Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 20 October 2021 – UN-Habitat, in partnership with the Government of Burkina Faso and other UN agencies, is helping the country’s construction and housing sectors become more energy and resource efficient thus contributing to the global aim of lower carbon emissions and increasing city resiliency.

‘’The [construction] sector is responsible for more than 50 per cent of global electricity consumption, 32 per cent of energy emissions and 12 per cent freshwater consumption. It consumes more than 3 billion tonnes of raw materials per year,'' according to Mathias Spaliviero, UN-Habitat West Africa Officer.

The type of construction material used is also an important factor in energy consumption. Metal sheets in construction, for example, generate high temperatures whereas rooftops covered by trees help lower the temperature.

The UN-Habitat assistance, funded by the One Planet Multi-Partner Trust Fund for SDG 12, comes in the form of a national technical workshop, held on October 14th on the theme of Resource Efficiency SDG12.

The Government of Burkina Faso hopes workshops such as the one organised by UN-Habitat can lead to coherent policy and results-based programming, as well as to sensitizing and strengthening the capacities of national stakeholders on sustainability throughout the construction value chain.

Led by the Ministry of Town Planning, Housing and Cities - Burkina Faso, through its Directorate of Architecture, Housing and Construction (DGAHC), the workshop was organised in partnership with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Office of Project Services (UNOPS).

UN-HABITAT, UNEP, UNOPS and GGGI have joined forces to support the government of Burkina Faso through two projects on resource efficiency: one from these three UN agencies and the other one implemented by GGGI, details of which will be announced later.

The main objective of this first workshop was to ensure stakeholder ownership of the issues and challenges related to the use of natural and energy resources in the building and construction sector.

It also focused on their engagement in the search for effective and economically viable solutions to develop a roadmap and a set of tools, with the ultimate goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, environmental degradation in the sector and promoting a more circular construction sector in the country.