(3 June 2014) ARCADIS, the leading global natural and built asset design and consultancy firm, has today renewed its support for the World Urban Campaign through signing a two year agreement to continue to be a lead and sponsoring partner.
The World Urban Campaign is a global partnership coordinated by UN-Habitat and its partners to promote dialogue, sharing and learning about how to improve our urban future. Its goal is to place the urban agenda at the highest level in development policies. Partners include society organizations, governments, NGOs, international organizations, the private sector, research and educational institutions, all working together in collaboration to create innovative urban solutions. The World Urban Campaign serves as the partners' platform toward the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III), to be held in 2016.
Neil McArthur, Chief Executive, ARCADIS said: "Rapid urbanisation and the sustainable development of cities is one of the great challenges facing our planet. It is important that we pool the very best expertise across the globe to develop innovative solutions to meet this challenge which is why we have decided to continue our partnership of the World Urban Campaign. Through the campaign we are able to share our own experiences and skills to the benefit of all and I am looking forward to continuing to work closely with UN-Habitat to make the campaign a success."
UN Under-Secretary-General and UN-Habitat Executive Director, Dr Joan Clos, said: "As drivers of economic change and leaders in innovation, the private sector can play a key role in confronting the urban challenge ahead by driving investment in design and solutions. But I believe that it must play an even more significant role: it must lead the way in investing in people - especially youth - and in communities on a massive scale."
As a main partner ARCADIS supports UN-Habitat in developing the World Urban Campaign as the advocacy and partnership platform for cities in the 21st century. ARCADIS provides practical experience through its sustainable city development work around the world and is involved in the World Urban Campaign steering committee.
This builds on ARCADIS' longstanding partnership with UN-Habitat through the Shelter program. Set up in 2010, the Shelter program enables ARCADIS to support the UN-Habitat mission to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities by providing pro bono knowledge and expertise on the ground where it is needed. Since it was launched, 50 missions, training events and other activities have been organised in Asia, Africa and Central America in which over 120 ARCADIS experts have shared their expertise to help UN-Habitat meet its goals. In addition, ARCADIS is part of UN-Habitat's Private Partners group of UN-Habitat and is a member of the Cities and Climate Change Initiative advisory committee.
The contracts were signed at a recent meeting between Neil McArthur and Dr Joan Clos in Amsterdam.
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For further information contact:
Andy Rowlands, Head of Corporate Communications at ARCADIS on +44 (0)20 7833 6662 / andy.rowlands@arcadis.com
About UN-Habitat:
UN-Habitat is the lead United Nations agency for housing and urban development. Its mandate is to promote public policy and public and private investment to make our cities and towns socially more inclusive, while promoting economical social and environmental sustainability. It is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, and has 400 core staff and up to 2,000 project staff at any given time. Please visit: www.unhabitat.org and www.worldurbancampaign.org
About ARCADIS
ARCADIS is the leading global natural and built asset design and consultancy firm working in partnership with our clients to deliver exceptional and sustainable outcomes through the application of design, consultancy, engineering, project and management services. We are 22,000 people that generate €2.5 billion in revenues. www.arcadis.com
About the Shelter Program
ARCADIS and UN-Habitat set up the Shelter Program in 2010 and have recently re-committed to continue the program until the end of 2015. The partnership's principal aim is to improve the quality of life in rapidly growing cities around the world. ARCADIS provides pro bono expertise for UN-Habitat. Over fifty missions, trainings and other Shelter activities have been organized in Asia, Africa and Middle America. www.arcadis.com/shelter