Kalobeyei, Turkana, Kenya, December 2018 – A year ago, refugees living in the Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement and local residents joined forces to design public spaces in a project designed to reduce tension in the area.

The Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement was set up three years ago to cope with the continuing influx of refugees from Sudan and other regional countries into northern Kenya. The site, comprising of three villages, is 40 kilometres north-west of the refugee camp at Kakuma and close to Kalobeyei “old town” where the host community mostly live.

On the back drop of the Intergovernmental Conference to adopt the Global Compact for Migration for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, UN-Habitat contributed to the 5th Mayoral Forum Mayoral Forum on Human Mobility, Migration and Development and organized a side event alongside the Intergovernmental Conference.

NAIROBI, 3 December 2018 -  A large crowd of residents from one of Kenya’s biggest slums, Mathare, joined UN-Habitat staff members and diplomats for the Nairobi County Government’s monthly clean up.

The volunteers, who included UN-Habitat’s Executive Director Ms. Maimunah Mohd Sharif, walked through one of the main streets in the informal settlement collecting, raking, brushing and digging up some of the huge amount of rubbish on the streets.

Nairobi, 27 November 2018 – Speaking on the second day of the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Ms. Maimunah Mohd Sharif urged national and regional governments, mayors, regional development oganizations, UN entities and development partners to examine the findings of the UN-Habitat Youth Declar-Action and adopt its recommendations.

The Blue Economy is a term that stems from the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) held in 2012 where member states pledged to “protect and restore the health, productivity and resilience of oceans and marine ecosystem to maintain their diversity, enabling conservation and sustainable use for present and future”.

Other Op-Ed Links:

• The People Daily

Next week, Kenya will be in the global spotlight as thousands of delegates from around the world will gather at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre for the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference.

Marrakesh, Morocco, 22 November 2018  - The second day of the Africities 8 Summit featured a wide range of lively discussions on local government perspectives on gender, youth, transport, local strategies for financing, the environment, gender equality, transport, waste management, safe cities and many other topics.

Nairobi 31 October 2018 - According to The Global Urban Competitiveness Report 2019: Global Value Chains a new report produced by UN-Habitat and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Chinese cities entered the top ten ranking of global city competitiveness for the first time this year.

Child-responsive urban settings resonate qualities that many scholars have described as conceptual standards for sustainable and resilient cities. Given the global trend in urbanization,

As Urban October comes to an end, a month dedicated to raising awareness on urban challenges, successes and sustainability, faced by cities and human settlements around the world, I am delighted to learn that an unprecedented number of global celebrations marking this month have taken place around the world. This month, over 100 events have taken place across almost 50 cities and nearly 30 countries. For World Cities Day on 31 October, we expect some 20 events to take place around the world, with the global observance being celebrated this year in the city of Liverpool, United Kingdom.