 Ministers and senior officials from Latin America and the Caribbean MINURVI group last week brought climate change and housing issues to the top of their agenda in preparation for a series of major international and regional meetings.
The group of Ministers in charge of housing and urban development known as by its Spanish acronym, MINURVI, flagged the issues at their 20th General Assembly on 14, 15, and 16 September in Asuncion.
The Director of UN-HABITAT's Regional Office for Latin America and Caribbean, Alain Grimard, briefed a special session on the outcome of the agency's 2011 Governing Council meeting, and on progress in preparation for a new regional flagship report, The State of Cities in Latin America & the Caribbean.
Mr. Grimard, cited the upcoming Rio+20 meeting, the 2010 World Urban Forum meeting in Rio de Janeiro, and the next meeting of FLACMA, the Federación Latinoamericana de Ciudades, Municipios y Asociaciones de Gobiernos Locales.
The meeting adopted three recommendations put forward by UN-HABITAT:
- The establishment of a Permanent Technical Secretariat to incorporate research, publications, and knowledge of use to all MINURVI countries to improve and harmonize their policies and programmes.
- With the upcoming Rio+20 event, MINURVI will promote a city-level territorial approach to develop, promote and implement new technologies and ideas on sustainable city and regional development.
- With a view to next year's Rio+20 meeting, MINURVI agreed to press home the urban agenda.
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