| GB.267/5
267th Session Geneva, November 1996 |
FIFTH ITEM ON THE AGENDA
Report on the Second United Nations Conference
on Human Settlements (Habitat II)
(Istanbul, 3-15 June 1996)
I. Introduction
1. The Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements was held in Istanbul from 3 to 15 June 1996. The Conference was attended by over 3,000 government delegates representing 171 UN member States, approximately 600 representatives of local authorities and over 2,000 accredited NGO representatives. During the High-Level Segment of the Conference (12-14 June) some 110 speakers, including five Presidents, two Vice-Presidents, and six Prime Ministers, addressed the Conference. The work of the Conference was organized in plenary sittings and two committees.
2. The Conference was preceded by a series of Partners' Fora. The ILO participated in the World Business Forum (30 May-2 June 1996), the Trade Unions Forum (31 May-1 June 1996) and the World Assembly of Cities and Local Authorities Forum (30-31 May 1996). The parallel NGO Forum 96, held during the Conference, registered 8,550 NGO participants, and over 1,700 NGO meetings and events were held.
3. The ILO delegation was led by Ms. Katherine Hagen, Deputy Director-General, who made a statement on behalf of the ILO to the plenary sitting on 6 June 1996(1) and gave a press conference on 4 June. Ms. Hagen's address highlighted the relationship between employment and the urban crisis and the ILO's contribution in assisting governments and social partners to realize the goals of the Conference: "adequate shelter for all" and "sustainable human settlements in an urbanizing world".
4. The Conference included a series of ten Dialogues for the 21st Century which brought together a wide range of actors to debate and identify future strategies and actions for an urbanizing planet. The ILO was entrusted to organize the Dialogue on the Future of Urban Employment, which took place on 5 June. An ILO report with the same title as the Dialogue and prepared for Habitat II was discussed with the active participation of 500 delegates representing governments, trade unions, employers' organizations, academic institutions, UNDP and UN agencies, World Bank, IMF, OECD, non-governmental organizations and other actors from civil society. The Dialogue comprised two panel discussions focusing on the following themes: Globalization and the future of the formal and informal urban economies and Poverty and unemployment: From safety nets to social assets.
5. The debate on globalization and the urban informal economy in the first panel of the ILO's Dialogue highlighted two sides of the issue of informalization, one linked to low productivity and unprotected employment, the other viewing informality as concomitant with the liberalization of international trade and greater flexibility of labour markets. The growth in the informal economy in all regions was viewed as an integral feature of economic development at the close of the twentieth century. The desirability of this phenomenon was the subject of sharp debate, as was the impact of globalization on employment. Some speakers viewed globalization as a negative phenomenon, leading to greater inequality both between and within nations, whereas others viewed it as providing new opportunities for economic development, and consequently for growth in employment. There was, however, consensus that the growth of the informal economy was associated with growing marginalization and social exclusion, a feature common to developing, transitional and industrialized regions of the world.
6. The second part of the Dialogue, the panel discussion on the social assets of the poor, the panel discussed the role of community organizations and of government policy in alleviating urban poverty and unemployment. Whereas many speakers advocated policies that favoured the self-reliance of the urban poor, trade union representatives argued that the social assets of the poor should not absolve governments of their responsibilities for providing quality employment. The panellists also presented lessons learned in community mobilization for job creation in urban poor communities in diverse settings, ranging from Chicago to Dakar.
7. The overall impact of the Dialogue was to highlight the similarities between poor urban communities in different regions, and a consensus was reached at the conclusion of the Dialogue on the creation and protection of employment as the most direct and effective means available for alleviating the urban crisis. Participants also affirmed the crucial role that the ILO has to play in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. Participants viewed the ILO Dialogue as one of the most successful of the ten thematic Habitat II Dialogues for the 21st Century, a view that was echoed in the exceptional press coverage given to this event.
8. Habitat II provided a unique opportunity for representatives of civil society to participate directly in the Conference itself. Committee II, in particular, was a setting for hearings and dialogues between governments and representatives of local authorities, trade unions, the business community, NGOs, parliamentarians, foundations, the scientific community and other groups. In addition, the results of both the pre-Conference Partners' Fora and the Habitat II Dialogues for the 21st Century were reported to Committee II and were thereby included in the proceedings and results of the Conference.
