5 September 2009
Manila Bulletin
The Philippine government has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Cities Alliance, a global coalition of cities and other development partners, to promote greater participation of key government and private sector entities in harmonising urban development efforts.
According to Vice President Manuel “Noli” De Castro, who is also the concurrent chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), rapid urbanisation has brought significant opportunities for growth and negative impacts such as slum formation, pockets of poverty, high population densities, unemployment and environmental woes.
De Castro noted that the Philippines is among the fastest urbanising countries in the world with 60 percent of its population residing in urban areas.
“The decline in access to basic services highlights the need to improve the technical capacity of cities to provide higher level of services in the face of constrained resources and growing urban populations,” De Castro said.
The Cities Alliance is a global coalition of cities and their development partners with the common commitment to pursue sustainable approaches to reducing poverty by fostering dialogue and cooperation among developing partners and mobilising long term investments that will enhance the capacity of cities to provide services to all residents, and respond to the current and expected demand of urbanisation.
The Vice President said the memorandum identifies the key areas for multi-year collaboration between the Philippine government and the Cities Alliance such as, but not limited to climate change mitigation and adaptation, citywide and nationwide slum upgrading, city development strategy expansion and knowledge transfer, as well as the corresponding resource requirements and allocation.
The Philippine government, represented by the HUDCC, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP), signed the memorandum during the launching of the Philippine Urban Consortium (PUC) and the National Urban Development and Housing Framework (NUDHF) August 27.
The updated NUDHF specifically provides the framework that will define and govern the urban development of the country and will guide national government agencies and local government units in addressing key issues surrounding urbanisation.
