Malaysia Intends To Be UN-Habitat Executive Board Member

From Mohd Ashraf Syafiq Mazlan KATOWICE (POLAND), June 29 (Bernama) -- Malaysia intends to be a Member of the Executive Board of the United Nations (UN) Human Settlements Programme or UN-Habitat, said Housing and Local Government Minister Reezal Merican Naina Merican. He expressed hope that Malaysia would be nominated and elected to the executive board at the UN-Habitat Assembly scheduled for June next year as the country intends to play a more active role in UN-Habitat. Reezal Merican said he had expressed the intention to UN-Habitat executive director Maimunah Mohd Sharif when they met at the 11th World Urban Forum (WUF11) here. He said Malaysia saw an opportunity to join the body as no Southeast Asian country has become a member of UN-Habitat which had 36 executive board seats. “I will bring this matter to the Cabinet’s attention to ensure the commitment of all parties because Malaysia intends to play a more active role in UN-Habitat,” he told the Malaysian media when met at WUF11. UN-Habitat is a body that promotes transformative change in human settlements through knowledge, policy and action. Among the 36 members of the UN-Habitat Executive Board are Senegal, Malawi, Japan, Poland, Brazil, France and Spain. However, Maimunah, a Malaysian has been elected as the executive director of the of UN-Habitat for a term of two years. She was first appointed to the post on Jan 20, 2018 after she received unanimous support during the UN General Assembly on Dec 22, 2017, while her new term started on Jan 20, 2022 and ends on Jan 19, 2024. Maimunah, who is also the former mayor of the Penang Island City Council is the first woman to head UN-Habitat. Meanwhile, Reezal Merican said UN-Habitat offered capacity-building programmes to young Malaysians to gain experience as trainees at UN-Habitat headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. -- BERNAMA