9. The ILO contributed in two ways to the work of Committee II. On 7 June the ILO participated with a statement to Committee II during the hearings for representatives of UN agencies. On 11 June the ILO reported a second time to Committee II as the organizer of the Dialogue on the Future of Urban Employment (No. 4). During these hearings, the ILO presented the outline of an urban employment programme, based on the Urban Employment Charter adopted at the ILO's preparatory symposium for Habitat II.(2) The ILO stressed the importance of devising new and innovative macroeconomic policies with employment creation as an explicit goal, the need to redistribute equitably the fruits of growth, the importance of local alliances for job creation, the opportunities offered by employment-intensive investment in infrastructure and the need to redesign the regulatory environment to create and protect employment, particularly with regard to the urban informal sector.
10. ILO activities at the Conference received considerable media coverage both in the national and international press. Television and radio interviews were conducted by members of the ILO delegation, and the background paper The future of urban employment received special attention.
11. In parallel with the general exchange of views taking place in plenary sitting and the partners' hearings in Committee II, Committee I had the responsibility to prepare the main conference document The Habitat Agenda: Goals and Principles, Commitments and Global Plan of Action. This Committee met from 3 to 14 June to examine and resolve the many outstanding issues that had not been resolved during the preparatory committees for Habitat II. These included the right to housing, good governance and human rights issues, the concept of sustainable development, the role of UNCHS (Habitat) in follow-up on the Conference, financial resources for implementing the Habitat Agenda, overseas development assistance and UN-agreed aid targets. In addition, issues of direct interest to the ILO on employment-related matters were well reflected in the Habitat Agenda, in particular those relating to the importance of job creation for sustainable human settlements and for poverty alleviation, the links between shelter infrastructure and employment, the application of fundamental labour standards of the ILO and policies with regards to the informal sector. These ILO concerns within the Habitat Agenda are discussed below in section II.
12. At the concluding plenary session, which ended at 3.20 a.m. in the morning of Saturday, 15 June 1996, the Istanbul Declaration and the Habitat Agenda were adopted by the Conference. The ILO's role in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda, in particular with regard to the ACC Task Force on Employment and Sustainable Livelihoods and within the context of UN mechanisms for following up on other major UN conferences, is discussed below in section III.
II. Outcome of the Conference
13. The main conference documents were the Istanbul Declaration, a high-level statement of political commitment, and the Habitat Agenda, which is a global call for action towards the achievement of the sustainable development of the world's human settlements -- cities, towns and villages -- over the next 25 years. In the Istanbul Declaration, which was prepared during the Conference by an open-ended drafting group, governments "endorse the universal goals of ensuring adequate shelter for all and making human settlements safer, healthier, more livable, equitable, sustainable and more productive". The Declaration recognizes the need to "address comprehensively, inter alia, unsustainable consumption and production patterns, particularly in industrialized countries; unsustainable population changes; [...]; homelessness; increasing poverty; unemployment; social exclusion; family instability; inadequate resources; lack of basic infrastructure and services; lack of adequate planning; growing insecurity and violence; environmental degradation and increased vulnerability to disasters".
14. The Habitat Agenda begins with a preamble, followed by a nine-part statement of goals and principles and a set of six commitments for government action. The fourth part of the Habitat Agenda contains the Global Plan of Action, which sets out strategies for its implementation. The document in particular makes recommendations and proposes action with regard to the following specific areas of ILO interest: the creation and protection of employment, international labour standards, poverty alleviation, economic development, tripartite participation, the role of the private sector, gender equality, small and micro-enterprise development, labour-intensive approaches for the delivery of infrastructure, the impact of the construction industry on employment, the urban informal sector, vocational training and rehabilitation, indigenous and tribal peoples, cooperatives, occupational safety and health, environment and the world of work, and migration and employment.
15. Some of the main issues within the Habitat Agenda of direct relevance to the ILO are briefly summarized in the following paragraphs. A summary such as this cannot, of course, do full justice to the texts themselves.
