The Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, on Monday received three Permanent Representatives to the organization, and the Chief Executive Officer of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Kenya Secretariat. They are: Mr. Julio Cesar Gonzalez Marchante, the new Permanent Representative of Cuba; Mr. Iftikhar A. Arain, the new Permanent Representative of Pakistan, who were presenting their credentials; and Mr. Scot Omene, the outgoing Permanent Representative of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who was paying a farewell visit to the Executive Director at the end of his duty tour.
Dr. Grace Ongile, of NEPAD paid a courtesy call on the Executive Director. Speaking separately with the new Permanent Representatives of Cuba and Pakistan, Mrs. Tibaijuka thanked them for their countries’ support to UN-HABITAT. She pointed out that without such support the organization could not achieve much. The Executive Director stated that UN-HABITAT was now better placed to tackle the problems of urbanization around the world and called on Cuba and Pakistan to support the principle of voluntary assessed contribution for the organization so that it could have funds to carry out its mandate. With particular reference to UN-HABITAT’s activities in Cuba, Mrs. Tibaijuka told the Cuban envoy that the Urban Governance and Secure Tenure campaigns were jointly lunched in the capital, Havana, on 27 June 2005. She also stated that the organization’s Localizing Agenda 21 Programme started in Cuba in 2001 and that a Habitat Programme Manager (HPM) was engaged in June 2005 to strengthen the organization’s presence in the country. In his response, the Cuban envoy, Mr. Marchante, congratulated the Mrs. Tibaijuka on her appointment as the Director General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) and gave the assurance that he would take up the issues raised with his Government. He invited the Executive Director to visit Cuba at her earliest convenience. During her briefing of the Permanent Representative of Pakistan on UN-HABITAT’s activities in the country, Mrs. Tibaijuka stated that the organization has been involved in supporting the 2005 earthquake victims in the country. She stated that some of the projects were being carried out in cooperation with the Government of Pakistan, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and some local Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs).
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