{"id":13376,"date":"2012-09-05T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T19:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingvancouver.ca\/?p=13376"},"modified":"2013-01-21T07:10:25","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T15:10:25","slug":"wuf-6-opens-with-strong-call-for-national-urban-policies-urban-expansion-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2012\/09\/05\/wuf-6-opens-with-strong-call-for-national-urban-policies-urban-expansion-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"WUF 6 Opens With Strong Call for National Urban Policies, Urban Expansion Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN-Habitat, speaking at the WU<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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[Editor’s Note:<\/strong> Former Vancouver reporter Christine McLaren<\/strong> is\u00a0traveling\u00a0around the world as the resident blogger for the\u00a0BMW Guggenheim Lab<\/a>, a mobile think tank investigating solutions to urban problems. She is currently in Naples covering the World Urban Forum <\/a>and we at Spacing Vancouver are honoured to have her permission to post her ongoing coverage. All posts are also being published on Lab|log at\u00a0bmwguggenheimlab.org<\/a>.<\/em> Be sure to follow Christine\u2019s thoughts from the WUF all week at @BMWGuggLab<\/a>\u00a0and #BGLab<\/a>. <\/em>Enjoy!]<\/em><\/p>\n

Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN-Habitat, opened the sixth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF) Monday with a two-pronged call to world leaders, proposing separate lines of action for national and local governments to help ensure sustainable urban growth in the twenty-first century.<\/p>\n

First, he called on national governments to adopt nation-wide urban policies as part of their development strategies, saying that governments need to stop treating cities as if they are isolated from the national agenda. \u201cCities need the contribution of national and regional governments and all the society. Cities are not in isolation,\u201d Clos said. \u201cBecause we want more development, more urbanization is going to be there, so we\u2019d better prepare for our future. There is no development without urbanization. . . . In fact, development and urbanization [are] the same thing. But better urbanization provides better development.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to achieve this, he called on national governments to answer one set of questions through the development of a national urban policy: where is our country\u2019s population today? Where is it going to be in twenty years? And what is the government ready to do about that? (During a press conference after the opening, I asked Clos what he proposed as key elements of such policies, how UN-Habitat would be working with national governments to assist with the development of national urban policies, and whether\/how this related to the financial relationship between city and national governments. See his response in the video below:<\/p>\n