“The ‘Mahinda Chintana’, which is the vision for Sri Lanka that under the Village Awakening Programme (Gama Neguma) facilities and opportunities in cities will be made available in the rural areas, to make their lives better while retaining the ambience of the village.  This is expected to retard the rate of urbanization, and reduce the urban – rural pull factor thus reducing the pressure on urban areas.

We are planning to formulate a National Housing Policy that would be acceptable to the community at large.  It is of paramount importance that we address the housing demands and aspirations of people rather than trying to fulfill an artificial need that we project based on traditional definitions of need.  This is the basic implementation strategy of the Village Awakening Programme (Gama Neguma) under the ‘Mahinda Chintana’ Vision for Sri Lanka.”

This was said by the Minister of Housing & Common Amenities, Mrs. Ferial Ashraff addressing the 21^st Governing Council session of UN-Habitat in Nairobi, Kenya on 17^th April 2007.

 The 21^st session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN HABITAT) were inaugurated by the President of Kenya, Mr. Mwai Kibaki on the invitation of UN HABITAT Executive Director, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka and the session was focused on the theme of Sustainable Urbanization : local action for urban poverty reduction with an emphasis on finance and planning.

Ministers of Housing and Human Settlements of 58 member countries participated this conference including Sri Lanka.

After the inauguration of above conference, Mrs. Ferial Ashraff further said “ We in Sri Lanka have a long standing history of shelter initiatives and successful implementation of such programmes.  We have been made to battle with shelter issues despite our past records due to the prevailing in our country.  To add to this state of affairs, the Tsunami that wrecked our shores in December 2004 left approximately 98,000 houses fully or partially damaged.  This required complete re-visiting of existing policies and guidelines on housing and construction in these areas, to re-build while maintaining a balanced growth in the other parts of the country.  Here, I must gratefully mention the magnanimous support extended to us by the international community in rebuilding.

Immaterial of the sector, human settlement issues are more prominent among low income groups.  In urban areas, the demand for housing is acute due to internal migration in addition to the normal urban growth of 3%.  In Colombo district and other main urban centres with higher economic activities, there is an immediate need for more than 75,000 housing units for the low income communities.

 It is our experience that planning and management of housing for urban low income communities is a very complex and complicated process.  Our future policy framework that aims at planned human settlements taking into consideration the population density, effective land use planning and environmental sustainability, therefore, will be an understanding and flexible one that makes allowance for changing demands.  This will ensure that our endeavours would not end up in further proliferating vertical slums.

The housing issue in rural areas and estate sector in Sri Lanka is somewhat different from that of urban areas.  Almost all of the families living in villages have a shelter, but in most cases, it barely fulfils the requirements to be called a “house” within the traditional definition.  The concern that arises is whether the house serves the household socio culturally and is affordable.  If it does, are we then overstating it through the eyes of the end user, not the bureaucrat.  Let us give this idea some thought in estimating the demands in the future, taking into consideration that security of tenure acts as a catalyst in the improvement of housing, especially in rural areas.  Using the traditional definition, nearly 1,300,000 housing units require improvements to make them more habitable.

The most significant feature of the housing programmes in Sri Lanka is that they are carried out with the community participation.  In these endeavours, we are introducing the cost – effective construction technology, and energy saving, eco-friendly designs to suit different climatic conditions to the beneficiaries.  The advantages of such programmes are two fold.  Firstly they enable beneficiaries to be involved in the construction of their own house from the inception, and to have a home that is in line with their affordability and aspiration.  This results in our ability to put up a house that is worth well over five times the direct investment in construction of these houses.”

At the inaugural session of this conference UN-HABITAT Executive Director, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka said “The year 2007 also marks the first Governing Council session after the agency marked its 30^th anniversary in Vancouver last year at the Third Session of the World Urban Forum.  It also marked the 10^th anniversary of the adoption of the Habitat Agenda in 1996 in Istanbul, Turkey.  It is an opportune time to take stock of what we have accomplished and to re-strategize, taking into account the ongoing UN system-wide reform that has been given emphasis by member States. 

UN-HABITAT research showed that across the planet the rate of slum formation was today almost the same as the rate of urban growth.  This implies that most of the people who are migrating to cities, and who are born in cities, are joining the ranks of the urban poor and slum dwellers.”

Before the inauguration of this conference, Mrs. Kumari Seljah, Minister of Housing and Poverty Alleviation in India who was elected the President of the 21^st Session of the Governing Council met the Minister of Housing & Common Amenities, Mrs. Ferial Ashraff and the Sri Lankan delegation including Mr. Dinesh Gunawardena, Minister of Urban Development and Sacred Area Development.

 18^th April 2007.