KOBE, JAPAN

AUGUST 1987

PREAMBLE

We the participants of the Asian Conference on Population and Development in Medium-Sized Cities, having assembled in Kobe, Japan from 11 to 14 August, 1987 at the invitation of the UNFPA and the City of Kobe, are grateful for the warm and generous hospitality and the excellent facilities provided by the City of Kobe,

Having considered the problems and potentials of Medium-sized cities in the areas of population growth and national development,

WE HEREBY ISSUE THE FOLLOWING DECLARATION:

A. Role

Medium-sized cities have a vital role to play in national development. These are cities that stand between the great mega-cities, and the small towns and villages, function to link together populations into an integrated national community.

B. Problems

Medium-sized cities face a variety of serious problems, among which the following are of special importance.

1. Medium-sized cities tend to be neglected in overall development planning and in national and international consideration.

2. They suffer from a lack of coherent national policies to define and manage their roles in national development.

3. They lack appropriate data and data collection procedures, which increases their neglect by rendering them and their problems invisible in national and international development considerations.

4. They also lack capacities for generating sufficient local financial resources to attend to their problems, and they are usually slighted in national budgetary allocations. With such neglect, they often suffer from weak capacities to utilize the resources that are available to them.

5. Medium-sized cities often lack strong and effective administrative structures, and adequate numbers of trained technical personnel.

6. The character of migrants to the medium sized cities often places heavy demands on public utilities and social services.

7. Finally, medium-sized cities also suffer from extensive environmental degradation.

C. Potentials

Medium-sized cities also show strong potentials for promoting national development and popular welfare. Among their rich potentials the following are especially important.

1. Medium-sized cities link rural areas with the great mega-cities to produce an integrated national community.

2. They can often permit more efficient use of resources for development and a more equitable distribution of social service.

3. They can help to alleviate some of the more serious problems of congestion in the great mega-cities.

4. They can act as stimulating centres for the economic and demographic transitions of their hinterlands.

5. They provide greater economies of scale for development activities and social services than the smaller towns and villages that they serve.

D. Recommendations

Given these problems and potentials, we hereby make the following recommendations for action with regard to medium-sized cities.

1. The basic recommendation is that governments pay close attention to the problems and potentials of medium-sized cities, which tend to be severely neglected in overall development planning. Paying attention to such cities has specific implications for action on issues of policy, data and analysis, and infrastructure and human resources at national, local and international levels. It is understood that where state or provincial levels stand between national and local levels, the following recommendations apply to the appropriate levels.

POLICY

A. National Level

2. Medium-sized cities must be included directly in the purview of development planning.

3. Policies must aim at strengthening the administrative structure and capacities of the medium-sized cities.

4. Industrial investment policies must take account of the implications in urban service costs for the medium-sized cities receiving such investment.

5. Policies should make provision to strengthen the capacities of medium-sized cities to generate their own financial resources.

6. Policies should devolve decision-making powers to medium-sized cities, especially through establishing appropriate legal and administrative procedures for this purpose. Such policies should aim at enhancing capacities for self improvement and local initiative, toward the general end of environmental protection and the overall improvement of the quality of life.

7. Where appropriate, policies should enhance the capacity of medium-sized cities to promote the development of their agricultural hinterland.

B. Local level

8. Local policy should include provision for consultation with the people whose lives are affected by development policies.

9. Local level administrative structures should be strengthened, with the creation of appropriate training and career development schemes for both technical and administrative personnel.

10. Development and urban planning processes should include population data and issues.

C. International Agencies

11. Assistance should be provided for the study and development of administrative systems of medium-sized cities.

12. Support should also be provided for policy planning activities that include direct attention to the problems and potentials of medium-sized cities in overall economic and urban development planning.

13. The UNFPA should provide support for the development of an Asian network to link officials of medium-sized cities together throughout the region.

DATA AND ANALYSIS

A. National level

14. Studies should be conducted of the character of medium-sized cities and the roles they play in overall national development.

15. Governments should assure that data on medium-sized cities be made available, especially through co-ordination of various data collection agencies and procedures.

16. Data collection and reporting procedures should be developed that make information available by appropriate city units, including the city proper and the built up urban areas outside city administrative boundaries.

17. Governments should pay special attention to the collection of data on migration, with attention to periodic updating of information through such procedures as multi-round surveys, and attaching migration questions to regular data collection in other areas.

18. Vital registration records should provide appropriate distinctions between place of occurrence and place of residence to assure that valid migration information can be derived from vital registration data.

B. Local level

19. Local governments should devise simple data collection procedures to obtain information on migration streams and the special needs of migrants.

20. Provision should be made for the periodic updating of data, especially on migration, through such procedures as multi-round surveys, and through adding migration questions on other regular data collection exercises.

C. International Agencies

21. The UNFPA should provide assistance for studies of the character and functions of medium-sized cities.

22. The UNFPA should provide assistance for the development of simple and economical means of collecting data on migrants and migration, and on procedures for periodic updating of such data.

23. The UNFPA should provide assistance for devising techniques to define standardized urban categories that include built up places and their populations outside of regular urban administrative boundaries.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND HUMAN SERVICES

A. National Level

24. Urban development plans should include adequate resources to provide for the appropriate urban infrastructure.

25. Special training should be provided for medium-sized city technical and administrative personnel,

26. Governments should pay special attention to the health and family planning needs of medium-sized cities, especially in view of the age-sex composition implied by the strong migration streams that expand the city populations.

B. Local Level

27. Special attention should be paid to the employment opportunities and the working conditions of women and to the social service needs of children.

28. Special attention should be paid to providing linked health and family planning services to the poor of medium-sized cities.

29. Low cost housing and public utility facilities for the poor should have high priority in development activity.

30. Attention should be paid to creating career opportunities, promotion and training to develop effective administrative and technical cadres of city government.

C. International Agencies

31. International agencies such as the World Bank and the UNDP should give special attention to providing assistance to medium-sized cities when funding development projects and in particular when funding urban development projects.

32. The World Bank and the UNDP should assist in supporting training programs for technical and administrative personnel in medium-sized cities. This should be developed among Asian countries on the principle of Technical Co-operation among Developing Countries (TCDC).

33. The UNFPA should give special attention to assistance in health and family planning services to the medium-sized cities.

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES

34. This Declaration should be given wide distribution throughout Asian countries by the UNFPA, and other appropriate agencies.

35. The delegates should give special attention to promoting this Declaration and its recommendations for action in their home countries.

36. Appropriate units should be developed at the national and local levels, as well as at the regional level, by participating governments to assure that follow-up actions are taken.