| Asia and the Pacific |
| Country | Event |
| Australia | The convenor of a global project - Global Studio- has organized talks around the world that will address this year’s World Habitat Day theme - Cities, magnets of hope. The talks began in August and will end in mid November. |
| Cambodia | In Phnom Penh, the WHD will be marked by a presentation of the messages of the Secretary General of the United Nations Mr. Kofi Annan as well as the UN-HABITAT Executive Director, Anna Tibaijuka which will be disseminated through the local TV, radio, and newspapers. The event will be led by the municipal government, cabinet ministers and other top government officials, international/local NGOs, and community members. Other events will be: the issuance of a certificate of a land title to 140 families in a slum community; an exhibition of community products - One Product for One Community; visits to sites of good practices in some communities; and to provide loans for small businesses and housing in six communities. The speech by the Governor of Phnom Penh Municipality will be disseminated to all the local authorities to address the government policy, which is to improve 100 slums every year over a five-year period as announced by the Prime Minister in May 2003. |
| Fiji | The Fiji Association of Architects has planned a series of activities to mark the World Habitat Day. They start with a forum at which local and overseas architects will make presentations to the public and government ministries on the subject of urban sustainability. This will be supplemented by presentations from various NGO's on poverty alleviation and will be followed by public discussions on ways in which to best address the side effects of cities being 'Magnets of Hope'. |
| India | Trust for Regeneration of Environment and Economy(TREE) in collaboration with Regional Science Centre(RSC) will be celebrating World Habitat Day on the 2nd October,2006 at the RSC, Bhubaneswar with the following events: open house quiz and a film show. |
| The Centre for Urban Studies of the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) jointly with Centre for Human Settlements (International) Northern India Chapter, and Association of British Scholars in India are organizing a panel discussion on this year’s WHD theme on October 3, 2006 at IIPA, New Delhi. There will be various speakers. |
| The Osmania Medical College Doctors' Forum in India is organizing an awareness programme to mark World Habitat Day 2006 at Hyderabad, capital of the Andhra Pradesh province of India. A media briefing focused on the theme, Cities - magnets of hope, will be held. |
In Orissa, City Managers’ Association Orissa (CMAO) will observe World Habitat Day in association with the state government’s department of Housing and Urban Development. The main objective of the observation is to raise the awareness of City Managers of the essence of World Habitat Day. CMAO will release a special edition of a newsletter focusing on Best Practices in the urban sector and award city managers for their contribution to the sector. There are also plans to host a workshop and exhibition on the subject. Participants will include city managers, officials from local urban bodies, senior government decision makers, politicians, NGOs, urban experts and the general public.
See Newsletter |
| The Institute for Regional Development Studies in Kanpur will host a panel discussion with speakers drawn from different professions to celebrate the World Habitat Day. The basic deliberations of the panel will centre on the problems of urban sprawl, slums, urban water supply and solid waste disposal. Panelists will also put forward recommendations for improving the quality of urban environments so as to realize the potential of urban areas as magnets of modern life. |
| The Thiruvananthapuram, India, based Habitat Technology Group (HTG) is planning a rally campaigning against use of child labour in the construction sector. Target participants include school children, politicians, architects, urban planners and the general public. To involve slum children in the festivities, a painting competition has been organized where they will define "good life". Also in the works is a seminar on the theme Cities, the magnet of hope which will be followed by a short movie on habitat awareness. |
| Krityanand UNESCO Club, Jamshedpur is organising a one day conference in Jamshedpur to mark this year’s World Habitat Day. Target participants at the event under the theme “Join Hands To Work Towards the Millennium Development Goals” include the community, students and the media. The organizers say particular attention will be on the population without clean drinking water, clean water for good health and educate people to save water for our future". Krityanand UNESCO Club is an NGO working for the aims and purpose of the UNITED NATIONS and its system for our community development. |
| Indonesia | WHD in Indonesia will be marked by a series of workshops which kick off on 22 August 2006 with a workshop on lessons learned from Aceh and Nias Reconstruction, following the tsunami in 2004, conducted by UN-HABITAT and the Ministry of Housing. At the end of August in Jakarta there will be a seminar and workshop on post disaster reconstruction conducted by the East Asia Regional Organisation for Planning and Housing (EAROP) and Golkar Party. In September, there will be a workshop on the roadmap to slum upgrading, conducted by UN-HABITAT, the Ministry of Housing and the Ministry of Public Works, in Jakarta. A final workshop on tropical eco-settlements will be conducted by the Human Settlements Research Center and the Ministry of Public Works from 14-16 November 2006 in Bali. The observance of WHD on 2 October 2006 will be held in Solo, a city in Central Java, which has a pro poor policy and action oriented programme on local economic and slum upgrading.
