Excellencies, Honourable participants,

Madam Chair,

It is a great honour for me to take part in the opening ceremony of the second World Urban Forum.

We have gathered here from all over the world, from all walks of life, to discuss urban challenges and search for solutions to the issues of inclusiveness and integration. We are here to exchange experiences, to form partnerships and alliances, and to gain courage and inspiration to meet one of the most critical challenges of our time; combating urban poverty.

Cities have at all times been multiethnic and multicultural meeting places and melting pots. They are “anthills” of activity and creativity. They are engines of economic growth, origin of scientific achievements, cultural advancements and social progress. City-life is in many ways “the good life”. But the world is urbanizing and poverty is urbanizing. Most of the slum-dwellers and other vulnerable groups are excluded from “the good city life”. In may western cities we experiance that cizens coming from non-European contries have severe difficulites in integrating into the city life. This is not tolerable and defenitely not sustainable.

The challenges of managing sustainable urban development and eradicating urban poverty, segregation, exclusion, racism and conflicts are imminent and immense. No country so far have found solutions to these issues altogether.

However, the human right aspect – equal rights to an adequate standard of living - is the basis of our work. In order to achieve this important and far-reaching goal, participation of all is needed. We need the untapped resources and the experiences of women, youth, the poor and the marginalized. We need to develop cooperation between local authorities and civil society, and we need strategies for empowering and enabling all groups to participate in human settlements development.

Good governance and decentralization of authority and resources to local level is a prerequisite for a sustainable urban and human right-based development. Norway would like to honour the efforts of UN-Habitat on this issue. UN-Habitat is working closely with the local government associations as well as civil society partners. At this World Urban Forum we will benefit from this close relationship. I have no doubt that our partners – all the Habitat Agenda Partners – many of them representing local knowledge based on local experiences – will highly enrich our discussions and later our future decisions.

In particular, I am pleased to see that this time we will be able to follow a Global Youth Congress as part of the Forum. The youth represents the present and the future. We have the responsibility to listen to their voices. We need to give them a say to build a meaningful future.

Human settlements issues are complex and our policies need to be based on holistic approaches involving all stakeholders and partners. The complexity of human settlements development could well be one of the reasons why it has been difficult to achieve recognition of sustainable urbanisation as critical factor for sustainable development in general. I am pleased to report that the latest session in the Commission on Sustainable Development in New York this spring – CSD 12 - in my opinion made a difference in that respect.

Norway had the honour to chair this session. The Chairman’s summary from CSD 12 pinpoints several important issues familiar to us as main features of the Habitat Agenda.

May be the most important outcome of CSD 12 was the general recognition that the MDG goal 7, target 11 on improving the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers addresses only the tip of the iceberg - and that the target, however commendable, is patently inadequate.

At the CSD 12 it was also underlined that investments, tenure security and good governance are cornerstones of an improved framework for human settlements development. In addition, the Chair’s summary highlights inter alia:

• Ensuring security of property tenure is a prerequisite for people to have access to formal credit to invest in their homes.
• Ensuring legal recognition of women’s rights to both tenure and inheritance, and their effective involvment in slum upgrading
• Empowerment of the poor so that they could emerge from the vicious cycle that traps them in slums.
• Local economic activities need to be supported to enable the often vibrant informal businesses to develop into formal companies .
• Current ODA and foreign investment flows are not sufficient to meet the need. Neither are national government resources. New sources of financing need to be tapped. ODA could be used to catalyse other financial resources.
• Strengthening the capacities of local governments and maximizing the potential of communities and major groups in addressing the challenges to urban planning and implementation at local level. -
• Governments need to establish enabling policies and legislation to harness better the potential of the private sector, including through public-private partnerships.

The main themes of CSD 12 were water, sanitation and human settlements. Both the issues of water and sanitation belong to the urban agenda. The CSD 12 was therefore an important event for us working in this field.

CSD 13 next spring will be a policy session, formulating policies on the three themes. That session will be even more important to us. Let us take advantage of the momentum that CSD 12 has created and engage in the process towards CSD 13 to ensure its success. The skilled efforts of Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka were vital for the outcome of CSD 12. Her and our commitment are needed also at CSD13.

This Urban Forum can be seen as our first - and the 20. Governing Council of UN-Habitat - the next step in a process towards the Millennium Summit + 5 and onwards to achieve a sustainable and multicultural urbanization and a reduction of urban poverty

Let us remember and let us underline that the urbanisation process and the melting pot of the cities also offer opportunities of breaking old patterns and encourage initiative and creativity. Let us seize the opportunities and focus on inclusiveness and integration….

I would like to thank the authorities of Barcelona together with the UN-Habitat for arranging this important event and I look forward to taking part in participating.

I thank you for your kind attention.