Due to a more stable phase in the prolonged conflict of the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, UN-Habitat recommends the initiation of permanent reconstruction and moving away from emergency shelter in the area. The reconstruction process is recommended to reflect the local political, socio-cultural and physical context of the area and build on sustainable use of local building materials. In addition, generation of employment and local economic development through participatory processes and capacity building of community members is a key objective.

Over the past 30 years, the number, scope and complexity of tools for assessing the environmental impact of buildings has increased dramatically. Examining the emergence of building sustainability assessment and benchmarking as a global phenomenon as well as some of their political and practical barriers can be useful in order to understand their possible role in realizing objectives of the ‘New Urban Agenda’ and the policies to be influenced by it. 

As part of UN-Habitat’s mandate to promote sustainable urban development through knowledge-creation and management, this report intends to address some of these concerns and contribute to four objectives:

a. Establish the rationale for building sustainability assessment and benchmarking (Chapter 1)

b. Identify challenges and limitations that occupants, policy-makers and building practitioners face in applying or interpreting building sustainability assessment or benchmarking tools (Chapter 2)

c. Provide a sample overview of some environmental sustainability assessment and benchmarking tools for buildings and housing as well as those attempting to measure social and economic impacts (Chapter 3)

d. Identify pathways for the wider uptake of assessment tools by industry, professional bodies, policymakers, vocational and higher education, and other actors working within the built environment (Chapter 4)

Three decades of conflict resulted in severe damage and destruction to houses and infrastructure facilities in the North and East of Sri Lanka. Unable to recover from major financial shocks due to poverty and years of displacement, the majority of families were incapable of rebuilding their damaged houses. From 2012, the Government of India funded the construction of 45,000 houses through a homeowner driven process.

The project was facilitated through four implementing agencies, including UN-Habitat, in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. This photo book provides a glimpse into the lives of the families who rebuilt their permanent homes with funding from the Indian Housing Project and  technical support from UN-Habitat.

The formal private sector in Lesotho concentrates on housing at the very top of the market leaving the majority unserved by formal housing supply. As in other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, the great majority of housing in Lesotho is built by people themselves incrementally and sometimes in partnerships with small contractors.The Profile argues that policy interventions should focus on facilitating access to better services and self-construction to enable it to be more efficient without raising its cost.

Similarly, housing built with local materials and labour-intensive technologies has a great potential for building the economic growth looked for in Lesotho's Vision 2020.The Lesotho Housing Profile offers a comprehensive in-depth analysis of the country's urban housing sector. The Profile contributes to the creation of a policy framework that enables provision of adequate housing for all Basotho. It builds a comprehensive understanding of the functioning of the urban housing sector that can serve as an authoritative reference point for all actors involved in the direct provision or enablement of housing in Lesotho.

La présente publication a été réalisée à titre de complément du Rapport d’évaluation régionale de l’Afrique en prélude à laTroisième Conférence des Nations Unies sur le logement et développement durable en milieu urbain - Habitat III. Elle sertde document de référence à l’élaboration d’une stratégie urbaine inclusive et durable de l’Afrique.

Le document a été réalisé dans le cadre du Programme de développement urbain de l’Afrique (Agenda urbain de l’Afrique).Elle est une initiative de l’ONU-Habitat et a été conceptualisée par cette agence. Sa rédaction a été assurée par le Départementdu Centre africain pour les villes de l’Université du Cap (Afrique du Sud) et la version définitive du Rapport est unepublication conjointe de l’ONU-Habitat et de la CEA.

Le présent Guide du facilitateur préparé par ONU-Habitatet l’Alliance des villes accompagne la série des Guidespratiques pour les décideurs politiques : loger les pauvresdans les villes africaines. Ce Guide du facilitateur estfourni avec une clé USB contenant la série des Guidespratiques, des présentations PowerPoint sur chaqueGuide pratique, et des vidéos à utiliser dans le cadre desactivités de formation. Disponible en anglais.

As established in international law and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, it is necessary to pay attention to the rights and needs of persons with disabilities.

Persons with disabilities are disproportionately represented in the poorest quintile of the population, and face additional challenges due to discriminatory laws and policies, environmental barriers, and lack of support services that would enable the enjoyment of the right to adequate housing on an equal basis with others.

This study reviews the literature on the meaning and impact of the right to adequate housing for persons with disabilities in cities. It uses the foundational framework of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and demonstrates how the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) provides a new understanding of this complex right.

The authors link the right to adequate housing not only to other international treaties, but also to the diverse groups of individuals who are persons with disabilities and the complexity of the identities involved.

They outline major types of barriers that persons with disabilities encounter (physical inaccessibility, lack of access to transportation services, insecurity of tenure, among others), and identify trends in relation to policy and legal framework and national and sub-national solutions to the realization of the rights of persons with disabilities.

The report takes a human rights-based approach to development of human settlements that offer equal opportunities to persons with disabilities. The report offers three case studies that highlight some good practices and topics worthy of further inquiry.

The study points to many actions States Parties can pursue, and makes some recommendations specifically for UN-Habitat.

This Facilitator’s Guide prepared by UN-Habitat and Cities Alliance accompanies the Quick Guides for Policy Makers: Housing the Poor in African Cities series. The Facilitator’s Guide comes with a USB flash drive containing the Quick Guides series, PowerPoint presentations on each Quick Guide, and videos that can be used in training activities.

The training pack is intended for the use of training institutions in Africa and other interested institutions. The training pack focuses on experiential training, which draws on the experience of the workshop participants and emphasises the sharing of ideas and opinions. Available in French.

De modo general, la existencia de una política de vivienda se fundamenta en la identificación de un determinado conjunto de situaciones concretas que afectan a individuos, grupos y poblaciones y que pueden ser descritas, en un sentido específico, como expresión o indicador de la presencia de necesidades habitacionales insatisfechas. Por supuesto, la observación de tales necesidades se relaciona con distintos tipos de diagnósticos, entre los que se incluye la carencia absoluta de vivienda, pero también diferentes modalidades inadecuadas o deficitarias de acceso a vivienda, entre las que se cuenta la disponibilidad insegura o no exclusiva de vivienda, así como también el acceso a viviendas que no cumplen con estándares mínimos o socialmente deseados de calidad. Reconociendo esta pluralidad de situaciones, es correcto señalar que la problemática habitacional no se reduce exclusivamente a un asunto de cantidad de viviendas, sino que implica aportar al desarrollo de condiciones que habiliten el acceso seguro, oportuno, exclusivo y equitativo a viviendas adecuadas para todos aquellos grupos e individuos que manifiestan algún tipo de necesidad.

Given the substantial growth in new construction in economies in transition and the inefficiencies of existing building stock worldwide, if nothing is done, GHG emissions from buildings will more than double in the next 20 years. Therefore, if global targets for GHG emissions reduction are to be met, it is essential that mitigation of GHG emissions from buildings must be on every national climate change strategy. Tackling the emissions problem from the building sector, for example through green social housing, can create jobs, save money and most importantly, shape a built environment that has a net positive environmental influence. Investing in achieving such results in the social housing sector has the potential to boost the local economy and improve living conditions, particularly for low-income communities.

This publication represents another addition to UN-Habitat's work on Green and Sustainable Housing and was produced in collaboration with UNEP's Sustainable Buildings & Climate Initiative (SBCI).