Mrs. Tibaijuka and Mr. Reckford spoke at a volunteer home building day in an under-served neighbourhood of Northeast Washington
Helping the poor get their own housing has both economic and health benefits to both themselves and the society and should therefore be encouraged, the Chief Executive Officer of Habitat for Humanity Mr. Jonathan Reckford said on Tuesday.
“Our annual shelter report shows that when people own their own homes their economic net worth increases because of increased productivity. We also found that their mental and physical health greatly improved after acquiring the houses,” he said.
Mr. Reckford was speaking during a volunteer house building day organized by his organization as part of the 2009 World Habitat Day celebrations which took place on Monday in Washington, DC. He said although the benefits were huge, Habitat for Humanity was overwhelmed by the ever growing demand.
“We will never build enough houses and that is why we are always looking for partners to help us in our endeavours,” he said.
Speaking at the same function, Mrs. Tibaijuka praised Habitat for Humanity saying it was a valuable partner in the field of seeking to give adequate shelter to all.
“When I started this campaign for adequate shelter for all Habitat for Humanity was a social capital. It was better known by many and at times some people confused us with them,” she said adding that Habitat for Humanity’s achievements in that field was unequalled.
She said the biggest challenge facing organizations like Habitat for Humanity was technological transfer. “Even if you have the capital available to put up houses without the right technical skills this might not achieve much,” she said. At the Brookings Institution – climate change and cities
Mrs. Tibaijuka told a meeting called to discuss the theme, Creating sustainable cities that the world had to grab the moment and act decisively on climate change. She said that the politics around the issue must not be allowed to cloud the overall goal of fixing the problem: “There will always be the politics of polluter pays, but this should not stop us from going forward.”
The panel discussion heard that climate change is posing was one of the biggest challenges for world’s cities and they must come up with innovative ways of dealing with it.
Speakers highlighted metropolitan models for managing climate change while restoring national economies and advancing opportunities for low income populations.
The focus of Tibaijuka's intervention was about how to bring cities into the preparatory process for Copenhagen climate summit in December. She said that if one read the debates in Stockholm 1972 on the environment, there was nothing people were talking about now that had not been discussed in 1972. The change was not the content of the debate but rather, the greater public awareness about the need to address climate change. She argued that we must therefore seize the moment we have that we didn't have then. Mrs. Tibaijuka said that one way of dealing with the matter was a change in lifestyle both in the developed and developing worlds. As demand was piling on the developed world to reduce emissions, those living in the developing world must also be encouraged to embrace lifestyles that do not increase such emissions either, she said.
She challenged the developed world to share technology with their developing country counterparts saying that if technology was made too expensive, some might fall off the development train. Public ownership of research was critical in making such undertakings successful.
“The Green Revolution in Asia was possible due to the public ownership of research and this can be replicated in other countries,” she said. Turning to Africa, the Executive Director said the continent was faced with the challenge of lack of water. Such scarcity was leading to clashes between different communities she said.
The associate administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, Ms. Lisa Heinzerling said the Obama administration was committed to tackling climate change.
During the event, the mayor of Seattle Mr. Greg Nickels, Commissioner Janette Sadik Khan and Chetan Shah from Surat in India made presentations on how their cities were confronting climate change.
The first session was moderated by Mr. Bruce Katz, Vice President of Brookings Institution and Director of the Metropolitan programme. The subsquent panel was moderated by Mr. Darren Walker, Vice President, Rockefeller Foundation.
The focus of Tibaijuka's intervention was about how to bring cities into the preparatory process for Copenhagen climate summit in December. She said that if one read the debates in Stockholm 1972 on the environment, there was nothing people were talking about now that had not been discussed in 1972. The change was not the content of the debate but rather, the greater public awareness about the need to address climate change. She argued that we must therefore seize the moment we have that we didn't have then. |
