U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses the World Urban Forum, organized by the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from March 22 26, 2010. Go to http://www.state.gov./video for txt transcript and more video.
A panel of officials from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) today hailed the success of the recently-concluded fifth session of the World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where nearly 14,000 participants had gathered to weigh the effects of urbanization and consider actions to curb social inequalities, and boost access to shelter, infrastructure, income and basic services for the world’s city-dwellers.
The world's mega-cities are merging to form vast "mega-regions" which may stretch hundreds of kilometers across countries and be home to more than 100 million people. According to a UN report the phenomenon is likely to be one of the most significant developments and problems of the urban world in the next 50 years. World leaders meeting in Brazil to chart a way forward for the worlds urban centers heard that the growth of mega-regions and cities is also leading to unprecedented urban sprawl, new slums, unbalanced development and income inequalities as more and more people move to urban centers. Beatrice Marshall has just returned from Brazil, one of the worlds most unequal countries and finds out how the government is striving to bridge the divide between its urban rich and urban poor.
