The Committee of Permanent Representatives at  its 57th regular meeting held in June 2015,  formally established the Working Group on Programme and Budget in accordance with Governing Council resolution 25/7 on UN-Habitat governance reform. The Committee also endorsed the list of regional representatives to the working group, consisting of 15 member States, with three member States representing each of the five regional groupings. The Governing Council at its twenty-sixth session held in May 2017 extended the mandate of the Working Group through resolution 26/1 on “the governance reform and the extension of the mandate of the Working Group on Programme and Budget”.  The current Regional Representatives to the Working Group as endorsed by the Committee during its 65th and 66th meetings are as follows:

  1.            African States:                                                 Zimbabwe, Egypt, Uganda
  2.            Asia-Pacific States:                                           Iraq, Japan, India
  3.            Eastern European States:                                Hungary, Poland, Romania
  4.            Latin American and Caribbean States:            Argentina, Brazil, Mexico
  5.            Western European and other States:               Germany, France, United States of America

Download the List of Regional Representatives since 2015

The Working Group adopted  to have rotating chairs among the regional groupings as follows:

Period
Group Chair

July–December 2015
Western European and other States: United States of America

January–June 2016
African States: South Africa/Kenya

July 2016–February 2017
Asia-Pacific States: Iraq

February2017–Present
Eastern European States: Romania

Participation in the meetings of the Working Group has been, and continues to be, open to all Member States.

Since its establishment, the Working Group has held four formal meetings, in September 2015 in March 2016, October 2016, February 2017 and October 2017. In addition, the Working Group held ten informal meetings between June 2015 and October 2017. The Working Group reports to the Committee through its chair at every Regular Meeting of the Committee.