Partnerships towards sustainable urbanization
For over forty years, UN-Habitat has served as the global leader in promoting socially and environmentally sustainable human settlements and adequate shelter for all. UN-Habitat values the role of partnerships in providing expertise and resources needed in advancing a better urban future
UN-Habitat works with a range of organizations within and outside central governments in the pursuit of sustainable urbanization and human settlements development. Working towards a better quality of life for all in an urbanizing world is a collective effort.
To continue working and learning together, UN-Habitat has established thematic networks composed of a cross section of stakeholders to allow partners to contribute to the design and implementation of its normative and operational programmes at every level. The involvement of partners in the field of sustainable urbanization and human settlements development is essential for the implementation of the New Urban Agenda (NUA), the post 2015 development agenda its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
UN-Habitat strives to establish a set of strategic partnerships including political actors, civil society and professional organizations, and the private sector as goodwill ambassadors and advocates of sustainable urbanization and human settlements development.
We also foster the United Nations system-wide inter-agency collaboration as a critical component of the partnership strategy in the belief that UN agencies within their mandates have responsibilities to respond to issues affecting urban and rural dwellers, because of rapid urbanization.
In pursuing our goals, we work with over 3,500 partners including Governments, United Nations entities, private sector, Foundations and Civil Society Organizations. The past decade has seen a tremendous surge in stakeholders engaging with UN-Habitat in various development areas, including through the agency’s effective efforts to ensure high levels of stakeholder participation at Habitat III and growing participation in the World Urban Forums. Reinforcing this trend, future partnerships will be aligned with UN-Habitat’s four goals, drivers of change, its social inclusion dimensions and be well-managed and effective, according to UN-Habitat's Strategic Plan.
UN-Habitat strives to establish strategic partnerships with organizations that advocate for sustainable urbanization. It also partners with organizations that can implement and monitor national urban policies and programmes.
Key documents
- Declaration of the First Global Stakeholder Forum of the First UN Habitat Assembly ‘Toward a New Stakeholder Contract for the New Urban Agenda’
- Report of Business Leaders Dialogue at the First Session of the UN-Habitat Assembly
- UN System-Wide Strategy on Sustainable Urban Development
- The Global Stakeholder Forum Report
UN-Habitat has always relied on partnerships to drive our activities and, in support of the urban and human settlements dimensions of the 2030 Agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda, we are committed to working with a wide range of partners in innovative ways, including
- Thematic networks,
- Advisory boards,
- Implementing partners,
- Advocacy platforms
- Donors
Through global partnership networks such as the Global Land Tool Network, UN-Habitat provides platforms for effective coordination on sustainable urbanization issues, enabling transformational change for the benefit of millions of people.
Partners provide UN-Habitat with human, financial and technical resources; information, monitoring and evaluation and analysis; and support to programmes and operations. Policy and advocacy partners, such as United Nations entities and Governments, help UN-Habitat in the definition of policies and strategies at the global, regional and local level and support advocacy to achieve a better quality of life for all in an urbanizing world.
In turn, UN-Habitat offers its partners with expertise in a wide range of areas in advancing the 2030 Agenda and the New Urban Agenda.
Stakeholder Advisory Group
Ms. Dyan Currie
Co-Chair, Stakeholder Advisory Group
Dyan is an experienced planning executive with extensive cutting edge national and international experience in the planning sector. She enjoys a strong professional network with government at all levels, the development industry and planning professionals including being a member of an expert panel for Habitat III. She currently represents 40,000 planners as President of the Commonwealth Association of Planners and is the Chief Planner for the City of Brisbane (Australia's largest Local Government Authority).
