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UN-HABITAT partners with private firms for solid waste collection
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

07/07/2008
Nairobi



Working in collaboration with two Kenyan engineering firms, UN-HABITAT has developed innovative tractor trailer system and a small pick up vehicle to meet the solid waste collection needs of small towns.

In a clear demonstration of public-private sector partnership which it has been championing, UN-HABITAT tapped Farm Engineering Industries Limited based in the western Kenya town of Kisumu and Ndume Engineering of Gilgil town, also in Kenya to develop the inventions..

“This is going to be a major boost in our war against waste in the municipality,” said a technician given training on the new system last week. “We are really grateful to UN-HABITAT for coming up with this idea.”

In Kisumu, the The participants were also addressed by Engineer Patrick Ombogo the Chief Executive of the Lake Victoria South Water Services Board, a one of the UN-HABITAT implementing partner partners under the Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Initiative.

Mr. Ombogo challenged the technicians, operators and officials of local authorities in the project towns and their bosses to cultivate a culture of maintenance for their equipment. He said regular good maintenance will in the long run ensure that the machines last longer and are cost effective.

“Even if UN-HABITAT continues to pour in mmoney into this equipment, if they are not well maintained this would just be money going down the drain and this is wastage we must stop,” he said.

The Ndume Little Pickup has a flat deck body with a very low loading height. The flat body carries six or eight bins of waste which can be lifted on or off the pick-up by hand. In six of the seven towns, these vehicles will be used to provide a primary collection service, collecting bins of waste from businesses and residential premises and transporting them for transfer into large containers or low loading height trailers which will then be transported to the disposal site.

The target towns are Homa Bay and Kisii in Kenya, Bukoba and Muleba in Tanzania, and Kyotera and Nyendo Ssenyange (a satellite town of Masaka Municipality) in Uganda, as well as from the border town of Mutukula on the Uganda /Tanzania border.

The Lake Victoria Region Water and Sanitation Initiative is a collaborative effort of UN-HABITAT with the Governments of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and the Secretariat of the East African Community. It supports small towns in the Lake Victoria region to attain the water and sanitation target of the Millennium Development Goals. Its objectives are to improve the water supply and sanitation coverage for the poor and to reduce the pollution of the lake from these towns. UN-HABITAT provides capacity building and grant support to seven towns in the Lake Victoria region to rehabilitate existing facilities and to improve local capacity for operations, maintenance and service delivery.

July 7, 2008 | 7:20 PM Comments  0 comments

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WUF4 at Nanjing, China 3-6 November 2008
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic


30/06/2008
Nairobi

Further to the special announcement of 21 June 2008, on the possible postponement of World Urban Forum, we are pleased to announce that the Forum will take place as previously planned from 3 November 2008 in Nanjing , China. UN-HABITAT and the host Government of China invite participants to continue registering for WUF4 online at www.unhabitat.org/wuf . Any inconvenience caused is regretted.

After the recent earthquake in China’s Sichuan Province, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of China, which is host to the Fourth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF4), had suggested a possible postponement of the meeting to enable the Ministry to focus on the reconstruction effort which is a priority.

However, recognizing the efforts that have already gone into the preparations for the Forum by Habitat Agenda partners and UN-HABITAT, the Government of China has confirmed that it will host the Forum in Nanjing from 3- 6 November 2008.

UN-HABITAT and the Committee of Permanent Representatives in Nairobi have expressed their appreciation of the constructive approach and understanding of the Government of China.

July 7, 2008 | 6:15 PM Comments  0 comments

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Advancing social entrepreneurship
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

01/07/2008
Nairobi



UN HABITAT, the University of Colorado and partners held a two-day seminar this week to launch a new research study in Kenya, India and Nepal to see how social entrepreneurship relates to sustainable community and urban development. “UN HABITAT believes that research such as this will allow us to provide the global community a baseline from which to better understand how to support social entrepreneurship,” said Mr. Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, Director of monitoring and research at UN-HABITAT.

The Kenyan phase of the study will take place in the capital Nairobi over the next three weeks and will involve many government and non-government partners.

Mr. Stephen Jalenga of the Kenyan Ministry of Youth Affairs said the Kenyan government was taking the lead in promoting entrepreneurship through its Youth Fund. In its most recent budget, he said the government had allocated the equivalent of USD 3.8 million to youth through various projects, some of which were modeled after the One Stop Youth Resource Information Centres developed by UN HABITAT and its partners through the Global Partnership Initiative for Urban Youth Development.

The second day of seminar moved to airobi's downtown One Stop Youth Resource Information Centre which has the back of the University of Colorado.

“To better understand social entrepreneurship, we felt that we needed to go to a space in Nairobi where young entrepreneurs were creating their own businesses and receiving training,” said Mr. Doug Ragan, Coordinator of the University of Colorado research programme in Kenya. “We were inspired by the innovation and ingenuity of the young entrepreneurs we met there, and they provided valuable input into the research process.”

The Kenyan phase of the research project will be undertaken for the next 3 weeks. The project is scheduled for completion in all three countries by year's end with a report to follow early in 2009.


July 7, 2008 | 6:05 PM Comments  0 comments

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Kenyan slum youth to benefit from UN Secretary-General’s donation
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

23/06/2008
Nairobi



Young people drawn from two Nairobi slums are set to be the first beneficiaries of a donation by UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon which is being administered by UN-HABITAT.

At the beginning of last year, while visiting Kenya, United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon was deeply moved at the poverty he witnessed in Kibera, the largest slum in Africa. He, therefore, pledged a donation of USD 100,000 to help train young people living in Nairobi’s slums.

The result is that 70 young people representing 13 different villages of Kibera as well as their colleagues from Mavoko (also an informal settlement on the outskirts of Nairobi) gathered at UN-HABITAT to celebrate the launching of the Youth Empowerment Programme.

Addressing the youth, UN-HABITAT Executive Director Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka encouraged them to move beyond the tensions left by the unfortunate conflicts which took place in Kenya earlier this year. A disputed election process saw skirmishes erupt in Kenya early this year with some 1,200 people losing their lives while over 100,000 were displaced.

Instead, Mrs. Tibaijuka called on young people to take responsibility to empower themselves, organize, and effect positive change in their communities.

The representative from the Kenyan government, Mr. Stephen Jalenga from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, thanked UN HABITAT for its leadership in providing this training, and as well for empowering youth to organize themselves.

“There are over 700,000 people in Kibera, and 60% of them are youth.” stated Linus Sijenti, a youth leader form Kibera. “This project is the first step in giving young people skills to lift them out of poverty.”

Youth chosen for the course will be trained in three key innovative techniques that includes making “Habitat blocks”; glass “Bottle window” tiles; and “Ferro cement” doors.

“Habitat blocks”, are low-cost bricks that are only 20% of the cost of an ordinary brick. Glass “Bottle Window” tiles are near unbreakable glass windows that can be made out of recycled materials while the “Ferro cement” doors are almost fire and bullet proof. Training in these three innovative techniques will allow the participants to attain skills that they can market and use to start small enterprises within their communities.