Progress Report on the Implementation of the Work Programme of UN-HABITATfor the Biennium 2006-2007

Twenty-third Regular Meeting of the CPR to UN-HABITAT

Nairobi, 7 December 2006

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction------3

Highlights of the programme results------4

Status of progress in achieving results------6

Constraints and areas needing improvement------6

Annex A------8

A. Policy-Making Organs------8

B. Executive Direction and Management------9

C. Programme of Work------14

Sub-programme I:

Shelter and Sustainable Human Settlements Development------14

Sub-programme 2: Monitoring Habitat Agenda------20

Sub-programme 3: Regional Technical Cooperation------24

Sub-programme 4: Financing Human Settlements------28

  1. Programme Support Division------31

Annex B------33

Annex C------36

1

Progress Report on the Implementation of Work Programme

Of UN-HABITAT for the biennium 2006-2007

Introduction

1.This report is submitted in response to a request in resolution 19/2 (paragraph 10) of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) Governing Council which requests the Executive Director to present progress reports on the implementation of the work programme to the Committee of the Permanent Representatives (CPR). It is in accordance with the expected accomplishment (b) of Executive Direction Management (EDM) in the approved UN-HABITAT work programme for the biennium 2006-2007. It focuses on progress of implementation within the first half of the biennium, with specific highlights on key achievements and areas needing improvement.

2.The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT)’s work-programme for 2006-2007 (A/60/6 Sect.15) was approved by General Assembly (GA) at its sixtieth session. It is implemented under four functional sub programmes: Shelter and Sustainable Human Settlements Development; Monitoring the Habitat Agenda; Regional and Technical Cooperation; and Human Settlements Financing. In addition to the four sub-programmes, the Executive Direction and Management (EDM), the Programme Support Division (PSD) and Policy-Making organs have became part of work-programme implementation structures.

3.The biennium 2006-2007 work programme prepared and approved on logical framework of 16 expected accomplishments, 36 indicators of achievement and 1,165 mandated outputs to be delivered in relation to programme budget commitments(page 4,table 15.1of the programme budget). The status of progress on the implementation of work programmes has been assessed in three modules. (i) Mandatory self-assessments/evaluationsthrough the Integrated Monitoring and Documentation Information System (IMDIS), which assists programme managers and substantive officers to monitor and update progress on outputs delivery, indicators of achievement and expected accomplishments. (ii) Other discretionary internal self-evaluations that are non-mandatorynormally carried out by external consultants and evaluation specialists. (iii) Independent evaluations, undertaken by external consultants with the aim of helping senior managers or intergovernmentalbodies to formulate decisions aimed at increasing the overall effectiveness and impact of the programme. A good example of such evaluation for this year is theindependent strategic evaluation of the performance and impact of the Habitat Programme Managers (HPMs).

4.This performance reporting is in the context of results-base management (RBM). The report providesthe status of programme achievements in relation to the expected accomplishments, at sub–programme level, and delivery of outputs that supported the achievement of results. The first part highlights key results and areas needing improvement at the programme level. The second part (attached as Annex A)contains details of results achieved, described under each sub-programme/implementation structure. The status of outputs to be produced in the biennium 2006-2007 is attached as Annex B.

Highlights of programmeresults

5.UN-HABITAT continues to develop and test innovative approaches to sustainable urban developmentthrough combined package of technical assistance, capacity building and advisory services. The agency continues to raise profile on the urbanization challengesthrough its global campaigns on secure tenure and good urban governance. Partnerships with local authorities and other key partners has been promoted through global meetings and outreach activities. The third session of the World Urban Forum (WUF III) was a successful event attended by over 10,000 participants from 109 countries (more than two-fold of WUF II), to discuss issues of shelter and sustainable development.

6.There is improved access by partners to information on human settlements and UN-HABITAT Activities. This improvement is attributed to the information strategy aimed at enhancing UN-HABITAT profile and supporting the global exchange on informationon human settlement issues. Reviews on UN-HABITAT activities and reporting havealso improved as evidenced by the three independent evaluations completed this year.