Employment, economic development and poverty eradication
16. The Habitat Agenda contains a set of ten goals and principles, one of which states that "the eradication of poverty is essential for sustainable human settlements" and that this principle is based on the framework adopted by the World Summit on Social Development, including "the objective of enabling all women and men to attain secure and sustainable livelihoods through freely chosen and productive employment and work". The Global Plan of Action stresses the importance of "an economic environment capable of generating employment opportunities", and contains two sections of particular interest to the ILO's constituents, one entitled Social development: Eradication of poverty, creation of productive employment and social integration, the other on Improving urban economies. The first section states that "the eradication of poverty requires, inter alia, sound macroeconomic policies aimed at creating employment opportunities, equal and universal access to economic opportunities (and special efforts to facilitate such access for the disadvantaged); education and training that will promote sustainable livelihoods through freely chosen productive employment and work ...". Urban economic development is specifically linked to job creation. The Global Plan of Action recognizes that many new jobs will have to be created in urban areas and that "urban economies are a prerequisite for the creation of a diversified economic base capable of generating employment opportunities".
Infrastructure investment policies and
the role of the private sector
17. Within the context of the Habitat Agenda, human settlements are much more than housing: the concept embraces the living and working environment in both rural and urban areas. The Habitat Agenda then devotes considerable attention to the positive relationship between shelter and employment, from the perspective of the formal sector construction industry, as well as from that of small-scale construction enterprises and of the informal sector. The Global Plan of Action furthermore states that "Governments at the appropriate levels including local authorities, in partnership with all relevant parties, including workers' and employers' organizations, should encourage the location of employment opportunities near and in the home, particularly for women living in poverty and people with disabilities". Governments are also called upon "to promote, in those countries where it may be appropriate, the use of labour-intensive construction and maintenance technologies that generate employment in the construction sector for the underemployed labour force found in most large cities, at the same time promoting the development of skills in the construction sector". Governments are encouraged to make use of contracts with community-based organizations and with the informal sector, where appropriate, particularly for the upgrading of low-income settlements. Finally, it is proposed "to strengthen the capacity of both public and private sectors for infrastructure delivery through cost-effective, employment-intensive methods, where appropriate, thereby optimizing the impact on the creation of employment".
International labour standards, tripartite participation
and the protection of working conditions
18. The Habitat Agenda calls upon governments, in partnership with employers' and workers' organizations, to "pursue the goal of ensuring quality jobs and safeguard the basic rights and interests of workers, and to this end freely promote respect for relevant International Labour Organization Conventions, including those on the prohibition of forced and child labour, freedom of association, the right to organize and bargain collectively, and the principle of non-discrimination". Particular attention is given to "the extension to the informal sector of protection of human rights in the field of labour", including respect for the relevant ILO Conventions. As regards partnerships, the Habitat Agenda stresses the importance of full participation by employers' and workers' organizations in the provision of social protection and for implementing policies and programmes for employment creation. Furthermore, the Global Plan of Action calls upon governments to "promote safe and healthy workplace conditions", to take account of "environmental risks in the home and workplace" and to "improve policies that reduce environmental health hazards and provide the informal sector and all workers with accessible information on how to enhance occupational safety and reduce health risks". The Global Plan of Action also recommends "the development of environmentally sound and affordable construction methods and production and distribution of building materials, including strengthening the indigenous building materials industry, based as far as possible on locally available resources".
Enterprise development and the urban informal economy
19. The Habitat Agenda recognizes the growing importance of the urban informal sector for employment creation and recommends that informal sector enterprises be assisted "to become more productive and progressively integrated into the formal economy". Furthermore, fair treatment of the informal sector, and of small and micro enterprises, and enterprises in the cooperative sector, is encouraged, including access to land, credit, finance, education and vocational training. Governments are also called upon:
- to promote contracting and procurement that, as appropriate, facilitate the involvement of the local private sector, including small businesses and contractors, and, when appropriate, the informal sector and the community sector in the provision of basic public goods and services;
- to integrate, where appropriate, the needs of the growing informal sector within planning, design and management systems by, inter alia, promoting its participation in the planning and decision-making process and by strengthening its linkages with the formal economy.
20. With regard to implementation and follow-up on the Habitat Agenda, "Governments have the primary responsibility of implementing the Habitat Agenda". However, "other relevant bodies and organizations of the United Nations system also have an important role to play in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. The United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) and all relevant bodies and organizations of the United Nations system should take into account the Habitat Agenda with a view to implementing it in their respective fields of competence".
