in water, sanitation and slum upgrading, and her instrumental role in assisting the African Union to establish the African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development (AMCHUD).

Also noted was her success in forging strategic partnerships with financial institutions for follow-up investment in housing and urban infrastructure notably UN-HABITAT’s USD 590 million agreement with the African Development Bank. However, the G-77 and China decried the fact that she has been forced to do all this without access to funding commensurate to the important mandate she has to deliver. The group urged its development partners to provide core predictable funding and sufficient resources to capitalize the Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation and its Slum Upgrading Facility, as recently reiterated at the 2005 World Summit Outcome, and at the just concluded Third World Urban Forum in Vancouver, co-organized by the government of Canada and UN-HABITAT and attended by more than ten thousand people.