Housing Habitats ~ Short Article * 8

Well hello, stranger

I wanted to share a final housing article with you all. I know speaking about housing challenges can be depressing. We went on a field trip yesterday and most of my students didn't handle it well. Informal settlements/ townships/ slums in South Africa are in bad shape, and some communities give up completely. Some settlements exist because communities were made promises by running parties, but these promises were made to buy votes and nothing more. Fortunately, the UN-Habitat and other international organisations have been working on solving the housing crisis for decades. While much is still needed to be done, we are making progress how little it may be.

A Tuck shop extension that forms part of a house/ shack. I took this photo yesterday on our field trip.

The Habitat conferences were established in 1976 when the entire world saw the need for sustainable human settlement development. while it's been a few decades, only 3 official conferences have been held. But as of 2016, the world is moving to the NEW URBAN AGENDA. The Habitat program focuses on creating human settlements and not just housing. The program started in 1976 with Habitat I and was followed in 1996 with Habitat II. In 2016 the Habitat III conferences were held.

If you want more info go read the roadmap, it is interesting to see how far we have come over the few decades.

Habitat I

The conference was held in Canada as a result of the Environmental conference held in Stockholm. The Conference aimed to: encourage all governments to include human geography in their policies surrounding development and the creation of a society that is focused on urban issues. The conference placed emphasis on creating a United Nations Center for Human Settlements.

Habitat I was held in Canada in 1976. From this photo, you can see that plenty of people felt the need to attend this conference. Housing has been an issue for decades and we still struggle with it. Will we ever find a way to solve the issues at hand?

Source: https://issuu.com/marmarabelediyelerbirligi/docs/_ehir_toplum_say__14/s/10856119

The first goal allowed for territorial planning and management to be included in development plans. In 1969 it was clear that countries still made little to no progress to improve rural areas and reduce poverty.

The United Nations Centre for Human Settlements was created under the United Nations Commission on Human Settlements (UNCHS) in 1977. In 2002 the UNCHS was restructured as the United Nations Programme on Human Settlements and is now known as UN-Habitat.

The third goal promoted urban interests. This led to the creation of the Habitat International Coalition (HIC), which is responsible for groups that face evictions by their governments.

Habitat II

The Habitat II conference was held in 1996 in Istanbul. The conference was prepared after many meetings and reached local governments. The conference had a positive outcome and a proposal for “rights to housing” was made.

The opening of the Habitat II Conference in 1996. It's been a while hey!

Source:https://issuu.com/marmarabelediyelerbirligi/docs/_ehir_toplum_say__14/s/10856119

Habitat II acknowledged the urban environment but still failed to acknowledge climate change. The conference also gave little attention to globalisation and its impact on cities. The Habitat II conference still only focused on issues of human settlements within its own disciplines and did not acknowledge the issues in other disciplines.

The Habitat II conference had a lack of implementation and monitoring of the commitments proposed. The implementation of commitments was to be the responsibility of national and local governments. This however was not implemented by all countries.

Habitat III

Habitat I and Habitat II, both displayed effort of placing emphasis on challenges facing human settlements, but neither had an impact on low- and middle-income countries. City dynamics have changed and the most noteworthy changes include inequality, economic growth and climate change.

Finally Habitat III was held in 2016, 20 years after the second conference. And not much changed in those 20 years, in fact, I would argue things got worse as the demand for housing increased with the growing population.

Source:https://issuu.com/marmarabelediyelerbirligi/docs/_ehir_toplum_say__14/s/10856119

The Habitat III conference held in 2016, started to address these changes. In order for the conference to be successful more participation from more countries and governments was needed. New terms and recommendations had to be defined and understood by all governments. The urban agenda was linked to national urban policies. Financial resources would help to assist the national and local governments to achieve the goals of Habitat III. National and local governments were advised to monitor their cities.

We are not just aiming to give people shelter, but a place they can call home, a neighbourhood that is safe and caters to their needs, infrastructure and services... a Human Settlement.

Source: https://www.journeysinternational.com/extensions/quito-colonial-city-and-the-equator/

Sources

Please note that I make use of various articles to form my posts. All articles used are listed below. Feel free to download and read them!

• Cohen, M.A., 2016. From Habitat II to Pachamama: a growing agenda and diminishing expectations for Habitat III. Environment and Urbanization, 28(1), pp.35-48.

• Wilkinson, P., 1998. Housing policy in South Africa. Habitat International, 22(3), pp.215-229.