This publication on Pro Poor Land Management is based on the Handbook on Best Practices, Security of Tenure and Access to Land. It briefly describes recent innovations at the global level in the field of pro poor land management. It shows how governments, including local government and other stakeholders, are coming to grips with implementing the land related principles enshrined in the Habitat Agenda at a practical level in the cities and towns. Together with the Handbook, it helps to assess…

Detail the scale of inadequate provision of water and sanitation, impacts on health and economic performance, showing the potential gains of remedial action

Since 1991, UN-Habitat has been implementing programmes addressing women’s empowerment and gender mainstreaming in its’ overall activities. This evaluation assesses what the Women and Habitat Programme (WHP) and the Gender Unit have achieved in these areas. The Evaluation also focuses on understanding the relevance of UN-Habitat partnership with organizations dealing with women and habitat issues. Information and views were gathered from UN-Habitat staff and documents, as well as key partners.…

Operational Activities Report 2002

This background paper for the 2003 expert group meeting on housing rights monitoring presents a framework for the development of a set of housing rights indicators. A set of 6 housing rights elements and 17 housing rights indicators is proposed in the report.

The world’s governments agreed at the Millennium Summit to halve the number of people who lack access to safe water, mainly in the world’s cities, by 2015. With rapidly growing urban populations the challenge is immense. Water and Sanitation in the World’s Cities is a comprehensive and authoritative assessment of the problems and how they can be addressed. This influential publication by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) sets out in detail the scale of inadequate…

The current paper presents the results of a first global enumeration of slums at the country level. The data are analyzed and comparisons established at sub-regional and regional levels while trying to understand what is happening globally. This document is the culmination of attempts to come to grips with changes in the way we measure slums, starting by providing an agreed universal definition of this type of settlements and a clear methodological approach. The preliminary estimations…

Summary of existing UN-HABITAT publications, reports and other documents on building materials and construction technologies. Provides readers with an overview of work undertaken by UN-HABITAT in these fields during the last two decades. Provides a general introduction and summary of each reviewed report, as well as an indication of their availability in printed and/or electronic formats.