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| Japan | UN-HABITAT Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, supported by Fukuoka Prefecture, Fukuoka City, Cooperating Committee of Habitat Fukuoka Office, UN Association of Japan Fukuoka Head Office and the Japan Habitat Association, organized a symposium on the main theme of WHD. It focused on what will make cities attractive to serve as “Magnets of Hope”. Mayor of Sorsogon City of the Philippines; an Associate Professor, Department of Urban Engineering, University of Tokyo; and two other experts, participated in the Symposium as panellists. The Executive Committee for WHD 2006 in Fukuoka and ROAP conducted a press tour for 10 foreign press stationed in Tokyo, Japan. The purpose of the tour was to explore Fukuoka which was listed as one of “The World’s 10 Hottest Cities” in a recent Newsweek Magazine and to find out its “Magnets”.
The sixth World Habitat Day Children’s Drawing Contest, targeting fourth, fifth and sixth grade pupils in Asia and the Pacific was organized with support from various local partners including Educational Boards. The theme for this year was “Our City: What We Wish to Leave for the Future”. Selected drawings will be exhibited at the Fukuoka Public Library from 17 to 29 October. Winning drawings will be used for the production of the 2007 UN-HABITAT Calendar. In addition to the above events, ROAP organized a series of exhibitions throughout Japan with collaboration of its supporting organizations. |
| Moldova | Moldova celebrated World Habitat Day with a conference at which the main stakeholders in urban development attended. The conference was linked with the launch of a project financed by "Cities Alliance" for Chisinau Municipality which was covered by the local media. Chisinau Municipality officially launched the first post-Soviet City General Urban Plan (also within the Conference).
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| Philippines | The Philippines celebrated WHD with a country-wide information and advocacy campaign using the national print media network. City information offices were mobilized to field news articles and press statements in their respective local media on the gains of UN-HABITAT assistance in their cities particularly in localizing the MDGs. Twenty-nine cities carried the WHD theme in the traditional flag raising ceremonies. The messages of the UN Secretary General and UN-HABITAT Executive Director were read by the city mayors. The Home Development Fund (Pag-IBIG) of North Luzon conducted an essay writing competition and photography contest on this year's theme. |
| Sri Lanka | Celebrations in Sri Lanka will have an emphasis on slums and various programmes have been planned with the Government to launch the construction phase of the Slum Upgrading Facility (SUF) Moratuwa project. The celebrations will include the participation of donors, partners, government and the community. Also planned will be a documentary programme in the media on slum dwellers highlighting the SUF programme. From the month of September, there will be press releases on various themes in preparation for the WHD as well as a series of nationwide art competitions and social awareness events.
For details see: Report
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Celebrations to mark WHD in Sri Lanka have been planned with the participation of the Housing Ministry, Urban Development Ministry & Education Ministry, Lions Club & Private Sector.
The highlights will include art competition, awareness programme in the settlements, construction work in the Slum Upgrading Facility as well as a Programme to promote MDG’S with governance in the cities |
| Vietnam | "Localizing the MDGs for Vietnamese Cities" is a dynamic slogan that the Association of Cities of Vietnam (ACVN) conveyed to all city members on the occasion of the WHD 2006. This message is also the theme of a national conference which will be organized by ACVN at the end of October. More than 80 delegates representing local and national governments, civil society organizations, research institutions and donor agencies are expected to attend the national event. They will discuss and develop concrete urban development strategies and exchange good practices to meet the future challenges for achieving MDGs in urban areas. Main issues to be debated include the current state of rapid urbanization in Vietnam, city strategic management, infrastructure financing, and local economic.
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