30. Reaffirm that the family is the basic unit of society and as such should be strengthened. It is entitled to receive comprehensive protection and support. In different cultural, political and social systems, various forms of the family exist. Marriage must be entered into with the free consent of the intending spouses, and husband and wife should be equal partners. The rights, capabilities and responsibilities of family members must be respected. Human settlements planning should take into account the constructive role of the family in the design, development and management of such settlements. Society should facilitate, as appropriate, all necessary conditions for its integration, reunification, preservation, improvement and protection within adequate shelter and with access to basic services and a sustainable livelihood;

31. Resolve in the framework inter alia of a poverty eradication strategy to encourage social and economic policies that are designed to meet the housing needs of families and their individual members, with particular attention to the care of children;

32. Also resolve to promote changes in attitudes, structures, policies, laws and other practices relating to gender in order to eliminate all obstacles to human dignity and equality in family and society and to promote full and equal participation of women and men, inter alia, in the formulation, implementation and follow-up of public policies and programmes;

33. Invite Governments, the United Nations and other international organizations to strengthen the quality and consistency of their support to poverty eradication and sustainable human settlements development, in particular to the least developed countries. This in turn requires not only renewed political will, but also the mobilization and allocation of new and additional resources at both the national and international levels. We urge the strengthening of international assistance to developing countries in their efforts to alleviate poverty, including by creating an enabling environment that would facilitate the integration of developing countries into the world economy, improving their market access, facilitating the flow of financial resources and implementing fully and effectively all initiatives already launched regarding debt relief;

34. Emphasize that the international community should consider further measures, as appropriate, that would lead to durable solutions to the external debt burden of developing countries;

35. In this connection, express our appreciation to the developed countries that have agreed to and have reached the target of 0.7 per cent of their gross national product for overall official development assistance, and call upon developed countries that have not yet done so to strengthen their efforts to achieve the agreed target of 0.7 per cent as soon as possible and, where agreed, within that target, to earmark 0.15 per cent to 0.20 per cent of the gross national product for the least developed countries;

36. Request the international community to strongly support poverty eradication, and welcome the ongoing consultations by the Secretary-General on the establishment of a world solidarity fund for poverty eradication to finance and realize, inter alia, the social policies and programmes of the Habitat Agenda to address challenges of poverty eradication and sustainable development in developing countries, especially the least developed countries, bearing in mind the voluntary nature of the contributions;

37. Resolve to raise awareness about human settlements challenges and solutions through full and open dissemination of information and commit ourselves to renew and foster political will at all levels;

38. Also resolve to empower the poor and vulnerable, inter alia through promoting greater security of tenure and enabling better access to information and good practices, including awareness of legal rights. We aim to develop specific policies for overcoming growing urban poverty;

39. Further resolve to empower local authorities, non-governmental organizations and other Habitat Agenda partners, within the legal framework and according to the conditions of each country, to play a more effective role in shelter provision and in sustainable human settlements development. This can be achieved through effective decentralization, where appropriate, of responsibilities, policy management, decision-making authority and sufficient resources, where possible including revenue-collection authority to local authorities, through participation and local democracy as well as through international cooperation and partnerships. In particular, the effective role of women in decision-making in local authorities should be ensured, if necessary through appropriate mechanisms. In this context we agree to intensify our dialogue, where possible, including, inter alia, through the Commission on Human Settlements on all issues related to effective decentralization and strengthening of local authorities, in support of the implementation of the Habitat Agenda, in conformity with the legal framework and policies of each country;

40. Encourage authorities within metropolitan areas to develop mechanisms and to foster, as appropriate, legal, financial, administrative, planning and coordination instruments in order to achieve more equitable, ordered and functional cities;

41. Resolve to build capacities and networks to enable all partners to play an effective role in shelter and human settlements development. The management of urbanization processes requires strong and accountable public institutions able to provide an effective framework in which everybody has access to basic services. Capacity-building needs to be directed towards, inter alia, supporting decentralization and participatory urban management processes. We also pledge to strengthen the institutions and legal frameworks that assist and allow broad-based participation in decision-making and in the implementation of human settlements strategies, policies and programmes;

42. Acknowledge, value and support volunteer work and the work of community-based organizations. Voluntary practices offer an important contribution to the development of human settlements, as they help to build strong, cohesive communities, as well as to develop a sense of social solidarity, generating in the process significant economic outputs;

