President Paul Kagame has called on leaders and policymakers to bring urbanisation to the centre of the development agenda, saying that it can help reduce poverty in ways the hand outs cannot.

The President made the call yesterday while addressing the first Integration Summit at the UN Headquarters in New York. 

The three-day event, organised by the UN’s Economic and Social Council, is expected to discuss the essence of sustainable urbanisation and come up with policies to create better cities in the world beyond 2015.

"The choice is not whether to urbanise or not. The issue is whether we manage it in such a way that we obtain, together with our citizens, the maximum benefits possible,” Kagame said.

"Our task as leaders is to maximise the benefits by promoting orderly migration, investing in basic services, and adopting policies that support affordable housing and transport.” 

The Head of State has also called for cooperation between the various stakeholders so as to build more environmentally-friendly and affordable cities for people to live in.

"If we work together to stay focused on these policy objectives, Africa can become a middle-income continent within our children’s lifetimes,” he told the delegates. 

The President, however, cautioned against growth without planned urbanisation, saying it is a recipe for soaring housing inequality.

Urbanisation experts described a phenomenon in the first decade of the 21st century as a "historic milestone” when the global population living in cities and towns reached the 50 per cent mark.

The UN has recently taken to paying more attention to urbanisation now that it estimates that by 2050, about 70 per cent of the world’s population is expected to live in urban areas, and over 60 per cent of the land projected to become urban by 2030 is yet to be built.

UN’s Economic and Social Council has declared that "there is no doubt that urbanisation, if done right, can deliver a sustainable future”, and has since 2012 invited Governments to further promote sustainable cities.

President Kagame pointed out that like other African countries, Rwanda faces many challenges and opportunities of rapid urbanisation, including the urgent need to upgrade informal settlements and avoid such development in the future.

At the centre of urbanisation challenges is the need to provide basic infrastructure and services, mitigate the risks of inequality and segregation of the poorest, protect urban wetlands and green space, and enable the private sector to create jobs, especially for youth.

Rwanda and the rebirth

For Rwanda, the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi destroyed the country’s social fabric. However, 20 years later, urbanisation has been made part and parcel of the rebuilding and unity and reconciliation efforts, Kagame highlighted.

Under its national development agenda, the second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy, Rwanda has planned to organise settlement–from rural market centres to small towns and larger urban areas, while taking care of the environment.

The government has also established a comprehensive legal framework for the inclusive registration and management of land, and built a national database for property records and land use maps in an effort to make the most efficient possible use of land.

Efforts to establish financial and supply options for affordable housing and related services, such as education and health, to address the needs of low income earners are also underway.

Kagame emphasised that the best response to the risks and dangers associated with urbanisation is innovation and cooperation rather than alarm.

"Sometimes social problems become more noticeable when concentrated in urban areas, but that does not necessarily make them more difficult to deal with. In some cases, urban density may make them easier to solve. Take the case of basic services, which will have to be provided more extensively in cities in the coming years,” the President said.

The City of Kigali was in 2008 granted the Habitat Scroll of Honour Award for its innovations, making it the first City in Africa to win the prestigious UN’s award that recorgnises countries, governments, organisations and and individuals who have made great contributions to the development of housing. 

Click here for H.E Paul Kagame's full speech in New York