Burkina Faso in 2008 marked World Habitat Day with a week of special activities from 4 to 11 October with strong backing from the Government to ensure that awareness was raised on the state of the country’s urban development.

The Government and UN-HABITAT lined up five days’ activities in the towns of Ndjaména, Sarh, Abéché and Doba to mark the World Habitat Day. These included: exhibitions, youth activities including football and basketball matches as well as concerts. Also held was a press conference by the Minister of Housing, a day long conference by the Habitat Programme Manager(HPM) and the Mayor of Ndjamena. On the actual day of World Habitat Day, a speech by the Housing Minister, statements by the UN Secretary General and the UN-HABITAT Executive Director were read.

The local Habitat Programme Manager(HPM) displayed posters in the main venues of the capital and distributed printed materials and T-shirts to government partners.

The Kariobangi South Welfare & Slums Housing Association in Nairobi marked the World Habitat Day and Global Poverty Day by hosting football matches between a team of elderly women and Nairobi East councillors. The first match took place on October 4 at KCC playground next to KCC Factory in Kariobangi South Location, while the second was on October 18. The second served as the main activity to mark the Global Poverty Day.

A march was organized in Monrovia on October 6, by student and youth groups, members of the slum dwellers and the tenants associations and partner associations, from Broad Street to the Monrovia City Hall. This was followed by a workshop at the Monrovia City Hall on the Theme: Urbanization in Liberia, Challenges and Prospects. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's message was delivered at the workshop as well as the statements of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and UN-HABITAT Executive Director Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka.

The Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development, decided that instead of giving money to the 13 regions for the World Habitat Day, it will build a community center in the informal settlement area of Okahandja. Alternative and locally available building materials were used to construct the center, while community members who were trained specifically for the task were responsible for the construction.
The event was held in October. The Minister handed out certificates to trainers of trainers and officially handed-over the brick making machines to communities. These machines were purchased by UNDP through a one-off grant from the Democratic Governance Thematic Trust Fund (DGTTF). Since inception of the pilot project, UN-HABITAT through its Habitat Programme Manager(HPM) has been providing technical and advisory assistance.

On behalf of Linda Bihire the Minister of Infrastructure, Eng. Albert Butare, the Minister of State in charge of Energy stated his country's commitment to transform slums in his national communiqué. He said that Rwanda's Vision 2020 aims at increasing habitation of city dwellers from 18 to 30 percent and increasing rural habitation to 70 percent that include almost 22 percent inhabitants in decent settlements (Imiduguddu). In the Vision 2020, Rwanda aims at developing City Master Plans for 18 cities and increasing accessibility to safe water and electricity.

The Youth Initiative for Aids Prevention (YIAP- UGANDA), a local community based organisation working in Mukono district, hosted a youth football, netball and dancing competitions in Mukono district on September 27-28, as they fundraised to rehabilitate 30 houses for orphans and widows in the Ntenjeru sub county. One of the guests expected was Mr Wali Christopher, one of Uganda's delegates to the World Habitat Day celebrations in The Hague, Netherlands in 2007.

In Uganda, Foundation for the Rural Housing (FHSE-UGANDA), a non-profit making National Non-governmental Organisation, organized a pre-UN World Habitat Day event that involved the construction and launch of a rural model house at Rubongi Sub county in Tororo District, Eastern Uganda. The beneficiary of this model house was a widow within the project area.

Emergency Architects Australia (EAA) marked the World Habitat Day events to run in conjunction with World Architecture Day and The Sydney Architecture Festival. The celebrations held at Customs House, Circular Quay, Sydney, were a collaboration between Australian Architecture Association, Royal Australian Institute of Architects New South Wales(NSW) Chapter , NSW Architects Registration Board, UNSW Faculty of the Built Environment, NSW Government Architect and Sydney City Council. EAA presented a large scale working model, details of projects to date and information on UN World Habitat Day events around the world.

