The Regional and Technical Cooperation Division (RTCD) includes the Regional Office for Africa and Arab States (ROAAS) based in Nairobi, the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) in Fukuoka, Japan, and the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean (ROLAC) based in Rio de Janeiro, as well as the Technical Advisory Branch.
  
The division oversees the work of some 35 Habitat Programme Managers based in developing countries around the world. They are all citizens of the countries in which they work, and their role is to ensure that human settlements problems are placed on the national and local agenda, and on the UN Development Assistance Frameworks.

UN-HABITAT has 95 technical programmes and projects under execution in 60 countries around the world, the majority of them in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). As a direct response to demands from governments, the agency's technical cooperation activities have grown significantly over the last decade.

Operational activities focus on supporting governments in the formulation of policies and strategies to create and strengthen a self-reliant management capacity at both the national and local level. Technical and managerial expertise is provided for the assessment of human settlements constraints and opportunities, the identification and analysis of policy options, the design and implementation of housing and urban development projects, and the mobilisation of national resources as well as external support for improving the condition of human settlements. Special focus of RTCD is on the reduction of urban poverty and response to natural and human-made disasters.

This national capacity building process involves central government institutions, Community-based Organisations (CBOs), Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), universities and research institutions, as well as local governments and municipalities. Emphasis is also placed on the monitoring capacities of governments in human settlements management.

Funding for these programmes came from UNDP's various sources of funds, from host governments and municipality cost sharing, as well as bilateral funding agencies.
 
In supporting these operational activities, UN-HABITAT is fully committed to the goals of maximising the use of national expertise and supporting national execution and procurement from developing countries. More than 80 percent of UN-HABITAT personnel are national experts. They are assisted by the Habitat Programme Managers.