Dr. Joan Clos, UN-Habitat Executive Director and UN Under Secretary General, called today for national urban policies to help countries to face rapid urbanization without economic growth, resulting in increasing poverty and inequality.

Clos, who has participated at a Ford Foundation forum marking its 75th anniversary to speak about urban leadership on the global stage, has pointed out that next October 2011 the world population will reach the seven billion mark and more than a half, 52%, of the population will be living in cities. Among the seven billion world population, one billion is living in slums and the population of slum dwellers around the world continues to grow nearly 10 per cent every year.

"We are living a unique phenomenon of urban population increase and we have to prepare our countries for this challenge and to develop national urban policies, urban legal frameworks, planned city enlargements, urban energy and mobility plans and to strength the financial capacity of our cities. We cannot accept that 6 out of 10 citizens of the Global South lack basic services such as water, sanitation, and housing, and have poor access to health and education facilities. It is a humanitarian catastrophe", he said.

UN-Habitat Executive Director explained that despite the rapid urbanization, countries and local authorities do not have appropriate legal, institutional, and governance frameworks in place. He stressed that if the growth of cities is planned at scale, in advance, and in phases to address the projected growth over the next 30 years, fast-growing cities, particularly those in developing countries, will be successful in transforming the very real threat of poverty into an opportunity for national economic growth. Rather than confine their work to upgrading existing slums, cities can get ahead of their urban future and prevent new slums from being formed.

"We need to re-think the urban agenda and to adopt a new approach to the huge urbanization challenge. It is time for urban policies beyond housing policies we have had in the past years. Our future cities must generate wealth, equity and freedom", Dr. Clos stressed.