United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT)

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to promote sustainable urbanization through socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the ultimate goal of providing adequate shelter for all.

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to promote sustainable urbanization through socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the ultimate goal of providing adequate shelter for all. Its mandate is outlined in 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.

Specifically, UN-HABITAT’s main roles and responsibilities are derived from the 1996 Habitat Agenda, which itself is comprised of two main goals: adequate shelter for all and sustainable human settlements development in an urbanizing world. UN-HABITAT’s programmes are designed to help policymakers and local communities come to grips with the human settlements and urban issues and find workable, lasting solutions.

Energy at UN-HABITAT

UN-HABITAT’s activities in the field of energy are developed around three main themes:

(a) promotion of renewable energy technologies in urban and peri-urban areas;

(b) promotion of energy efficiency in the built environment; and,

(c) increasing the access to modern, clean and reliable energy services, especially for the urban poor.

In UN-HABITAT’s efforts to achieve target 11, Goal 7 of the Millennium Declaration, which seeks to improve the lives of 100 million slum dwellers, UN-HABITAT seeks to provide assistance in achieving sustainable energy solutions in towns and cities worldwide.

The programme assists people who are working in or with local governments to develop sustainable energy and climate action plans and implementation programmes. There can be no single recipe for all cities, so it is up to each local government to develop its own innovative and appropriate plans based on local resources and needs. UN-HABITAT promotes the use of such locally available sources of energy such as hydro, solar, wind and biogas to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and conventional electricity.

Services provided by UN-HABITAT include:

• Promoting the public profile of the above issues through outreach to media, advocacy campaigns and the active involvement of a broad range of actors
• Serving as a clearing-house for policy and programme information exchange, and for sharing lessons learned and experiences
• Promoting policy coherence at all levels in line with various United Nations mandates and identifying specific areas where there is a need/opportunity for further policy development
• Encouraging and facilitating collaborative arrangements in relation to programmes and projects among relevant actors, in order to avoid duplication and ensure optimal resource utilization
• Establishing linkages among and with research centres, institutes, networks and other sources of knowledge related to a particular sector
• Serving as a link between global, regional and national level activities.