A/HRC/22/61 C. Poor urban planning and lack of good governance 8. Roughly 72 per cent of urban populations in sub-Saharan Africa and 57 per cent of those in Southern Asia are slum dwellers, and urban growth in developing countries consists of mostly poor people. Despite this overrepresentation of slum dwellers, city plans in developing countries seldom take into account the needs of these people and “are largely configured and redefined basically in accordance with the political influences of real estate capital, with large-scale infrastructure designed to fit the needs of economic activity, and in keeping with the demands and preferences of middle and upper-income groups”.14 City governments also exacerbate these risks in their enforcement of urban development policies, where foreign investments are often introduced. Urban development policies often magnify the risk of flash floods, given that the policies are usually planned and implemented without the participation of the urban poor, which also results in their displacement.15 9. State authorities often fail in their responsibility to “respond effectively to local needs in a participatory, transparent and accountable manner”.16 While cities theoretically offer greater access to the centres of political power, they do not manage growth by providing good governance and delivering services for households. Policies are not revised, or new policies not implemented, to counterbalance the pressures of population growth on service capacities and address the failures of urban governance. Corruption and cumbersome regulatory requirements in cities also “lead to a variety of deprivations, such as inadequate infrastructure and environmental services, limited access to school and health care, and social exclusion”.17 D. Natural hazards and climate change 10. The urban poor often settle in areas at higher risk of floods, landslides and other disasters, where inadequate resources and safety nets make recovery more difficult. Indeed: “urban poverty is complicated and intensified by exposure to natural hazards such as cyclones, floods, mudslides and earthquakes. When combined with acute vulnerability, these hazards can become disasters. While large-scale events are major enough to qualify as disasters, others, far more numerous and ultimately affecting many more children and families, are too minor or too slow-moving to meet the formal criteria for „disaster‟. But they are still significant enough to turn lives upside down, bringing intense rainfalls that flood homes and destroy possessions, prolonged droughts that exhaust an already unreliable supply of water, or heat waves that turn unventilated shacks into ovens.”18 11. Climate change also affects food and nutrition security through direct nutritional effects, such as changes in consumption quantities and consumption, and through livelihood effects, such as changes in employment opportunities and the cost of acquiring adequate nutrition. Climate change can affect each of these dimensions, particularly in the light of biophysical and social vulnerability. 19 The climate affects food and nutrition security 14 15 16 17 18 19 George Martine, “Preparing for Sustainable Urban Growth in Developing Areas”, in United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Distribution, Urbanization, Internal Migration and Development: An International Perspective” (2011). International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. UNFPA, State of World Population 2007, p. 67. Baharoglu and Kessides, “Urban Poverty”, p. 109. UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children 2012: Children in an Urban World (2012), p. 45 See High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition, Food Security and Climate Change: A Report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (Rome, 2012). 5