UN-Habitat Assembly 2023: The State of our Cities & Human Settlement & What To Do About It!
UN-Habitat Assembly is happening exactly on the same day with World Environment Day 2023 and, according to UN-HABITAT bosses, this is significant.
Well, I (Vicent or Nemvicx) and Miklah Life are attending this 5-day assembly at the UNEP Head Quarters in Nairobi, Kenya and, in this UN-Habitat Assembly Series, I will bring you all the relevant updates, thoughts, and sustainable entrepreneurship inspirations in relation to this assembly, sustainable cities, and SDGs, most especially the SDG11.
In this first article of the UN-Habitat Assembly series, I will briefly bring you the state of cities and human settlement around the world and in Uganda as has been inspired by the plenary session speakers as we opened or launched into the first day of the #UNHA2 assembly here in Kenya. Let’s dive into it!
UN-Habitat Assembly on the State of Cities & Human Settlement
In the 1990s, only a handful of the World Population lived in cities. Today, 58% of the world population live in cities, and more than 68% will be in cities by 2050, especially in Africa and Asia. Sadly, about 67% of city dwellers, especially in Africa, live a poor life! Most don’t have food, no water, no electricity, no nothing. Life in most cities is hell for most of us!
Look at this: More than 2/3 of the world’s wealth comes or resides in urban setup. And yet more than 1/3 of urban dwellers live in poverty across the world. Disasters like epidemics, wars, & climate change crisis affect city dwellers disproportionately! More than 68% of people displaced by wars, disasters, and other issues migrate towards and into cities. Cities, I mean terribly planned cities are literally a time bomb, a dangerous place for all of us! It’s time we planned for cities, for everyone that come or live in the city.
In Kenya, according to President William Kipchirchir Samoei Arap Ruto of Kenya, about 50% Kenyans live in the urban (well, between 28% to 67%). However, there are currently hundreds of slums, with 60-80% of urban dwellers living in slums. In Nairobi alone, about 60% of the city dwellers are in slums.
Most people don’t have proper housing! According to the president, they have a shortage of more than 2 million housing facilities for city dwellers, and 99% of the available houses are actually not affordable for an everyday person.
Luckily, for Kenyans and, yeah, if he is speaking the truth, Kenya is already on the move to tackle these challenges. The president says they plan to build more than 250,000 housing facilities per year (read here too) and plant billions of trees in the next few years. The president insists that the plan is already on the go!
BONUS: Kenya’s president literally asked everyone to feel at home, including those who plan to settle in this beautiful country. He says that, as a home to United Nations’ Head Quarters on Environment (UNEP), he doesn’t see why people should struggle with travel visas when coming home. He clearly stated they are planning to stop these visa issues and allow a free and easy movement of people to and from Kenya.
Well, Americans need to borrow a leaf here, shouldn’t they? The US is the home to United Nations General Assembly and almost everything else UN, right? However, their visa system, yeah, is kind of unwelcoming! How could they be a home to UN and yet make it incredibly hard to access the home?
Wait! They too have challenges as well! US has been challenged with terrorism and people who don’t view their superstrength in all things as a good thing. As such, it is possible that some people may not travel to or from US with good intentions, implying that the country needs to be a little careful with who gets the visa and visits their land.
Additionally, even with available visa restrictions, the US is still one of the most-diversified nation, welcoming all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds. As such, it can be too overwhelming for most of their embassies, resulting in visa application and appointment challenges. We may therefore have to understand their pain too.
However, when all is said and done, the world needs to work with the US and solve these bottle-necks. Or we just transfer the whole of the UN to Africa, probably to Uganda, right? Kidding!
Back to UN-Habitat Assembly and Human Cities & Settlement, let us briefly look at Uganda!
UN-Habitat Assembly & Uganda Cities!
In Uganda alone, current evidence shows that more than 25% of the current 46 million people live in cities. Kampala alone has 2.5-3 million people during the day and about 2m at night. In fact, it could be more than that since our data isn’t updated well. And by 2050, up to 50% of Uganda’s population will likely be living in cities.
Sadly, between 68% to 75% of people living in Uganda towns are actually living in slums where access to clean water, food, healthcare, electricity, education, and clean air is just a dream! In other words, count 10 people on the streets of Kampala, and about 8 of them are actually not living but just surviving!
COVID-19, recent conflicts in DRC, Sudan, Ukraine, and everywhere simply make it worse for an average person to live in these poorly planned cities. It is worst when it comes to refugees and those displaced from their homes.
Well, we can’t stop urbanization. In fact, urbanization is growing rapidly!
According to the UN General Secretary, #António Manuel de Oliveira #Guterres, cities and urban development are historically critical to all aspects of human growth and development. Isn’t it weird that Kampala literally rules the whole of Uganda? A messy Kampala will automatically lead to a messy Uganda!
According to António, innovations from cities make us who we are. Decisions made in cities determine our path. Wealth accumulated in cities ride our economy. Cities are essential to our growth and development. And all we can do is develop them better.
At the on-going #UN-HABITATAssembly (or #UNHA2) at the UNEP Head Quarters in Nairobi, Kenya, global leaders, policy makers, activists, youth and children, entrepreneurs, and all sorts of stakeholders are exploring how far we have come in terms of #SustainableCities and proper #HumanSettlement and achievement of #SDGs, especially SDG11, in times of crisis.
UN-Habitat Assembly: Miklah Life on Sustainable Cities & Settlement!
I and #MiklahLife are participating. As a home or innovation hub to #SustainableEntrepreneurs, #MiklahLife always brings one serious view to these meetings. Our discovery is that #Innovations and #SustainableEntrepreneurship provide an efficient and effective way to identify local challenges being faced by our people in urban set-up and apply innovative strategies to solve these issues. Entrepreneurship is a win, for it addresses specific issues while providing for our economic needs, alleviating poverty, and unemployment, especially among the youth.
Our belief is that sustainability (People. Profits. Planet together) is possible. This is what we have brought at this 5-day UN-HABITAT ASSEMBLY, and we hope for a better world, especially for all of us, as we move to various cities across the world.
Do you wanna be part of these efforts? How about joining us at https://miklahlife.com/sacrepreneur and see how we can work this out through sustainable entrepreneurship. Please, keep it #MiklahLife for all #UNHA2 updates and developments. Thank you.
