Second Session of UN-Habitat’s Executive Board 2021 takes place in hybrid format

Nairobi, 16 November 2021 -- The Second Session of the UN-Habitat’s Executive Board in 2021, made up of 36 Member States, approved UN-Habitat’s work programme and budget for next year after receiving comprehensive briefings about the organization’s work.

The meeting of the Executive Board, which is elected by the UN-Habitat Assembly and last met online in April, took place over two days in a hybrid format. The Executive Board aims to increase the oversight of UN-Habitat’s operations by Member States and to strengthen UN-Habitat’s accountability, transparency and effectiveness.

On the second day the Director of UN-Habitat’s Global Solutions Division Rafael Tuts presented Member States with a comprehensive report on normative and operational activities in 2021 including the implementation of subprogrammes, flagship programmes and technical cooperation activities, and an update on the COVID-19 response. He highlighted the localization of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), housing rights and policy guidance with focus on Europe, and migration and displacement.

“These three initiatives on integrated normative and operational activities of UN-Habitat can improve quality of life, promote peace, and encourage a greener and more just recovery from the pandemic by harnessing the power of sustainable urban development towards the achievement of the New Urban Agenda and SDGs,” he said.

There were also interventions from non-governmental organisations and civil society representatives including Professor Siraj Sait, Co-Chair of UN-Habitat Stakeholder Advisory Group Enterprise (SAGE), who said they appreciated the opportunity to meet regularly with UN-Habitat senior management to discuss flagship projects and domains of change toward enhancing inclusive stakeholder impact.

The Chair of the Advisory Group on Gender Issues (AGGI), Ines Sanchez de Madariaga,  called on UN-Habitat to strengthen gender equality and women’s empowerment mainstreaming in its work.

Executive Board members welcomed the report on UN-Habitat’s work with other UN agencies including the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) where they have worked on multi-agency support to UN Country Teams in mainstreaming resource efficiency in the housing, buildings, and construction sector in Burkina  Faso and Sri Lanka; on the UN System-Wide Strategy on Sustainable Urbanization on four specific pre-pandemic frontier issues and on the UN Secretary-General's Policy Brief on COVID-19 in an Urban World.

The Executive Board meeting was opened on Monday by the Chair of the Executive Board and Permanent Representative of Poland to UN-Habitat, Ambassador Marek Rohr-Garztecki. The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON), Ms Zainab Hawa Bangura, congratulated UN-Habitat for successfully achieving its targets in line with the 2021 work programme.

“COVID-19 and the ensuing socio-economic impact continues to affect the bottom line of many countries. The adaptability of UN-Habitat, its COVID-19 response plan and its emergency response plan, executed with the support of UNON, is a clear achievement despite financial constraints and the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic,” she noted.

In her opening remarks, the President of the UN-Habitat Assembly who is Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hon Martha Delgado said that UN-Habitat required greater support to help reduce poverty and inequality in the world's cities, increase aspects of shared prosperity, preserve peace, and promote a climate change agenda at the city level while promoting respect for human rights and the inclusive agenda.

“The Presidency of the UN-Habitat Assembly, with the support of the Government of Mexico, will work in conjunction with the Office of the Executive Director to raise the funds necessary for the operation and good administration of the Agency in order to help achieve certain stability, financial and the objectives that are so pressing,” she said.

The Principal Secretary of Kenya’s State Department for Housing and Urban Development. Hon Charles Hinga reaffirmed the important role of UN-Habitat in a rapidly urbanizing world. He stressed the need for more predictable funding to allow the organization to achieve its mandate and called for further support from Member States to harness the potential gains of urbanization.

The UN-Habitat Executive Director Ms Maimunah Mohd Sharif said she had made use of every opportunity at the just concluded UN Climate Conference or COP26 to highlight the importance of the New Urban Agenda and expressed gratitude to the many local governments, professional groups, the private sector and community leaders that continued to support its implementation.

