Mr Edwin Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, a Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, has been elected as Vice President of the 25th Session of the Governing Council of the UN-Habitat.

Mr Vanderpuye was unanimously nominated by the African Group and accepted by acclamation of all member states at the on-going United Nations-Habitat meeting in Nairobi, Kenya.

The position places Ghana strategically to influence and continue to champion the Urban Agenda, especially at the continental level.

A statement from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development said the Governing Council was an intergovernmental decision–making body for the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).

It said the Council met biennially and reported to the General Assembly of the United Nations through the Economic and Social Council.

It said India’s, Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Ms Nandita Chatterjee, was also elected as Vice-President and Chair of the Drafting Committee while Mr Jan Ilavasky, State Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Slovak Republic, was elected President of the Governing Council.

The statement said earlier at the Preparatory Committee Meeting for the Habitat III Conference towards a new urban agenda, Mr Vanderpuye expressed the Government of Ghana and President John Dramani Mahama’s determination to continue to champion the African Urban Agenda and collaborate effectively with the UN Habitat in achieving the goals and targets set for the realisation of the new Urban Agenda.

It said Ghana’s new action plan focuses on a sustainable urban development programme, which has prioritised social inclusiveness and an integrated urban development paradigm.

The statement added that a Housing Policy has been formulated and launched by Ghana which sought to create the enabling environment whereby the state would play a less direct role in the housing sector and encourage private sector developers, co-operative groups and other actors to partner it in housing delivery.

It mentioned the Ghana Urban Management Pilot Project as one of the Ministry’s programmes as a response to the National Urban Policy which sought to address urban infrastructure investment, spatial planning, street addressing, urban management and delivery of basic services.

Mr Vanderpuye led a delegation from Ghana comprising civil society, development partners, private sector and government officials to the meeting which is part of UN-Habitat’s participatory approach towards the Habitat III Conference to be held in Ecuador, 2016, which will seek to deliver the New Urban Agenda following Habitat II, 1996.