Nairobi, 15 April 2015—As a side event for the Prep Com2 for the Habitat III Conference, Dr Aisa Kirabo Kacyira, the Deputy Executive Director of UN-Habitat, launched the new capacity development programme for city leaders. This five-day residential executive programme will bring together the urban expertise of UN-Habitat and the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) in Singapore.

This joint capacity development programme will combine Singapore’s transformative and innovative best practices in sustainable urban development with UN-Habitat’s global expertise to provide city leaders with the skills, knowledge and tools to lead changes in urban development in their cities.

The first installment will start in August 2015 for Asian cities. Thirty city leaders from 10 cities will be selected to attend this executive residential programme in Singapore. Mr Julian Goh, Director for Capability Development, at the Centre for Liveable Cities said:” The Centre for Liveable Cities seeks to foster capability development in the area of urban development, within Singapore and globally.

CLC looks forward to the collaboration with UN-Habitat to share Singapore’s experiences and best practices in achieving a sustainable and liveable city, and inclusive society.” The programme will focus on the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals, with particular emphasis on governance, leadership and urban planning as tools.

Case studies and site visits in Singapore and exposure to urban experts and practitioners from Singapore will make this a unique capacity development programme. It is internationally recognized that capacity building is crucial for harnessing the positive power of urbanization and for meeting the new post-2015 development agenda. Without capacity building goals and targets cannot be met.

“UN-Habitat and the Centre for Liveable Cities are committed to working together to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. This programme will enable city leaders to activate the potential of their cities”, said Dr Aisa Kirabo Kacyira from UN-Habitat. At the same time, the General Assembly of Parties (GAP) held its inaugural meeting on Monday during which they came up with the Nairobi Declaration as a document to guide their future work.

Addressing a press conference, GAP President Eugenie Birch said the “New Urban Agenda to be effective must ensure a vision of sustainable and inclusive urbanization. Such a vision should be built upon a foundation of shared views, experiences, knowledge, capacities of a wide range of stakeholders, and should guarantee, with accountability, the rights and freedoms for all to access the benefits of urbanization.”