Making Cities Work!
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Center for Habitat Development Dervish Hima Street, ADA Tower, Ap. 4 P.O. Box: 2995, Tirana Albania Tel: +355.(0)4.257808/9, Fax: +355.(0)4.257807 Cel: +355.(0)38.20.34126/32957 E-mail: [email protected] Tirana, 20 October 2001 International Conference of the European Network of Housing Research (ENHR) Making Cities Work! Comparing between “Transitional” and “Developed” Urban and Housing Models! Albania, 26-30 May 2003 Draft idea for comment, Version; 20 September 2001 Background The rapid growth of cities poses major challenges to everyone living there like citizens, the private sector, and local governments. On the one hand cities are the motors of economic development; on the other hand the living environment in cities is under threat from the risk of social and environmental degradation. In countries of ‘developing’ features, almost a quarter of the urban population lives in absolute poverty, and another quarter in relative poverty. Housing is one of the main problems to them. Large groups of poor people have no access to basic shelter and infrastructure services, aside from what they produce on their own. In the so-called ‘developing’ countries negative externalities are increasing at such levels that they can seriously threaten the entire development. How can people benefit more from the advantages of living in the city, and suffer fewer of the negative effects? This depends on progress in three areas: reducing poverty; strengthening the economy; and protecting the urban environment. In a nutshell this means promoting sustainable development. Although government is considered to be the prime instigator of development, experience shows that local governments need support from the many other actors in the city such as private companies, local communities, civil society organisations, and international funding organisations. Partnerships involving two or more actors are increasingly seen as an effective way to manage urban development. Common types of partnerships seen these days are those: a) between government and private sector companies; b) between communities and the private sector, and c) between CBOs, NGOs and local government. Co-PLAN, Center for Habitat Development How important is it to make cities work better, and should this area get more attention? In 2025 two thirds of world’s urban population will live in urban areas. The bulk of urban growth will of course occur in developing countries, and transitional economies. However, this is going to have a clear impact all over the world including the Western countries. The speed at which this happens eludes the capacity of local governments to keep up with housing, infrastructure and services needed. But, with insufficient infrastructure and scarce employment the economic productivity will be limited and urban poverty will rise. This goes against the logic of cities able to stand on their own and generate their own economy. Nevertheless, during the last decades more and more understanding is developed on the way that cities raise and decline. Management of cities is becoming a wider accepted phenomenon, and many cities now follow managerial ways of governing their cities. Cities should be made attractive to investors and citizens alike, which means that cities have to develop a sound understanding of their attractiveness, and further enhance this by active policy development. This is especially necessary for the social, economic, and environmental fields of development. From International to Local Debate Whereas, the ‘developing’ and ‘transitional’ countries around the world are known for their own urban and housing models, in most of the European cities one can talk mostly of the so called ‘developed models’. However, in Eastern Europe, and especially in the Southeast region of Europe, special features of the developing and transitional societies can easily be distinguished. Albania is a typical example of societies being between political, social and economic models of the ‘developing/transitional’ and ‘developed’ world; a society that inherited historical backwardness but, nowadays tries to affiliate to the rest of Europe to which it geographically belongs. Exactly such ‘conflicting’ position is often a psychological barrier toward development, including the field of urban development. This conference aims to continue the international debate of the ENHR on housing and urban development, while concentrating and reflecting also over the ‘case’ of Albania. It is a concrete reaction of the ENHR to the 1998 proposal of Co-PLAN in the Hungary conference. Albania has unique urban and housing models and can be a perfect ‘laboratory’ for professionals, decision-makers and politicians in their struggle for melioration measures. This is also going to be a difficult task as old practices and mentalities are to be overcome. By provoking an international discussion and illustration with international practices, a local debate is hopefully going to facilitate Albanian professionals and authorities to prevent further deterioration of the urban living environment, and in addition build concrete strategies to lead future positive developments in the country. Such discussion will also be a good opportunity for the ENHR to draw conclusions from this ‘unique’ situation, and in addition to have concrete impacts that go beyond merely professional events. This is even more imperative if integration tendencies of the Eastern European countries is kept in mind. Albania is one of these countries that aim to affiliate to the European ‘family’, and hopefully such events will help to reach this objective! The Case of Albania Proposal for the ENHR Conference in Tirana, Albania, 26-30 May 2003 2 Co-PLAN, Center for Habitat Development The system of urban settlement in Albania inherited centuries of neglect, suffered under the Ottoman rule. Up to 1945 the country was still in many respects a medieval society, with only 21% of the population living in urban areas. The independence period between both World Wars distinguished only for small urban developments, including the shaping of central Tirana as a modern capital. Wartime devastated and impoverished further the existing situation, damaging or destroying one quarter of the total housing stock During 1945-1990, communist authorities neither wanted nor could cope with the rapid urbanisation process. For this reason the speed of this process was reduced to the maximum, and strong control on any form of migration was instituted, determining the existing and future demographic patterns of the country. At the brink of changes of the early 90s, the urbanisation level of Albania was still at the lowest European rate of 35%. This was even below the average of developing countries, counting at 37%. However, an over-concentration of the activities in the core area Durres- Tirana-Elbasan accumulated: 26% of the urban population, over 38% of the total industrial output, more than half of the light industrial production, and 58% of the country's engineering. Excluding the capital Tirana, representing at that time one third of country’s urban population, one hardly could find cities over 100,000 inhabitants. Whereas people were not free to change residency as they pleased during the communist era, since 1990 the population movement is free but, very poorly managed. Despite an estimated exodus abroad of 17% of the population, inhabitancy of many cities grew over 50%. In some areas such as Tirana and Fushë-Kruja, the urban and surrounding rural population grew at the alarming rate of 6-7% per annum since 1990. Consequently, the built environment of the capital city is rapidly expanding by an average of 200 hectares each year. In four years only, the city grew four times more than the total physical development during the 40 years between 1945-1985. On annual basis, Tirana is expanding three times faster than the 1989 urban master plan had anticipated. Most of Tirana's new development is occurring at the edge of city. Analysis of the aerial photography indicates that the lion’s share of the constructions built after 1990 are without permission. In some new residential areas in the North of the city, the families living in the informal settlements count for at least 50% of the population. In certain cases, such as in the Municipality of Kamza the city has increased almost 10 times over the last 10 years, and mostly in an informal way. Non-governmental sources count the Greater Tirana area having at least 700,000 inhabitants, while officials talk of a populace of 600,000. The present urbanisation process in Albania is characterised by the movement of population from rural areas towards urban areas (specially the western part of the country) and from small towns towards bigger cities (especially Tirana). The triangle Durres - Tirana – Fushë/Kruja is actually very attractive for investment, mainly because it offers better services and security in comparison with the provinces. The unmanaged growth leads to construction on public areas, unsuitable terrain, agricultural or forestland, and mostly without the benefit of proper electricity, water, sewerage, roads, sanitation, and social facilities. Estimates indicate that unplanned construction will result in one and a half time as much land being taken for housing development as would have been were it planned. Within the existing urban areas authorities are working with inadequate infrastructure and social facilities that have foregone any capital investment the last decades, and are severely strained by new growth pressures. National and local authorities are facing a Proposal for the ENHR Conference in Tirana, Albania, 26-30 May 2003 3 Co-PLAN, Center for Habitat Development lot of challenges, but their response is severely constrained by the lack of public funds for housing and infrastructure investments. Meanwhile, much of the land around the cities, both private and public, has been encroached and squatted on. The expansion of formal housing construction in urban areas is often held back by the lack of development land, pending on the resolution of land restitution claims, and lack of access to infrastructure.