Neil Fraser
September 20, 2004
THE first World Urban Forum was held in early 2002 in Nairobi as something of a preparation, relative to urban issues, for the World Summit for Sustainable Development which was held later that year in Johannesburg. At the Forum, the Millennium Declaration was signed by all participating countries setting out an urban agenda with 2015 as the target date for achieving all goals. The rich countries, as part of the Declaration, evidently also signed an agreement to assist the poor countries to reach the goals.
The second World Urban Forum opened in Barcelona on Monday, 13 September. My portfolio was as a guest of the US who invited me to speak on a panel regarding public-private partnerships.
At the opening ceremony, speakers commented on the fact that a number of the rich countries who had committed themselves to the Declaration had done nothing to honour their pledges. Professor Jeffrey Sachs, the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals, pulled no punches. The target agreed to was a contribution of 0.7 percent of each country's GDP, but in four years the contribution only measures 0.23 percent.
The biggest culprit, he said, was his own country, the US which represents half of the shortfall and has so far provided the smallest contribution. He pointed out that the $60 billion they owe is less than the cost of the war they are waging in Iraq. Much of the world is being swept by uncontrolled violence, he said, but the answer lay in addressing the underlying forces rather than dealing with it by force.
Ex-President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev was not quite as specific, but equally as critical. "Four years ago," he said, "when world leaders adopted the Millennium Declaration, it seemed that they recognised the urgency of the problems. But all of us today are concerned that many leaders, having taken that step, have not shown the political will to implement them and take on the obligations they assumed. We have to be frank: we cannot leave the Millennium commitments to the same fate as the Rio document of 1992."
In a message read to the Forum, the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan stated that; "Cities are recognised as national engines of economic growth. But they are much more. Cities are also the crucible for cultural fusion. Standing astride every intersection on the global network of trade and migration, the world's cities must become shining examples of inclusiveness and equity as called for in the Millennium Declaration. Otherwise they will remain potential flashpoints of conflict and reservoirs of poverty barriers to humanity's further development."
Apart from these three powerful inputs, the three-hour Opening Ceremony included other contributions from a virtual United Nations - Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele, our ex-Minister of Housing who was the outgoing Chair; Maria Antonia Trujillo, incoming chair and Minister for Housing for Spain; Joan Clos, Mayor of Barcelona, Pasqual Maragall, President Generelalitat Catalonia; Pieter van Geel, State Secretary for Spatial Planning, Housing and the environment for the Netherlands; Martti Ahtisaari, former President of Finland; and Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-Habitat.
I'm not including that long list to fill up space, but to emphasise that, in just the last four years, cities have moved strongly onto the world agenda. The first World Urban Forum attracted just over a thousand delegates, and this, the second, reputedly attracted 5 000, including 600 mayors! As Sachs said, "The largest issue in the world today, is to make globalisation work for everyone."
The opening ceremony ended with a Special Citation of the Habitat Scroll of Honour to the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafic Hariri, for the reconstruction of Lebanon in just 10 years following 16 years of violence and destruction in that country. In his acceptance speech, Hariri said that following three years of reconciliation from the end of hostilities in 1990, the reconstruction of the country started with no priorities for any one place - everything, everywhere was treated as a priority! He ended with an impassioned plea for the creation of an independent Palestinian state and withdrawal by foreign forces from Iraq without which no peace would come to the Middle East.
So, from this stirring beginning, the Forum moved into its more mundane work - more about that next week. For now, let me speak about the venue for the Forum, interestingly also known as Forum Barcelona 2004.
Barcelona has recognised that it grows in a very special way when it focuses both public and private sectors on a special event. This was evidently the case in both 1888 and 1929 when the city was the site for World Expositions and, more recently, when the Olympic Games was hosted by the city. The first two occasions resulted in the renovation of the Parc de la Ciutadella and the Montjuic area respectively, including the rationalisation of the metro system. The Olympic Games, apart from providing world-class sports facilities and extensive housing, also resulted in the renovation of part of the city's coastline and a new roadway network.
After the success of the 1992 Olympics, the city felt that there was sufficient reason to look for a new major project that would continue to promote the city's growth and its international reputation. As there wasn't an event on the horizon, the city decided to invent one "looking towards the future, focusing on culture and dealing with current concerns, an event that would give dialogue a leading role and that had the capacity to project itself and become consolidated as a new type of international event." So, the Universal Forum of Cultures was born to focus on cultural diversity, sustainable development and conditions for peace.
Documentation describing the project states: "The Forum can be defined as a newly conceived international event that offers a new and creative space for thinking about and exchanging experience on the principal challenges facing the world in the 21st century. The Forum is offered as a great meeting place for dialogue and reflection on topics that interest the whole of humanity."
The city chose an area which was greatly in need of urban revitalisation.
It is an area of some 200 acres which houses ageing nuclear power plants, waste incinerator plants and dumps, wastewater plants and a low-income housing development built in the 1950s which, whilst providing accommodation for 10 000 persons, is extremely distressed physically and economically, with 48 percent of its inhabitants unemployed. "The space had become chaotic and inhospitable, beaches had been destroyed and an aquifer that had once been a source of wealth and beauty had become a parody of itself."
The project has a 10-year programme, and will cost 2 860 billion euros, of which 1 232 billion is public money. It will provide 2 500 new residential units, 1,4 million square metres of floor space and create 14 000 new jobs.
As part of the project, the river mouth on which the project is situated is to be cleaned up; the nuclear power station transformed into a combined cycle power plant; a biological sewage treatment plant and a district heating and cooling plant built; a massive rainwater retention tank and a pneumatic garbage collection system will be provided; the second largest public square in the world (after Tiananmen Square) will be created together with an Auditorium Park and Peace Park, a swimming area and a marina for 1 000 vessels.
A massive Forum building seating 3 200 people and a great deal more much of this has now been completed and this was the venue for the Second World Urban Forum.
More next week, but don't you love the Barcelona approach? If there isn't a big enough event on the cards, invent one!
