UN-Habitat was established as a UN agency in 1978. It aims to improve living conditions in cities and communities around the world. Its establishment was associated with the first global UN conference on Housing and Urban Development, “Habitat”, which was held in Vancouver, Canada in 1976. The second global UN conference on Housing and Urban Development, “Habitat II”, was held in Istanbul in 1996. The third global UN conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development was held in October 2016 in Quito, the Ecuadorian capital. The UN-Habitat headquarters is situated in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. The Ministry of Regional Development is the coordinator of UN-Habitat in the Czech Republic. The UN General Assembly decided at its session held on 12 December, 2001 to transform, with effect from 1 January, 2002, the United Nations Centre (agency) for Human Settlements to the “United Nations Human Settlements Programme”. The UN-Habitat Managing Authority of the programme is the “UN-Habitat Assembly”, which was newly created as a result of the Programme’s overall reform in December 2018. This decision was based on the General Assembly resolution. The former Managing Authority „UN-Habitat Governing Council“ was dissolved. The UN-Habitat Secretariat is the executive body of the Assembly and the UN and it acts as the focal point for all urban and human settlement matters within the UN system
 
One of the key activities of UN-Habitatis to contribute to the attainment of goals set forth in documents adopted by UN member states, particularly the “Habitat Agenda” approved by the “Habitat II” conference and the “New Urban Agenda” approved by the “Habitat III” conference. UN-Habitat activities also contribute to the global UN objectives of reducing poverty and promoting sustainable development.
 
UN-Habitat Assembly“, as the Managing Authority, meets every four years at the headquarters in Nairobi. All UN countries participate in the discussions and negotiations, where key themes include human settlements and sustainable urbanisation, with an emphasis on the role of finances and planning in reducing poverty. The core UN-Habitat activities include promoting access to housing, improving living conditions in cities and solving urban poverty issues. These are the most pressing goals of the global debate, including searching for new forms of funding and obtaining funds for the work of the entire programme.
 
The issue of urban development from a global perspective is extremely important since more than half of the world’s population lives in cities, and according to forecasts it could be about 70% of the Earth’s population by 2050. This means an increase of 3 billion in urban populations worldwide between 2010 and 2050.
 
The Sustainable Development Goals (drawn up in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, “The 2030 Agenda”) approved at the UN World Summit in September 2015 relate i.e. to the UN-Habitat agenda, as objective 11 applies directly to cities (“Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”).
 
Official web site: http://unhabitat.org/
     
Links:
SD Goals:http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
The 2030 Agenda: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld