United States of America (Part 1)
CSD-13 Interactive Discussion on Human Settlements
Remarks by Daniel Rochberg, U.S. Department of State
April 12, 2005
Thank you, Madam Chair.
The challenge of human settlements is a perfect example of the distributed nature of the
challenge we face. The difficult challenge of improving the lives of slum dwellers, of providing
access to basic services, is being faced city-by-city, region-by-region, around the world.
The solutions to these challenges will not likely be top-down, centralized solutions. The efforts
to address these challenges are increasingly spread out, increasingly specialized, and increasingly
local.
To reiterate comments made by my colleague from Indonesia, as well as by our distinguished
panelists, the distributed nature of this problem underscores the need for us to share best
practices and lessons learned.
In that regard, we welcome the CSD Chairman?s matrix from the Intergovernmental Preparatory
Meeting. This document not only identifies policy options and practical measures, but specific
examples of how those practical measures have been implemented. Some have commented that
the examples column is a bit thin right now, but it is a good start. We have heard some more
good case studies today, which we hope will be taken into account, and ultimately added to the
matrix.
Related to this, we want to highlight and welcome paragraph 4 of the decision taken last week by
the UN Habitat Governing Council regarding CSD-13. In that decision, the Governing Council
encouraged UN-HABITAT to contribute to this CSD session ?relevant case studies on good
urban governance for inclusion in the ?Examples? column? of the Chair?s matrix. UNHABITAT
has done a lot of good work on their database of best practices and we hope that they
can draw from this resource in contributing examples to the Chair?s matrix.
Finally, to follow up on a comment made by Australia yesterday, we hope that this matrix will be
a living document and that additional case studies and examples will be provided after CSD
concludes. We hope that the CSD Secretariat and UN-HABITAT can identify ways to work
together on this effort.
Thank you Madam Chair.
Remarks by Daniel Rochberg, U.S. Department of State
April 12, 2005
Thank you, Madam Chair.
The challenge of human settlements is a perfect example of the distributed nature of the
challenge we face. The difficult challenge of improving the lives of slum dwellers, of providing
access to basic services, is being faced city-by-city, region-by-region, around the world.
The solutions to these challenges will not likely be top-down, centralized solutions. The efforts
to address these challenges are increasingly spread out, increasingly specialized, and increasingly
local.
To reiterate comments made by my colleague from Indonesia, as well as by our distinguished
panelists, the distributed nature of this problem underscores the need for us to share best
practices and lessons learned.
In that regard, we welcome the CSD Chairman?s matrix from the Intergovernmental Preparatory
Meeting. This document not only identifies policy options and practical measures, but specific
examples of how those practical measures have been implemented. Some have commented that
the examples column is a bit thin right now, but it is a good start. We have heard some more
good case studies today, which we hope will be taken into account, and ultimately added to the
matrix.
Related to this, we want to highlight and welcome paragraph 4 of the decision taken last week by
the UN Habitat Governing Council regarding CSD-13. In that decision, the Governing Council
encouraged UN-HABITAT to contribute to this CSD session ?relevant case studies on good
urban governance for inclusion in the ?Examples? column? of the Chair?s matrix. UNHABITAT
has done a lot of good work on their database of best practices and we hope that they
can draw from this resource in contributing examples to the Chair?s matrix.
Finally, to follow up on a comment made by Australia yesterday, we hope that this matrix will be
a living document and that additional case studies and examples will be provided after CSD
concludes. We hope that the CSD Secretariat and UN-HABITAT can identify ways to work
together on this effort.
Thank you Madam Chair.
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