09/10/2023
*PRESS RELEASE OF THE NIGERIAN INSTITUTE OF TOWN PLANNERS
DURING THE CELEBRATION OF WORLD HABITAT DAY 2023*
The National President; Tpl. Nathaniel M. Atebije, FNITP, and the entire membership of
the Institute joins the rest of the world to celebrate the World Habitat Day for 2023. The
First Monday of October every year is declared by United Nations as World Habitat
Day and it has been celebrated across the globe since 1986. It is a day to reflect on the
state of human settlements in every part of the world. It sets to assess the level of
achievement in meeting with the basic rights to adequate shelter; and reminds the
world of its shared responsibility to protect the future of human habitat. Nations are
therefore expected to take proactive actions that would shape the future of our
settlements through appropriate policies, programmes and action plans to promote
sustainable development.
The Theme for this year’s World Habitat Day is “Resilient Urban Economies. Cities as
Drivers of Growth and Recovery”. Cities are known to be centers of innovation and
engines of growth. It has been projected that about 7 billion people will be living in
cities by 2050. When cities become vulnerable due to physical, social and economic
problems, driving towards sustainable development becomes jeopardized and the
livability of such human agglomerations becomes a big challenge. This is why the
choice of the theme for this year is not only apt but timely. It is essentially focused on
how cities can position their economies to benefit residents. This stems from the shocks
and stresses that urban economies have suffered with the breakout of diseases and
plagues of Covid – 19 and climate change as well as those of local and international
aggressions/insecurity such as wars, banditry, and insurgency. The challenges which
seem to be unabated have impacted negatively on the economies of where they exist
and indeed beyond the immediate shores of the countries to other nations. For example,
the Ukrainian-Russian War has not only affected the economies of the most cities and
towns in Ukraine but also the global wheat supplies and the economies of most European countries.
Armed conflicts in some parts of Africa too have affected the economies of most Cities
and Towns in African countries. We cannot forget negative economic shocks from
natural disaster like hurricane, flooding, earthquakes, strong monsoonal winds,
landslides among others.
In Nigeria, there is an inflationary pressure on the economy and the citizens and these
have negative socio-economic impacts on the towns and cities. Such cities are currently
experiencing economic slowdowns. It is therefore essential to identify actions that cities
can take to boost economic recovery and they can position themselves to tackle these
challenges.
It should be noted that 2023 has been a particularly challenging year for Urban
Economies. There is a noticeable decline in the growth of global economy and cities
which are thus affected by this decline. This becomes very worrisome because cities
contribute immensely to the national economy of any nation and the future of many
countries will be determined by the productivity of its urban areas. Cities thus, can play
the pivotal role in boosting economic recovery.
For this economic growth and recovery to be sustainable, there is need for cities to
absorb, recover and prepare for the future economic shocks (OECD, 2023). It is crucial
that this should also be packaged under the green recovery framework that scales up
private and public investments to finance the transition to a climate neutral economy in
post Covid world. Furthermore, efforts should be made to local finance framework for
cities and communities, to help distribute existing funding and finance to where it can
deliver the greatest impact.
In the words of United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres; “Local action is
vital and global cooperation indispensable; let us pledge to build inclusive, safe,
resilient and sustainable human settlement for all people everywhere”.
The Nigerian Institute of Town Planners therefore calls on governments at various
levels in Nigeria to engage and collaborate with indigenous professional planners to
embark on physical planning to enable us absorb the projected challenges.
Proactiveness is key to sustainable development; political will is imperative to success,
funding is the fulcrum on which implementation of plans and policies oscillate.
The government and the people of Nigeria must stringently imbibe the principles of
circular economy and adopt the “Rs” of waste management which include reduce,
reuse, refuse, recycle, recover, repurpose and rethink to give us the enablingenvironment create resilient urban economies and facilitate their roles as drivers of
growth and recovery.
We wish Nigerians happy celebration.
Signed
Tpl. Dr. David Olawale, FNITP
National Public Relations Secretary
