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26 November 2020, Nairobi – The UN agency focused on improving lives in cities and towns, UN-Habitat, is calling on Member States to partner on sustainable urbanization during a pledging session next week.

The pledging session will be held virtually on Wednesday 2 December from 15:00 – 17:00 East African Time and will be called “Partner and Pledge for Sustainable Urbanization”.

Member States and other development partners are invited to commit  financial support so that UN-Habitat can continue to support countries’ efforts to make their cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable in line with SDG 11 and thus  improve the quality of living for all in urban areas.

The pledging session comes after Member States approved UN-Habitat’s programme of work for 2021 which requires a total of USD 228 million of which USD 206 million will be raised through voluntary contributions from Member States and other development partners.  USD 10 million will be used to for core normative work to improve urban knowledge, data, policies, norms and innovations so that these can then be adapted to the needs of different countries,  and USD 196 million will go towards earmarked global and country programmes.

“The future of sustainable development and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals depends on how we manage urbanization, how our cities and communities are healthy and inclusive places where most people live,” said UN-Habitat’s Executive Director Maimunah Mohd Sharif. “The pandemic has shown the critical importance of addressing inequalities and development challenges in our urban areas. UN-Habitat has the mandate to work with governments and partner with communities providing the expertise to support cities to rebuild better, greener and fairer. We need to build on the huge economic opportunities and innovations to improve the quality of lives for all.”

During the pledging event, donors will have the options to make pledges towards one or more of the following:

• Non earmarked contribution to support core normative work
• Soft earmarked contribution to support UN-Habitat’s flagship programmes or regional programmes
• Earmarked contribution to support specific global or country programmes
• Commit to providing support in the future

Last year UN-Habitat held its first pledging conference on 29 May 2019, in a bid to raise USD250 million for urban aspects of SDGs at first UN-Habitat Assembly. Around 150 people attended the Conference where over US$152 million in contributions and commitments were announced to finance UN-Habitat’s work to support implementation urban dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 11 to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. The funds came from 38 governments, 10 local governments, and 32 other organizations including seven companies, in a show of commitment for achieving urban related SDGs.

If you would like to partner and pledge for a sustainable urban future contact maureen.nganga@un.org