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Lucia A Keegan  11/28/2006 10:04:25 AM  From  DB/Inbox:  Lucia A Keegan

Cable 
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UNCLAS        PARIS 07462

SIPDIS
cxparis:
    ACTION: UNESCO
    INFO:   POL ECON AMBU AMB AMBO DCM SCI

DISSEMINATION: UNESCOX
CHARGE: PROG

APPROVED: CHARGE:AKOSS
DRAFTED: HHS:JHOFF
CLEARED: NONE

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DE RUEHFR #7462 3241547
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R 201547Z NOV 06
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3235
INFO RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 1179
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2538

UNCLAS PARIS 007462 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FROM USMISSION UNESCO PARIS 
 
FOR IO/UNESCO 
NAIROBI FOR OBSERVER 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: SCUL KPAO UNESCO
SUBJECT:  UNESCO AND ITS RIGHT TO THE CITY PROGRAM 
 
¶1. Summary.  Despite concerns raised by the U.S. Mission, UNESCO 
continues to pursue its "Right to the City" program and will be 
holding a December 11-12 meeting on "Urban Policies and the Right to 
the City."  Despite UNESCO's support of this program, it is clear 
from a recent meeting with the organizers, that its goals are fuzzy 
at best.  At the same time, the fuzziness of these goals may present 
an opportunity to get away from an open-ended pursuit of ill-defined 
"rights" and for this program to be redirected and focused on civic 
education. End Summary. 
 
¶2. DCM and HHS attache met November 20 with Wataru Iwamoto and 
Brigitte Colin of UNESCO's Social and Human Sciences (SHS) program 
and who have been the primary staff responsible for the "Right to 
the City" program.  In previous meetings Mission had expressed its 
unhappiness with the profligate use of the term "rights" by UNESCO 
and SHS and the vagueness of the term "right to the city," in 
particular.  Mission had also raised the unclear aim of this 
program.  Though there will be a working group meeting at UNESCO 
December 11-12 on "Urban Policies and the Right to the City," 
Iwamoto, stressed he is aware of U.S. concerns and promised that the 
name of the program will soon be changed to remove the word rights. 
The new name will try to more accurately capture the nature of the 
program.  Iwamoto also assured us that the outcome of this project 
would not lead to a normative instrument. 
 
¶3. Unfortunately, judging from the conversation, the nature of the 
program is not clear, even to the UNESCO secretariat.  They have 
lumped together a number of inchoate concepts such as access to 
water supplies, rights of women and dealing with immigration at the 
city level.  Topics of sessions at the upcoming UNESCO meeting 
include:  innovative practices in French speaking cities, Montreuil, 
France-policies for integrating immigrants, rights to the city for 
street traders and informal workers, the right to urban water, and 
so-on. 
 
¶4. Attending the December that meeting will be representatives from 
UNHABITAT and various universities and cities participating in a 
loose network that has already been established.  Among the 
participants will be Mark Purcell of the Department of Urban Design 
and Planning at the University of Washington.  Colin from SHS 
pointed out that they have been having a difficult time finding 
partners in developing countries that really may need help with 
urban management.  For this reason, they are working through the 
already-established network of Francophone mayors sponsored by the 
Francophonie organization. HHS attache asked if there was a 
possibility of working with the Commonwealth. 
 
¶5. When asked what other UNESCO sectors the program is working with, 
Iwamoto replied the Education Sector's Education for Sustainable 
Development program and the Science Sector's water education 
program.  Iwamoto appeared open to a suggestion from the DCM that 
the program be more focused on the basics of democracy and civic 
education.  Iwamoto agreed with a suggestion by the DCM that he meet 
with the chief of the education sector's division responsible for 
civic education and that he also meet with the Communications and 
Information sector to see how they could be involved in this 
program. 
 
¶6. Mission reps also offered to look for partners that could be 
involved in getting the program better focused on grassroots 
democracy and practical solutions to urban problems.  Among the 
organizations suggested was Sister Cities International, an 
organization that Iwamoto and Colin knew nothing about.  A name that 
also arose was that of Shannon H. Sorzano, Deputy Assistant 
Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of 
 
SIPDIS 
Housing and Urban Development.  Sorzano was a panelist at the World 
Urban Forum in Vancouver, Canada this past May.  (Comment: 
IO/UNESCO may want to reach out to Sorzano to coordinate policy in 
this field.)  USAID is also doing work in this area and might have 
ideas for partners and resources. 
 
¶6. Comment.  While we received a positive response to our proposal 
to focus the program more on civic education, we are still a long 
way from realizing that goal.  It will probably takes months of 
prodding and pushing to turn the "Right to the City" into a program 
that produces tangible outcomes rather than a lot of fragmented 
discussion. 
KOSS