Baghdad 30 March 2015 - Through the support of the Government of Japan, UN-Habitat launched a project in Iraq to support internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country to enhance self-reliance and improve their living conditions through provision of prefabricated durable shelters and basic services in Baghdad, Dohuk and Kerbala Governorates.
The Mainstreaming Biodiversity in the Tourism Sector in Jordan Project is a GEF/UNDP four years project commenced in January 2014.The project aims to promote the consideration of biodiversity as a fundamental part of national planning and development efforts, especially for areas affected by to
Amman – the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) marked the green apple day of service in a joint event that was held at Princess Alia High School in cooperation with the Jordan Green Building Council, Greater Amman Municipality, World Health Organization (WHO),
Dohuk, Iraq, 7 January 2015 - Days before snow was expected to fall in the foothills of Dohuk, Iraq, 900 families are moving into the new camp for internally-displaced persons (IDPs) built through the collaboration of 8 UN agencies planned and led by UN-Habitat.
Cairo 1 December 2014 - As part of a series of regional consultations lining up to the 3rd United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (HABITAT III), the UN-Habitat Regional Office for Arab States (ROAS) facilitated a session with youth – mostly students from the Arab region from various backgrounds – on the challenges of integrated, inclusive and sustainable urbanization in the region.
UN-Habitat, the United Nations city agency, has been engaged with the Arab States region for over 30 years and over this period, UN-Habitat has expanded its operation to more than 10 countries in the region.
This brochure presents an overview of UN-Habitat's engagement in the region, reflecting in what was achieved, how it was achieved, how it was made possible, and what lies ahead especially in these times of change.
The UN-Habitat Kuwait office has been formally established after the ratification of its agreement by the Kuwait parliament in 2006. According to the UN-Habitat Kuwait agreement; “UN-Habitat and the government have a common desire to establish a UN-Habitat office in Kuwait City in order to encourage activities in the area of human settlements in general in the Arab States Region”. Based on the agreement the function of the office is to encourage international co-operation to achieve sustainable urbanization, co-operate with the regional and international organizations, civil society, private sector, and other parties; disseminate knowledge and undertake public relations activities; organize all kinds of events and activities related to its mandate; and support networking opportunities and resource mobilization.
The rapidly increasing population in Kuwait has created shortages of housing, congestion and environmental pollution in the Kuwait Metropolitan Area (KMA). Therefore, the management of the population is essential to address this problem. According to a published population projection; the population of Kuwait will reach 5.3 million in 2030. The review recommends that 2.8 million should be accommodated in the KMA, while 2.57 million should be relocated in new urban settlements outside of the KMA for proper distribution of population and resources. The government considers that the rapidly increasing number of expatriate workers is not sustainable. The Third Kuwait Master Plan Review 2005 aimed at achieving the population size of about 40% Kuwaiti and 60% non-Kuwaiti by 2030. Urban development requires an educated and skilled workforce. There are public and private education institutions that provide education to the students in Kuwait, but it still needs further development to meet the market demand. The Constitution of Kuwait provides right of every married couple to get a house from the government. As of September 2016, the Public Authority for Housing Welfare constructed and transferred 26,308 houses, 834 apartments and 26,874 housing plots in the country. However, more than 102,000 families are currently on the waiting list for the allocation of house, apartment or housing plot. Each year, there are over 8,000 new applicants for housing. Thus, it has become very difficult for the government to provide a house, an apartment or housing plots within a short period of time. The rural sector in Kuwait is too small. The challenges are a shortage of cultivable land, water and educated labor force for introducing improved agricultural technology for dryland agriculture, urban agriculture and aquaculture.
Energy and water production and use are not sustainable
Traffic congestion as a result of prolonged car-oriented city plan
The rural sector in Kuwait is too small. The challenges are shortage of cultivable land, water and educated labor force
UN-Habitat Kuwait work plan stems from its original nature when it was established as sub-regional office for Gulf states, and its success depends on its response to the GCC countries different needs and priorities. Therefore, UN-Habitat program includes capacity building of all Gulf states on issues related to achieving SDG11 and the New Urban Agenda, preparation of reports, e. g Housing for Low Income Workers (Kuwait), Public Housing (Bahrain), Future Cities (KSA). UN-Habitat’s work wouldn’t have been successful without collaboration with its partners including, but not limited to, the ministries of housing, planning, municipalities, governorates, academia the private sector, NGOs.
Capital: Kuwait City
Major cities: The major cities of Kuwait are As Salimiyah, Sabah as Salim, Al Farwaniyah, Al Fahahil, Kuwait City, Ar Riggah, Salwa, Al Mangaf, Ar Rabiyah, Bayan.
Source: World Bank 2012
The project in Kuwait is the operation of UN-Habitat’s country office in Kuwait City.