Manipur University's Department of Housing and Urban Development observed World Habitat Day at State Guest House the Chief Town Planner N Gitkumar and the Department Director M Joy. Manipur University professors and experts spoke on the occasion.

The Trust for Regeneration of Environment and Economy (TREE) in collaboration with the department of Architecture celebrated the World Habitat Day 2008 in Bhubaneswar, the state capital of Orissa on the theme "Harmonious Cities" through various competitions, including poster painting and collage. There were special lectures, bulletins and films shown to mark the day.

A local organisation, BHAGIDARI JAN SAHYOG SAMITI in collaboration with several partners held World Habitat Day 2008 celebrations in New Delhi. The main objective of the programme was a seminar to draw attention to the problems and issues in Hamornious cities the theme for World Habitat day this year. Focus was on environmental sustainability, equity, gender parity, pro-poor growth and participatory governance. Some 2000 participants including policy makers, government officials, academics, journalists, other professionals, and community representatives attended. A parallel seminar took place on Solutions to human settlements and urban problems.

A national event, GlobalBuild, was organized by Habitat for Humanity India and held between September 29 and October 6. The event was designed to provide a grassroots level, hands-on house building opportunity to volunteers from around the world in aid of a community of migrant and poor families desperately in need of simple and affordable housing. These families live in a slum within the Bhalaswa Resettlement Colony in New Delhi.

On World Habitat Day, the Krityanand Unesco club in Jamshedpur organized a one-day conference and training programme under the theme "Harmonious Cities”. The overall purpose of the programme was to ensure environmental sustainability of urban areas.

BMTPC also organised a Painting Competition for the Differently Abled Children. Besides, a Design Idea Competition for Low Cost House suitable for rural areas providing cost-saving, energy & time efficiency and disaster resistant construction techniques for architecture, engineering, planning students/ practicing engineers, architects /consultancy firms/government, public & private sector institutions was also organised.

To mark the World Habitat Day 2008, the Institute for Regional Development Studies at Kanpur, India, organized an interdisciplinary and theme-oriented panel discussion to raise awareness about the problems of slums, degrading urban environment and massive rural-to-urban migration and over-urbanisation in the developing world. A diagnostic spatial-functional approach was used to promote integrated and balanced socio-economic urban growth. The panel consisted of academics of various disciplines, community representatives, youth and planners.

UN-HABITAT’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific joined the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to host a World Habitat Day symposium entitled, Establishing Harmonious Cities in East Asia. The symposium on 6 October was supported by the Fukuoka Prefecture, Fukuoka City, the Fukuoka International Exchange Foundation, Fukuoka International Association, Fukuoka Asia Urban Research Center, and the UN Association of Japan Fukuoka Head Office. And in keeping with a tradition established here, the 8th World Habitat Day children’s drawing contest was organized with schools in the region. The contest backed by the Fukuoka Prefecture, Fukuoka City, Fukuoka International Exchange Foundation, Kyushu Electric, Co., Ltd. The winners work will be published in the 2009 UN-HABITAT Original Calendar.

Pag-IBIG Fund, one of the recipients of the 2006 Scroll of Honour Award, promoted awareness of the theme of Harmonious Cities through Ms. Vilma Q. Flores, Vice President of North Luzon Group, with her radio program over DWBL on AM Radio Philippines, a regular Saturday feature supported by Federacion Internacional de Abogadas (FIDA), Philippine Chapter. The theme was also promoted by Xevera Subdivision, an economic-housing complex that literally rose from the ashes in Barangay Calibutbot, Bacolor, Pampanga, under the leadership of Delfin Lee, a developer who, through harmonious relationships among the private sector, government sector and various non-government organizations, has come up with a sustainable project that will help decongest highly-urbanized areas.