43. Are committed to improving prevention, preparedness, mitigation and response capacities with the contribution of national and international cooperation networks, in order to reduce the vulnerability of human settlements to natural and human-made disasters and to implement effective post-disaster programmes for the affected human settlements, aimed, inter alia, at meeting immediate needs, reducing future disaster risks and making rebuilt human settlements accessible for all;

44. Commit ourselves to the goal of gender equality in human settlements development and resolve to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty and to stimulate the development of human settlements that are truly sustainable. We further commit ourselves to formulating and strengthening policies and practices to promote the full and equal participation of women in human settlements planning and decision-making;

45. Also commit ourselves to strengthening existing financial mechanisms and identifying and developing appropriate innovative approaches for financing shelter and human settlements development at all levels. Furthermore, we resolve to continue to undertake legislative and administrative reforms to give women full and equal access to economic resources, including the right to inheritance and the ownership of land and other property, credit, natural resources and appropriate technologies, as well as ensuring their right to security of tenure and to enter into contractual agreements. We resolve to promote increased and equal access for all people to open, efficient, effective and appropriate housing finance, to support savings mechanisms in the informal sector, where appropriate, and to strengthen regulatory and legal frameworks and financial management capacity at all appropriate levels;

46. Resolve to promote the upgrading of slums and regularization of squatter settlements, within the legal framework of each country. In particular, we reiterate the aim of the Cities without Slums initiatives to make a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020;

47. Affirm that, in the interest of affordable housing for the poor, it is necessary to promote cooperation among countries for popularizing the use of adequate low-cost and sustainable building materials and appropriate technology for the construction of adequate low-cost houses and services within the reach of the poor, especially in slums and unplanned settlements;

48. Resolve to intensify efforts to include countries with economies in transition in the system of multilateral cooperation in sustainable development of human settlements, by developing the support for these countries to determine an adequate level of decentralization in the governance of urban and rural human settlements. We reiterate our commitment to involve in these efforts the United Nations financial institutions, international and national foundations, the private sector and other partners of the Habitat Agenda;

49. Take note with satisfaction of the ongoing housing policy formulation by many countries. We resolve to undertake legislative and administrative reforms needed to support the efforts of people, individually and collectively, to produce affordable shelter, to adopt proactive planning of land supply, to promote the efficient functioning of land markets and administration, to eradicate legal and social barriers to the equal and equitable access to land and to ensure that the equal rights of women and men to land and property are protected under the law. In implementing the above, we acknowledge the need for vigorously promoting affordable shelter and basic services for the homeless, preventing forced evictions that are contrary to the law and facilitating access of all people, particularly the poor and vulnerable groups, to information on housing legislation, including any legal rights, and to remedies where these laws are violated. In this connection, we note with appreciation and support the initial approach and activities of the Global Campaign for Secure Tenure;

50. See the implementation of the Habitat Agenda as an integral part of the overall fight for the eradication of poverty. The implementation of the Habitat Agenda and the pursuit of sustainable development are intimately linked and interdependent, and human settlements development is a key factor for sustainable development. The World Summit for Sustainable Development to be held at Johannesburg in 2002 provides a good opportunity to further pursue and intensify this relationship;

51. Resolve to intensify efforts for ensuring transparent, responsible, accountable, just, effective and efficient governance of cities and other human settlements. We recognize that good governance, within each country and at the international level, is essential to addressing the challenge of urban poverty as well as the challenge of environmental degradation and to harnessing the potential opportunities offered by globalization. Cities need specific approaches and methodologies to improve governance, to plan and act strategically in order to reduce urban poverty and social exclusion and to improve the economic and social status of all citizens and protect the environment in a sustainable way. In connection with this, we note the importance of promoting sustainable livelihoods through education and training, particularly for the poor and vulnerable groups;

52. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has developed in a much faster and much more dramatic way than could have been foreseen at Istanbul. We resolve to intensify efforts at the international and national levels against HIV/AIDS and in particular to formulate and implement appropriate policies and actions to address the impact of HIV/AIDS on human settlements. We recognize the problem of accessing financial resources for housing by HIV/AIDS victims and the need for shelter solutions for accommodating HIV/AIDS victims, especially the orphans and the terminally ill;

53. Resolve to intensify efforts to enhance the role of youth and civil society, and to increase cooperation with parliamentarians in human settlements development;

54. Also resolve to promote more determined action against urban crime and violence, particularly violence against women, children and the elderly, through a coordinated response at all levels, in accordance, as appropriate, with integrated crime prevention action plans. These plans might include a diagnostic survey of crime phenomena, the identification of all the relevant actors in crime prevention and the fight against crime, the establishment of consultation mechanisms for the design of a coherent strategy and the elaboration of possible solutions to these problems;

