UN-Habitat launched an immediate emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic that covered 75 projects in 37 countries. This ensured duty of care to staff and business continuity in offices, and mobilized emergency programming resources including leveraging USD 1.3 million for rapid impact projects in 13 countries and mobilizing USD 32 million to support the most marginalized people most quickly. Throughout 2020, UN-Habitat helped 6.8 million people in 37 countries and 300 cities adapt to the global health crisis and resulting socio-economic fallouts through 71 projects with more than 250 partners.

UN-Habitat’s emergency technical assistance helped local officials adapt public health directives to improve conditions in informal settlements, and helped governments and cities with slum upgrading, basic services, affordable housing, disaster recovery and livelihoods for youth. UN-Habitat’s work profiling 1,700 cities informed better decision-making and coordination, benefitting more than 10 million people.

UN-Habitat’s global, national and city-level COVID-19 responses focused on densely populated urban areas affected by a lack of adequate housing, mobility and connectivity, while policy and programme frameworks focused on supporting local government and community-led solutions, information gathering, monitoring and mapping, and mitigating economic impact and initiating recovery.