Paris 9 December 2015-- Leading global Design and Consultancy firm for natural and built assets, Arcadis and UN-Habitat today announced a two year extension of their collaboration until the end of 2017.

The contract was signed at a recent meeting between Arcadis CEO Neil McArthur and UN-Habitat Executive Director Dr Joan Clos at the Paris Climate Conference COP21.

The partnership, which started in 2010, is aimed at a common goal: to improve the quality of life in rapidly growing cities around the world.

Named Shelter, the partnership provides pro bono expertise for UN-Habitat projects and financial sponsorship for the World Urban Campaign (www.worldurbancampaign.org).

During the past five years, over 60 missions, trainings and other Shelter activities have been organized in Asia, Africa and Central America, in which over 600 Arcadis experts have shared their knowledge and skills to help bring the UN-Habitat mission forward. Recently Arcadis worked closely together with UN-Habitat to support local municipalities and neighbourhood groups in urban recovery and planning in Nepal after the April 2015 earthquake.

Arcadis is also a main sponsor of the World Urban Campaign, a global partnership coordinated by UN-Habitat and its partners to promote dialogue, sharing and learning about how to improve our urban future.

There is a close fit between UN-Habitat and Arcadis as both organizations focus on the improvement of the urban environment. Mr. McArthur said: “I am very pleased that we have extended our partnership. Shelter shows our long term commitment to share our knowledge and expertise to improve the quality of life with the skills and expertise of our people.”

On his part, Dr. Clos stated : “The application of Arcadis know-how in UN-Habitat projects, has been instrumental to the success of our missions. We consider the Arcadis Shelter program as a role model for such technical partnerships.”