7.Land use and land management require sound land administrative systems. The Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) is strengthening Governments and Local Authorities capacity to adopt and apply pro-poor, gender-sensitive land tools to improve land management and tenure tools for poverty alleviation.

8.Water and Sanitation Trust Fund is contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7, target 10. Water for AfricanCities and Water for AsianCities programes have be successful in supporting policies, strategies and programmes for increasing access of the urban poor to water and sanitation services. Thanks to Regional Banks (US$ 1 billion from Asian Development Bank and US$540 from African Development Bank).

9.Through capacity-buildingactivities and advisory services, UN-HABITAT has enhanced institutional capacities at the national and local levels. In these activities, UN-HABITAT encourages and promotes inclusive processes, especially those involving local authorities, women and the poor.

10.Understanding of urban safety approaches is increasing among policy makers and local partners. Progress towards improved security within cities through effective crime prevention strategies and improved capacity of cities has been realized through the Safer Cities Programme. The programmes’ focus is to mobilize and encourageactive participation of civil society organizations, women’s groups and the youth at risk.

11.UN-HABITAT continues to support countries affected by natural and human-made disasters for reduction and sustainable recovery. In Asian tsunami and the earthquake inPakistanaffected areas, the organization is implementing shelter reconstruction projects, strategies and policies related to humanitarian assistance and long term-development. Similarly, in the Latin American and Caribbean region, UN-HABITAT is involved in the formulation of post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction programmes, while in Iraq, the agency is implementing the Urban Housing Rehabilitation Programme.

12.Global Urban Observatories (GUO), partnering with national and local authoritiesin selected countries have developed systems for urban data collection that are relevant and globally linked. The process involves setting up a local, national or regional urban observatory to produce, analyze and disseminate credible and consistent urban data. GUO has successfully set up 113 Local Urban Observatories around the globe, 21 national urban observatories and 1 regional urban observatory.

13.Improvement of the global system for reporting on the implementation of the Habitat Agenda and conditions on human settlements and trends is attributed to35 research institutions in different parts of the world participating in the global research network on human settlements (HS-Net) for UN-HABITAT flagship reports. The third edition of the State of the World’s Cities Report (2006/7)provides evidenceof urbanization, scale of slum formation, urban poverty and lessons learned from best practices.

14.Best practices and Local Leadership Programme (BLP)continues to build capacity to Habitat partners in monitoring, documenting and mainstreaming the lessons learned.This year, 715 submissions for the Dubai Ward for Best Practices to improve living environment were received, with increased African submissions.

15.Enhanced Capacity for mainstreaming gender, partnerships and youth concerns in human settlements has significantly improved. During the year 2006, more than 60 projects/programmes assessed by UN-HABITAT Programme Review Committee incorporated gender aspects. The women-specific projects such as empowering women entrepreneurs through housing development and land ownership are benefiting women especially in East Africaregion.

16.National and local capacities to address problems of urban poor have been enhanced. Over 80 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and ArabStates are implementing housing and infrastructure development projects as well as initiatives and strategies to reduce poverty with the assistance of UN-HABITAT, in partnership with UNDP, the European Commission, the World Bank, Regional banks and bilateral donors.

17.The visibility, coordination and performance of UN-HABITAT at country level has improved. This is evidenced by increased number of requests from Member States for technical assistance and advisory services. Habitat Programme Mangers who work closely with UNDP and the United Nations Country Team, provide support to national governments to mainstream shelter, slum challenges and issues of sustainable urban development . The independent strategic evaluation of the performance of the Habitat Programme Managers Programme appreciated the enhanced UN-HABITAT’s contribution at country level.

18.To sharpen UN-HABITAT’s programmatic focus and to broaden its funding base, UN-HABITAT prepared a Medium-Term Strategic and Institutional Plan (MTSIP) for 2008-2013 .It expected that the MTSIP will be approved by the Governing Council during its 21st session in April 2007. The implementation of MTSIP is expected to be based on the principles of results-based management. It sets out how UN-HABITAT will capitalise on its comparative advantages to fulfil its unique role and mandate; by improving its management, efficiency, effectiveness

coherence and relevance.

