Every day we all make choices to improve our lives. And that applies anywhere in the world. So how we do it here in Southern Sudan is important. Think hard of the public services that enable us to live safer, cleaner, healthier and better lives. Maintain them well everyone benefits.

The report provides us with an in-depth analysis of the various dimensions of housing and highlights some constraints that require the attention of public policy.

The Housing Profile report of Viet Nam will certainly contribute to the effort of the government of Viet Nam to review and advance the urban agenda in the context of the sustainable urbanisation paradigm and to provide wider accessibility to adequate housing, as outlined in the Habitat Agenda (1996).

The achievement of this goal in Viet Nam is part and parcel of the country’s current urbanisation strategies and the urban policies currently being designed and implemented by the government of Viet Nam. The Housing Profile report reveals that Viet Nam has achieved significant improvements in these fields.

This guide introduces the infrastructure development needs in developing countries. It introduces different models for infrastructure and basic services. It further analyses innovative financing approaches to infrastructure and basic services. It offers recommendations for infrastructure and basic services financing. 

Today, the housing situation in Nepal, especially for the urban poor, remains far from adequate. Indeed, urban dwellers in Nepal have been finding it increasingly difficult to afford housing due to rapid price rises in land.

Such is the challenge that the Government of Nepal approached UN-HABITAT to help it formulate its new national housing policy. This publication, the Nepal Housing Sector Profile, is a comprehensive, in-depth outcome of that request.

The guidelines outline the main principles underlying the democratic, constitutional/legal and administrative aspects of local governance and decentralization. At the same time they must be applied to specific conditions of State form (federal, regionalized or unitary), with different State traditions (for example, Napoleonic, Germanic or Anglo-Saxon, as well as traditions found in Asia, or in the Arab world).

For that reason they do not provide a uniform and rigid blueprint applicable to all Member States of the United Nations. They may be subject to national adaptations. Their main objective, however, is to support and guide legislative reform where necessary and appropriate.