21. UN specialized agencies "are urged to consider and identify the specific actions they will undertake to meet the priorities identified in the Habitat Agenda". Furthermore, "all relevant specialized agencies and related organizations of the United Nations system are invited to strengthen and adjust their activities, programmes and medium-term strategies within their mandates, as appropriate, to take into account follow-up on Habitat II, particularly at the field level. Relevant governing bodies should examine their policies, programmes, budgets and activities in this regard".
III. Implications for the ILO
22. The Habitat Agenda is very satisfactory from the point of view of the ILO. International labour standards, principles and areas of expertise are well reflected in the final texts. The Habitat Agenda confirms the continuity of the creation and protection of freely chosen and productive employment as a central issue advocated by the ILO's constituents at the Social Summit and as reflected throughout this decade's series of major UN conferences. The Habitat Agenda addresses the interrelated realities of urbanization and globalization and their relation to the creation and protection of employment in the formal and informal economies. The Agenda also addresses policies and programmes for local and regional employment and the centrality of job creation to the goals of Habitat II. This satisfactory outcome is due in no small measure to the fact that ILO constituents from all three groups played a very active role throughout the preparatory process and at the Conference itself. Habitat II brought together the goals and commitments of the World Summit for Social Development, integrating thereby the issues of poverty eradication, employment creation and the fight against social exclusion as they are played out at the local level.
23. The ILO is in a position to play its part within the UN system to follow up on the Habitat Agenda on those aspects falling within its mandate. Such activities will involve active participation in the work of the UN Economic and Social Council, and in particular its substantive session in 1997, which is invited to review follow-up on the Agenda. These deliberations will be based, in turn, on the results of the fifty-first session of the General Assembly, which includes an agenda item on Implementation of the outcome of the second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II). In addition, the ILO will continue to participate in the work of the Commission on Human Settlements and to cooperate with and coordinate programmes in the fields of shelter and employment with the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat). Furthermore, it can be anticipated that the ILO will be called upon to help develop national and local-level capacities, including those of employers' and workers' organizations, for the implementation of the Habitat Agenda.
24. Finally, the ILO may wish to consider consolidating some of its current activities in an urban employment programme specifically geared to the employment-related aspects of the Habitat Agenda, financed largely from extra-budgetary resources. Such a programme would focus on the comparative advantage of the ILO's social partners, in cooperation with local government authorities and community-based organizations, in spearheading local alliances with the objective of creating and protecting employment in an urbanizing world. Such a programme would also promote employment-intensive investments for sustainable job creation and review local regulations with a view to their impact on the urban informal sector.
25. The Governing Body may wish --
- to welcome the adoption of the Habitat Agenda: Goals and Principles, Commitments and Global Plan of Action, and in particular, the recognition given by the second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements to the role of the ILO in employment-related areas;
- to request the Director-General to ensure that the ILO is actively involved in the action taken by the United Nations system to implement the Habitat Agenda, that such follow-up is incorporated into appropriate ILO programmes and activities, as reflected in the Office's proposals for the Programme and Budget for 1998-99, and that the ILO's constituents and field structure are fully involved, since implementation will take place mainly at the national and local levels;
- to ensure that ILO activities on Habitat II are integrated into the follow-up machinery of the World Summit for Social Development, and in particular that issues relating to urban and local-level employment, including the informal sector, are addressed through the ILO's leadership of the UN Inter-agency Task Force on Employment and Sustainable Livelihoods.
Geneva, 1 October 1996.
Point for decision: Paragraph 25.
2 International Symposium on the Future of Urban Employment, Turin, 1995. See also GB.264/ESP/4/1: United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) and the ILO International Symposium on the Future of Urban Employment and GB.265/ESP/3/1: ILO participation in the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II), Istanbul, 3-14 June.
Appendix
Address by Ms. Katherine Hagen, Deputy Director-General
of the International Labour Office, to the
Second United Nations Conference on
Human Settlements (Habitat II)
(Istanbul, 6 June 1996)
Mr. Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Habitat II Conference is unique. First, it is the last in this decade's series of major summit-level UN conferences and thus has the responsibility for bringing together the range of thematic issues addressed by the previous conferences as they are played out at the local level. Second, Habitat II is linking global and local issues in innovative ways -- creating new opportunities for local actors to be involved in the Conference itself and in the follow-up process. Given the importance of employment to the issues addressed by this Conference, the ILO has been actively supporting the Habitat II preparatory process and brings to this Conference a special tripartite perspective of its own.
