United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien announced yesterday that a new Global Alliance for Urban Crises will be launched at the upcoming World Humanitarian Summit, in Istanbul on 23-24 May. “Through initiatives like this one, we can harness the potential that towns and cities have to be disaster-resilient hubs, and safe havens for those who have fled conflicts and disasters. There is no doubt that people in urban settings must be and are a key part of this solution,” said the Under-Secretary-General.
The majority of the world’s population now lives in urban areas. Towns and cities are generating 80 per cent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). “Although towns and cities provide new opportunities for gainful employment and access to services, rapid unplanned urbanization combined with natural hazards, pandemics and aerial bombardments are placing more people at risk”, emphasized the Under-Secretary-General. As humanitarian crises are increasingly taking place in urban areas, the consultations of the World Humanitarian Summit called for displacement, conflict and disasters in urban settings to be comprehensively addressed.
“Municipal authorities, urban professionals and humanitarian and development actors have answered the call for concrete commitments to leave no one behind, and mobilized to form a new Global Alliance for Urban Crises”, noted the Under-Secretary-General, highlighting that the Alliance will be an innovative global platform to share knowledge and build up the capacity needed to systematically address humanitarian crises in urban environments.
The Global Alliance for Urban Crises will be formally launched at a Special Session of the World Humanitarian Summit drawing high level attention to humanitarian issues in towns and cities. The Alliance will also be a springboard for the incorporation of urban humanitarian issues into the New Urban Agenda, to be agreed at the 2016 United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III).
The announcement was made during the event ‘City Haven: People on the Move/Harboring the Displaced’, which took place at the United Nations Headquarter in New York City on 18 February 2016. Panelists included David Miliband, President International Rescue Committee (IRC), Aisa Kacyira, Assistant-Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director UN Habitat and Daniel Zarrilli, Senior Director for Climate Policy and Programs, Office of the Mayor of New York City
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