“Please let us strengthen UN-Habitat so that we are better able to help Member States, particularly least developed countries, low income countries and small island developing states, meet the climate challenge. As you know, they have the smallest carbon footprint but are facing the most extreme climate events,” Ms. Sharif said

On the first day the Executive Board discussed the financial and administrative matters of UN-Habitat including resource mobilization efforts. The Executive Board elected Switzerland to chair its ad hoc working group on the development of a Stakeholder Engagement Policy.

The Executive Board agreed to hold its next meeting from 29 – 31 March 2022.


Notification by the Executive Director

Notification of the Executive Director

Notification by the Executive Director

Proposed Provisional Agenda

Proposed Provisional Agenda

Agenda item 1
HSP/EB.2021/12: Provisional agenda for the second session of 2021 of the Executive Board (Advance)

Agenda item 2
HSP/EB.2021/12 : Provisional Agenda for the second session of 2021 of the Executive Board

Programme

Programme

Online Programme

Detailed Programme

Pre-session documents

Pre-session documents

Agenda item 2
HSP/EB.2021/10: Report of the Executive Board of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme on the work of its first session of 2021

HSP/EB.2021/11: Decisions adopted by the Executive Board at its first session of 2021

HSP/EB.2021/12 : Provisional Agenda for the second session of 2021 of the Executive Board

Agenda item 2(a)
HSP/EB.2021/12/Add.1: Annotated provisional agenda

HSP/EB.2021/INF3: List of documents before the Executive Board at its second session of 2021

Agenda item 4
A/76/5/Add.9: UN-Habitat Financial report and audited financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2020 and Report of the Board of Auditor

HSP/EB.2021/13: Financial, budgetary and administrative matters: financial status of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme as at 31 July 2021 - Report of the Executive Director

HSP/EB.2021/13/Add.1 : Financial, budgetary and administrative matters: implementation of the resource mobilization strategy in accordance with the strategic plan- Report of the Executive Director

HSP/EB.2021/13/Add.2 : Staffing of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme as at 31 July 2021 - Report of the Executive Director

HSP/EB.2021/13/Add.3: Ongoing restructuring of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme - Report of the Executive Director

HSP/EB.2021/13/Add.4 : Cost-recovery policies and methodologies of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme - Report of the Executive Director

HSP/EB.2021/13/Add.5: Structural solution to deal with the decrease in non-earmarked funding, ensuring that all sources of funding contribute fully to the implementation of the strategic plan and the work programme of UN-Habitat- Note by the Secretariat

HSP/EB.2021/13/Add.6: Responsibility and accountability framework of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme and its implementation - Report of the Executive Director

Agenda item 5
HSP/EB.2021/4: Draft Work Programme and Budget for the year 2022 – Report of the Executive Director

HSP/EB.2021/14: Report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions on the draft work programme and budget of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme for the year 2022

Agenda item 6(a)
HSP/EB.2021/15: Summary of the Annual Report 2020 on the implementation of the strategic plan of the UN-Habitat for the period 2020–2023 - Note by the Secretariat

HSP/EB.2021/19: Recalibration of the strategic plan of UN-Habitat for the period 2020–2023 following the first meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives to UN-Habitat for a high-level midterm review - Report of the Executive Director

HSP/EB.2021/19/Add.1: Analysis of linkages between the operational and normative activities of the UN-Habitat to increase the impact of its work across the outcomes of the strategic plan in support of sustainable and inclusive recovery - Report of the ED

HS/004/21E: Annual progress report for the year 2020 on the implementation of the strategic plan of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme for the period 2020–2023 (Full report)

Agenda item 6(b)
HSP/EB.2021/16: Draft financial plan for the period 2020–2023 - Report of the Executive Director

Agenda item 7
HSP/EB.2021/17: UN-Habitat capacity-building strategy: updated implementation plan for the period 2021–2024 with priorities for the year 2022 - Report of the Executive Director

HSP/EB.2021/18 : Normative and operational activities of UN-Habitat , including reporting on the programmatic activities of the Programme in 2021 and the implementation of subprogrammes, flagship programmes and technical cooperation activities

