25th UN Habitat Governing Council Meeting Has Started 17.04.2015

25^th UN Habitat Governing Council Meeting, in which UCLG-MEWA has been accredited as a representative of the local governments, has started in UN House in Nairobi, capital of Kenya. The opening session started with the message of Ban Ki-MOON, UN Secretary General, and subsequent to his speech, Dr. Joan CLOS, UN-Habitat Executive Director, stated that many important steps have been launched since the 2^nd Habitat Conference that took place in İstanbul in 1996, with regards to cities’ future, and he emphasized the importance of the 3^rd Habitat Conference that will be held next year in Quito, Ecuador.

Subsequent to Dr. CLOS’ speech, Uhuru KENYATTA, President of Kenya took the floor and he stated that when the UN was established, a small proportion of the world population was living in the cities, but today since the population of the cities have increased, cities have gained an important place in UN’s agenda. Referring to the importance of UN activities for the future of the cities, President KENYATTA announced that they will donate as Kenya 1 million American Dollars some of which will be used in the 3^rd Habitat Conference in Quito. After the President KENYATTA’s speech, the Plenary Session has started.

The theme of the meeting has been decided as ‘’The Contribution of UN-Habitat to Post-2015 Development Agenda: Promoting Sustainable Urban Development and Human Settlements. ‘’ During the six-days meetings, UN-Habitat’s activities, topics related to coordination, the work programme and budget of UN-Habitat for the biennium 2016-2017 will be discussed. The decisions taken during the meeting will be published as a report. You can find the report on UN-Habitat’s website: www.unhabitat.org