Publications

Human Settlement Interventions: Addressing Crowding and Health Issues
Published by UNCHS (Habitat), 1995. (HS/374/95/E)

This publication is the outcome of United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat)’s efforts to bridge the knowledge gap between the shelter and health sectors and to improve the understanding among sector professionals on environmental health aspects of human settlements. The publication presents the findings of a detailed field study carried out by the Centre in Ghana, Guinea Bissau and Indonesia, over a span of three years (1993-1995) to establish precise epidemiological relationship between overcrowding and community health and to develop related human settlement interventions.

Improving Rural Shelter in Developing Countries
Published by UNCHS, 1995. (HS/385/95E)

This publication aims at beginning to fill the vacuum in rural shelter policy: firstly, by developing a conceptual framework for rural shelter policy which takes into account several issues which are currently important in development, namely, poverty reduction, the enabling approach and sustainable development; secondly, by analyzing some successful rural shelter improvement projects and programmes in order to isolate both positive and negative lessons; and thirdly, by presenting general guidelines for the formulation of national rural shelter policies in developing countries, within the framework of the Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000. The publication is also in response to one of the themes of the second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) (Istanbul, June 1996), “Adequate Shelter for All”.

Compendium of Human Settlements Statistics 1995
Published by United Nations, New York, 1995. (Sales No. E.95.XVII.11)

This issue of the Compendium of Human Settlements Statistics has been prepared as a joint publication of the United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD), Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis (DESIPA) and the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), pursuant to the decision taken at the twenty-eighth session of the Statistical Commission.

The purpose of the Compendium of Human Settlements Statistics is to assist Governments in reviewing human settlements conditions, in formulating national policies and programmes to address urbanization and other major issues, and in promoting the systematic and sustainable development of human settlements. It also serves as a statistical foundation for the Global Report on Human Settlements and its Statistical Annex, which the General Assembly, in its resolution 34/114 of 14 December 1979, requested the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) to prepare on a regular basis.

The statistics have been organized in five general areas: (a) population; (b) land use; (c) housing; (d) infrastructure and services; and (e) crime. In addition, as a special feature, this publication presents estimates and projections of urban populations and for large urban agglomerations prepared by the Population Division of the Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis.

Planned Segregation: Riots, Evictions and Dispossession in Jogeshwari East, Mumbai (Bombay), India
By Miloon Kothari and Nasreen Contractor
Published by Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA) and
Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), 1996.

This research study is an attempt to investigate the unique casual relationship between evictions and dispossession through riots. Using the example of Jogeshwari East, a slum settlement in Mumbai which has experienced two riots in the recent past, the study presents and analyzes the phenomenon of riots within the framework of human rights by specifically applying the housing perspective. The study also reviews local housing and planning laws and examines the weaknesses and loopholes in the relevant legislation to show how they contribute to riots.

Living in Asian Cities: The impending crisis - causes, consequences and alternatives for the future
Published by United Nations, New York, 1996. (ST/ESCAP/1660)

This book is the result of the Ministerial Conference on Urbanization in Asia and the Pacific, held in Bangkok in November 1993, which was also the setting for the first Asia-Pacific Urban Forum. Comprising four papers by prominent thinkers on human settlements and housing issues, the book is a reflection of current debate on issues raised by the dramatic changes that rapid urbanization has brought to bear on the citizens in the Asian and Pacific region.

The Istanbul Declaration and the Habitat Agenda, with Subject Index
Published by UNCHS (Habitat), 1997. (HS/441/97E)

The over 10,000 entries in the subject index of this publication facilitates the reading, understanding and the use of the Istanbul Declaration and the Habitat Agenda. An invaluable reference publication for human settlements professionals and policy-makers.

All UNCHS (Habitat) publications can be obtained from Habitat headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya or from Habitat regional offices (for a full list of contact addresses, please refer to p 40). To order, please write to:

Shivona Tavares, IAVD, UNCHS (Habitat)
P. O. 30030
Nairobi, Kenya
Fax: (254-2) 624333
E-mail: shivona. tavares@unchs.org

Videos

Road to Istanbul
5 minutes

An introduction to Habitat II: The City Summit and the key role it occupies as the last of the important series of UN conferences on social development held in the 1990s. Pulling together all the issues debated since the Rio UN Earth Summit in 1992, this short video explores how new partnerships between Governments, the private sector and citizens’s groups can work to improve urban environments.

Walk the Talk: Women Walking Beyond Habitat II (in English)
13’5 minutes

A gender perspective on the Istanbul Conference.

Step by Step: Improving the Urban Environment in Accra (in English)
13’40 minutes

A video about using Community-Based Environmental Management Information Systems to improve the quality of life in unplanned settlements.

Given A Voice
15 minutes

A video on urban poor children in Ghana

Growing Smart
20 minutes

The lives of street children in Kenya

The Istanbul Conference

A look at the Habitat II Conference and its outcome.

To order videos, please contact:

Sharad Shankardass
Film/Video Section
UNCHS (Habitat)
E-mail: <shankars@unchs.org>