Osun strengthens partnership with UN-HABITAT with N100m

Osun State has recorded another huge success in its development efforts by strengthening its partnership with the United Nation Habitat in the areas of Cities Prosperity Initiative, Urban Info and Local Urban Observatory Programmes.
This is sequel to the collaboration of the state government with UN-HABITAT for the preparation of Structured Plan for the nine cities identified for the Urban Renewal Project of the Governor Rauf Aregbesola-led government.
The collaboration was arrived at on Wednesday during a bilateral meeting held with the Osun State delegation at the Governing Council’s 24th meeting at the UN-HABITAT Headquarters, Nairobi, Kenya.
In attendance at the official presentation were Architect Muyiwa Ige, Commissioner for Physical Planning, who also led the Osun State delegation comprising Hon. Johnson Ojo, Chairman, House Committee on Lands, Osun House of Assembly;  Hon. Jimoh Olayemi; Tpl. Oladejo for Osun; Prof. Oyebanji Oyeyinka (Director, UN-HABITAT); and Dr. Gora Mboup (Chief, Global Urban Observatory Section- UN-HABITAT).
These programmes are necessarily aimed at successfully preparing and implementing the structural plan project currently going on in nine (9) cities in the state.
It will be recalled that the state’s N100 million contribution to UNHABITAT was fully paid last year and the plans are expected to be completed by September 2013.
In consonance with these preparations, the UNHABITAT has agreed to give technical support in the area of effective deployment of these tools.
In a couple of weeks, officers of UN-HABITAT would be deployed from its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, for UrbanInfo training programme.
The training Programme will address areas like unsuitable urban growth, problems affecting the environment and growing inequalities between rich and poor and serious distortion in the form and functions of cities, among others.
The training Programme will address areas like unsuitable urban growth, problems affecting the environment and growing inequalities between the rich and the poor and serious distortion in the form and functions of cities, land reform, role of urban youth and gender in sustainable urban development, among others.