Donors:
Operations of the UN-Habitat Kuwait Office
This project is for the operations of UN-Habitat Office in Kuwait
Libya’s urban population is growing rapidly, urbanization rates in Libya have risen steadily, from 49 percent in 1970 to 79 percent in 2016. Today about 85% of the total population live in urban areas in major cities including Tripoli, Benghazi, Misrata and Bayda. The country extends over 1,759,540 km2 where more than 90% of the total land area is desert or semi-desert. Combined with the projected increase in population, this will result in a number of major challenges in the country including the provision of adequate housing, food, clean drinking water, job opportunities, health care, education, and transportation.
The projected increase in urban population, combined with the damage that has resulted from the conflict, have resulted in a number of major challenges in the country including the provision of adequate housing, food, clean drinking water, job opportunities, health care, education, and transportation. After 2011, the growth of informal settlements caused additional pressure on public utility networks and services
Urban management and legislation is one of the key pillars of sustainable urban development. Over the past four decades, the issue of housing represented one of the most complex problems facing the Libyan state aggravated by conflict and political instability. Libya could not succeed in the formulation of a clear and specific housing policy that takes into consideration the social, economic and environmental dimensions to meet the requirements of citizens of different living conditions.
Out of the 823,000 people in need in Libya, 292,000 people are in need of shelter of which 57 per cent are Libyans and 43 per cent are refugees and migrants. 72,400 people are in need of basic shelter
The fighting has caused extensive damage to critical infrastructure and basic social services. 1/3 of Sirte’s buildings and public facilities destroyed or severely damaged.
The crisis in Libya has negatively impacted access to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities and practices. 58 per cent of municipalities depend on water trucking.
UN-Habitat established a strong and strategic partnership in Libya with the Urban Planning Agency since 1979 that aims to strengthen the national and local technical capacities in urban planning and development.
The success of UN Habitat’s work in Libya is also dependent on successful partnerships established in the framework of the Rapid City Profiling initiative, particularly with the Municipalities, the Ministry of Local Government, the Ministry of planning as well as the Bureau of Statistics and census.
The world’s urban population is growing rapidly and Libya is no exception. Urbanization rates in Libya have risen steadily, from 49 percent in 1970 to 79 percent in 2016. Today about 85% of the total population live in urban areas in major cities including Tripoli the capital of Libya, Benghazi, Misrata and Bayda.
The country extends over 1,759,540 km2 where more than 90% of the total land area is desert or semi-desert. Combined with the projected increase in population, this will result in a number of major challenges in the country including the provision of adequate housing, food, clean drinking water, job opportunities, health care, education, and transportation.
Urban management and legislation is one of the key pillars of sustainable urban development. Over the past four decades, the issue of housing represented one of the most complex problems facing the Libyan state. Libya could not succeed in the formulation of a clear and specific housing policy that takes into consideration the social, economic and environmental dimensions to meet the requirements of citizens of different living conditions.
Although the Government has tried to address the problem of the adequate and affordable housing to the nations over the past 25 years, the progress is slow, and the problem of "informal settlements" is still growing.
There are more than 50 pieces of legislations, guidelines, rules, and regulations on land, building, environment and workers' safety. All these laws, policies and regulations are different from state to state, local councils, and governmental agencies.
For this, appropriate policies and strategies should be put in place to manage the accelerated pace of urban growth.
In this context, UN Habitat Libya Programme will support the Urban Planning Agency in launching the National Housing Policy, establishment of the Housing Observatory, and implementing a capacity building Programme.
Government Ministry of Planning Urban Planning Agency Bureau of Statistic and Census
Local authorities Municipality of Sirte Municipality of Benghazi Municipality of Janzour Municipality of Ubari Municipality of Al Kufra
UN Agencies UNFPA UNHCR UNDP
UN-Habitat has been cooperating with Morocco since 1995 on national and local programs in the field of sustainable urban development. Today, in order to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially Goal 11 - “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” – and to mobilize Morocco towards Habitat III, UN-Habitat engages in development challenges in cities, promotion of decent housing and improvement of basic services and development of an urban and regional environmental framework. Since its establishment this cooperation and partnership have directly involved four key ministries and nearly twenty cities in the Kingdom, as well as helped with capacity building of national and local stakeholders. In its work UN-Habitat supports ministries and national agencies as well as municipalities with operational projects, national strategies, technical expertise and capacity building through:
The cooperation between the Kingdom of Morocco und UN-Habitat is taking place against a set of specific urban challenges.
Monceyf Fadili, Advisor UN-Habitat Morocco
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Policy, Al Omrane Holding’s umbrella department and UN-Habitat counterpart, is in charge of the Urban Policy since 2012. The focus is on (i) control and management of cities’ growth; (ii) urban strategic planning; (iii) balance between the productive city and the inclusive city; (iv) search for complementarities between urban and regional spaces; (v) development of an urban policy in close correlation with a vision of territorial planning.
