Despite recent news that DFID is cutting its budget to UN Habitat (the United Nations agency promoting sustainable urban development), there are a growing number of organisations putting the management of rapid urbanisation at the top of the sustainable development agenda. In January this year, the ‘Brussels Urban Declaration’ committed all EU institutions to closer work with UN-HABITAT and supported institutional capacity building of local authorities as a priority.

Mr Andris Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Development has highlighted that “without a significant reduction in urban poverty, our overarching goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015 will become all the more distant.”

The ‘Brussels Urban Declaration’ committed EU institutions to promote sustainable urban development as part of the international agenda and recognise cities as engines for growth, social stability, mobility and energy efficiency. It called upon governments at all levels to develop and increase partnerships to build local authority capacity and improve urban initiatives on water and sanitation, housing, transport, planning, security, waste, pollution, climate change and finance systems. Increased cooperation, coordination and support for urban development programmes was also recommended.

Read more  Download text of Brussels Urban Declaration.