Sustainable human settlements in the Third World

The continuing failure of most human settlement planning in Third World cities, together with the increasing concern for sustainable development, have resulted in a new focus on sustainable urbanisation. This paper examines the nature of the debate which has arisen on the concept of sustainable urbanisation in the Third World. Two of the main physical aspects of sustainable human settlements, land and building materials, are then focused on. Drawing upon personal research experiences in Ghana and Colombia, it is shown how complex these issues can be and hence the difficulties inherent in any attempt to achieve sustainable human settlement development.