United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT)
UN-HABITAT
UN & International Organizations
Mission
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. The main documents outlining the mandate of the organization are the Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements, Habitat Agenda, Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements, the Declaration on Cities and Other Human Settlements in the New Millennium, and Resolution 56/206.
Disaster Reduction Goal
UN-HABITAT’s main goals related to disaster risk reduction:
- Increasing investment in disaster risk reduction – integrating priorities from visible and short-term development projects with long term potential threats and risks;
- Addressing the root causes of disasters. Inadequate development practice increases the vulnerability of residents of communities, towns and cities; therefore, pre-disaster risk reduction needs to be integrated in all development planning;
- Making cities safer places to live by incorporating vulnerability reduction and disaster management into on-going national and local development and poverty reduction plans;
- Building a culture of prevention through a cross sectoral, multi-dimensional approach, integrating participatory analysis of risk, implementation of DRR programmes, and development of policy and legal frameworks with all stakeholders, including civil society, private sector, local, national and international government, in a gendered and comprehensive process.
Parent organization
DRR activities
- Strengthening Resilience in the Territorial Level: To accelerate support to governments in building resilience using a multi-hazard, multi sectoral and multi stakeholders' approach, City Resilience Global Programme (CRGP) has supported 27 cities globally in building capacities, conducting diagnostics, and developing local resilience strategies. It has recently expanded its approach for implementation at the territorial level (encompassing 53 municipalities in Terres de l'Ebre, Spain), enabling. joint efforts in addressing shared challenges. This approach will be replicated in other territorial areas both in Spain and in other partner regions.
- Scaling Urban Resilience with CityRAP: Expanded the City Resilience Action Planning (CityRAP) tool to over 50 cities across Africa, empowering local governments and communities to integrate DRR into urban planning through a community-led participatory approach. CityRAP's impact across Africa stands out as a regional success, fostering sustainable, risk-aware urban development through local capacity-building and participatory planning.
- Strengthening Climate Resilience through the "Building Urban Climate Resilience in Southeastern Africa" project supported by the Adaptation Fund: Enhanced climate resilience for 350,000 people in Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, and Comoros by implementing early warning systems, flood-proof infrastructure, and sustainable urban drainage systems.
- Inclusive DRR through the DG ECHO-Funded "Strengthening all-inclusive Disaster preparedness and linking Early Warning to Early Action" Project in Malawi: Established gender sensitive disaster response committees, accessible early warning systems for persons with disabilities, directly benefiting 376,811 people in urban areas.
- Regional DRR Leadership via the DRMSS SADC Project: Co-led the development of regional DRR mainstreaming guidelines, strengthening disaster risk governance across SADC countries (ongoing).
Membership in Key Networks
- UNDRR Inter-Agency Group (IAG)
- Inter-Agency Standing Committee
- International Recovery Platform Steering Committee
- CATALYST: Capacity Development for Hazard Risk Reduction and Adaptation
National Counterpart
Local Authorities, Ministries of Housing, Urban Development, Land and Resettlement
Items: 44
This conference report summarises the key messages conveyed during the debates by the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) and its partners, both inside and outside government, stating that bridging the urban divide is the starti
These guidelines provide a holistic approach to addressing land issues from the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster through early recovery and reconstruction phases.
This publication showcases the Lunawa Project approaches tp resettlement and housing/infrastructure reconstruction implemented in Sri Lanka.
This document presents the major challenges in Aceh’s transition and governmental priorities, benchmarks and outcomes in virtually every sector of peace building, recovery and development activity in the aftermath of the 2004 earthquake and tsunami.
This report summarizes UN-HABITAT’s programme aimed at building capacities at local and national levels to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries through slum upgrading policy development and imp
This document provides a comprehensive review of the settlement and housing recovery process in Aceh and Nias after the 2004 tsunami and earthquake
This is a summary report of the International Symposium which was held on January 15 to share information and exchange knowledge to build up disaster-resilient countries using the recovery processes developed on the basis of the experience and lessons learned from natural disasters. At the same time, the Symposium discussed international cooperation for further promotion of the HFA.
This is a summary report of the Experts Meeting which was organized on January 16 to verify the progress made in recovery efforts implemented in tsunami- and earthquake-hit regions and to come up with concrete measures to achieve better recovery. The Experts Meeting comprised three thematic group discussions, on “Housing” “Livelihood” and “Organizational and Institutional Arrangements,” for a recovery with a view to build back better as well as a plenary session.
Voluntary Commitments
The organization has no registered commitments.
The Sendai Framework Voluntary Commitments (SFVC) online platform allows stakeholders to inform the public about their work on DRR. The SFVC online platform is a useful toolto know who is doing what and where for the implementation of the Sendai Framework, which could foster potential collaboration among stakeholders. All stakeholders (private sector, civil society organizations, academia, media, local governments, etc.) working on DRR can submit their commitments and report on their progress and deliverables.
Contact information
Fax:
+254 20 623 477