Beirut, 30 September 2016- The Habitat III National Report for Lebanon was launched during an event organized by the UN-Habitat Office in Lebanon and the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) recently at the General Directorate of Urban Planning.

The event was in preparation for the Habitat III Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development to take place in Quito, Ecuador, in October 2016. The event started off with an opening note by the Director General of Urban Planning, Elias Tawil, and was followed by a presentation of the Habitat III National Report for Lebanon by Leon Telvizian, a Local Development Expert and Researcher.

The report, which was prepared by the CDR with the support of UN-Habitat Lebanon, addresses six key topics, thirty issues and twelve indictors. The key topics are Urban and Demographic, Land and Urban Planning, Environment and Urbanization, Urban Governance and Legislation, Urban Economy, and Housing and Basic Services. Within each topic, issues, challenges, and future challenges were identified and addressed.

Driving Goal 11

The New Urban Agenda, which will be the focal point of the upcoming Habitat III Conference, “will drive the achievement of [Sustainable Development Goal] SDG 11 of making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.”  The Lebanese National Report presentation was followed a Q&A session, where attendees were invited to discuss the report’s findings in greater depth.

In attendance at the event were representatives from governmental institutions and ministries including The Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Social Affairs, CAS, and the Public Corporation of Housing. Also attending were UN-Agencies and international NGOs among them were UNICEF, UNHCR, UNDP, World Vision and NRC, representatives from the Norwegian Embassy and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and experts.