Housing and Land Management
Housing, spatial planning and land administration issues are of practical
concern for every citizen. Housing and construction are important sectors
of each country’s economy. Spatial planning and land administration
contribute not only to the physical quality of urban and rural environments,
but also account for the social dimension of human settlements.
If the UNECE Committee on Housing and Land Management has contributed to
the improvement of housing conditions, spatial planning and land administration
policies, it continues to face various and complex challenges regarding these
three pillars of work throughout the UNECE region. Under the auspices of the
Committee, member States and other stakeholders exchange experiences, disseminate
information and discuss and agree on good practices in the different policy
areas. As a result of this work, widely recognized guidelines on urban renewal,
condominium management, housing finance, land administration and social housing
have been prepared and distributed by the Committee and its Working Party
on Land Administration. At the same time, the Committee provides assistance
to countries in the implementation of policy recommendations, for example
by organizing subregional workshops. Through its country profiles on the housing
sector and its land administration reviews, the Committee also supplies policy
advice at the request of individual member countries, which can include the
comprehensive review of a country’s housing sector or its land administration
system by teams of international experts, who offer country-specific recommendations.
Much emphasis is put on the subsequent implementation of these proposals with
one form of follow-up being the regular reporting of member countries at the
Committee’s annual session.
The Committee on Housing and Land Management is the only intergovernmental
forum related to housing, spatial planning and land administration policies
that operates on a permanent basis across all of Europe. It is the oldest
of the United Nations inter-governmental organs for human settlements.
In 2006, UNECE Ministers of housing, spatial planning and land administration
reconfirmed the goals of the ECE Strategy for a Sustainable Quality in Life
in Human Settlements in the 21st Century, as previously adopted by Ministers
in 2000. The Ministerial Declaration on Social and Economic Challenges in
Distressed Urban Areas in the UNECE Region highlighted several areas which
deserve particular attention in the future work of the Committee.
The process of socio-economic transformation, in particular in EECCA and
SEE countries poses serious challenges to affordable and adequate housing.
In many of these countries, the prevailing reliance on market forces has not
been sufficiently complemented by actions of Governments in the housing sector.
At the same time, significant challenges have arisen in Western Europe, where
structural economic changes and unemployment have led to urban segregation
and the emergence of deprived neighbourhoods. The Committee will continue
to promote integrated housing and planning, as well as affordable housing
policies, in order to alleviate the results of this development.
The renewal, management and maintenance of multi-family residential buildings
has become one of the most critical problems in the UNECE region over the
past 15 years. In many EECCA countries, multi-family housing is in poor technical
condition, further burdened by the lack of maintenance and repair and the
absence of institutions such as homeowner associations who might take responsibility
for ongoing maintenance. The Committee addresses these challenges in its core
activities and supports the establishment of effective management schemes.
The experience of many countries has proven that the application of sound
principles of land administration contributes to the security of all types
of tenure and the development of land markets, and that it supports land and
property taxation. Spatial planning contributes to improving the local physical
and social environment, controlling urban sprawl and balancing urban expansion.
The Committee will continue to promote the implementation of good practices
in land administration and spatial planning, and to support the necessary
legal and administrative changes.
Ms. Doris Andoni
Chairperson, Committee on Housing and Land Management
In September 2006, the Ministers responsible for housing, spatial planning
and land administration of the UNECE region met under the auspices of the
Committee on Housing and Land Management. The presence of Ministers and the
heads of delegations of 36 UNECE member countries and representatives of international
and non-governmental organizations reaffirmed the strategic direction of the
Committee and provided guidance for future work. The key debate focused on
two specific challenges: (i) Social and economic integration through human
settlements development, and (ii) Ownership, maintenance, renewal and management
of the multi-family housing sector. Ministers committed to contributing to
social inclusion through the development of affordable housing, to improving
the management of multifamily housing estates, and to supporting good practices
in land administration and spatial planning.
As a unique forum for the region to discuss and decide on common policy
directions with special attention towards countries in transition, it is the
task of the Committee to focus on policy implementation regarding the above
challenges. The thematical workshops organized by the Committee at a subregional
level are one good way to foster the exchange of experiences and information
between member States. Albania has the pleasure to host a workshop on affordable
and social housing in 2007, carried out in cooperation with UNECE, UN-HABITAT
and the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe. The event will address access
to housing for low- and medium-income population groups, housing finance,
and urban renewal. It will be crucial to formulate and implement integrated
housing, urban planning and land administration policies in order to meet
the existing challenges in these areas and to conduct effective legal, institutional
and administrative changes.
Population
After more than three decades of below-replacement fertility in most countries
of the UNECE region, the period of economically favourable age structure of
low youth and old-age dependency rates, the so-called demographic bonus, is
coming to an end and will not return. In other words, the population is both
ageing and starting to decline. These demographic developments have important
and far-reaching implications, encompassing economic development, social cohesion,
sustainability and equity, and posing key challenges to public policies. Societies
must adjust to this critical change.
In September 2002, five months after the World Assembly on Ageing, UNECE
organized the Ministerial Conference on Ageing in Berlin. The Conference adopted
the Regional Implementation Strategy (RIS) of the Madrid International Plan
of Action on Ageing (MIPAA), which includes a concrete catalogue of measures
in the form of 10 commitments. The holistic approach of the Strategy rests
on the premise that the right policies in many different domains – if
coordinated and consistently applied – could successfully meet the challenges
arising from demographic change and release the unused potential of certain
population groups, in particular older persons.
UNECE is assisting member States in implementing the RIS and in evaluating
their progress by organizing an exchange of information on good practices
through its network of focal points on ageing, coordinating the review and
appraisal of the first five-year cycle of MIPAA/ RIS, and developing capacities
in the EECCA countries for developing ageing-related policies and projects.
The 2007 UNECE Conference on Ageing (to be held in León, Spain, in
November 2007) is expected to be an important milestone in reviewing the developments
and in identifying priorities for future coordinated actions.
In the light of the Programme of Action of the International Conference
for Population and Development (ICPD), and the conclusions of its follow-up
conferences organized by the UNECE, it is vital that we better understand
the causes and consequences of demographic developments and find sustainable
responses to the challenges they pose. At the International Meeting on Generations
and Gender (Geneva, 2000), member States invited the UNECE secretariat to
organize another round of region-wide data collection and research on population
issues, building on the successful experiences of the 1980s and the 1990s.
This meeting initiated the UNECE Generations and Gender Programme (GGP), the
most compelling source of policy-relevant research on population issues in
the UNECE region.
The Programme comprises a survey of a broad range of influences on demographic
behaviour in a triennial longitudinal panel study and a contextual database
that covers national and regional trends and policies on these issues. It
provides for interdisciplinary analyses covering a wide range of different
societies, that are oriented towards the needs of policymaking and rely on
up-to-date data. To demonstrate the potential impact on the Programme’s
population-related policy in the UNECE region, a conference on Causes and
Consequences of Demographic Change, bringing together experts and policymakers,
is planned for 2008.
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