ESF/N-AERUS International Workshop Geneva, Palais des Nations - May 3-6, 2000 CITIES OF THE SOUTH: SUSTAINABLE FOR WHOM? CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVES

Urban environmental issues and sustainable development in cities have become much more prominent in both urban management and research during the last 10 years, with increased activity in these fields by European Institutions and their partners in developing countries. However, approaches to sustainable development in cities of the South have focussed too exclusively on narrow technical aspects of environmental protection. These approaches have only rarely benefited the large majority of urban residents and in many cases have delayed or negatively affected efforts by/for the most vulnerable groups to establish and protect self-directed efforts to build safe and healthy urban settlements. To tackle the increasingly pressing social and environmental problems facing residents in both central cities and their informal settlements inside and outside the core neighbourhoods, and to extend broad access to urban services to all households, political decision makers will have to heed the lessons of experience: solutions must be adapted to specific local situations. These solutions will combine new technologies that conserve natural resources with innovative forms of urban management and governance. Moreover, true solutions will respect political and social particularities and cultural diversity. Achieving this will require including in the decision-making process a broad array of social actors, including those heretofore excluded from it. Are the current technical rationales, financial underpinnings and the accelerated pace of globalisation compatible with sustainable development and environmental protection? In many developing countries, political problems are compounded by the disengagement of central and local governments, budget constraints, low and falling income levels, increasing inequalities between rich and poor and widespread spatial segregation. In this context, not even the less technologically sophisticated services can be provided to the poor, at least not on a strictly cost recovery basis. The ESF/N-AERUS workshop aims to tackle the problem of sustainable development in cities of the South by focussing on the interaction between technical/technological innovations and social change, and the appropriate integration of concerns in both spheres. Particular attention will be paid to the political, economic and social viability of new or alternative approaches that best increase access to adequate levels of basic services and healthy living and working conditions for all while balancing social, economic and technical concerns. We recognize that innovation is not limited only to North-South technology transfers. Thus, the workshop will examine and discuss new forms of international scientific exchange for improving environmental and living conditions in cities of the South, particular attention being given to the role the European research community can play in this process, jointly with their partners in the South.

PRESS RELEASE (May 2000) CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVES WORKSHOP PAPERS ORGANIZATION REGISTRATION CALL FOR PAPERS FORMAT OF PROPOSALS AND PAPERS

N-AERUS: Network-Association of European Researchers on Urbanisation in the South
http://www.naerus.net