History
In 1978, when Habitat was established, after a meeting in
Vancouver known as Habitat I, urbanisation and its impacts were less
significant on the agenda of United Nations that had been created over three
decades earlier, when two-thirds of humanity was still rural. From 1978 to
1997, with meagre support and an unfocused mandate, Habitat struggled almost
alone among multi-lateral organizations to prevent and ameliorate problems
stemming from massive urban growth, especially among cities of the
developing world. From 1997 to 2002, by which time half the world had become
urban, UN-HABITAT – guided by the Habitat
Agenda and the Millennium
Declaration – underwent a major revitalisation, using its experience
to identify emerging priorities for sustainable urban development and to
make needed course corrections.
In 1996, the United Nations held a second conference on cities, Habitat
II, in Istanbul, Turkey to assess two decades of progress since
Vancouver and set fresh goals for the new millennium. Adopted by 171
countries, the political document that came out of this “City Summit” is
known as the Habitat Agenda and contains over 100 commitments and 600
recommendations.
On 1 January 2002, the agency’s mandate was strengthened and its status
elevated to that of a fully fledged programme of the UN system in UN General
Assembly Resolution A/56/206. Key recommendations and fine tuning of the
agenda are now underway as strategy clusters for achieving the urban
development and shelter goals and targets of the Millennium Declaration -
the United Nations’ development agenda for the next 15 to 20 years. The
revitalisation has placed UN-HABITAT squarely in the mainstream of the
UN’s development agenda for poverty reduction with a more streamlined and
effective structure and staff, and more relevant and focused set of
programmes and priorities.
It is through this agenda that UN-HABITAT contributes to the overall
objective of the United Nations system to reduce poverty and promote
sustainable development. Its partners range from governments and local
authorities to a wide international cross-section of Non-Governmental
Organisations and civil society groups.
Quelle: http://www.unchs.org/about/history.asp