New York, 22 September 2017 – Youth took centre stage at the United Nations General Assembly, calling to be liberated from the margins and welcomed into the centre of decision-making, based not only on their right to be there but their actions in creating economically and socially inclusive and dynamic societies.
Nairobi, 21 September 2017 – Youth, diplomats and local leaders came to the UN Office of Nairobi today to celebrate International Peace Day.
Hosted by UN-Habitat, the event highlighted some of the work that the agency is doing around the world to promote the active role that youth are playing in peace building and keeping.
Johannesburg, 19 September 2017 – UN-Habitat and its partners are exploring how “mixed reality” can be used to boost community participation in planning urban public space.
Over the last few years, UN-Habitat has increasingly been working with digital tools for sustainable urban development, often in collaboration with technology partners.
Baghdad, 19 September 2017 – A new mapping exercise carried out by the Ministry of Planning in Iraq, in collaboration with UN-Habitat, found that there are currently 3,687 informal settlements in 12 governorates in the country, inhabited by about 3.2 million Iraqis.
Ramallah, 31 August 2017 –The first State of Palestine Cities Report calls for development of a National Urban Policy and recommends that more effort should be made to improve the planning and governance frameworks, mainstream public participation policies and open up more space for citizens’ participation in decision-making.
Cairo, 29 August 2017 – UN-Habitat in cooperation with Megawra (The Built Environment Collective-BEC) and Cairo governorate (Cairo Heritage Preservation General Administration) organized the first Minecraft workshop in Egypt for the participatory design of an open space in Al-Khalifa neighborhood in Cairo.
Rafah, Gaza Strip, 25 August , 2017 – UN-Habitat in partnership with UN Women, the Palestinian Housing Council, Aisha Association for Woman and child protection, and GGateway are creating a safe and inclusive public space in the Al-Shoka area in Rafah city in order to improve the urban environment and the living conditions of residents, in particular children and youth.
Chengdu, 25 August 2017 - Dr. Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN-Habitat, and Mr. Xia Yiping, Co-Founder & Chief Technical Officer, Mobike, a leading smart bike share company in China, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between UN-Habitat and Mobike to promote bike sharing as an effective, smart and sustainable mobility solution for cities. The signing ceremony took place during Dr. Clos’ recent visit to Chengdu on 21st July 2017.
Dr. Aisa Kirabo Kacyira, Assistant Secretary General and Deputy Executive Director of UN-Habitat, represented the agency at the inaugural YouthConnekt Africa Summit 2017 from July 19 – 21 held in Kigali, Rwanda.
Kalobeiyei 2 August 2017-- UN-Habitat, with support from the Government of Japan, recently conducted a community based stabilization programme aiming to support sustainable livelihoods development for refugees and host communities will contribute to improving the skills and increasing the capacity of refugees and host communities to implement development plans.