HSP/EB.2021/20: Terms of reference for the Mechanism for the Review of the Implementation of the United Nations System-wide Guidelines on Safer Cities and Human Settlements – Report of the Executive Director

HSP/EB.2021/INF4: Report on cooperation between the United Nations Human Settlements Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme

Agenda item 8
A/RES/75/224: Implementation of the outcomes of the United Nations Conferences on Human Settlements and on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development and strengthening of UN-Habitat – Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 21 December 2020

Agenda item 9
HSP/EB.2021/INF/5 : Implementation and follow-up of evaluation reports in UN-Habitat

A/75/301 (Part I): Activities of the Office of Internal Oversight Services for the period from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020 - Report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services

A/76/281 (Part I): Activities of the Office of Internal Oversight Services for the period from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021

A/76/281 (Part I)/Add.1: Report on the activities of the Office of Internal Oversight Services for the period from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021

JIU/REP/2020/7: Blockchain applications in the United Nations system: towards a state of readiness - Report of the Joint Inspection Unit

JIU/REP/2020/8: Review of mainstreaming environmental sustainability across organizations of the United Nations system- Report of the Joint Inspection Unit

Agenda item 10
A/76/76: Activities of the Ethics Office - Report of the Secretary-General

Agenda item 11
HSP/EB.2020/20: Report of the ad hoc working group on working methods on the proposed working methods of the Executive Board of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme

In-session documents

In-session documents

HSP/EB.2021/CRP.4: Financial status of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme as at 31 October 2021- Report of the Executive Director

Presentation by the Secretariat

Presentation by the Secretariat – Add.1

Presentation by the Secretariat

Presentation by the Secretariat

Presentation by the Secretariat

Presentation by the Secretariat

Presentation by the Secretariat

Presentation by the Secretariat

Presentation by the Secretariat

Presentation by the Secretariat

Presentation by the Secretariat

Presentation by the Secretariat

Presentation by the Secretariat

Draft decisions of the Executive Board

Draft decisions of the Executive Board

HSP/EB.2021/CRP5: Proposed draft decisions for consideration by the Executive Board at its second session for the year 2021

HSP/EB.2021/CRP5/Rev.1: Draft decisions to be possibly adopted by the Executive Board as after the first reading held on 15 November 2021

HSP/EB.2021/CRP5/Rev.2: Draft decisions to be possibly adopted by the Executive Board at its final plenary session

HSP/EB.2021/CRP5/Rev.3: Final version of decisions as adopted by the Executive Board during the final plenary at is 2021 second session

Post-session documents

Post-session documents

HSP/EB.2021/21- Report of the Executive Board of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme on the work of its second session of 2021

HSP/EB.2021/22 - Decisions adopted by the Executive Board at its second session for the year 2021

Statements

Statements

Opening remarks by the Director-General of UNON

Opening statement by the Executive Director of UN-Habitat

Statement by the President of the UN-Habitat Assembly

Statement by the Chair of the ad hoc working group on PBA

Statement by GRULAC

Statement by NIGERIA

Statement by COSTA RICA

Statement by EGYPT

Statement by SAGE

Statement by the Sustainable Human Settlements Foundation

Statement by the Advisory group on Gender Issues

Statement by SOUTH AFRICA

Statements Habitat International Coalition

Statement by Habitat Professionals Forum

Statement by SWITZERLAND

Statement by VENEZUELA

Statement by Oman on behalf of the Arab Countries in Nairobi

Statement by Oman on behalf of the Arab Countries in Nairobi

Statement by Oman on behalf of the Arab Countries in Nairobi

Statement by Oman on behalf of the Arab Countries in Nairobi

Agenda item 7
Statement by ARGENTINA

Statement by NIGERIA

Statement by IRAQ

Membership of the Executive Board
Seating arrangement
Information for participants

Information for participants

Information for Participants

Briefing by the Executive Director on the preparations for the second session of the Executive Board for the year 2021

Daily journal
Registration