1. In industrialized countries, the consumption patterns of cities are severely stressing the global ecosystem, while settlements in the developing world need more raw material, energy, and economic development simply to overcome basic economic and social problems. Human settlement conditions in many parts of the world, particularly the developing countries, are deteriorating mainly as a result of the low levels of investment in the sector attributable to the overall resource constraints in these countries. In the low-income countries for which recent data are available, an average of only 5.6 per cent of central government expenditure went to housing, amenities, social security and welfare./1/ Expenditure by international support and finance organizations is equally low. For example, only 1 per cent of the United Nations system's total grant-financed expenditures in 1988 went to human settlements,/2/ while in 1991, loans from the World Bank and the International Development Association (IDA) for urban development and water supply and sewerage amounted to 5.5 and 5.4 per cent, respectively, of their total lending./3/ [Chapter 7, Para 1]

2. On the other hand, available information indicates that technical cooperation activities in the human settlement sector generate considerable public and private sector investment. For example, every dollar of UNDP technical cooperation expenditure on human settlements in 1988 generated a follow-up investment of $122, the highest of all UNDP sectors of assistance./4/ [Chapter 7, Para 2]

16. (c) (i) Reducing subsidies on, and recovering the full costs of, environmental and other services of high standard (e.g. water supply, sanitation, waste collection, roads, telecommunications) provided to higher income neighbourhoods; [Chapter 7, Para 16 (c) (i)]

(b) Strengthening urban data systems [Chapter 7, Section B. (b)]

17. During the period 1993-2000 all countries should undertake, with the active participation of the business sector as appropriate, pilot projects in selected cities for the collection, analysis and subsequent dissemination of urban data, including environmental impact analysis, at the local, state/provincial, national and international levels and the establishment of city data management capabilities./5/ United Nations organizations, such as Habitat, UNEP and UNDP, could provide technical advice and model data management systems. [Chapter 7, Para 17]

25. Capacity-building activities carried out by all countries, assisted as suggested above, should go beyond the training of individuals and functional groups to include institutional arrangements, administrative routines, inter-agency linkages, information flows and consultative processes. [Chapter 7, Para 25]

29. All countries should consider, as appropriate, undertaking a comprehensive national inventory of their land resources in order to establish a land information system in which land resources will be classified according to their most appropriate uses and environmentally fragile or disaster-prone areas will be identified for special protection measures. [Chapter 7, Para 29]

33. All countries, particularly developing countries, alone or in regional or subregional groupings, should be given access to modern techniques of land-resource management, such as geographical information systems, satellite photography/imagery and other remote-sensing technologies. [Chapter 7, Para 33]

34. (d) Strengthen existing programmes and promote an international and interregional exchange of information and experience in land management through the establishment of professional associations in land-management sciences and related activities, such as workshops and seminars. [Chapter 7, Para 34 (d)]

42. The dissemination of information from existing programmes should be facilitated and encouraged among interested countries and local institutions. [Chapter 7, Para 42]

44. (b) Promote methods of assessing "effective demand", utilizing environment and development data as criteria for selecting technology. [Chapter 7, Para 44 (b)]

51. (a) (iv) Carry out information and training programmes directed at manufacturers and users in order to promote energy-saving techniques and energy-efficient appliances; [Chapter 7, Para 51 (a) (iv)]

52. (e) Promote the exchange of information among countries and representatives of local and metropolitan areas; [Chapter 7, Para 52 (e)]

60. (b) Implementing nationwide and local awareness campaigns through all available media, translating the above knowledge into information easily comprehensible to the general public and to the populations directly exposed to hazards; [Chapter 7, Para 60 (b)]

61. (a) Undertaking complete multi-hazard research into risk and vulnerability of human settlements and settlement infrastructure, including water and sewerage, communication and transportation networks, as one type of risk reduction may increase vulnerability to another (e.g., an earthquake-resistant house made of wood will be more vulnerable to wind storms); [Chapter 7, Para 61 (a)]

61. (f) Further developing and disseminating information on disaster-resistant building materials and construction technologies for buildings and public works in general; [Chapter 7, Para 61 (f)]

61. (h) Developing training programmes for emergency site managers, non-governmental organizations and community groups which cover all aspects of disaster mitigation, including urban search and rescue, emergency communications, early warning techniques, and pre-disaster planning; [Chapter 7, Para 61 (h)]

61. (i) Developing procedures and practices to enable local communities to receive information about hazardous installations or situations in these areas, and facilitate their participation in early warning and disaster abatement and response procedures and plans; [Chapter 7, Para 61 (i)]

68. The objectives are, first, to adopt policies and technologies and to exchange information on them in order to enable the construction sector to meet human settlement development goals, while avoiding harmful side-effects on human health and on the biosphere, and, second, to enhance the employment-generation capacity of the construction sector. Governments should work in close collaboration with the private sector in achieving these objectives. [Chapter 7, Para 68]

70. (a) Promote the free exchange of information on the entire range of environmental and health aspects of construction, including the development and dissemination of databases on the adverse environmental effects of building materials through the collaborative efforts of the private and public sectors; [Chapter 7, Para 70 (a)]

70. (b) Promote the development and dissemination of databases on the adverse environmental and health effects of building materials and introduce legislation and financial incentives to promote recycling of energy-intensive materials in the construction industry and conservation of waste energy in building-materials production methods; [Chapter 7, Para 70 (b)]

70. (d) Promote information exchange and appropriate technology transfer among all countries, with particular attention to developing countries, for resource management in construction, particularly for non-renewable resources; [Chapter 7, Para 70 (d)]

80. Both formal training and non-formal types of human resource development and capacity-building programmes should be combined, and use should be made of user-oriented training methods, up-to-date training materials and modern audio-visual communication systems. [Chapter 7, Para 80]

1/ No aggregate figures are available on internal expenditure or official development assistance on human settlements. However, data available in the World Development Report, 1991, for 16 low-income developing countries show that the percentage of central government expenditure on housing, amenities and social security and welfare for 1989 averaged 5.6 per cent, with a high of 15.1 per cent in the case of Sri Lanka, which has embarked on a vigorous housing programme. In OECD industrialized countries, during the same year, the percentage of central government expenditure on housing, amenities and social security and welfare ranged from a minimum of 29.3 per cent to a maximum of 49.4 per cent, with an average of 39 per cent (World Bank, World Development Report, 1991, World Development Indicators, table 11 (Washington, D.C., 1991)). [Chapter 7, Note 1]

2/ See the report of the Director-General for Development and International Economic Cooperation containing preliminary statistical data on operational activities of the United Nations system for 1988 (A/44/324-E/1989/106/Add.4, annex). [Chapter 7, Note 2]

5/ A pilot programme of this type, the City Data Programme (CDP), is already in operation in the United Nations Centre on Human Settlements (Habitat) aimed at the production and dissemination to participating cities of microcomputer application software designed to store, process and retrieve city data for local, national and international exchange and dissemination. [Chapter 7, Note 5]

(d) To disseminate existing and new technical information related to measures for the assessment, prediction and mitigation of natural disasters; [Chapter 7, Note 7]