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.

Sinuni, 31 August 2017: To ensure tenure security to Iraqui Yazidi people, UN-Habitat has handed over occupancy certificates for renovated houses to returnees in Sinuni and Sinjar in the Ninewah Governorate.

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.

23 August 2017, Nairobi – As co-host of a conference on Cities and Climate Change Science to be held in March 2018, UN-Habitat and its partners are calling for proposals for events and abstracts for oral session contributions.

Under the title: Fostering new scientific knowledge for cities based on science, practice and policy, the conference, which will take place in Edmonton, Canada, aims to inspire the next frontier of research focused on the science of cities and climate change.

“On the cusp of International Youth Day and its theme of “Youth Building Peace” this year, UN-Habitat calls for all youth to spread the message of peace, before during and after the 2017 Kenyan election results are announced.”

UN-Habitat welcomes the Report of the High Level Independent Panel to Assess and Enhance the Effectiveness of UN-Habitat, which comes in the midst of one of humankind’s greatest challenges: the boom in population and the concurrent mass migration from country to city all over the world.

In that context, the report recognises that UN-Habitat’s work is much sought after by donors and governments, and calls for UN-Habitat to be rapidly strengthened in order to have it deliver on the urban aspects of the 2030 Agenda, and the New Urban Agenda.

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.

Kiambu, Kenya 3 August  2017—Telco Ericsson has partnered with UN-Habitat, UN Environment and the County Government of Kiambu to deliver a project dubbed “Improving Air Quality in Kiambu County through Placemaking and Open Street Activities.