Nigerian most senior diplomat, Oyelaran-Oyeyinka appointed UN-Habitat’s Director Africa

Nigerian most senior diplomat working at the United Nations headquarters in Nairobi, Prof. Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka has been appointed as the Acting Director, Regional Office for Africa (ROAF), UN-Habitat.

The RoAf/ UN-Habitat is currently working in 24 countries in the Africa region (these include: Nigeria, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia among others.

The key focus areas are: urban land, legislation and governance, especially land management, urban basic services including water, sanitation and the energy sector, risk reduction and rehabilitation,  urban planning and design – especially preparation of national urban policies, housing and slum upgrading, urban economy and urban youth livelihoods.

Oyelaran-Oyeyinka  is the first Nigerian professor in the field of Economic Development, Industrial Policy and Technology Management. An erudite scholar and an intellectual who strives to translate ideas into practical action, a man who mixes rigorous scholarship with policy advocacy.

He is a leader in the field of Development Economics and a passionate champion for African development.

He was first appointed a director at the UN-HABITAT in 2007, and in the period he has led several housing, infrastructure urban and social development initiatives at both states and federal levels in Nigeria including co-authoring Nigeria’s recently formulated: “Nigeria Land, Housing and Urban Development Roadmap” by the Federal Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development, Abuja. He led the design and implementation of “City Structure Plan Programmes” in Osun, Kogi, Ondo, and Zamfara states.

He had earlier served as Director Monitoring & Research Division in which capacity he provided intellectual leadership for the UN-HABITAT flagship reports: “State of the World Cities Report” and the “Global Report on Human Settlements.”

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His other postings in the United Nations was as professor at the United Nations University – Institute for New technologies (UNU-INTECH) and is widely respected as a pioneer intellectual in his field. He spent six years at this prestigious global citadel of research and training in the Netherlands.

Before then, he was Senior Economic Adviser, UN Centre on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Geneva where he coordinated a ten-year review of performance of Least Developed Countries. After serving as Senior Research Fellow he was nominated a Professorial Fellow in Innovation and Development, United Nations University- MERIT, Maastricht, The Netherlands; and Visiting Professor, Innovation and Development, The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom.

He is the author of “Rich Country Poor People: The Story of Nigeria’s Poverty in the midst of Plenty” (2014) and co-author of “Urban Innovation in China’s Shanty Towns” (2014) among a dozen other books. He is a board member of several academic journals and programmes as well as a fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering.
THISDAY