The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), is the UN agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable town and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. This post is located in the UN Habitat Regional Office for Asia and Pacific (ROAP) at the Kabul duty station.

UN-Habitat Afghanistan:

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, has been working within Afghanistan since 1992 with funding support of USAID, Japanese and Australian Governments, EU, DFID, CIDA, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Kingdom of the Netherlands and several bilateral donors as well as the World Bank.  During this period, its Programme expanded to include a wide range of human settlements initiatives, from small-scale neighborhood level improvement schemes to community empowerment.

UN-Habitat has presence in 09 provinces of the country, including five major cities and works in implementing its strategy through four programmers: Afghanistan Urban Safety and Security Programme (AUSSP), Clean and Green Cities (CGC), City for All (K-SMNP and MGSP) and Sustainable Human Settlements in Urban Areas to Support Reintegration in Afghanistan (SHURA):

Sustainable Human Settlements in Urban Areas to Support Reintegration in Afghanistan (SHURA):

The overarching intention of the Sustainable Human Settlements in Urban Areas to Support Reintegration in Afghanistan (SHURA) programme is to provide a platform for returnees and protracted IDPs to reintegrate and become productive citizens of Afghanistan as quickly as possible. Integrating the lessons of the past decade of responses to displacement in Afghanistan, the program is based on the identification and allocation of appropriate land to returnees and IDPs in proximity to livelihood opportunities as the foundation for self-reliance. Following the identification of sites, the settlement will be directed based on a comprehensive assessment of sites’ carrying capacity, economically, environmentally and socially.

 A land allocation process based on interim tenure arrangements will allow beneficiaries to occupy land with minimal delays and will form the basis for the subsequent allocation of land titles. Humanitarian assistance will be distributed in locations where returnees and IDPs have access to adequate opportunities to become self-reliant and long term tenure security. Permanent development interventions to improve access to basic services and housing will be delivered in parallel with humanitarian assistance, augmenting self-reliance, avoiding the creation of dependent ‘camps’ and bridging the humanitarian/development ‘gap’.