Minister Inaugurates Habitat Committee On Housing, Urban Dev

The Supervising Minister
for Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mr Mohammed Sada, has inaugurated the National Habitat Committee on housing and urban development.
The committee is charged with providing inputs for Nigeria’s position at the UN conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) taking place in New York in 2016.
Sada said the committee, with a broad representation from the public, private and non-profit sectors, would also convene a national urban forum that would engage relevant stakeholders and partners to reflect their views in the preparatory process.
“The committee will prepare the national habitat report and subsequently develop a national plan of action,” he said.
Sada said the national habitat report would assess the implementation of the HABITAT II agenda held in Istanbul in 1996.
He said that it would also access other relevant national and internationally agreed goals and targets.
“It will highlight new challenges, emerging trends and provide a prospective vision for sustainable human settlements and urban development as basis for the formulation of a new urban agenda,” he said.
The minister said the 59-member committee, to be chaired by the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, would also raise awareness on the Habitat III conference.
Sada said it would also proffer solution to the challenges facing the human settlement in the country.
He urged members of the committee to identify and share ideas on best practises from its diverse areas of representation.
Sada urged the members of the committee to look beyond HABITAT III and set actions for the realisation of the objective of providing affordable housing delivery and sustainable urban development in the country.
He said Nigeria’s association with UN-Habitat over the years had resulted in visible transformation of its human settlement across the country.
“This is demonstrated in the increased support to the preparation of city structure plans in youth empowerment, local economy development, water and sanitation and municipal finance management,” the minister said.