Appointment
The United Nations General Assembly has elected Anacláudia Marinheiro Centeno Rossbach of Brazil as the new Executive Director of the Nairobi-based United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).
According to a statement released from the Nairobi office, Rossbach will serve as an Under-Secretary-General level for four years. “The date that she will assume office will be announced soon,” a statement released from Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, said.
Rossbach is currently serving as director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Boston, United States. According to a statement, Rossbach is an economist with more than 20 years’ experience on issues of housing, including informal settlements, land, and urban policies.
In 2016, Rossbach contributed to global discussions on urban policies at the Habitat III Conference held in Quito, Ecuador. She has also spoken at all major UN events, including climate change conferences and the World Urban Forum. In 2022, she worked on designing institutional and operational strategies to expand access to adequate housing in Peru with the Inter-American Development Bank.
From 2014 to 2022, Rossbach worked with Cities Alliance, serving as the Regional Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, where she promoted the transfer and exchange of knowledge and provided advisory services on housing and urban policies in the Global South.
She was responsible for establishing the Urban Housing Practitioners Hub (UHPH), a network of experts, practitioners, and researchers working in urban development and housing. She also led the organization’s global programme on informality as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
Her academic work includes numerous publications, teaching graduate classes, and professional training courses on housing and urban planning. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics degree from Pontifícia Universidade Católica in Brazil and a Master of Science in Political Economy from the same university.
The Brazilian citizen replaces Maimunah Mohd Sharif of Malaysia, who served as executive director of the organisation from 2018 to 2024. Sharif spearheaded significant reforms at UN-Habitat, transforming the organisation into achieving sustainable urbanisation.
UN-Habitat is the United Nations entity responsible for sustainable urbanisation and has programmes in over 90 countries supporting policymakers and communities to create socially and environmentally sustainable cities and towns. The UN agency promotes transformative change in cities through knowledge, policy advice, technical assistance, and collaborative action.