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Monitoring Systems Branch
The Monitoring Systems Branch (MSB) is the primary knowledge management center for UN-Habitat and is structured to provide technical assistance and form strategic partnerships that result in rigorous, representative and well analyzed information, for the major knowledge instruments that shape the global policy agenda and monitor achievement of the Habitat Agenda and the Millennium Development Goals. These knowledge instruments include the United Nations Secretary General’s report to the General Assembly on progress towards achievement of the Habitat Agenda goals, a report on progress in achieving the MDGs, the Human Development Report of United Nations Development Programme, and the three agency flagship reports: the Global Report on Human Settlements, the State of the World Cities Report and the Water & Sanitation in the World’s Cities Report. Ancillary reports, working papers, newsletters, ad hoc publications and single issue policy documents provide guidance on urban issues to client cities globally. The main goal of MSB is to influence urban policies by providing the knowledge support to the international development community on urban development dynamics addressed by the three international instruments, the Habitat Agenda, the Millennium Declaration, and the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development from the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).
Objectives of MSB
The main goal of MSB is to improve pro-poor urban programmes through monitoring, evaluation and research.
At the international level, the MSB goal is to influence development policy so that allocation of development resources are in accord with the scale of urban growth and the severity of urban inequities forecasts for the next decades.
At the national and city level, MSB has an objective to monitor and evaluate the progress that specific countries and cities are making, providing knowledge and information to assist them in the formulation of policies.
At the local level, MSB has a clear policy formulation goal through building networks that bring knowledge management to local authorities and other stakeholders with the ultimate goal of influencing local policy formulation. The vehicles for building this network are the Local Urban Observatories, among selected cities, and the Best Practices and Policies programme.
Knowledge Management Network
MSB, with its Global Urban Observatory (GUO) and Best Practices and Local Leadership Sections (BPL) works jointly with a wide array of UN agencies, World Bank, Cities Alliance, USAID, US Census Bureau, International Trade Center, Development Banks, regional Economic Commissions, national statistical offices, as well as Centers of Excellence around the world, in order to manage qualitative and quantitative knowledge, relevant to policy development and for monitoring the Habitat Agenda and the MDGs. MSB is also part of inter-agency networking on strengthening evidence based knowledge with Partnership in Statistics for development in the 21st Century (Paris 21), and MPC Inter-agency Group on indicators.
MSB’s global policy functions center around the production of knowledge from which key policy messages are conveyed to the decision makers and the general public in the above mentioned flagship reports, on the occasions of the World Habitat Day, and the World Urban Forum. The world’s leading media agencies, also frequently broadcast estimations and projections on slums produced by the MSB. The three main areas of the knowledge management network are data collection and analysis that reveals the magnitude of urban inequities; the database of best solutions to these inequities; and communications partnerships to link knowledge to policies.
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