Rabat, November 26, 2012 (MAP)
Rabat, November 26, 2012 (MAP)
Morocco’s success in the fight against slums is due to its bold reform policies as well as a fair economic policy to prevent any expansion of slums, said Monday in Rabat, Project Manager of UN habitat, Alioune Badiane.
Badiane who was speaking at the international conference “Making Slums History: A Worldwide Challenge for 2020?praised Morocco’s efforts to eradicate slums, which were rewarded by the UN “habitat 2010? award.
The UN official also highlighted the partnership between Morocco and the United Nations in the last 20 years which has been crowned with commendable results.
“The commitment of Morocco in this field made it one of the countries that are part of the Millennium Declaration which aims to achieve the sum-free cities goal by 2020,” he added.
Badiane regretted the absence of a fair distribution of wealth, as a significant portion of the population still lacks the benefits that cities and urban centers can provide.
“Slums have become residential areas characterized by social and economic isolation,” he said.
According to Badiane, slums are a development problem and a result of the lack of policies and housing supply systems. “It is a failure of public policy,” he added.
The conference brings together 20 leading countries in the development and implementation of housing and anti-slum policies (Top20) among more than 21 countries, mainly Arab and African, and around twenty international institutions.
