UN-HABITAT’s Executive Director, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, told the twentieth session of the Governing Council examining UN-HABITAT’s work programme and budget for the 2006-2007 biennium that the agency’s main focus would be implementation of the Millennium Declaration targets on slums, urban water and sanitation, urban governance, disaster management and gender mainstreaming. In an address to government representatives examining the agency's 2006-2007 budget on Wednesday, she urged donors to increase non-earmarked contributions to through multi-year agreements. She said that was concerned that the absolute growth of earmarked contributions remained significantly higher than that of non-earmarked contributions. “The lower level of non-earmarked contributions, which are generally unpredictable, hinder the organisation from implementing a focussed work programme, and at the same time create a challenge in the sound financial planning on the basis of ad-hoc contributions,” she said. “In order to address these concerns, I urge you all to increase your non-earmarked contributions and through multi-year agreements, provide a more predictable income.” She thanked Germany for a contribution to the UN-HABITAT and Human Settlements Foundation, and Sweden for a contribution to the Water and Sanitation Trust Fund. “The main focus of UN-HABITAT will remain the implementation of the Millennium Declaration targets on slums, urban water and sanitation and on urban governance, disaster management and gender mainstreaming,” Mrs. Tibaijuka said. |
