Overview
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme better known as UN‑Habitat is the United Nations’ agency dedicated to sustainable urbanization and improving the lives of people living in towns and cities worldwide. Created following the first United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat I) in 1976, and formally established in 1978, UN‑Habitat was transformed into a full UN programme by the General Assembly in 2002, tasked with advancing the goals of the Habitat Agenda for adequate shelter and sustainable human settlements in an increasingly urbanizing world. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, and guided by a universal membership body known as the UN‑Habitat Assembly, the agency operates under the leadership of an Executive Director (currently Anacláudia Rossbach) and sets global policy and technical standards on urban development.
