Evolving International Conceptions of the UrbanSince its establishment 70 years ago in the ashes of World War II, the international multilateral system's conception of "the urban" has evolved significantly.This refl ects both the maturation of the original United Nations (UN) and Bretton Woods institutions and the subsequent establishment of new, more specialized institutions in the 1970s to respond to the rise of environmental and human settlements challenges on international agendas and priorities.Of particular relevance in this context are the UN Environment Programme, or UNEP, and the UN Human Settlements Programme, or UN-Habitat (formerly the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements, or UNCHS).Both of these programs are symbolically headquartered in Nairobi as part of an initiative to give the UN a more global physical footprint.The importance of having a UN agency devoted entirely to human settlements issues, albeit focused on what the UN vocabulary still resolutely refers to as "developing countries," should not be underestimated.UN-Habitat's orientation was expanded to include the transitional economies of Eastern and Central Europe after the end of the Cold War, and though its governing council and reporting cover all fi ve UN regions, its policy advice and capacity development are only now becoming more global.Initially, its eff ectiveness was hampered by its classifi cation as a "Centre" -without the status of a UN implementing agency, it had to work through UNEP for strategic and budgetary purposes.This constraint was eased when it achieved programme status in 2002 (UN-Habitat 2015 ).Nevertheless, rather than leading such innovations, the UN's urban conceptions and approaches to tackling the principal problems of fast-growing cities in poor countries have generally lagged behind changes fomented on the ground, in NGO thinking, and in the research literature.
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