The ILO is also unique in that throughout its 77-year history, its Members have been not only governments, but also representative organizations of employers and workers. In the twenty-first century, these partners are called on to reconcile the benefits of a global market economy with the workers' right to social protection and security of employment. For a Conference which has been billed as "A Conference of Partners", and for a Conference which has "partnership" as one of its guiding goals and principles, the ILO's tripartite constituency made up of employers, workers and governments cannot but strengthen and legitimize the results of Habitat II.
We have now before us a framework in the form of the Habitat Agenda and its Global Plan of Action. Our aspirations for adequate shelter for all and sustainable human settlements development in an urbanizing world are laid out in detail in these documents, and we are committing ourselves to achieving these goals at the international, national and local levels, particularly by developing new ways of working together, by bringing together the public and private sectors and by involving local communities, neighbourhoods and civil society. We now face the challenge of translating these aspirations into realistic accomplishments, into concrete results. The real job lies ahead of us.
We have heard, over and over, that more than half of the world's population will be urban dwellers by the beginning of the twenty-first century. A growing urban population inevitably means a growing urban labour force. Currently 2.3 billion people are economically active. The ILO projects that another 1.2 billion people will be added to the world's labour force by the year 2025. The overwhelming majority of the jobs that will be required to match this increasing supply of workers will have to be created in our cities. We also anticipate that almost all of this addition to the world's labour force, in fact 99 per cent, will be in today's low- and middle-income countries.
The changing structure of employment also means that urban areas will take on greater importance as future centres of employment. In the developed countries, mainly urban-based service activities now account for nearly 60 per cent of all employment. While in the developing countries, the share of non-agricultural employment grew by 93 per cent between 1950 and 1990 and now accounts for nearly 40 per cent of all employment.
Changes in the types of jobs in the formal sector do not reflect what is happening in the informal sector. Despite the overall growth of the modern sector, in many parts of the developing world this has not been sufficient to absorb the ever-growing urban labour force. As a result the urban informal sector is now a major employer. In sub-Saharan Africa, the urban informal sector is estimated to employ over 60 per cent of the urban labour force. In Latin America and the Caribbean it is estimated that 83 out of every 100 new jobs created between 1990 and 1993 were in the informal sector. Many of these jobs are poorly remunerated, unsafe and of low productivity.
Women in particular are adversely affected by these deteriorating labour market trends. In Africa, the rates of open urban unemployment for women are often double those for men and continue to rise. In transitional economies, the closure of state enterprises and the shift towards a market-based economy have resulted in high levels of female unemployment. By way of example, during the early years of this decade, women made up 62 and 78 per cent of all registered unemployed in Eastern Germany and in Russia respectively.
These historic shifts are having a profound impact on the growth of poverty and social exclusion, which are at the core of many of the urban ills, and a threat to the sustainability of our cities. Productive employment is one of the best means available of combating poverty. Employment is also the best way to bring in the resources necessary to make the urban world of the twenty-first century manageable and to ensure that the required basic investments and urban services are affordable and therefore self-sustaining.
Similarly building, upgrading and maintaining shelter -- and shelter goes far beyond just housing and includes the whole urban living and working environment -- have strong employment impacts. Moreover, from micro enterprises based in urban slums and informal settlements, to those working out of their homes with telephones and computers, to the majority of the world's women who still bear the burden of unpaid domestic work, the home and the workplace are one and the same. This Conference on Human Settlements is therefore very much a Conference on where the world works, and increasingly that work is being carried out in cities.
The ILO has played an active role at all the major UN conferences of this decade, from the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit to the Beijing Women's Conference. At the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen, 1995, the ILO was designated as the lead agency within the UN system for implementing the employment objectives of the Programme of Action. The thread linking ILO's involvement in all of these conferences with Habitat II is the message that the protection and creation of productive, appropriately remunerated and freely chosen employment is the key, and indeed the precondition, to a more equitable and prosperous future.
