'Children are often more vulnerable to the negative effects of a polluted environment than adults are, especially in urban areas. However, they are not just young innocent victims. They also represent a largely untapped potential resource for encouraging and influencing people to adopt more sustainable behaviour patterns. We, adults, should take our responsibility to involve them in the planning and decision-making processes more seriously, so that they have a chance to influence the present and more...

The League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP), the umbrella organization for Philippine cities recently marked the completion of the third phase of the City Development Strategies (CDS 3) project, implemented with support from the Cities Alliance and the World Bank. At a workshop it held in Quezon City, attended by city mayors, CDS local teams, consultants, development partners, financing institutions and national government officials the LCP spotlighted the project achievements of the 15 CDS3 c more...

The following statement was issued in Geneva by the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on adequate housing, Raquel Rolnik, on the occasion of World Habitat Day . 'Can we celebrate today World Habitat Day with joy and hope?' This year's theme is 'Harmonious Cities.' Are the world cities heading towards harmony? One of every three city dwellers lives in a slum. The growth of slums in the last 15 years has been unprecedented. Today there are approximately 998 million slum dwellers in th more...

Addressing environmental degradation and ensuring environmental sustainability are inextricably linked to the World Bank Group’s mandate to reduce poverty and improve people’s lives. The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), an independent unit within the World Bank Group, has examined Bank Group support for environmental sustainability from 1990 to 2007. While there are difficulties in comparing the experience in the public and private sectors, a contribution of this evaluation is in bringing more...

'The quality of the environment in urban areas is of vital importance. It is one of the main factors that determine whether a city is a healthy place to live, whether we enjoy living there, and whether we want our children to grow up there.

One of the key issues affecting the quality of the environment and the quality of life in our towns and cities is road traffic. Heavy motor traffic means poor air quality, unacceptable levels of noise and a weakened sense
of neighbourhood and local commun more...

'The challenge of urbanization in Asia is unprecedented — some 1.1 billion people will move to cities in the next 20 years. Managing Asian Cities aims to provide a useful management resource, canvassing key issues and pointing managers to appropriate responses to problems; and, second, provide the initial step in a new phase of ADB’s continuing support to Asian cities under its Strategy 2020.

The study is organized in two parts. The first reviews the existing situation. The second present more...

By Francesco Bandarin, Director, World Heritage Centre, UNESCO. 'Just weeks after the fall of the Taliban regime and at the end of two decades of war and civil unrest, Kabul looks at itself. The predominant landscape is made of ruins. Hundreds of buildings levelled by years of crossfire. The major urban infrastructures, roads, waterways, public buildings, chopped and torn into pieces. Monuments and museums devastated and ransacked. Groups of homeless people wander around the ruins and squat wher more...

By M. Vitor Serra, Lead Urban Specialist, The World Bank. 'The poor, worldwide, resort to all sorts of means to house themselves in the face of a housing industry and policies that fail to provide them with affordable options. In the last fifty years, as rural to urban migration expanded across all regions, the practice of self-help housing resulted in vast housing settlements which have baffled governments and society. At times, urbanization itself was put to blame for exacerbating this problem more...

By Jeffrey Soule, American Planning Association’s representative in China and the South East Asia. Li Yuanchao is Party Secretary of the Jiangsu Province. Interview with Li Yuanchao translated by Rime Sun. 'The Capital of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing is an important educational, cultural and transportation center in the lower Yangtze area of Eastern China, a region rich in agricultural, industrial and cultural resources. Nanjing’s policies and programs will influence other cities in both the re more...

By Uri Savir, Founder and President of The Glocal Forum, President of the Peres Center for Peace, and architect of the Oslo Peace Accords. He formerly served as the Head of the Israeli Foreign Service. 'Despite high hopes for the new millennium, the twenty-first century has been characterized thus far by economic, social and political instability. International terrorism, corporate scandals, and various ethnic and military conflicts have flourished, whereas globalization’s once-hailed promises more...