Accra, June 9, GNA - The Cities Alliance, a global coalition of citi es and development partners on Wednesday rolled-out modalities for Ghana to reduce urban poverty, improve the quality and impact of urban development

cooperation. Mr Julien Baskin, Senior Urban Specialist noted that the modalities were to build political commitment and create a stakeholders platform for

local authority and non-governmental organisations to scale up slum upgrading and city development strategies.

Speaking at a day's workshop on "Ghana Land Service and citizenship for the Urban Poor Community," in Accra, Mr Baskin said the project was to distil and share knowledge on sound practices and experiences, and to catalyse citywide and nationwide impacts. The workshop attended by traditional leaders, assembly members, loca l authority administrators, slum dwellers, and non-governmental organisatio ns, was organised by Peoples Dialogue on Human settlement, a community based non-governmental organisation. He explained that too many developing countries continued to adopt a

hostile approach to the urban poor, forcing them to obtain land and essential services informally by creating development problem. Mr Baskin disclosed that population growth indices indicated that by

the next 30 years the world's population would double, stressing that jus t over the last year, slum population had seen tremendous growth of about 4 3 billion people across the world. "This calls for urgent development plan to bring cities together in a direct dialogue with bilateral and multilateral agencies and financial institutions to share ideas on developmental role of local governments," he said.

He said Cities Alliance collaborated with non-governmental organisations including Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and Habitat for

Humanity International, Multi-lateral organisations; European Union, UNEP , UN-HABITAT and the World Bank. Mr Baskin said the Cities Alliance provided matching grants in suppo rt of the process by which local stakeholders defined their vision for their

city and its economic growth, environmental and poverty reduction objectives, with clear priorities for actions and investments. He stressed the importance of combining local experiences with globa l knowledge for an effective approach to dealing with slums. "The correct interface and balance between local reality and global knowledge is vital if slums are to be eradicated," he noted. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Farouk Braimah, Executive Director for People's Dialogue on Human Settlements, called for a comprehensive urban slum policy.