UN-HABITAT Executive Director, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka
UN-HABITAT Executive Director Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka on Monday handed over to a women group a model housing project built as a partnership between the agency and several other actors. She at the same time also officially opened the Moonbeam Youth Training Centre.
Mrs. Tibaijuka whose term as the head of UN-HABITAT comes to an end on Tuesday expressed satisfaction that the project which was close to her heart was reaching such a successful phase.
“It is also an auspicious occasion, because this event today is my last formal matter of official business before I take my leave of the United Nations system tomorrow. How apt therefore that my final public act in my capacity as Executive Director of UN-HABITAT is to hail two very worthy projects in this wonderful country. Kenya has been my home, officially and unofficially, for the past 10 years,” she said in her speech.
The two projects at Mavoko Municipality just outside Nairobi marked an important phase in the partnership between UN-HABITAT, donors, the Kenya government and donors.
Known as the Kenya Women Land Access Trust (KEWLAT) the project is part of several similar ones established with the assistance of UN-HABITAT and works towards the implementation of the United Nations goal of adequate shelter for all and sustainable human settlements development.
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Historical Events in Anna Tibaijuka
THANKS TO….
Agreement of Cooperation Signed between Computer Aid International and UN-HABITAT
Tony Roberts, Executive Director of Computer Aid at the signing with Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT.
UN-HABITAT and Computer Aid International on Monday, 19th June, 2006, signed a landmark agreement to help avail ICT to the inhabitants of Kibera slums in Nairobi, Kenya, one of the world’s poorest informal settlements.
The document was signed by UN-HABITAT Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka and Tony Roberts Computer Aid International Chief Executive on the sidelines of the ongoing Third Session of the World Urban Forum currently underway in Vancouver, Canada.
The Agreement of Cooperation spelt out how the two organisations will work together to apply ICTs to urban development projects beginning with a pilot in Kibera, Nairobi called the ‘Computers for Communities’ project. Kibera is Africa’s largest urban slum and is home to about one million people. The Computers for Communities project is part of the UN-Habitat ‘ICT for Development’ programme.
Computer Aid International is the world’s largest not-for-profit provider of computers to developing countries. Computer Aid has provided 70,000 PCs to educational institutions and not-for-profit organisations in 104 different countries. More than 6,000 of that total have been sent to Kenyan schools, universities and non-governmental organisations.
The project by Computer Aid and UN-HABITAT aims to bridge the digital divide that exist between the rich and the poor nations of the world. ‘Computers for Communities’ will provide computers to UN-Habitat own projects, education and training providers and community organisations in urban settlements.
The first computer laboratory created under the scheme will be at the ‘One Stop Youth Shop’ community resource centre in Kibera, Nairobi. This innovative and ground-breaking centre provides a rare meeting place for young people to come together to access information and resources critical to enabling youth-led development programme and projects.
The ‘One Stop Youth Centre’ is one of the exciting projects highlighted during the Habitat Jam as an exemplar of best practice and of practical action proven to address the challenges of urban slums. The provision of ICTs to socially excluded groups provides the opportunity to amplify the voice of youth and enable their effective advocacy. At the One Stop Centre computers are a tool for sharing ideas, communicating issues and raising awareness. The project also provides and extensive programme of vocational training for local youth that is essential for entering the formal economy.
“The developed economies have enjoyed two decades of unbroken and unprecedented economic growth on the back of the ICT revolution. To be credible in 2006 any national programme to realise the MDGs and poverty reduction must include the application of ICTs across the economy. This reality was underlined at the recent World Summit on Information Society and Millennium Development Goal 8 itself explicitly refers to the need to apply ICTs to the task of poverty reduction”, Mrs. Tibaijuka said.
Mr. Roberts announced that British Airways had agreed to fly the first computers from London to Nairobi free of charge the very next day. The computers will be sent first to Starehe Boys Centre where they will be re-tested and appropriate software loaded before deployment at the One Stop resource centre in Kibera.
Starehe is a model school that offers disadvantaged but bright boys the chance to continue with education. It is one of the top performers in the national examinations and every year, leads with the number of candidates joining the public universities.
Cooperation Agreement Signed between ENDA Tiers-Monde and UN-HABITAT
Marième Sow, Acting Chief Executive of Environment, ENDA at the signing with Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT.
UN-HABITAT and Environment and Development Action in the Third World (ENDA) on Monday, 19th June, 2006, signed an agreement of cooperation aimed at assessing the progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) relating to human settlements.