55. Further resolve to seriously address the challenges posed by wars, conflicts, refugees and human-made disasters on human settlements, and commit ourselves through enhanced international cooperation mechanisms to support post-conflict and post-disaster countries, with special emphasis on the provision of shelter and other basic services, particularly to vulnerable groups, refugees and internally displaced persons, as well as to facilitate restoring security of tenure and property rights;

56. Resolve to take further effective measures to remove obstacles to the full implementation of the Habitat Agenda as well as obstacles to the realization of the rights of the peoples living under colonial and foreign occupation, which are incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person and must be combated and eliminated;

57. Also resolve to expand and strengthen the protection of civilians in conformity with international humanitarian law, in particular the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949, including article 49 thereof;

58. Resolve to strengthen international cooperation, including the burden sharing in, and the coordination of humanitarian assistance to, countries hosting refugees and to help all refugees and displaced persons to return voluntarily to their homes, in safety and dignity, and to be smoothly reintegrated in their societies;

59. Resolve to promote access to safe drinking water for all and to facilitate the provision of basic infrastructure and urban services, including adequate sanitation, waste management and sustainable transport which is integrated and accessible to all, including people with disabilities. To this end, we need to promote transparent and accountable management of public services as well as partnerships with the private sector and non-profit organizations for the delivery of these services;

60. Commit ourselves to intensifying efforts for improving sustainable environmental planning and management practices, and for promoting sustainable production and consumption patterns in human settlements in all countries, in particular in industrialized countries. Integrated approaches addressing social, economic and environmental issues should be taken more systematically at all levels. Agenda 21 and the local Agenda 21 initiatives provide important inputs to this process;

61. Reiterate the need to integrate the local Agenda 21 process, as mentioned above, in the global plan of action for the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. The aims, policies and strategies of both agendas should be harmonized in order to promote sustainable urban planning and management;

62. Also reiterate that Governments, local authorities and other Habitat Agenda partners should regularly monitor and evaluate their own performances, and in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda Governments at all levels should identify and disseminate best practices and apply shelter and human settlements development indicators. To this end, we need to strengthen the capacity among all Habitat Agenda partners to handle and analyse information as well as to communicate with each other;

63. A further goal is to translate best practices into policies and permit their replication. In this respect, the international community should ensure the effective formatting and dissemination of proven best practices and policies;

64. Recognizing that those living in poverty are in fact rich in innovative faculties and the importance of microcredit in eradicating poverty and improving human settlements, and following success stories of some countries in this field, we encourage Governments, within their legal framework, and both national and international financial institutions to strengthen the institutional frameworks by which it would be possible to extend microcredit to those living in poverty, particularly the women, without collateral or security;

65. Reiterate that international cooperation takes on added significance and importance in the light of recent trends towards the increased globalization and interdependence of the world economy. There is a need for the political will of all States and for specific action at the international level, including among cities, to inspire, encourage and strengthen existing and innovative forms of cooperation and partnership, coordination at all levels and increased investment from all sources, including the private sector, in order to contribute effectively to the improvement of shelter conditions, especially in developing countries. In this regard we also resolve to pay particular attention to cities and other human settlements in critical natural environments such as arid and semi-arid areas with the purpose of providing assistance and support for their development;

66. Reconfirm the role of the Commission on Human Settlements and the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) in advocating, promoting, monitoring and assessing progress made in implementing the goals of adequate shelter for all through providing legal security of tenure and sustainable human settlements development in all countries and in combining best practices, enabling policies, and compiling legislation and action plans for identifying illustrative cities for the two global campaigns and further advancing the normative debate and operational action on major human settlements issues, inter alia, by timely and regular publication of global flagship reports. We also support the establishment of the Habitat Agenda Task Manager System, designed to allow better monitoring and mutual reinforcement of actions taken by international agencies in support of the implementation of the Habitat Agenda;

67. Reaffirm our commitment to international cooperation as an essential element to implement the Istanbul Declaration and the Habitat Agenda. In this regard, we invite the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session on options for reviewing and strengthening the mandate and status of the Commission on Human Settlements and the status, role and function of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), in accordance with the relevant decisions of the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the Habitat II Conference;

68. Agree to regularly review further implementation of the Habitat Agenda with a view to assessing progress and considering new initiatives.