Regional Technical Offices (RTOs) were established by UN-Habitat in 2007 in order to empower unions of municipalities (UoMs) in emergency responses, planning, and development, and specifically to support reconstruction and development in Lebanon.

As we enter the second year of this United Nations’ Decade of Action, the Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reminds us that we need to ‘turbo-charge’ our efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. More importantly, we need to deliver the goals as One United Nations and strive to pass the finishing line with no one and no place left behind.

Our world is changing rapidly. Technology and information are moving at breathtaking rates. Populations are expanding, political forces are in flux and the climate crisis threatens the planet’s future. A pandemic has swept across the world, claiming millions of lives.

UN-Habitat - FAO policy paper on Land Tenure and Sustainable Agri-Food Systems highlights the need for securing land rights beyond the farming community and for the array of actors, including micro, small and medium sized agri-food enterprises.
It also notes that secure access to land and tenure rights needs to be considered part of a broader investment and enabling policy environment to support the sustainability of agri-food systems in the long term.

The Urban Recovery Framework (URF) is a key instrument to enhance response to urban crises. The aim of the URF is to create an enabling environment for more effective recovery in urban areas, affected by natural or man-made crises, including conflict.

In terms of prominence, UN-Habitat is much better positioned within the UN System with the Executive Director returning to the humanitarian cluster as a member of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC). UN-Habitat is also contributing as co-Chair of the Local 2030 Task Force and is a member of the Task Force for the Future of Cities. We have been able to convene two highly visible World Urban Forums in Kuala Lumpur and Abu Dhabi respectively.

UN-Habitat Lebanon has produced two guides that detail how to mainstream housing and transport–mobility into a future National Urban Policy (NUP) in the country. The making of inclusive and sustainable communities is deeply rooted in the interconnectedness of the housing and transport sectors, along with other sectors.

Access to affordable, adequate and secure housing presents a major challenge in Lebanon, especially in big urban centres. The housing sector is characterized by a persistent housing–income disconnect and supply–demand mismatch. Besides long-standing issues, the sector’s challenges have also exacerbated due to the multiple crises facing the country – protracted Syrian refugee crisis, 2020 Beirut Port explosion, and socioeconomic crisis.

As recognized by the Paris Agreement, cities play an important role to mitigate and adapt to climate change as cities can mobilize strong and ambitious climate action. To ensure effective climate action, multi-level governance is essential as it calls for all state and non-state actors to act on climate change. Thus, multi-level governance holds immense power to assist urban areas in the Global South to enhance their resilience and grow in climate-friendly ways.