Rapid urbanization, globalization and technological change are bringing about momentous challenges that require new and innovative responses. Not only national economies, but also urban economies are being brought together in the global market-place. Competitive pressures have increased and have impelled changes in industrial structure, in the organization of work and in skill requirements. In such an interconnected environment, cities must develop the capacity and be given or create the resources necessary for urban employment policies which can optimize the benefits of a global economy while at the same time minimizing the cost of destabilizing shocks.
In Turin, Italy, last year, the ILO held an International Symposium on the Future of Urban Employment, which brought together representatives from national and local governments, and from employers' and workers' organizations to stimulate discussion on these issues. The Symposium concluded with the adoption of an Urban Employment Charter, which is available to this Conference, and which recognizes the crucial role of local authorities in creating employment. This Charter offers a number of practical solutions which the ILO will be actively promoting for the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. Municipal and local governments have the flexibility and facility to forge local alliances; they are well positioned to create an enabling regulatory environment for enterprise development, and, increasingly, they are able to direct investments in infrastructure and basic urban services into more employment-intensive directions.
The Charter also calls for the creation of local public-private sector alliances for employment creation. Enterprise development, particularly of small and medium enterprises, can be major generators of new jobs. In the crucial area of human resource development, such partnerships have already become widespread, with private sector enterprises playing a major role in defining and providing skills training for the future. Developing human capital is critical to creating sustainable urban growth and to minimizing the social cost of the urban crisis. In many countries, local governments, business leaders and other members of the local community are joining forces to address the urban crisis, particularly among the long-term unemployed and socially excluded, by finding ways to revitalize declining sectors and to enhance the competitiveness of growing sectors. These new alliances are helping to adapt the workforce to the requirements of the changing workplace in a globalizing and increasingly competitive environment.
What strategies will we need to combat unemployment, poverty and social exclusion? The ILO believes that the promotion of employment-intensive growth is such a strategy. It is one thing to recognize the importance of employment creation, but it is another actually to know how to generate new and better jobs. Employment-intensive investment policies are perhaps the most powerful tool at the disposal of municipal authorities. Developing countries invest $200 billion annually in infrastructure, about one-fifth of total investments. But much of that investment rarely touches the lives of the poorest urban dwellers -- housing, roads, drainage, sewage and water systems are inadequate for the needs of many millions of urban poor. A labour-intensive approach to building municipal infrastructure and providing services can be a cost-effective and high-quality alternative to traditional equipment-based investment policies. Such a strategy furthermore helps raise productivity while improving working conditions in the urban informal sector which is a largely untapped productive resource for employment-oriented development.
The Habitat II Dialogue on the Future of Urban Employment which was held yesterday brought together a diversity of actors and viewpoints to debate this question. Together with the discussions that have taken place in the Trade Union Forum, in the World Business Forum, and in the World Assembly of Cities and Local Authorities Forum, as well as in the other Partners' Fora, a wealth of ideas have been generated which the ILO will carefully examine with a view to making its commitment to social justice fit the requirements of an urban future. Let me invite all of you to join with us in translating these ideas into action, in the follow-up to Habitat II. Such action should include practical programmes, the creation and protection of employment for the alleviation of social exclusion and the eradication of poverty.
Here I would like to mention particularly the Urban Poverty Partnership programme which the ILO is developing in collaboration with UNDP, UNCHS and other partners within and outside the UN system. This programme capitalizes on the ILO's long-standing experience in employment-intensive investment policies and in informal sector development. It is one example amongst others of a down-to-earth framework for translating many of the good intentions of the Habitat Agenda into practical results.
Just as the world we are living in is rapidly becoming an urban world, a world of cities, it is also becoming a world of divides, with seemingly entrenched divisions between rich neighbourhoods and poor neighbourhoods, between the employed and unemployed, between the socially privileged and the socially excluded, and between the good jobs and the bad jobs. This situation cannot go on. If left untreated, it will lead to a downward spiral of injustice, economic decay and social instability. It is the goal of both the ILO and that of the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements to reverse this trend and turn cities of want and despair into cities of work and hope. Let us join together to advance the objectives of adequate shelter for all and of sustainable human settlements by committing ourselves to creating and protecting full, productive and appropriately remunerated employment and work.