Status of progress in achieving results

19.Table 1, below summarizes the status of implementation on indicators of achievement (89%), baselines and targets (were included in the programme), expected accomplishments and output delivery (43%).

Table 1: Status of progress in the implementation of 2006-2007 work programme

Element / What was approved / Done / Partially done / Not done / Remarks
Indicators of achievement / 36 indicators of achievement / - / 32 (89 %) out of 36 indicator of achievement partly drafted / 2 (11%) not done / Progress in first year of the biennium is positive
Baselines and targets / Baselines and targets were included in the of work programme / 94 % of baselines and targets are set in IMDIS. / 6% of the baselines and targets are partially set. / - / Set baselines and targets would need adjustments
Expected Accomplishments / 16 expected accomplishments / - / - / - / Accomplishment statements are in draft the last quarter of the biennium.
Outputs / 1,165
outputs / 43%done / 24% in progress / 33% not done / Positive Progress

Constraints and areas needing improvement

20.Despite the encouraging progress there are still areas that need improvement as highlighted below.

  • Planning: The present United Nations Planning and Programming Cycle do not allow using performance findings and lessons learned during the biennium to feed into planning and programming of the next biennium. By the time we end the 20006-2007 biennium, strategic plan and work programme for 2008-2009 biennium will have been approved by the GA. This challenge makes projects, programmes and policies formulated for work programmes not benefiting for previous biennium findings to improve performance.
  • Formulation of good, clear, relevant and monitorable performance indicators is also an area needing improvement. Performance indicators help to assess the achievement against expected accomplishment. In the present biennium, 2006-2007, some indicators are inadequate in determining progress relative to expected accomplishments. More scrutiny of future biennium work programmes is needed for enhanced framework of good indicators, setting baselines and targets that can be used to determine achievement of expected accomplishment.
  • Incomplete programme performance reporting on outputs and services delivered is another challenge. The outputs recorded in approved workprogramme include advisory services, training courses, workshops, meetings, field projects etc. Some are outputs for which the quantity to be produced is difficult to foresee at the planning stage. This is more so on outputsthat demand driven by Members States or by extra-budgetary resources which are often available at a short notice.
  • Financial resources: Effective normative and operational activities depend directly on adequate, sustainable, timely and predictable funding. UN-HABITAT derives itsfunding from three sources (regular budget, voluntary contributions and overhead on Technical Co-operation Operational Activities). The overall level of funding is not adequate to implement UN-HABITAT’s work programme. Moreover, the voluntary funding (extra-budgetary) which forms about 90% of the work programme budget comes as earmarked funding. This makes it difficult for the Agency to prioritize and implement core functions of the organization effectively.
  • Capacity-building.Lack of institutional capacities and issues of governance at country level contributes to lack of tangible progress in achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. There is need to build capacity at local levels in gathering accurate data that is essential for influencing political will and public policies on implementation of forced evictions, slum upgrading, water and sanitation issues etc.
  • Infrastructure: On information sharing, one key area requiring improvement is increased bandwidth. UN-HABITAT is based in Kenya, where telecommunications bandwidth is limited. Currently, the organization gets round this problem by mirroring the content of the public websites in Cambridge, UK. However this solution is extremely costly and has technical problems that are still to be overcome.

Further details of programme achievements are described under each subprogramme/ implementation structure in Annex 1 that follow.

1

Annex A

A.Policy-Making Organs

1.United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) is governed by the General Assembly (GA), the Governing Council (GC) and the Committee of Permanent Representatives (CPR) to UN-HABITAT. The Governing Council of UN-HABITAT, which is a subsidiary body of the General Assembly, reports to the General Assembly through the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and provides overall policy guidance, direction and supervision to UN-HABITAT. Support to the CPR and GC is provided by the Secretariat to the Governing Council, External Relations and Inter-Agency Affairs within UN-HABITAT.