Prof. Siraj Sait
Co-Chair, Stakeholder Advisory Group
Prof. Siraj Sait is a leading development expert and human rights lawyer with experience of working with the UN, governments and the business community. He is Director of Research at the Royal Docks School of Business and Law at the University of East London, where he is also heads the Centre for Islamic Finance, Law and Communities. He is a founder member of the Global Land Tool Network, while on sabbatical to the UN. His appointments include Special Public Prosecutor, Chair of Somalia Benadir laws drafting committee and the United Nations high-level Advisory Group on Gender Issues (AGGI). He has recently been appointed Director of the Noon Centre of Equality and Diversity in the UK, and is leading UN and other funded projects, research and training on gender equality, youth, human rights, urban governance, climate change, conflict and land rights.
Mr. George Wasonga
Co-Secretary, Stakeholder Advisory Group
George is an experienced Urban Manager with over 15 years progressive work experience in the Kenyan urban sector and East Africa Community. He has vast programme development knowledge having been instrumental in the design and successful establishment of several urban focused development programmes targeting local governments as well as civil society organizations. These include the Lake Victoria Region Local Authorities Environmental Management and Poverty Reduction Programme and Kenya Civil Society Urban Development Programme.
Ms. Shamoy Hajare
Co-Secretary, Stakeholder Advisory Group
Ms. Shamoy Hajare is the founder and CEO of Jamaica School for Social Entrepreneurship (JSSE) and is passionate about the role of young people in strengthening the blue and green economies through enterprise development. She was the Commonwealth Young Person of the Year, Caribbean Region, 2016. She is also a member of the Commonwealth Youth Climate Change Network.
Mr. Aromar Revi
Aromar Revi works on economic, environmental and social change issues at the global, regional and local levels. Mr. Revi has been a senior advisor to various ministries of the government of India and consulted with a wide range of United Nations and other multilateral development entities. Mr. Revi’s commitment to sustainable urban development in India is illustrated by his contribution to the country’s National Public Housing Programme which now builds close to two million houses a year in rural India.
Dr Victor Pineda
Member of the Stakeholder Advisory Group
Dr. Victor Pineda is an urban planner, social entrepreneur, speaker and globally recognized human rights advocate. He is also an adjunct professor and consultant on policy, planning and development. Dr. Pineda’s work focuses on urban resilience, inclusion and sustainability. He founded the Pineda Foundation / World Enabled, a global non-profit that promotes the rights of people with disabilities. He serves as a public member on the US Access Board. Dr. Pineda holds a PhD in Urban Planning from UCLA.
Dr. Eugenie Birch
Member of the Stakeholder Advisory Group
Professor Birch is currently the President of the General Assembly of Partners and the Lawrence C. Nussdorf Chair of Urban Research and Education at the University of Pennsylvania. She serves as chair of the Graduate Group in City and Regional Planning, co-director for the Penn Institute for Urban Research, co-editor, City in the 21st Century Series, University of Penn Press and co-editor, SSRN Urban Research e-journal.
Prof. Sahar Attia
Aside of her teaching and research work at Cairo University, Dr. Sahar is the MD for the Associated Consultants, a multi-disciplinary consulting firm. She has been the Co-chair of the Research and Academia Constituent group in the General Assembly of Partners for Habitat III( 2014-2017).She is a board member of Ecocity Builders NGO-USA.
Her research interests include participatory approaches in urban development, and upgrading the informal areas. She is the Co-Editor of: “Dynamics And Resilience Of Informal Areas: International Perspectives ” (2016). and “New Cities and Community Extensions in Egypt and the Middle East “ (2018), both published by Springer.
Ms. Lorena Zárate
Ms. Lorena Zárate is currently President of Habitat International Coalition (HIC). She was regional coordinator of HIC-Latin America office (2003 to 2011). She has been involved in the elaboration and dissemination of the World Charter on the Right to the City, the consultation process to define the Mexico City Human Rights Program, and the Promoting Committee for the elaboration of the Mexico City Charter for the Right to the City.
At international level, she has been in close collaboration with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. She has published books and articles on issues related to housing rights, social production and management of habitat and the right to the city. She has also participated as speaker in more than 20 countries.
