The Housing and Public Building Construction Unit (UCLBP), in partnership with UN-Habitat and other state and non-state institutions, will celebrate this October 5, 2015, for the third year, the World Habitat Day around the theme "public spaces for all."

To mark this celebration, Clément Bélizaire, the Executive Director of the UCLBP wanted at a press conference, attract the attention of all stakeholders and society at large on issues and challenges related to public spaces in Haiti

"[...] In 2015, we embark once again in the celebration of World Habitat Day. This time the theme 'Public spaces for all' is very timely at a time when we face a reality of certain use conflicts in public spaces. Cars, trucks, motorcycles and pedestrians compete on the road. Our sidewalks designed to allow pedestrians to move are occupied by merchants, shopkeepers, restaurateurs, etc... They serve more for vehicle parking than as pedestrian circulation spaces. The consequences are: self exclusion of some people, personal injury, physical and verbal abuse, etc....

[...] The objective of World Habitat Day is to encourage everyone to reflect on the state of our cities and our villages and on the right of everyone to housing Decent. This Day is also time to remind everyone that we have the ability and we have the responsibility to shape the future of our cities and our villages. The theme 'Public spaces for all' was chosen to emphasize the importance of routes (streets, corridors and public places) in a city. In Haiti, we take advantage of the celebration of this year not only to draw attention to the importance of these spaces, but also to raise public awareness including policy makers and professionals in urban on the different needs in terms of production, management and use of public spaces. It is also a time to reflect on the problems we face in terms of our public spaces.

[...] The public spaces (squares, parks, playgrounds) are created to facilitate social cohesion, encourage good physical health, well-being of citizens and so on. The UCLBP was mandated by the government to rehabilitate several public spaces including 5 squares in the metropolitan area [...] As you can see, our public places are now equipped with children's play areas, space for practicing sport of jogging and other space. As a public institution with the mandate to intervene in the city on the issue of housing and habitat, we believe that we must take advantage of these opportunities to do educational work on the common use of these spaces to facilitate access to a greater number of users and to enable them to respond to their vocation."

The official launch of this celebration, will be held Monday, October 5 from 2:00 pm on the Place Ste Anne. Besides various animations, there will be a conference-debates with state actors, non-state and various urban planning specialists and other related fields.

HL/ HaitiLibre