Overview
According to its 2006 Annual Report, sometime in the middle of 2007, the majority of people worldwide will be living in towns and cities, for the first time in history; this is referred to as the arrival of the "urban millennium". The year 2007 will also see the number of slum dwellers hit 1 billion. As regards future trends, it is estimated 93% of urban growth will occur in Asia and Africa, and to a lesser extent Latin America and the Caribbean. By 2050, over 6 billion people, two thirds of humanity, will be living in towns and cities.
The main documents outlining the mandate of the organization are the Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements, the Habitat Agenda, the Istanbul Declaration on Human Settlements, the Declaration on Cities and Other Human Settlements in the New Millennium, and Resolution 56/206.
It has several regional offices, among them are 'United Nations Centre for Human Settlements' at Nairobi, Rio de Janeiro, Fukuoka, and newly established office in Tehran, Iran for disaster mitigation.
The executive director from 2005 to 2010 was Anna Tibaijuka. Since October 2010 the executive director is Joan Clos i Matheu.
Read more about this topic: United Nations Human Settlements Programme