UN-HABITAT twenty first session of the Governing Council, 16-20 April 2007, Nairobi, Kenya: appendix on report of the fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe to assess the scope and impact of operation Murambatsvina
Appendix to chapter 7 - slums and forced evictions: the broader African context, by the UN special envoy on human settlements issues in Zimbabwe Mrs Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka
Africa has the dubious distinction of being the fastest urbanising continent in the world as it experiences the greatest influx of rural dwellers into urban areas the continent has ever known. The annual average urban growth rate is 4%, twice as high as Latin America and Asia. Already, 37 per cent of Africans live in cities, and by the year 2030 this is expected to rise to 53 per cent. Sub-Saharan Africa also has the world’s largest proportion of urban residents living in slums. These slums are home to 72 per cent of urban Africa’s citizens. That percentage represents a total of 187 million people. They constitute 20% of the world’s urban slum dwellers. According to the latest research of UN-HABITAT, the UN agency for cities and other human settlements, the statistics show that these slum dwellers have so few services, such as water and sanitation, electricity, or telephones compared to their wealthier compatriots, that African cities appear starkly divided. Even those with these services are far fewer, proportionately, than in other regions of the developing world.