United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)

UN-Habitat was founded in 1978. It is the leading agency for the implementation of the Habitat Agenda and the coordination of human settlements development across the United Nations system, focusing on two priorities: adequate housing for all and sustainable urban development.

The activities of UN-Habitat are focused on the following areas: planning and managing the development of human settlements; problems of housing and communal services; modernization of infrastructure; ensuring access to drinking water and sanitation; land tenure issues; and the mobilization of financial resources for the development of human settlements at the local level.

UN-Habitat Headquarters is located in Nairobi (Kenya).

Michal Mlynar has been designated as Acting Executive Director of UN-Habitat effective 20 January 2024.

During its existence, UN-Habitat has undergone a number of significant structural transformations. Initially, on the recommendation of the 1st UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat-I) held in Vancouver in 1976, the UN Center for Human Settlements was established on the basis of the UN Committee on Housing, Building and Planning (resolution 32/162 of the UN GA dated 19 December 1977). In accordance with resolution 56/206 of the UN General Assembly of December 21, 2001, the UN Center for Human Settlements was transformed into the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) with the status of a subsidiary body of the UN General Assembly.

The last, third UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) was held in October 2016 in Quito (Ecuador). It has become one of the most important UN activities in the field of urbanization. The theme of the Conference - "Sustainable Urban Development - The Future of Urbanization" directly echoes the work of the UN on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals for the period after 2015 and was designed to draw the attention of UN member states to the problems of growing urbanization, the impact of urban development on the environment, as well as to the socio-economic aspects of life of the least protected sections of the urban population, including ensuring equal access to basic housing and communal services. The main outcome of Habitat III was the adoption of the New Urban Agenda, a framework for urban planning and management to maximize sustainable urbanization.

In 2019, in accordance with UN General Assembly resolution 73/239, UN-Habitat underwent an organizational reform. The main governing body of the Program was transformed from the Governing Council into the UN-Habitat Assembly with the introduction of universal membership in its composition, the sessions of which are held once every four years.

In May 2019, the first session of the Assembly was held in Nairobi. The rules of procedure for the Assembly and the Executive Council of UN-Habitat were approved.

The outcome of the first session of the UN-Habitat Assembly confirmed the key role of the Program in ensuring multilateral cooperation in setting the global agenda for sustainable human settlements development and in developing innovative approaches to improve urban planning and management.

In June 2023, the Second Session of the Assembly was held in Nairobi.

Against a backdrop of global crises that are having particularly severe effects on cities, the Second Session of the UN-Habitat Assembly (UNHA2) convened around the theme of a sustainable urban future through inclusive and effective multilateralism. This theme was operationalized into five sub-themes addressed by the Assembly: universal access to affordable housing; urban climate action; urban crises recovery; localization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and prosperity and local finance.

The Assembly was tasked with identifying key issues and areas of focus for UN-Habitat’s work, reviewing major trends related to human settlements and urbanization, examining global norms and standards regarding both, adopting resolutions and other instruments to provide strategic vision and political guidance to UN-Habitat, and recommending strategies for coherent implementation of the urban and human settlement dimensions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda (NUA).

The main documents for UN-Habitat are the Urban Development Agenda, the Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements, the Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements, the Declaration on Cities and Human Settlements in the New Millennium, and General Assembly Resolution 56/206.

The responsible agency for cooperation with UN-Habitat is the Ministry of Architecture and Construction of the Republic of Belarus.

Since 2021, the Ambassador of the Republic of Belarus to the Republic of Kenya, Pavel Vziatkin, is the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Belarus to UN-Habitat.