C. Slum Upgrading Facility

Tangible steps taken in this direction are the slum upgrading initiatives in Eastern Africa, including the Kenya slum upgrading programme.

Slum upgrading provides a unique opportunity for attaining the Millennium Development Goals.

Achieve significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2015, recognizing the urgent need for the provision of increased resources for affordable housing and housing related infrastructure, prioritizing slum prevention and slum upgrading and increasing contributions to the United Nations Human Settlements Foundation and its Slum Upgrading Facility

Urban development promoting jobs, upgrading slums and developing alternatives to new slum formation

Achieve significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2015, recognizing the urgent need for the provision of increased resources for affordable housing and housing related infrastructure, prioritizing slum prevention and slum upgrading as well as increased contributions to the United Nations Human Settlements Foundation and its Slum Upgrading Facility

Emphasis has been placed on national polices for urban development, shelter and slum upgrading.

(m) To achieve significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020, recognizing the urgent need for the provision of increased resources for affordable housing and housing related infrastructure, prioritizing slum prevention and slum upgrading, and to encourage support for the United Nations Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation and its Slum Upgrading Facility

The UN Habitat Government of Kenya slum upgrading programme is located at the Athi River and at Kibera, the largest urban slum in Africa.

During the period under review, significant progress was made in establishing a slum upgrading facility.

Through Cities Alliance, one of UN Habitat's main partners in slum upgrading work is the World Bank.

Pro poor policies could be a means to engage the poor in city development and slum upgrading.

The Cities Alliance provides small grants that support the formulation of city development strategies and citywide slum upgrading initiatives.

OIOS noted the following outcomes of campaign activities (a) adoption of legal instruments and policies granting land (b) strengthening of security of tenure and regularization of informal settlements (c) integration of slum upgrading into city management and (d) actual slum upgrading through access to land and financing mechanisms.

This is being addressed by the Slum Upgrading Facility, a new initiative of UN Habitat aimed at assisting developing countries in mobilizing domestic capital for their slum and urban upgrading activities by facilitating links among local actors and by packaging the financial, technical and political elements of development projects.

9. Invites the international donor community and financial institutions to contribute generously to the Water and Sanitation Trust Fund, the Slum Upgrading Facility and the technical cooperation trust funds to enable UN Habitat to assist developing countries to mobilize public investment and private capital for slum upgrading, shelter and basic services

9. Invites the international donor community and financial institutions to contribute generously to the Water and Sanitation Trust Fund, the Slum Upgrading Facility and the technical cooperation trust funds to enable UN Habitat to assist developing countries to mobilize public investment and private capital for slum upgrading, shelter and basic services

11. Invites the international donor community and financial institutions to contribute generously to the Water and Sanitation Trust Fund, the Slum Upgrading Facility and the technical cooperation trust funds to enable UN Habitat to assist developing countries in mobilizing public investment and private capital for slum upgrading, shelter and basic services

Invites the international donor community and financial institutions to contribute generously to the Water and Sanitation Trust Fund, the Slum Upgrading Facility and the technical cooperation trust funds to enable UN Habitat to assist developing countries to mobilize public investment and private capital for slum upgrading, shelter and basic services

Significant progress was made in establishing the Slum Upgrading Facility, a technical assistance and seed capital vehicle for attracting domestic capital investments for slum upgrading, including raising 1.8 million for the design phase and 10 million for a three year pilot phase, with an additional amount of 10 million pledged.

Reduction of debt service burdens can release domestic resources that can be allocated to slum upgrading or other urban developing activities.

The subprogramme includes the Slum Upgrading Facility (see para. 49 above) which is managed in conjunction with Cities Alliance (see para. 60 below).

Also, OIOS is aware that there is an ongoing discussion within UN Habitat on the terms of reference of the Slum Upgrading Facility.

It will also play a catalytic and preparatory role in leveraging domestic investment for slum upgrading and other pro poor human settlements development.

Memorandums of understanding were signed with three countries in East Africa, while cooperation agreements were concluded with five other countries to promote slum upgrading.

The slum upgrading programme continues to constitute a path breaking process, in which each stage contributes significantly towards achieving the Millennium Declaration target on slums.

Governments are encouraged to support the normative and operational activities of UN Habitat, working with Habitat Programme Managers to promote slum upgrading, affordable shelter and sustainable urbanization.

One option, currently being piloted at the global level, which aims to mobilize and blend funds from public and private sources is UN Habitat's Slum Upgrading Facility.

Despite the positive examples illustrated in table 1, a number of pilot projects involving direct technical assistance to slum upgrading designed and implemented by UN Habitat in developing countries rarely lead to large scale, long term programmes capable of reversing the growth of slum settlements.

In terms of mobilization of resources, US 1.8 million for the design phase and US 10 million for the slum upgrading facility three year pilot phase was raised.

It will accomplish this by enabling cities, slum dwellers, financial intermediaries, Governments and the financial service sector to package their upgrading projects in ways that will attract private investment.

Discussions centred on overcoming urban poverty and ensuring a sustainable urban future, and fostered thorough reflection on the best policies and strategies for achieving poverty reduction and slum upgrading.

When fully functional, the Slum Upgrading Facility will provide follow up assistance to ongoing pre investment activities carried out under the Programme's technical cooperation activities (see paras. 17 22, below).

UN Habitat will implement the Facility by combining in house political and technical expertise on slum upgrading with the support of an international service contractor, recruited through competitive bidding, specializing in investment and project finance.

Further, UN Habitat has strengthened inter institutional relations with the Development Credit Authority of the United States Agency for International Development and is exploring co financing support to slum upgrading initiatives in Ghana and Uganda.

Thus, in its programmes aimed at slum upgrading, urban planning and management, and also regional development, UN Habitat will engage in capacity building for all key stakeholders the better to address youth problems in communities.

While OIOS found many admirable examples of scaling up of successful initiatives in the operational aspects of the global programmes and other initiatives, a number of pilot projects involving direct technical assistance to slum upgrading designed and implemented by UN Habitat in developing countries rarely lead to large scale programmes capable of reversing the growth of slum settlements.

The members of the Cities Alliance also played a crucial role in supporting the development of the UN Habitat Slum Upgrading Facility, mobilizing financial contributions through a trust fund of the World Bank dedicated to that purpose.

In addressing directly the problems of the world's slums, an enabling strategy is integral to the approach of UN Habitat and is a substantial part of the value added by UN Habitat in the slum upgrading process.

Some Governments have established trust funds for slum upgrading, while others have instituted national policies and programmes with a view to offering the urban poor security of tenure and a role in decision making as genuine development partners.

Replace expected accomplishment (i) with the following (i) Increased awareness of and sensitivity to the plight of the urban poor, and enhanced cooperation and partnership in slum upgrading initiatives in line with the Millennium Development Goal 'cities without slums' .

27 33, below), as well as GuarantCo, a loan guarantee facility of the Private Infrastructure Development Group that has expressed interest in ring fencing 20 per cent of its funds for pilot projects initiated by the Slum Upgrading Facility.

These activities involved city authorities and community leaders, including those from slums, to ensure cross fertilization between urban poor communities regarding community mobilization strategies, negotiation practices for access to land, community based savings and strategies for citywide slum upgrading.

I had an office in those days which bordered a slum, an urban slum, so there was a dividing wall between our office and the urban slum.

These activities involve city authorities and community leaders, including from slums, to ensure cross fertilization between urban poor communities regarding community mobilization strategies, negotiation practices for access to land, community based savings and frameworks and tools for city wide slum upgrading.