Tribute by UN-Habitat’s Executive Director

On behalf of the entire UN-Habitat family, I would like to express my deep and most heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Jockin Arputham, President of the National Slum Dwellers Federation in India and the Slum Dwellers International (SDI), who passed away on 13 October 2018.

Nairobi, 15 October 2018 - UN-Habitat and the Directorate General of Human Settlement, Ministry of Public Works and Housing will conduct a capacity building workshop for high-level officials in Indonesian cities to support development of human and institutional capacity to implement the New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11). Participants drawn from various cities in Indonesia are heads of sections or heads of departments in their respective central or local governments.

Nairobi, 11 October 2018 – A stakeholder workshop convened jointly by UN-Habitat and the Government of Kenya has validated findings of the environmental and social impact assessment of closing the Ngong dumpsite and commissioning the new Kajiado Integrated Sustainable Waste Management (KISWAM) facility. Key stakeholders in the project include the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, the Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI) and the County Government of Kajiado.

Kigali, Rwanda, 11 October 2018 –Drawing from its vast experience in working with urban youth globally, UN-Habitat shared lessons learnt at the African Youth Conneckt Urban Session 2018.

Mtwapa, Kenya 10 October 2018 - "Someone has got to clear the mess," laughs Mwanatumu Omar, energetically manoeuvring her wheelbarrow and gardening tools through the narrow alley between two mud huts. The last heavy downpour was just a few days ago. It flooded parts of the slum village and washed up a lot of rubbish from the dump down at the swamp.

"If we don’t collect the trash ourselves and carry it to the main road, nobody will pick it up," she said pointing towards the alley with her rake. There is no room for a car to pass the crowded rows of huts, let alone a garbage truck.

Nairobi 8 October 2018 – Following the launch of UN-Habitat’s new campaign to reduce the amount of global waste, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya joined Nairobi’s Governor Mr. Mike Mbuvi Sonko, the Executive Director of UN-Environment Mr. Erik Solheim and UN-Habitat Deputy Executive Director Mr. Victor Kisob to clean up the mounds of rubbish at Uhuru Market in the Kenyan capital.

October 3, 2018 Sao Paulo, Brazil- The Sustainable Cities Consultation, a partnership between UN-Habitat and Colab, are launching an innovative online platform that will allow citizens of 5,570 cities in Brazil to provide feedback on the current state of their city.

Nairobi, Kenya, 1 October 2018 – President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, speaking at UN-Habitat headquarters in Nairobi on World Habitat Day, called for urgent action to address the ‘enormous and growing’ problem of solid waste.

Mathare, Kenya, 30 September 2018: - We skipped across open drains, bending our heads below the rusty corrugated iron roofs. We had to dodge our way past sweaty men whistling to clear the way as they hauled large sacks overflowing with vegetables on their backs through the narrow, muddy alleys of Mlango Kubwa, an area in the slum district of Mathare in Nairobi. Finally, four of us squeezed our way into a tiny, dark, mud-walled shack.