2.The Committee of Permanent Representatives to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, serves as the inter-sessional subsidiary body of the Governing Council. It reviews and monitors, within the policy and budgetary framework provided by the Governing Council, the implementation of the work programme of UN-HABITAT as well as the implementation of decisions of the Governing Council. It also reviews the draft work programme and budget of UN-HABITAT during their preparations and prepares draft decisions and resolutions for consideration by the Governing Council. It meets at least four times in a year. The December meeting is the four regular CPR meeting for this year. The CPR has formal Working Groups and the Bureau. In total, 40 meetings out of the 70programmed meetings have been held. This represents an implementation rate of 57% of the mandated meetings.

3.During the year 2006, the CPR meetings focused on discussions on the implementation of resolutions that were approved at the 20th session of the Governing Council of UN-HABITAT; Implementation of OIOS recommendations from the in-depth evaluation of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme; preparations of the third session of the World Urban Forum (WUF III); Strategic framework for the period 2008-2009; Medium–Term Strategic and Institutional Plan 2008-2013; Forward–Looking Strategic Plan for the two Global Campaigns; Evaluation of Habitat Programme Managers Programme; UN-HABITAT Work Programme Budget for 2008-2009; organization and themes of the future sessions of the Governing Council; preparations of GC 21 resolutions and related issues.

4..Preparation of these meetings has been supported by the Secretariat of the Governing Council, External Relations and Inter-Agency Affairs. To improve efficiency, in supporting the CPR and the GC, there is on-going restructuring and separation of responsibilities of the Secretariat of the GC, Secretariat of World Urban Forum and Inter-agency Affairs.

B.Executive Direction Management (EDM)

5.The main objective of the Executive Direction and Management (EDM) is to improve coherence and direction in the implementation of the legislative mandate and approved work programme of UN-HABITAT. It is under the responsibility of the Executive Director, whose office includes Information Service Section (ISS), Monitoring and Evaluation Unit, liaison offices in New York, Brussels and Geneva. For the 2006-2007 biennium work programme, the EDM’s work-frame was approved on 3 expected accomplishments; 7 indicators of achievements; and 279 mandatory programmed outputs.

6.Status of progress in the implementation of work programme for EDM on mandated outputs delivery, indicators of achievements and expected accomplishments is as follows:

53% of the 279 mandated outputs were implemented, 7% was in progress, 39% had not started;

100% of the indicator and data collection methodologies were completed in IMDIS;

100% of the expected accomplishment had complete performance measure (2004-2005 baselines and 2006-2007 targets); and80% of the accomplishment statements had been partially been drafted.Details of the expected accomplishments, indicator of achievement, baselines and targets, results achieved, lessons learnt and areas needing improvement for EDM are in Table1.

Table 1: Status of progress on achieving results at expected accomplishment level for EDM.

(a) Expected accomplishment / (a)Enhanced policy coherence in the management of the human settlement activities of the United Nations system and strengthened relationship with key partners.
Indicators of achievement
Baselines and targets / a(i) Integration of UN-HABITAT inputs into system-wide policy documents and reports and a more strategic focus in the policy prescriptions proposed by the various programmes and other activities of UN-HABITAT.
Baseline 2004-2005: Better reporting by United Nations on human settlements-related millennium Declaration targets and coordination by UN-HABITAT at the intra-sectorial and inter-agency levels.
Target 2006-2007: Increased and consistent reflection of human settlements–related Millennium Declaration targets by the UN-System.
Statement of accomplishments/results achieved / Integration of UN-HABITAT inputs into system-wide policy documents and reports was evidenced by the 2005 World Summit Outcome that prioritized slum prevention and slum upgrading and encouraged support to UN-HABITAT and its Slum Upgrading Facility. During 2006, UN-HABITAT continued to realign and readjustit approaches to provide countries with more coherent and integrated approach in monitoring, policy development, capacity-building and the mobilization of investment in affordable housing and sustainable urban development. It has continued to strengthened its working relationship with key partners including, UNDP, UNEP, UNIFEM, World Bank, Asian and African Development Banks, Local Authorities, etc.As a result human settlement issues are being cited in national policies as well as General Assembly (GA) and Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) resolutions and increasingly being integrated in UN system wide.