United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT)
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.
- 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
Voluntary 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.
