Although the UN General Assembly had already urged its members before on several occasions to address urbanization issues, it is only in the 1970s that tangible yet timid actions were taken to deal with the rapid and often uncontrolled growth of cities. On 1 January 1975, the UN General Assembly established the United Nations Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation (UNHHSF), the first official UN body dedicated to urbanization. Then under the umbrella of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), its task was to assist national programmes relating to human settlements through the provision of capital and technical assistance, particularly in developing countries. The UNHHSF was only given an initial budget of 4 million US dollars for a total period of four years.

At the time, urbanization and its impacts were less prominent in the UN agenda, mainly because two-thirds of humanity was still rural. The first international UN conference to fully recognize the challenge of urbanization was held in 1976 in Vancouver, Canada. This conference – Habitat I – resulted in the creation, on 19 December 1977, of the precursors of UN-Habitat: the United Nations Commission on Human Settlements – an intergovernmental body – and the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (commonly referred to as “Habitat”), which served as the executive secretariat of the Commission.

Habitat was then also mandated to manage the UNHHSF funds. From 1978 to 1996, with meagre financial and political support, Habitat struggled to prevent and to ameliorate problems stemming from massive urban growth, particularly in developing countries. In 1996, the United Nations held a second conference on cities – Habitat II – in Istanbul, Turkey to assess two decades of progress since Habitat I in Vancouver and to set fresh goals for the new millennium. Adopted by 171 countries, the political document – dubbed the Habitat Agenda – that came out of this “city summit” contained over 100 commitments and 600 recommendations.

From 1997 to 2002, Habitat – guided by the Habitat Agenda and, later, the United Nations Millennium Declaration in 2000 – underwent a major revitalization, using its experience to identify emerging priorities for sustainable urban development and to make needed adjustments and corrections in its direction and organizational structure. On 1 January 2002, through General Assembly Resolution A/56/206, Habitat’s mandate was strengthened and its status elevated to a fully-fledged programme in the UN system, giving birth to UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. Key recommendations and fine tuning of the agenda were now underway, along with new strategies for achieving the urban development and shelter goals and targets for the next 15 years.

In 2015, member states approved the Sustainable Development Goals including a dedicated goal for urban development, SDG11 which calls to "Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable." A year later, at the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development - Habitat III - member states signed the New Urban Agenda. This is an action-oriented document which sets global standards of achieving SDG11, rethinking the way we build, manage, and live in cities. 

Facts

• UN-Habitat is currently active in over 70 countries around the world. It has a wide range of diverse projects, such as post-disaster reconstruction programmes in Haiti, addressing slum growth and housing problems in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and supporting the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States to develop land policy guidelines.
• With 400 core staff and up to 2,000 project personnel at any given time, UN-Habitat manages all this work through its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, as well as through four regional offices, one for Latin America and the Caribbean in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, one for Asia and the Pacific in Fukuoka, Japan, one for the Arab States in Cairo, Egypt, and one for African States also based in Nairobi, Kenya.
• UN-Habitat also has several liaison and information offices around the world whose task is to create and maintain links with key governments and other multilateral organizations or development agencies. UN-Habitat’s work also depends on close partnerships with national and local governments, helping authorities and institutions to identify and address their specific needs.

Expertise

The UN-Habitat’s priorities are focused on seven areas:

• Urban Legislation, Land and Governance
• Urban Planning and Design
• Urban Economy
• Urban Basic Services
• Housing and Slum Upgrading
• Risk Reduction and Rehabilitation
• Urban Research and Capacity Development

Funding

Most UN-Habitat funding comes from voluntary contributions from governmental and intergovernmental donors, while UN member states provide the regular budget. Other UN bodies, local authorities, the private sector, and multilateral organizations provide funds for specific projects.

Urban Initiatives

• World Urban Campaign - The World Urban Campaign is UN-Habitat’s partners’ platform preparing for the Habitat III conference.
• Post 2015 Agenda - The UN is working with governments, civil society, and other partners to build on the momentum generated by the MDGs and carry on with an ambitious post-2015 development agenda.
• Habitat UNI - The University Network Initiative (UNI) is UN-Habitat’s network for partnerships with academia and researchers.
• Global Network on Safer Cities - Equipping local authorities and urban stakeholders to deliver urban safety.
• Cities and Climate Change Initiative - UN-Habitat's Cities and Climate Change Initiative (CCCI) seeks to enhance the preparedness and mitigation activities of cities in developing countries.