Mr. Alexander Bazhenov
Member of the Stakeholder Advisory Group
Mr. Alexander Bazhenov is a founder and Chairman of the Board of InfraKAP investment company, a private development and advisory facility focused on transportation and healthcare infratsructures.
Through his career Mr. Bazhenov served on supervisory boards of a dozen of companies, including the Russian public oil & gas company, the Russian state corporation Fund for Housing and Utility Reform and the Institute of Housing and Utility Economics.
Mr. Bazhenov has a great experience in the private water sector. He was Deputy Director for Central and Eastern Europe in Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux (1999-2003), then he served as Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Russian Communal Systems (2003-2004), the first Russian private utility operator.
Ms. Magdalena García Hernández
Member of the Stakeholder Advisory Group
Magdalena is an Economist with studies in Commercial Engineering. She created a Virtual Campus that focuses on trainings that influence Public Policies. She has supported the creation of Urban Observatories to monitor public spending for equality between women and men. She has been Director of Economic Studies at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Puebla. She founded MIRA (2010), a network specialized in economic-budgetary issues within the framework of human rights and the guidelines of the conventions and platforms of action of the United Nations, with a gender perspective.
Ms. Alice Charles
Member of the Stakeholder Advisory Group
Ms. Alice Charles has eighteen years’ experience working in the areas of cities and urban development, town planning, real estate, infrastructure, environment, climate change and public policy. She leads the cities work in the World Economic Forum's Platform for Cities, Infrastructure and Urban Services, including the Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization, the production of all city and urban development related content and curation of events at World Economic Forum Summits. She is also an External Board Member of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), Ireland.
Dr. Shi Nan
Member of the Stakeholder Advisory Group
Dr. Shi Nana has a 30-year career in urban planning focused on policy analysis and city master planning, which has seen him actively involved in major planning and research projects including revision of National Planning Act of the People’s Republic of China and the development of the National Standard for Planning Terminology, Innovation in Master Planning, etc. He has also worked with major international organizations such as the World Bank, UN-Habitat, the UNDP, British Council and Rockefellers Foundations, and is the elected Vice President of the International Society of City and Regional Planners.
Mr. Philippe Camille Akoa
Member of the Stakeholder Advisory Group
Mr. Ako is the Managing Director of the Africa Network of Municipal Finance Institutions. He previously served as : a senior staff member of Cameroon’s Magistracy, the Deputy State Council at Kaele’s Court, a Judge at the Yaounde High Court (2003-2005), a Service Head at the Ministry of Justice successively for Nationality and Civil, Commercial and Social Affairs (1992-2003), and the Head of the Legal Affairs Division at the Ministry of Finance and Economy. Mr. Akoa holds a diploma in International Law and Human Rights Comparative Law from Institut International des Droits de l’Homme,Strasbourg (France).
Ms. Emilia Saiz
Member of the Stakeholder Advisory Group
Ms. Rose Molokoane is a coordinator of the South African Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP), and on the Management Committee of SDI. She has also served as co-chair of the Grassroots Constituency Group of the General Assembly of Partners throughout the Habitat III preparatory processes. She is a resident and member of the Oukasie savings scheme in a slum settlement outside Pretoria, South Africa. A veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle, she is one of the most internationally recognized grassroots activists involved in land tenure and housing issues. FEDUP has helped more than 150,000 squatters, the vast majority of whom are women, to pool their savings.
Ms. Rose Molokoane
Member of the Stakeholder Advisory Group
Ms. Rose Molokoane is a coordinator of the South African Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP), and on the Management Committee of SDI. She has also served as co-chair of the Grassroots Constituency Group of the General Assembly of Partners throughout the Habitat III preparatory processes. She is a resident and member of the Oukasie savings scheme in a slum settlement outside Pretoria, South Africa. A veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle, she is one of the most internationally recognized grassroots activists involved in land tenure and housing issues. FEDUP has helped more than 150,000 squatters, the vast majority of whom are women, to pool their savings.
