UNCHS (Habitat) United Nations Center for Human Settlements, based in Nairobi, Kenya, is responsible for the formulation and implementation of the human settlements program of the United Nations. Habitat serves as a think tank within the United Nations system, utilizing its research and technical analysis capacity to enable governments to improve the development and management of human settlements. Habitat's operational activities combine technical advice, applied research, training and information. The center works closely with the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank, other United Nations agencies as well as with other multilateral and bilateral development assistance agencies. Habitat and the United Nations Environment Program are the only two UN agencies headquartered in a developing country.
Goals of the Center
To assist governments in policy and strategy formulation, to improve the living conditions of people in their communities by expanding access to adequate shelter, infrastructure and services for all.
To strengthen the capacity of national governments and local authorities, to mobilize public and private resources, to improve urban environmental conditions and productivity.
I. Origin
Habitat has its roots in the post-war reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts of the United Nations, and this operational and pragmatic approach to addressing immediate needs of people continues to characterize Habitat's mission in the 1990s. In the aftermath of the Second World War, it was clearly understood that peace building requires as a first essential step the rebuilding of shattered settlements and homes in order to house people and reconstruct political, economic, social and cultural life. This is equally true today.
Throughout the 1960s, unanticipated and unprecedented urban and population growth began to radically transform the demographic structure and spatial distribution of settlements in developing countries, a process which has continued to the present day. The 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm recommended that the United Nations convene a conference to focus the attention of the international community on the extremely serious decline of living conditions, particularly in developing countries.
Following this recommendation and subsequent resolutions of the General Assembly, the United Nations convened Habitat: the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements in Vancouver in 1976. The most significant outcome of the conference was the recognition that human settlements are a new and important crosscutting issue of social and economic development.
II. Mandate
As a result of the first United Nations Conference on Human Settlements held in Vancouver in 1976, the UN Commission on Human Settlements was established as a new intergovernmental body and the United Nations Center for Human Settlements (Habitat) was created as the secretariat to service the commission.
Both the commission and the center were mandated to assist member states in the management and development of human settlements. Habitat was charged to carry out this mandate through an integrated program of policy advice, applied research, technical cooperation and information dissemination. Habitat incorporated various human settlement units and activities of the UN system, including the ------- for Housing, Building and Planning, Vision Habitat and the United Nations Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation, among others.
III. Current Structure
The United Nations Commission on Human Settlements is Habitat's governing body. It provides overall policy guidance, sets priorities and direction of human settlements program of the United Nations. The commission has a membership of 58 countries, elected for a four-year term by the Economic and Social Council. The commission meets every two years.
The United Nations Center for Human Settlements (Habitat) is headed by an Executive Director who is appointed by the Secretary-General. Present staff at headquarters number approximately 250 professionals with support service staff. In addition, Habitat has more than 500 project staff and consultants under contract in the field.
The Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation was incorporated into the center in 1977. The foundation elicits voluntary contributions and funds specific projects and other activities of the center.
IV. Programs
Habitat carries out its work through an integrated program of policy advice, research and development, training, information dissemination and operational activities, focused on priority areas defined by the commission and contained in the center's Work Program. These areas are, at present, global issues and strategies; national policies and instruments; managing human settlements development, including financial and land resources; improving infrastructure and the living environment; managing disaster mitigation, reconstruction and development, housing for all; strengthening local communities; and reducing poverty and promoting equity.
Strategic Initiatives
The principal strategic initiatives undertaken by Habitat to achieve its human settlements development objectives are:
The Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000: The strategy was launched by the United Nations in 1988 to improve global shelter conditions.
Agenda 21: Habitat is the United Nations Task Manager for Chapters 7 and 21 of Agenda 21 - "Promoting Sustainable Human Settlements Development" and "Solid Waste Management and Sewage Related Issues."
Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Development: Over the last several years, regional conflicts and civil strife have increased the burden on the United Nations to provide relief and reconstruction assistance. Habitat is playing a leading role in human settlement reconstruction and development efforts in Afghanistan and has made contributions to resettlement programs in Angola, Burundi, Cambodia, El Salvador, Eritrea, Guatemala, Iraq, Lebanon, Mexico, Mozambique, Somalia and Rwanda.
Transition Countries: Since 1991, Habitat has become actively engaged in the transition countries of Eastern and Central Europe, in assisting national and local governments in formulating new housing and human settlements policies compatible with market economies; in strengthening the management capacity of local governments; and, finally, in building up the technical and managerial capacity of national and local authorities to face massive tasks of environmental clean-up.
The Challenge of an Urbanizing World: The center has taken the lead in the United Nations system in defining the policy response of the international community to the challenge of rapid urbanization in developing countries. This work was initiated in the mid-1980s with the center's publication of "The New Agenda for Human Settlements" and its close collaboration with the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in shaping donor policy responses to rapid urbanization in developing countries.
V. Habitat II
The UNCHS was instrumental in producing the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) in Istanbul, from June 3-14, 1996-the twentieth anniversary of the first Habitat Conference, which took place in Vancouver, Canada. United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali urged the conference to take the form of a "city summit," the main themes of which were "adequate shelter for all" and "sustainable human settlements development in an urbanizing world."
From the United Nations Center for Human Settlements.
