We are pleased to announce that the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACP), the European Commission (EC) and UN-Habitat are meeting again in their 4th Tripartite OACPS/EC/UN-Habitat Conference to discuss results, progress and impacts on the commitments agreed in the last OACPS/EC/UN-Habitat Declaration in Brussels in 2018. Together, we will take stock of progress made in transforming living conditions in informal settlements and slums in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and around the world.
H.E. Georges Rebelo Pinto Chikoti took up his position as Secretary-General (SG) of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) on the 2 March 2020.
Marjeta Jager is currently Deputy Director-General for the Directorate General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA)
Ms. Maimunah Mohd Sharif (Malaysia) is the Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), appointed at the level of Under-Secretary- General by the Secretary-General, following an election by the General Assembly on 22 December 2017.
Ms. Leilani Farha is a Canadian lawyer who is the Global Director of THE SHIFT, a housing initiative.
A teacher by training, Abdoulaye Saydou Sow was admitted to ENA in cycle B (administration secretary), then in cycle A.
Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE was sworn-in as Mayor of Freetown in May 2018 with a commitment to transform Freetown using an inclusive, data-driven approach to address challenges in the city.
A past student of Rusea’s High School, Mico Teachers’ College and Northern Caribbean University he was conferred in 2019 with the National Honour of the Order of Distinction (OD) Officer class in the field of education and community development.
Woniala Daniel is a member of the National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda-Mbale City
Rufino d'Almeida, elected at the head of the communal executive of his hometown, the municipality of Bohicon since June 2020, has made the issue of sanitation, urban planning and inclusion of all actors of the local development some of his main priorities.
Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o is the Governor of Kisumu County Government in the Republic of Kenya.
Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Republic of Ghana
Jaime Royo-Olid is the European Commission Urban Development, Sustainable Transport and Digitalisation Senior Officer working at the European Union Delegation to Kenya where he is setting up a major New Urban Agenda implementation programme with the European Investment Bank (EIB), UN-Habitat, UNOPS, FAO and UNODC.
David is an Urban planning professional and an active practitioner in a field of built environment for about 7 Years.
Avinash Mishra is an Investment Director at GIF with nearly a decade of experience spanning impact investing, social entrepreneurship, international banking and technology.
Kevin Nelson is the Urban Governance Lead for the Governance and Financing Self Reliance Team within the Bureau of Development, Democracy and Innovation at USAID.
Claudio Acioly Jr is an architect and urban planner, a development practitioner with over 40 years of experience in more than 30 countries.
José Renan Vasconcelos Calheiros Filho (“Renan Filho”) is the current Governor of the State of Alagoas.
State Department of Housing and Urban Development, Republic of Kenya
Houda Benrhanem, graduated from the National School of Architecture in Rabat (Kingdom of Morocco) in 1995, currently occupying the position of Director of Housing at the Ministry of National Land Management, Urban Planning, Housing and City Policy since October 2019.
Ian Shapiro is the Chief Executive of Reall, a UK-based social enterprise spearheading the delivery and unlocking of affordable housing for people on low incomes in Africa and Asia.
Before taking the position of the Chief of UN-Habitat’s Office for EU in 2016, Paulius Kulikauskas was an Inter-Regional Adviser of the UN Regular programme for Technical Cooperation at the United Nations Human Settlements Programme.
Christopher Ebreo, or simply ‘Chris’ is an architect by profession.
Keiran is a serial entrepreneur with 10+ years of experience in business building.
Lars Gronvald, European Commission, is heading the Cities Section in the Directorate General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA).
Anacláudia Rossbach from São Paulo, Brazil holds a master’s degree in political economics and has been working for 20 years in the housing and urban fields, as practitioner and researcher for international organizations, local and national governments, universities, and non-profit organizations
David Dodman is the Director of the Human Settlements Group at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and a Lecturer in the Development Planning Unit, University College London (UCL)
The emphasis of Dr. Thomson’s research is identification of "slum" residents and other populations who are under-represented in population data, and development of tools and methods to improve population data accuracy
Dr. Gautam Bhan is Senior Lead, Academics and Research, at the Indian Institute for Human Settlement, Bangalore, where he researches and teaches on housing, urban poverty and inequality, and planning theory
Dr. Renu Khosla is Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Excellence (CURE). Her work is aimed at unthinking and reimagining slum and inclusive urban development, nudging community-led initiatives that also build resilience.
