UN in Nairobi
The Embassy of Finland in Nairobi functions as the permanent mission of Finland to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), whose headquarters are located in Nairobi.
The Embassy of Finland in Nairobi pursues Finnish policy goals and promotes a positive image of Finland within the United Nations. In addition to taking part in different meetings and negotiations, representatives of Finland seek to influence new initiatives already during the preparative phase. To carry out these duties successfully they maintain a wide network of partners and cultivate good relations with other actors. The permanent mission delivers information and analyses on discussions within UNEP and UN-Habitat to the political and administrative leadership in Finland. Due to the global reach of the UN, the mission is also able to gather information on countries and regions in which there is no direct diplomatic representation from Finland.
UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) are the most important bodies of the UN system that to ensure the environmental dimension of sustainable change. Their work promotes the achievement of multiple targets of the Agenda2030.
UN Environment Programme has a wide mandate and addresses almost all global environmental issues. UNEP also promotes mainstreaming environment and climate through the whole UN system.
UN-Habitat’s work contributes to the sustainable development of human settlements, although last few years it has also put emphasis on energy efficient construction, urban planning and environmental perspectives on urban areas.
Finland pursues its goals both nationally and through the European Union. In several fields, there is also cooperation between the Nordic countries.
UN Environment Programme
International environmental cooperation within the framework of the United Nations dates back to 1972 and the Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. The Conference approved a long-term environmental action programme, leading to the establishment of UNEP, which was assigned the task of catalyzing and coordinating UN environmental action both towards different fields of action and internally within the UN system itself. UN Environment Programme plays a crucial role in the work aimed at solving global environmental problems and has helped in negotiating several international conventions on a variety of issues, such as ozone, biodiversity and protection of seas.
The work of UNEP aims to tackle the root causes of triple planetary crisis of climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution. UNEP has seven action-orientated subprogrammes: Climate Action, Nature Action, Climate Action, Chemicals and Pollutions Action, Nature Action, Science Policy, Environmental Governance, Finance and Economic Transformations and Digital Transformations.
From 2013 onwards, the new decision-making body of UNEP is United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA). All United Nations member states are by default members of UNEA. UNEA convenes in Nairobi at the high level every other year, next time in February 2024.
Finland stresses the importance of UNEP as the Coordinator of UN environmental activities, whose task is to identify and monitor environmental developments and come up with plans to tackle and prevent environmental problems. Finland has also provided UNEP with expert assistance for assessing and monitoring the state of the environment.
Read more on the UN Environment Programme website(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)
UN-Habitat
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) was founded in Vancouver in 1976 as the result of the first Habitat conference. The 2002 UN General Assembly strengthened UN-Habitats mandate and gave it status as a UN agency. The third UN-Habitat conference in 2016 accepted the New Urban Agenda with a vision of better and more sustainable future. UN-Habitat has an important role in implementing the Agenda2030.
UN-Habitat promotes socially, economically and environmentally sustainable urban development and enhancing the living conditions of low-income urban population. UN-Habitat promotes awareness on the relationship between urbanization and poverty and influences the policy guidelines related to the sustainable development of communities, decent living conditions and good governance. A great part of its work consists of practical cooperation projects carried out together with developing countries and countries in transition.
UN-Habitat Assembly (UNHA) is the highest governing body of the United Nations that focuses on sustainable urbanization and human settlements. UNHA convenes every four years and last assembled in June 2023.
Read more on the UN-Habitat website(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)