1. What is UN-Habitat?
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, is the Agency mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. UN-Habitat, in collaboration with governments, is responsible for promoting and consolidating collaboration with all partners, including local authorities and private and non-governmental organizations in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda and the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in particular, Goal 11 of “Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. In the light of rapid global urbanisation, the strategic vision of UN-Habitat offers a way forward for achieving this full-spectrum agenda, by targeting means for implementing programmes and projects in a proper and practical relationship to global and local priorities.
2. What does UN-Habitat do in Kosovo?
UN-Habitat’s presence in Kosovo
Throughout its presence in Kosovo and the broader region since 1999, UN-Habitat has been promoting good governance, security of tenure, equal participation of men and women in the development of sustainable human settlements, and inclusive spatial planning. UN-Habitat’s initial interventions were focused on the establishment of institutions to deal with property issues such as the Housing and Property Directorate and the Kosovo Cadastre Agency and, then on building capacities for efficient management of local governments through successive programmes which have helped to develop, anchor and institutionalize a new planning system and strengthen capacities of professionals dealing with spatial and urban planning as well as public engagement both at the local and central level.
Scope of current programming
The third phase of the Municipal Spatial Planning Support Programme (MuSPP), funded by the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency, was launched in November 2011 and is still ongoing. The motto of MuSPP, “Making Better Cities Together”, means that planning local development belongs not only to professionals but also to the community at large, represented by different social and age groups, men and women. MuSPP continues to support Kosovo municipalities in the consolidation of urban and spatial planning through a participatory and gender-equal process and in the implementation of plans as instruments guiding local development. Capital investment projects resulting from this planning process and developed jointly by partner municipalities are being implemented towards improved living conditions and urban environment. With a focus on ‘on-the-job’ assistance and knowledge transfer through peers as a key capacity building method, MuSPP aims at strengthening capacities of municipal counterparts and other stakeholders for a strategic planning approach. It also cooperates with the central level institutions dealing with spatial planning, environmental protection and local governance to provide assistance to the partner municipalities.
Also, within the UN-Habitat global public space programme, support is being provided to Prishtinë/Prishtina and Mitrovicë/Mitrovica North municipalities for participatory upgrading of public space through the use of Minecraft computer game as a youth mobilization and visualization tool for urban design.
3. Main priorities for 2016
- Support the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning in drafting complementary legal acts in the field of spatial planning, construction and housing, and in implementing pilots;
- Institutionalize MuSPP training modules (Public Participation in Spatial Planning, drafting Municipal Development Plans, drafting Strategic Environmental Assessment and Managing Capital Investment Projects) within a domestic institution (within the training programme of Kosovo Institute of Public Administration);
- Increase municipal and community capacities for inclusive and transparent project development and management towards improved public space.
4. UN-Habitat Kosovo contact information
Ms. Gwendoline Mennetrier: firstname.lastname@example.org
Ministries Building “Rilindja”
10000 Prishtina, Kosovo
Phone: +381 38 20032611
Fax: +381 38 224122
Websites: www.unhabitat-kosovo.org; www.unhabitat.org