Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 15 January 2015 – Together with the city of Lima in Peru, UN-Habitat has developed the Metropolitan Urban Development Plan for Lima and Callao 2035 (PLAM 2035, Plan Metropolitano de Desarrollo Urbano Lima y Callao 2035). The document is a toolbox aimed at enhancing budget planning, project structuring, legal instruments and urban management, in order to achieve an inclusive, connected, integrated and compact city development.

Tehran, 16 December 2014 - UN-Habitat and the State Organization of Schools Renovation, Development and Mobilization (SOSDRM) of the Islamic Republic of Iran have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together to improve the safety and security facilities in schools in Iran.

Dr. Morteza Raissi Dehkordi, the Deputy Minister of Education and Head of SOSRDM and Mr. Siamak Moghaddam, acting Chief of the UN-Habitat Tehran office, signed the agreement at a ceremony held at the SOSRDM conference hall.

Cairo, 15 December 2014 – UN-Habitat Executive Director, Dr Joan Clos, has met with Mr Ibrahim Mahlab, Prime Minister of Egypt, during an official visit to the country to promote the importance of sustainable urban planning and development in economic progress.

Kogelo, Kenya 10 December 2014—The grandmother to United States President Mama Sarah Obama has thrown her weight behind the UN-Habitat pioneered One Stop Youth Centres to help addressing unemployment. According to Mama Sarah, the problem of youth unemployment was not only acute in her own country Kenya, but the entire African continent and beyond.

Nairobi, 8 December 2014 – The Government of Germany has strengthened its support for long term partner UN-Habitat through new funding totalling EUR 1.8 million (USD 2.2 million).

Nairobi, 5 December 2014: The Director of Youth Affairs from the Kenyan Ministry of Devolution and Planning, Mr. Stephen Jalenga, opened a three-day workshop on Evidence-Informed Policies on Youth Development in Africa at the UN in Nairobi earlier this week.

Aiming at building momentum for youth development in the region, the workshop brought together civil society, statisticians, youth and ministry officials to discuss effective ways of policy formulation, implementation and monitoring towards youth development.

Port Louis: A workshop was held last week to launch the Participatory Slum Upgrading Project in Mauritius.

Nairobi, 20 November 2014: The importance of empowering local authorities to enable them to implement concrete changes to urban development has been highlighted at a recent meeting of more than 1,000 representatives of national, state and local government in the Gujarat city of Gandhinagar.