This report provides an overview of the cooperation between the European Union and UN-Habitat over from 2014-2020 which corresponds to the EU’s last Multiannual Financial Framework. It provides key data on funding received by UN-Habitat for programmes around the world and gives impact stories from a selection of programmes. It also outlines next steps for cooperation.

UN-Habitat’s Catalogue of Services provides the current range of ways in which the organization can support national and local governments, partners and stakeholders to address their development challenges and advance sustainable and inclusive urban development using its services, expertise and tools.

Under the guidance of UN-Habitat Lebanon, and as part of the emergency response to the massive explosion at the Port of Beirut on August 4, 2020, IBI Group was commissioned to provide technical oversight and testing for a small-scale trial on the reuse of construction and demolition waste (CDW) for environmentally sustainable urban-restoration developments.

Under the guidance of UN-Habitat Lebanon, and as part of the emergency response to the massive explosion at the Port of Beirut on August 4, 2020, IBI Group was commissioned to provide technical oversight and testing services for the Rubble to Mountains initiative, a project aimed at reusing construction and demolition waste (CDW) in environmentally sustainable urban-restoration developments.

The Guidelines for Managing Asbestos at the Bakalian Disposal Site has been prepared by IBI Group, under the direction of UN Habitat, Arcenciel, and the Rubble to Mountains initiative, to guide the investigation, remediation, and management of potential asbestos-contaminated debris stockpiled from the recent Port of Beirut explosion at the Bakalian Disposal Site. These guidelines are based on Canadian, British, and international best practices and tailored to Lebanese conditions.

This report presents the global status on wastewater treatment and acceleration needs to achieve target 6.3 by 2030, based on the latest data on indicator 6.3.1 (total wastewater flows as well as flows from industrial sources and households).

The UN-Habitat’s report - Cities and Pandemics: Towards a more just, green and healthy future – evidences how cities can reduce the impact of future pandemics and become more prosperous, fair and environmentally friendly. The Report calls for the response and recovery to pandemics to be based on human rights principles. It outlines how cities should lead the move towards a New Social Contract between governments, the public, civil society and the private sector.

Waste Wise Cities Tool (WaCT) guides readers through 7 steps to collect data on municipal solid waste (MSW) generated, collected, and managed in controlled facilities. The tool provides a household survey guide for total MSW generation, a questionnaire to identify the MSW recovery chain and criteria to check the environmental control level of waste management facilities in a city.

The Port of Beirut explosions (4 August 2020) resulted in extensive damage on multiple levels – the loss of life, injury and the destruction of vast tracts of urban fabric within the municipal boundaries of Bourj Hammoud. In support of the Municipality of Bourj Hammoud, UN-Habitat together with the Polish Center for International Aid, Naba’a and Beirut Arab University, undertook a rapid damage assessment at the building level (exterior visual survey).