Enrico Morriello is an Urban and Regional Planner with more than 18 years of experience focused on research and advisory on Urban development in Europe, South America, and Africa
Raf Tuts is Director of the Global Solutions Division of UN-Habitat, based at its Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.
Robert Lewis-Lettington is Chief of the Land, Housing and Shelter Section at UN-Habitat
Sameh Wahba, an Egyptian national, is the Global Director for the World Bank’s Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice, based in Washington, D.C.
Prabha Khosla is an urban planner; however, her work has focused primarily on democratizing local governance.
Marie Huchzermeyer is a Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at Wits University in Johannesburg, where she convenes the Masters in Urban Studies.
Mercy Betty Dube is a Chartered Urban Planner registered with the Malawi Institute of Physical Planners.
Thomas George is UNICEF’s Global lead for urban. He has over 33 years of experience in international development, with 28 years in the United Nations in different countries. He started his career with the Indian Civil Services and is a national of India.
Evandro is an Urban Engineer with more than 15 years of experience in more than 30 countries.
Idan Sasson is a Project Coordinator at Climate Policy Initiative and manages the implementation of the Leadership for Urban Climate Investment (LUCI), an impact framework of the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance which seeks to strengthen the capacity of 2000 cities in project preparation, creating 1000 bankable climate-smart urban projects by 2025.
Spanish architect and urban planner working on slum upgrading in Africa since 2013 and engaged in the PSUP since September 2017.
Dr Anna Muller is an architect working with the Namibia Housing Action Group (NHAG) since 1993.
Ms. Catherine Gathura is the project coordinator at Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO), Kenya.
Ms. Emmanuelle Laurinda Godjo is an urban planner who has worked as Program Officier urban planning at Justice Empowerment Initiative (JEI) which empowers poor and marginalized individuals especially slums dwellers in Nigeria and Benin to lead the changes that they would like to see in their own communities by bringing technical expertise in advocacy, urban planning, and creative media.
She is the Coordinator of MORABI in the Northern Region of Cape Verde.
Gbenga Komolafe is the current General Secretary of the Federation of Informal Workers' Organizations of Nigeria – FIWON.
Dr. Joan Dove is the Local Economic Development Officer at the St. James Municipal Corporation with direct responsibility for their Economic Grants programme which targets the citizens at the lowest end of the economic scale.
Robson Mazambani is a member of the Shack Dweller Federation of Namibia, Haikus Saving Group in Gobabis.
Aparna Das is an urban planning professional working as a Senior Advisor with GIZ, India, for the last ten years.
Rebecca Rouse leads IPA's Financial Inclusion Program, overseeing a global portfolio of research initiatives and randomized evaluations to find effective solutions to help the poor manage and grow their money.
Architect and strategic urban planner specialized in low-cost housing, settlement planning, resettlement, post-conflict reconstruction and in institution and capacity building for urban management.
Emrah Engindeniz is an urban and regional planner and has over 14 years’ experience in programme management, urban development, local governance and decentralization, capacity building and policy development.
George is a programme management assistant and one of the long serving PSUP team members, he has contributed to the success of the programme having pioneered piloting of the Community Managed Funds and Community Centres in Mtwapa Kenya which have been replicated in other PSUP communities.
A Kenyan environmental and spatial analysis specialist currently serving as Africa Regional Programme Advisor for Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP), UN-Habitat since 2013.
Kerstin Sommer is lead expert on slum upgrading, informal settlements, land, housing and shelter management, poverty reduction, inclusion and participation of UN-Habitat headquarters.
Tunisian Architect and Doctor in Urban Planning engaged in PSUP since November 2019. Focal point for French and English-speaking countries in Western and Southern Africa.
My professional background is in Urban and Regional planning. Currently, I am also pursuing a master’s degree in Sustainable Urban Development.
