UN-HABITAT’s Executive Director, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, last week received the letters of accreditation of six new Permanent Representatives to UN-HABITAT. They are Mr. Carlos Cue Vega of Mexico, Mr. Rodrigo Gaete of Chile, Mr. A.M. Yakub Ali of Bangladesh, Mr. Zhang Ming of China, Mr. Abdelilah Benryane of Morocco, and Mr. Gabor Sagi of Hungary. In separate meetings on 27 September with each of the new Permanent Representatives, Mrs. Tibaijuka thanked them for their respective countries’ support to UN-HABITAT. She highlighted the achievements made by UN-HABITAT in recent years and stressed the need to continue to promote policies that are designed to provide housing, water and sanitation and other amenities to the poor people throughout the world. She also enumerated UH-HABITAT’s activities in the various countries of the Permanent Representatives and that the organization was working with several non-governmental organizations and other partners in these countries. She stated that the position of Habitat Programme Managers (HPMs) was established in some countries to bring the organization nearer to those countries. Mrs. Tibaijuka stated that UN-HABITAT had used the last five years to create great awareness about housing and stated that, “We want to avoid social unrest that accompanies urbanisation.”  | | Mr. Carlos Cue Vega of Mexico | | |  | | Mr. Abdelilah Benryane of Morocco |
The Executive Director, however, appealed to the Permanent Representatives to support the principle of assessed but voluntary contribution for UN-HABITAT to ensure predictable funding for the organization. She also called on some of the countries to send Junior Professional Officers to UN-HABITAT as a strategy to increase their presence in the organization. The Permanent Representatives congratulated her on her recent re-election as the Executive Director of UN-HABITAT. Mr. Ming cited China’s new human settlements policy, and said China was preparing to host the Fourth World Urban Forum in Nanjing in 2008. |
