Indonesia should be promoted as a regional knowledge center and learning network for community empowerment in housing and human settlements, according to participants at the third Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development (APMCHUD) in Surakarta on Thursday.
This was one of the conclusions and policy recommendations adopted by the conference and stipulated in the "Solo Declaration" on sustainable urbanization.
"I welcome and support this initiative because the urban public policy arena has remained weak at the regional level even though more than half of the region's population already live in urban areas," UN Under-Secretary Anna Tibaijuka said.
Tibaijuka and Indonesia's Coordinating Public Welfare Minister Agung Laksono, who addressed the last day session of the three-day 3rd APMCHUD, shared similar views on the contribution of urbanization to the region's dynamic growth.
However, problems caused by unprecedented, rapid urbanization have overstretched the capacities of city governments to provide public services and forced hundreds of millions of people to live in squalid condition in slums, according to the conference.
"We live at a time of unprecedented rapid urbanization. Governments must not fight this irreversible trend but instead should try to manage it through developing dynamic urban-rural linkages," Tibaijuka told The Jakarta Post in an interview.
Tibaijuka, who also heads the UN agency for responsible for human settlements, UN-Habitat, said the agency already has a database for member countries that details sustainable housing and urban development best practices.
There is no single urban management formula that can be universally applied because no two cities are alike. Every country must devise its own solution based on the best practices of other cities, she added.
APMCHUD, set up in New Delhi in 2006, is a ministerial-level forum for policy consultation and exchange of urban development best practices in the Asia-Pacific region.
Regional governments should transfer resources to the community level support to local planning and implementation of urban development programs, conference participants urged.
Participants made policy recommendations on sanitation, public housing and improving slums to make cities more livable.
They also agreed that the informal sector plays a key role in urban development.
"This calls for balancing the imperatives of economic growth, social harmony and environmental protection," Tibajuka said.
Agung concurred and said that the Indonesian government gives the informal economy a vital role in urban development policy, as stipulated in Law No. 26/2007 on spatial planning.
Ministerial delegates from almost 30 countries visited UN-Habitat-recommended "best-practice" projects in Surakarta on Wednesday, such as an illegal squatter resettlement area, street vendors and slum development areas.
