key role in: building a strong case for the integration of urban human settlements issues into Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers; placing human settlements within sustainable development work in the Commonwealth; deepening the understanding of local government officials and finance ministers about options for urban finance; sharing examples of multi-stakeholder approaches to human settlements development; increasing recognition that rural communities also benefit from the development of the urban areas; and examining the state of Commonwealth cities.

Reports

July 2010, ComHabitat. “Urban Challenges: Scoping the State of the Commonwealth’s Cities”