Marième Sow, the ENDA acting Chief Executive of Environment and UN-HABITAT’s Executive Director, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, signed the agreement aimed essentially at localising the Habitat Agenda and the MDGs.
With the signing of the agreement of cooperation, ENDA hopes to bring its regional expertise to the fore as it continues to raise awareness and disseminate information on key urban issues, execute demonstrative projects at local level and provide mechanisms for monitoring, assessing and reporting back on progress in realizing the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals that governments of the World committed to in 2000.
Founded in 1972, ENDA is a non profit international organization whose autonomous branches are coordinated by an Executive Secretariat. The organization collaborates with grassroots groups to find alternative development models based on the experience, expectations and objectives of marginalised groups.
Government of Norway and UN-HABITAT Signs Cooperation Agreement
Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT at the table with Norwegian State Secretary for the Ministry for International Development, Ms. Anne Margareth Stenhammer.
UN-HABITAT and the government of Norway on Monday, 19th June, 2006, signed a cooperation agreement which will see the UN agency receive support amounting to nearly 17 million US dollars for the next two years.
The agreement signed by the Norwegian State Secretary for the Ministry for International Development, Ms. Anne Margareth Stenhammer and UN-HABITAT Executive Director Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka will go towards UN-HABITAT’s Water and Sanitation Trust Fund and its Slum Upgrading Facility. The amount will also support the agency’s work in mainstreaming gender and youth issues in shelter provision and the development of inclusive cities. One such initiative is the establishment of One Stop Youth Centers to provide career advice, information and skills to young people so that they can have more access to the job markets. An additional area that will receive support is the Global Land Tool Network which focuses land rights and develops pro poor land management tools.
Today’s grant is in addition to Norway’s core support to UN HABITAT. Ms. Stenhammer commended UN HABITAT for its work in urban poverty reduction and emphasised the need for further strengthening of partnerships.
On her part, Mrs. Tibaijuka expressed gratitude towards Norway’s steadfast support to and confidence in UN-HABITAT.
Nairobi One Stop Youth Information and Resource Centre Signs Agreement with the Oslo Youth Centre
Under a UN-HABITAT initiative, the Nairobi One Stop Youth Information and Resource Centre on Tuesday, June 20th, 2006, signed an agreement with the Oslo Youth Centre.
Signed at the ongoing third session of the World Urban Forum, the agreement was the culmination of an engaging networking event on ‘Child and Youth Friendly Cities’. It was signed by the Director of Social Services and Housing for the City of Nairobi, Mr. Johnson Nwiga Kariuki and a representative of the Oslo centre, Mr. Masumbuko Moussa.
It is a commitment by the parties to examine urban youth issues and looks at how the Centres for Urban Youth Development, under the Global Partnership Initiative for Urban youth development in Africa (GPI) are seeking solutions to issues of youth in the urban environment.
Mr. Moussa stressed the need to live by the themes of the World Urban Forum (WUF III) as guiding principles and to take action in improving the lives of youth through concrete actions such as creation of more centres. Under the agreement, the parties agreed to identify additional partners in developing and developed countries who wish to be part of the GPI, and to enhance the existing collaboration between the centres through city to city cooperation as well as personnel and information exchanges.
Government of Sri Lanka and UN-HABITAT Sign Agreement on Slum Upgrading
Dinesh Gunawardena, Sri Lankan Minister for Urban Development and Water Supply with Anna Tibaijuka, UN-HABITAT Executive Director.
UN-HABITAT and the Government of Sri Lanka on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding targeting slum upgrading in the Asian nation.
UN-HABITAT Executive Director Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka and the Sri Lankan Minister for Urban Development and Water Supply Mr. Dinesh Gunawardena signed the MoU at the ongoing third session of the World Urban Forum.
The agreement seeks to promote the mobilization of domestic private sector capital and sustainable financing for slum upgrading, low income housing, urban and other shelter related infrastructure.
It will also seek to develop financial products with credit support enhancement for the poor. This will include establishment of city and national level guarantee funds and national policy frameworks to upgrade and increase low income housing in the country.
Under the MoU, UN-HABITAT will provide advisory and technical support to the Government of Sri Lanka. The support will include the provision of seed capital from the agency’s Slum Upgrading Facility. The government of Sri Lanka will support the slum upgrading programme through targeted capital contributions. The government will also enhance its policies to create an enabling environment that promotes investment in low cost housing and facilitates access to land and financing.
