{{The Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Joan Clos, has urged developing nations to adopt Rwanda’s Urbanisation plan which he says guarantees organised growth.}}
Clos made the remarks after meeting with President Paul Kagame Village Urugwiro.
However, Clos cautioned that Rwanda’s government must strive even harder to curb the challenges that come with rapid urbanisation.
The UN Habitat boss was in Rwanda attending a four-day 2nd International Tripartite Conference on Sustainable Urbanisation, jointly organised by the European Commission and UN-Habitat.
Clos Said, “The policy of Rwanda is in the right direction because it presents this idea of developing intermediate cities as a way to distribute urbanisation over the land instead of concentrating it in a single place.
We have seen how when there is no such ambition, everybody goes to the centre of the city and thus generate additional problems.”
“We want to thank the President for his commitment to urban development. Developing countries are now faced with urbanisation problems and we would like to showcase the example of Kigali and the commitment of the country’s leadership towards organised urbanisation,” Clos said.
UN-Habitat warns that unless responses to urbanisation challenges are pursued, the number of people living in slums, lacking access to basic infrastructure such as water, electricity, healthcare and education, might triple from one billion presently to three billion by 2050.
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