The Sustainable Cities Programme was first implemented in 1996 in Shenyang and Wuhan, in China. From this initial experience, the environmental Planning and Management methodology was integrated in urban management to address pressing environmenta...

UN-HABITAT had been present in Nepal intermittently since the late 1980s engaging in a number of technical assistance programmes in the field of human settlements development. In 2005, the Water for Asian Cities was launched in the country focus...

With political decisions taken about the future of Kosovo, it’s time to deal more seriously with the physical and social status of this part of the Balkans. “More seriously” means that sustainable development should be on everyone’s lips and in ev...

This Quick Guide examines how formal and informal land markets in Asian cities work, how they have succeeded or failed to make decent, secure, affordable land accessible to the urban poor and how community organizations, support institutions and g...

In this edition we talk about the importance of savings schemes in slums, and the why slum dwellers should be involved in decisions around design and affordability of upgrading projects. This is a part of the “Finance Plus” approach of SUF – it is...

The Slum Upgrading Facility has had a busy first quarter, building and detailing SUF finance facilities in Ghana, Indonesia and Sri Lanka in readiness to undertake lending and project monitoring. This is not an easy task. The lead article in this ...

The 6th edition of the SUDP Newsletter details activities of the programme over the past few months, partcularly in urban services, urban management, and governance. Two special sections focus on UN-HABITAT’s role in complex emergencies and plan...

For many people, buying a home is the most expensive purchase of their lives, and it requires a mortgage from the bank. But slum dwellers do not have access to formal credit for homes or home improvement. The Slum Upgrading Facility (SUF) Pilot Pr...

This Quick Guide introduces some of the key concepts of formal housing finance and an overview of how both the formal and informal systems of delivering housing finance work especially with regard to the urban poor. The guide provides insights to ...

This Quick Guide examines how community organizations can be valuable and resoureful partners when it comes to finding viable solutions to their own housing roblems. It looks at how community organizations have developed in Asia, how they function...

This Quick Guide describes ways of addressing low-income housing. It reviews well - tried methods of improving the housing environments of people living in slums and informal settlements, and providing adequate housing for future generations livin...

This Quick Guide reviews the characteristics of rental housing markets and how they functio. The issue of demand and supply of rental housing are discussed, folowed by policy options to regulate, promote and expand rental housing - especially for ...

The 5th edition of the Somalia Urban Development Programme (SUDP) Newsletter covers the main activities carried out by UN-HABITAT and its partners in the last months in Somalia. This issue focus on: (1) Lotteries of the allocation of the houses in...

It reviews one year of SUDP (also marked by the first session of the SUDP Steering Committee Meeting) highlighting benefits and constraints of a fast growing programme. Articles focus on the support given by UN-OCHA to ...

It focuses on the latest achievements of the Somalia Urban Development Programme: completion of the Municipal Authority Building in Garowe, training of the new councillors in Puntland, and property registration and taxa...

It reviews one year of SUDP (also marked by the first session of the SUDP Steering Committee Meeting) highlighting benefits and constraints of a fast growing programme. Articles focus on the support given by UN-OCHA to ...

It gives background information about the programme, its components and activities.

It gives background information on the shelter projects implemented in Somalia by UN-HABITAT and funded by the Government of Japan.

This brochure illustrates how to develop a property database - with the help of GIS - to establish a property taxation system and increase the municipal revenues. UN-HABITAT is developing such system in Hargeisa, expecting a substantial empowermen...

Los señalamientos y la presentación del material de esta publicación no implican la expresión de opinión alguna por parte del Secretariado de las Naciones Unidas con respecto al estatus legal de ningún país, territorio, ciudad o área, ni de sus ha...

In most countries, a range of land rights and tenure ty...

The Situation Analysis is a collaborative effort between the Municipal Council of Kisumu (MCK), Government of Kenya (GoK) and the United Nation Human Settlement Programme (UN-HABITAT). It aims at determining the state of the slums within Kisumu mu...

This set of four reviews provides a broad overview of the national and local legal framework related to land, housing, inheritance and marital property rights in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Nicaragua. This includes a description of relevant poli...

In the closing decade of this century, as the world strives for a better quality of life, millions of poor are fighting for life itself. Already more than 600 million people in cities and towns throughout the world are homeless or live in dilapida...

This paper investigates linkages between transport and housing/security of tenure issues for the urban poor, primarily in the cities of the developing world (the global South). There are significant connections between transport and housing for th...

In line with the recommendations on energy of HABITAT: United Nations Conference on Human Settlements, the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) has been actively promoting energy conservation and the more efficient use of energy i...