In Bangkok, Thailand, seven free online Quick Guides were launched for World Habitat Day. They are intended to help policymakers deal with the key issues of housing urban poor in the Asia-Pacific region. The Quick Guides, developed jointly by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and UN-HABITAT, are in response to the unprecedented growth of slums and squatter settlements in the region that now house over 500 million people. See also, http://www.housing-the-urban-poor.net

On World Habitat Day, WorldWide Networking Argentina organised a forum "Social Habitat for an Urban and Rural World" which was held at the House of Representative conference hall in Buenos Aires Argentina. The forum took place from 10 to 1 o'clock and the issues discussed included human assent socially, economically and environmentally sustainable integral solutions to the housing problem. A press conference was planned and was addressed by Margarita Beveraggi - President of commission of house of deputies of the nation, Estela Belizan - Coordinator Human Settlement , María Costa Pinto - Director information center of United Nations and Cristina Lescano - Coordinator ''Taken Uninhabited Houses'' District Work El Ceibo will participate.

Habitat School at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, celebrated World Habitat Day 2008 by hosting an international seminar ‘Popular Habitat: Reasons for Existence and Perspectives on the Creation of an International Laboratory of Popular Habitat’.
Better known by its Spanish name, Escuela del Habitat, the institution is one of the six schools of the Faculty of Architecture in Medellin.
For twenty years, local and Latin-American professionals, technicians, civil servants, community leaders and academics were trained or involved in the discussions of local development and practically all its related themes, in the development of an international cooperation agreement with the Institute for Housing Studies at Rotterdam. The international programme also provided opportunities to establish not only Dutch – Latin relations but also south- south cooperation.

In Colombia, the Habitat World Day were celebrated around the discussion of the construction and accomplishment from the right to the city and its relevance to obtain harmonious cities. An event of academic type was realized with the Faculty of Law of the Pontifica Universidad Javeriana with the participation of some universities, the national government, the local governments, the private sector, the civil society and the NGO’s.

Habitat for Humanity of Yuma, Arizona, a strong advocate for moving families from substandard living to the American dream of home ownership, observed World Habitat Day Monday by launching its Build on Faith campaign. In her speech read during the launch, the board chairman Kathi Marcus, defined Habitat for Humanity Yuma as an ecumenical Christian ministry dedicated to the cause of eliminating poverty housing. Since its founding in 1976, Habitat for humanity has built more than 250,000 houses worldwide, providing simple, decent and affordable shelter for more than 1 million people.

Albany Technical College volunteers - students, faculty and staff worked with Flint River Habitat for Humanity to build a home in the Woodland Oaks subdivision in south Dougherty County and painted the new Habitat offices on Pine Avenue. According to Habitat for Humanity, more than 1.6 billion people are suffering from some sort of shelter deprivation in the world. Without access to adequate shelter, clean water or sanitation, upwards of 10 million people die each year from preventable diseases. Many of them are infants.

In New York City, the UN-HABITAT office and the non governmental organization, Committee on Human Settlements jointly hosted a breakfast forum at Fordham University, followed by an afternoon forum in the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium. These meetings brought together regional experts to focus on how the city is pioneering new methods to promote harmonious cities, through collaboration of government, nonprofit organizations, and private corporations.

The Virginia Commonwealth University of Richmond, Virginia in the United States organized an ice cream social event World Habitat Day to raise awareness of World Habitat Day and raise money for charity.

The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty (NLCHP) organised a free audio training session on The Human Right to Housing, for the World Habitat Day. The human rights system provides an important framework for connecting civil rights issues with economic and social justice. This webinar will share basic information about the human rights framework and its applicability to domestic issues of affordable housing and homelessness.

In Florida, USA, the Florida Coalition for the Homeless and the Florida Supportive Housing Coalition organized the second joint statewide conference, titled 'A Home for All: Bringing the Pieces Together', focusing on the housing and community needs of Florida's most vulnerable populations. The conference provided opportunities for participants to meet national experts, discuss critical issues with State and federal representatives and network amongst a broad spectrum of professionals sharing in the vision of a home for all Floridians. Other highlights included a city-wide bus tour of supportive housing programs, an awards ceremony and reception, as well as an opportunity for participants to receive 14 hours of Continuing Education Units.