Housing, building and planning

XVIII. RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED ON THE REPORTS OF THE THIRD COMMITTEE
1917. Housing, building and planning

The General Assembly, Noting with satisfaction the report of the Committee on Housing, Building and Planning on its first session,[1] the relevant sections of the report of the Economic and social Council,[2] and Council resolutions 975 F (XXXVI.) and 976 (XXXVI) of 1 August 1963, Concerned at the critical deficiency of housing and related amenities in the developing countries owing to over-rapid urbanization in a setting of slow economic and industrial growth and scarce resources, Recalling its resolution 1508 (XV) of 12 December 1960 and Economic and Social Council resolution 976 E (XXXVI) on the establishment of a United Nations programme of pilot projects in housing, building and planning,

1. Invites the Committee on Housing, Building and Planning to prepare as soon as possible recommendations to Governments suggesting practical and effective measures they may take to solve their housing problems;

2. Recommends that as a matter of priority the Committee on Housing, Building and Planning should suggest appropriate means of emergency action during the second half of the United Nations Development Decade and that it should:

(a) Study and recommend practical methods of establishing appropriate national bodies which could promote the development of national building industries;

(b) Prepare suitable targets for housing and environmental development consistent with the targets for the Decade set out in the Secretary-General's proposals[3] and in Economic and Social Council resolution 916 (XXXIV) of 3 August 1962;

(c) Suggest practical methods and criteria for establishing appropriate standards for such action along the lines of Economic and Social Council resolution 975 F (XXXVI), taking into account the resources available for housing and urban development;

3. Recommends that Governments take all necessary measures designed to ensure the creation and execution of low-income housing programmes, including the encouragement of housing co-operatives, and to guard against any practices, especially speculation in real estate, which may prove detrimental to such programmes;

4. Invites the Secretary-General, the regional economic commissions, the specialized agencies concerned and the interested inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations to co-operate with the Committee on Housing, Building and Planning and to assist requesting Governments in formulating and executing, within the framework of general development and taking into account internal resources and external aid available for such programmes, specific action programmes in housing and environmental development consistent with the targets and standards recommended,

5. Invites the Secretary-General to explore appropriate methods of expanding, within the framework of the United Nations programmes of technical cooperation and with the co-operation of interested Governments, the programme of pilot projects in housing, building and planning as a means of facilitating the achievement of national targets for the remainder of the Decade;

6. Invites the Managing Director of the Special Fund to consider the feasibility of including suitable aspects of such pilot projects among the pre-investment activities essential for environmental development as part of general development;

7. Requests the Economic and Social Council and the Secretary General to report to the General Assembly at its nineteenth session on the implementation of the present resolution.

1274th plenary meeting,
5 December 1963.

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[1] Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, Thirty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 13 (E/3719/Rev.1), chapter IV. [2] Official Records of the General Assembly, Eighteenth Session, Supplement No. 3 (A/5503), chapter IX, paras. 387-396. [3] The United Nations Development Decade: Proposals for action (United Nations publication, Sales No.: 62.II.B.2).