UN-Habitat and HRH Princess Lamia bint Majed Al Saud, the UN-Habitat Goodwill Ambassador for the Arab region, held a visit to Gaziantep, Türkiye, where they met with the Governor and Mayor of Gaziantep and visited earthquake-affected areas.
The UN-Habitat team, led by Erfan Ali, UN-Habitat Chief of Staff, and Rania Hedeya, the UN-Habitat Regional Representative for the Arab region, and HRH had meetings with Kemal Çeber, the Governor of Gaziantep, and Fatma Şahin, Mayor of Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality and discussed the importance of building back better in the aftermath of the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, HRH Princess Lamia said: “This is my first field visit as a Goodwill Ambassador for the Arab region for UN-Habitat, and in these times of unprecedented crisis, it is more important now than ever that we pull our resources together to help the communities in need.”
The delegation visited locations affected by the earthquake, where UN-Habitat is seeking to strengthen its assistance to earthquake-affected communities.
“UN-Habitat stands ready to support in the different areas of urban reconstruction in Türkiye, including urban recovery planning, basic services, and cultural heritage restoration,” Ali affirmed.
“UN-Habitat has extensive expertise in rapid urban profiling and inclusive recovery planning in post-crisis contexts, in addition to working with local authorities to build back better,” he added.
Based on the existing Memorandums of Understanding between UN-Habitat and the greater municipalities of Gaziantep, UN-Habitat was called upon to provide substantive support to the humanitarian response as well as recovery and reconstruction.
Therefore, UN-Habitat deployed a surge mission focusing on contributing to the coordination and analysis of humanitarian assistance and development projects in urban areas – specifically the cities of Gaziantep and other affected cities as needed.
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