The General Directorate of the Local Governments (DGCL), Ministry of Interior, is the entity dedicated to the management of communes. As a focal point of the territorial administration, it finances and supervises the communes, through the powers of the walis and governors, who play a crucial role in the coordination of the various State departments policies. The DGCL also plays a key part in the capacity building of the communes to enable them to assume their responsibility as regards strategic urban planning.
• The Ministry of Housing and Urban Policy is in charge of housing and urban policies; • Al-Omrane Development Holding (HAO) is the strategic tool of the state for slum upgrading, social housing, large scale urban projects and new towns; • The municipalities and local authorities are in charge of the implementation of national policies and urban programs at local level; • Local, regional and national partners as well as the private sector and civil society actors are involved in project development and implementation.
Prizes awarded to Morocco within the framework of the partnership with UN-Habitat
• 2010 – UN-Habitat Scroll of Honor for the Cities Without Slums Program “Villes sans bidonvilles”, World Habitat Day, Shanghai, China, October 2010. • 2001 – Istanbul+5 – Best Practices Prize for the Poverty Reduction Program, Special Assembly on Habitat II+5, New York. • 1996 – Habitat II – Best Practices Prize for the Project of Agadir City “Improving Housing Conditions”, Istanbul. • 1995 –UN-Habitat Scroll of Honor for the Project of Taza City awarded to the National Shelter Upgrading Agency (ANHI), World Habitat Day, Curitiba, Brazil.
UN-Habitat has been active across Syria since 2013, with offices in Damascus, Homs, and Aleppo. The main programmatic focus is to strengthen the resilience of communities and cities to cope with the effects of an increasingly protracted crisis. UN-Habitat has developed an urban area-based approach consisting of three components: (i) support to municipalities and communities to understand the impact of the crisis on housing, urban infrastructure, and services; (ii) the identification of priority interventions at the regional, city and neighbourhood levels through a rapid urban planning process; and (iii) funding interventions in priority neighbourhoods – shelter and WASH rehabilitation; street lighting; markets and open spaces rehabilitation; and livelihoods support.
Syria has a large scale displacement and population movements, from rural areas into cities, between cities, and within cities which were impacted by massive destruction to housing and infrastructure, requiring expensive and unsustainable short-term responses. Complex housing, land, and property issues in addition to the breakdown of social, economic, and basic services networks may limit and restrict economic activities, returns, and recovery.
In Syria, the recovery of urban areas is dependent on building successful partnerships with local authorities, civil society, UN partners, and with our key donors. Urban recovery relies on enabling policies, strong donor partnerships, and coordinated urban area based responses that directly respond to locally identified priorities. Therefore, UN-Habitat Syria in an urban advisory role has heavily invested in Joint Programming to ensure coordination amongst donors and our UN partners - and in strengthening the capacity of municipalities to develop and coordinate evidence-based response plans that have been locally consulted with all stakeholders.
As the Syria conflict enters its fifth year, the “What does it take to end the crisis?” campaign is gaining momentum. The hashtag #WhatDoesItTake has already been tweeted 26,000 times and the campaign has the potential to reach 60 million people. The campaign, however, is born out of frustration with the human cost of the Syrian conflict. Frustration with the fact that humanitarian assistance was never meant to be a solution. Everyone agrees, the solution to the Syria crisis is political. As such, the current stalemate can continue for many years. Or, the situation can change overnight. The question is, if the Syria crisis ends tomorrow, is the international community ready to support peace in Syria? If it comes, peace in Syria will be a “patchwork peace”. In some areas, the fighting will continue. In others, people will start returning, rebuilding their homes, looking for jobs, wanting to send their children to school. Many people will return to cities, believing that security will be better and that health care, schools and job opportunities will be more accessible. Do we know which cities and which neighbourhoods are more likely to support returns? How will we address the complicated issue of land and property rights? In addition to physical reconstruction, what will we do to help rebuild divided societies? If it comes, peace in Syria will bring a surge of private investment, again much of it in cities. Are we engaging with business leaders to understand the opportunities and challenges from their perspective? Do we have a prioritized plan for the critical infrastructure investments necessary to support economic recovery? How will we create the kinds of jobs that can convince youth to stop fighting and begin rebuilding their lives and communities? In fact, we do not need to wait for peace in Syria. We can start now to promote stabilization and recovery. The reality is that Syria today is a patchwork. True, some areas are devastated and will require massive investment to re-build. But there are many others where small investments can make a huge difference. Many cities and neighbourhoods have been free from conflict for more than a year. These areas require a different approach – one with a stabilization, recovery and even peace-building agenda. For the past 18 months, UN-Habitat has been experimenting with just this kind of approach, through pilot projects in Aleppo, Homs and Rural Damascus. The results have been encouraging. Syrians are eager to be consulted on their priorities. They contribute their own time and money to initiatives that support their coping strategies. And they protect the investments that have been made. The message is clear: after four years of conflict, we need a new approach to peace in Syria, one that begins with Syrians themselves. While local initiatives will not bring peace in Syria, they can help create practical local alternatives to continued conflict.