Jacqui Bonnitcha has returned to Edge Environment after spending six months with the Climate Change Planning Unit with in UN-Habitat. She shared some details about her experience with the team.
What does UN-Habitat do?
UN-Habitat is the United Nations programme mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. They are one of the smaller UN agencies with headquarters in Nairobi and regional officers in Fukuoka (Japan) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).
What was the focus of your work?
I was based in the Climate Change Planning Unit that is tasked with integrating climate change in to UN-Habitat’s work, developing advice for governments on climate change responses and coordination of specific climate change projects. My major task was to develop a guidance document for addressing uncertainty in climate change adaptation at a city level. Uncertainty has been identified as a key obstacle to action by governments and was largely overlooked in early adaptation guidance.
I also contributed to a guidance note on facilitating local level climate change action through national policies, provided review to a new City Resilience Profiling Tool and delivered a report on the measurement of resilience within UN-Habitat’s Strategic Results Framework to be implemented in 2014.
What is the most interesting thing about living in Nairobi?
There are not many people who would argue that Nairobi is beautiful but it is a fascinating city to live in. It was designed as a stop along the railway line between Mombasa (on the Kenyan coast) and Kampala (the Ugandan capital). It has grown to a city of somewhere between 3 and 5 million (there are no reliable census figures). A large proportion of the cities residents live in informal settlements, the largest of which was made famous through the film The Constant Gardner.
The city is a contrast of wealth, a mixing pot for different ethnic groups and the people provide an interesting insight in to resourcefulness in the face of unplanned urban expansion and poor infrastructure.