Adapting & Mitigating Climate Change: Options for Cities Amsterdam and Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1-4, September 2014.

Nairobi 9 May 2014—The partnership between UN-Habitat and The Coca-Cola company which seeks to promote water sustainability in selected countries around the world has been expanded to twelve after South Sudan signed up as a member of the initiative. Started in 2007,the “Golden Triangle Partnership for clean and safe water”, provides improved access to clean drinking water, sanitation and techniques that harvest groundwater and rainwater.

UN-Habitat regrets to confirm the death of one of our colleagues, Ms Daphna Beerdsen,on the night of Sunday 27 April 2014 at her residence in Phnom Penh. Her partner, Mr Joris Oele, is currently an international consultant with UN-Habitat working in Cambodia.

Ms Beerdsen was killed in an attack at her home, the details of which are still under police investigation. The couple’s daughter, who was also injured in the attack, has been medically evacuated to Thailand where she is receiving treatment.

Brussels, 24 April 2014: The important relation between public space and culture and the significance that it has for people, prosperity and peace were strongly emphasised at the fourth European Union-Africa Summit that took place earlier this month.

Equity as a foundation of sustainable urban development.

We, the participants of theSeventh World Urban Forum — governments, private sector, international organizations, academia, professionals and civil society — reaffirm our commitment to integrate urban equity into the development agenda, employing all means and resources available to ensure that cities are transformed into inclusive, safe, prosperous and harmonious spaces for all. As a matter of urgency, we must take action, collectively and individually, to bring the benefits of sustainable urban development to all.

Medellin 11 April 2014—A record 22,000 people had attended the Seventh Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF7) as it came to a close in Medellin Colombia on Friday evening with many describing it as the best ever Forum so far.

Nairobi 23 April 2014—Toptank, a Kenyan tank manufacturing company has donated fifteen hand washing tanks to two schools in Nairobi’s informal settlement of Korogocho. One of the schools Rehema Daycare Orphans Centre is a beneficiary of the Health Promoting Schools (HPS) programme supported by UN-Habitatin partnership with the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC) covering twelve primary school in Korogocho to accelerate  water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) coverage in low income urban settlements.

Medellín, 11 April 2014: This year’s World Urban Forum has resulted in the creation of a new alliance between nine of the world’s largest UN and non-UN organizations joining forces to build urban resilience and to strengthen the social, economic and environmental fabric of the world’s urban spaces.

Medellín, 11 April 2014: As a legacy of the World Urban Forum’s presence in Medellín, a public building has been built in Juanes Park to showcase a low-cost, simple technique of building using local materials and resources. The “thin tile vault”, so called due to its structure of thin layers of interlocking tiles, was opened today in an inauguration ceremony by UN Under-Secretary-General and UN-Habitat Executive Director, Dr Joan Clos, Mayor of Medellín, Aníbal Gaviria and Secretary of Infrastructure for Medellín Javier Dario Toro Zuluga.

Medellin, 10 April 2014: High profile urban writer and theorist, Richard Florida, and planning and design practitioner, have said that we are not yet prepared for the urbanisation that will take place in the coming years given the current rate at which we need to expand our cities and towns.