UN-Habitat to Open Office in Morocco
The United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) will open shortly an Office in Morocco, showing the UN agency’s strong determination to speed up and enhance further its cooperation with the North African country in sustainable urban development.
UN-Habitat has been cooperating with Morocco since 1995 on national and local programs in the field of sustainable urban development. In order to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially Goal 11 – “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” – and to mobilize Morocco towards Habitat III, UN-Habitat helps Moroccans face development challenges in cities and make decent housing.
The UN agency also vows to help Morocco for the improvement of basic services and the elaboration of an urban and regional environmental framework.
The UN-Habitat partnership with Morocco also focuses on capacity building of national and local stakeholders through an integrated approach on territorial issues.
The UN experts support Moroccan ministries, national agencies and municipalities bridge the urban divide and build environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.
According to UN-Habitat, cities are facing unprecedented demographic, environmental, economic, social and spatial challenges. There has been a phenomenal shift towards urbanization, with 6 out of every 10 people in the world expected to reside in urban areas by 2030. Over 90 per cent of this growth will take place in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. In the absence of effective urban planning, the consequences of this rapid urbanization will be dramatic.
In October 2016, at the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development – Habitat III – member states signed the New Urban Agenda, which sets global standards to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable by mobilizing all involved stockholders (government, civil society, communities, the private sector, professionals…)
