UNITED NATIONS	HS
	Commission on Human Settlements	Distr. LIMITED HS/C/17/L.1/Add.2 10 May 1999 ORIGINAL: ENGLISH

1. The plenary considered item 5 at its 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th meetings, on 5, 6 and 7 May. It had before it the reports of the Executive Director on implementation of the Habitat Agenda (HS/C/17/3) and on the special session of the General Assembly for an overall review and appraisal of the implementation of the Habitat Agenda (HS/C/17/3/Add.1).

2. In his policy statement at the opening ceremony, the Acting Executive Director referred to the rapid rise in the levels of urbanization throughout the world and said that the twenty-first century, would be the urban century during which cities would significantly increase their economic, social and environmental roles. Economic growth in cities would also directly benefit the economic development of rural areas.

3. He also said that poverty was increasingly becoming an urban phenomenon in developing countries and that the urbanization of poverty had its severest impacts on women and children with the resulting deterioration of living conditions, especially in the developing countries. It was therefore all the more essential to ensure full implementation of the Habitat Agenda, which would require an effective Centre, profiled as a city agency reflecting the urban challenge for human settlements policies for the coming millennium. In order to support the implementation of the Habitat Agenda by Governments in both rural and urban areas, the Centre had chosen the issues of secure tenure and urban governance as strategic entry points for its work and its organizational structure.

4. He stressed that capacity and institution-building was required to secure lasting improvements in the processes and actions and that international cooperation and coordination were needed to help countries in their own efforts in implementing the Habitat Agenda.

5. All the delegations that addressed this item in the plenary debate underscored the importance of the implementation of the Habitat Agenda at the international, regional, national and local levels, also citing specific new programmes and policy initiatives that they had undertaken within their countries to achieve the goals of adequate shelter and sustainable urban development. A large number of delegations emphasized that strengthened international cooperation was essential for success in fulfilling the recommendations of Istanbul, with many calling specifically for increased financial resources for that purpose. A number of delegations referred to activities and programmes by the Centre that were making a contribution to efforts to achieve sustainable human settlements, with many stating their expectation that a revitalized (UNCHS) Habitat would be in an improved position to play its coordinating and focal-point role in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda.

6. While many delegations agreed that there was an urgent need to address the challenge of urbanization as a priority, a number also cautioned that efforts in that area should not be carried out at the expense of policies to improve rural settlements and develop rural areas, with some delegations explicitly requesting the Centre not to reduce its attention to rural settlements improvement in moving forward the Habitat Agenda.

7. With regard to the decentralization of the Centre's activities into regions as a strategy to provide greater proximity and direct assistance to member States and other partners, several delegations affirmed their support for that policy, while others expressed the opinion that the regionalization policy was still uneven in terms of the resulting benefits to the various regions.

8. In addition, a number of delegations said that, in recent years, armed conflict had exacted - and was continuing to exact - a heavy toll on human settlements and human settlements development, and several called on the Centre to provide reconstruction assistance to countries and regions suffering as a consequence of armed conflict and natural and human-made disasters.

(to be completed)