Maimunah Mohd Sharif is Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).

It’s All about Cities: We Mustn’t Flip the Coin on Sustainable Investment

An aerial view of a village in Kerala, India. Photo: Jeswin Thomas on Unsplash
Citizens ride the DART bus in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. © UN-Habitat/Julius Mwelu
: A woman uses one of the hand-washing facilities installed by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) in Nairobi’s Kibera slum. © UN-Habitat/Julius Mwelu

The world must invest in its urban future, and this will require innovative financing instruments and new, diversified funding sources.

Connecting Innovation and Culture for Cities of Opportunity

Urban scene, United Arab Emirates. February 2016. Polona Mita/Pexels
UN-Habitat Executive Director Maimunah Mohd Sharif at the monthly Nairobi County clean up in the informal settlement of Mathare, Kenya. UN-Habitat/Julius Mwelu

Ultimately, the Tenth Session of the World Urban Forum will be an important milestone event in the lead-up to 2030. We intend to establish as its most lasting legacy the opportunity to transform advocates into participants and policy into practice. 

Promoting Sustainable Human Settlements: Its Relevance to the 2030 Agenda

UN-Habitat Executive Director Maimunah Mohd Sharif at Kalobeyei Settlement in Turkana, Kenya, during a visit to UN-Habitat projects with ambassadors and UN-Habitat representatives from several Member States. 4 April 2018. © Julius Mwelu/UN-Habitat

UN-Habitat supports the achievement of SDGs in urban areas. The road map for doing so, the New Urban Agenda—UN-Habitat's framework for the realization of the transformative role of cities in sustainable development—was adopted at the Habitat III Conference in Quito, Ecuador, in 2016.