Urban October 2015

In 2014, Urban October was launched by UN-Habitat to emphasise the world's urban challenges and engage the international community towards the New Urban Agenda. This has created scopes for raising awareness and interest on different urban challenges, opportunities to the media and other communities and networks. Urban October is the month to stimulate the debates on future cities.
This year the month of October was kicked-off with World Habitat Day under the motto 'Public Spaces For All' and will conclude with World Cities Day under the motto 'Designed to Live Together'. As the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was approved by the United Nations with the aim of transforming the world, where one single goal (Goal No 11) includes the ambition to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, therefore Urban October receives extra attention from all the corners in this year.
In 2009, world's urban population (3.42 billion) surpassed the number living in rural areas (3.41 billion). In 2014, 28 per cent of the population were living in urban Bangladesh while half of population of the country will live in urban areas by 2030 (UNDP, 2014). About 38 per cent of city population are living in slums alone. Since independence, Dhaka city population has been increasing by 6.0 per cent annually while national population growth is 1.7 per cent only.  
SOME SUGGESTIONS:  a) The Government of Bangladesh needs to take immediate action to enact the 'Urban Sector Policy'. The policy was drafted a decade back.
b) The government should approve the draft Housing Policy giving priority to the housing needs of the urban poor.
c) The slum dwellers should be recognised as urban citizens and get all the basic amenities of urban life.
d) Urban Disaster Management should get special attention from all the quarters. The Building Code should be strictly followed.
e) Inclusion of domestic workers and other informal workers in the Labour Law is essential and they should be recognised as workers.
f) Coordination should be developed between implementing (Municipality/City Corportaion) and policy-making institute (Department of Environment) for solid waste management.
One year back, Urban October was launched to create awareness, promote participation, knowledge generation and engage international community in a new Urban Agenda with the motto of promoting a Better Urban Future. This global call should inspire us to make our cities a better place to live and work.
The writer is National Urban Coordinator at World
Vision Bangladesh.
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