The heads of United Nations organizations in Nairobi, led by UN Office Director General Zainab Hawa and Inger Andersen of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), warmly welcomed their new colleague, Anacláudia Rossbach, as she assumed her role as the UN-Habitat Executive Director.

Rossbach, an economist, took over as the head of the UN agency focused on making cities more sustainable on August 12.

The diplomatic community in Kenya formally welcomed her during a cocktail event on Wednesday, reaffirming their shared commitment to addressing the challenges faced in urban areas and human settlements.

In this image, the three women, who call themselves the “Nairobi Girls,” are the leaders of the UN organizations: UNON, UN-Habitat, and UNEP.

“The Nairobi Girls Leadership trio is finally complete!,” posted UN Office in Nairobi boss Zainab Hawa on X, while welcoming the Brazilian UN-Habitat chief.

“Wonderful to host a welcome reception for Anaclaudia Rossbach, the new UN-Habitat Executive Director, along with the Director General of the UN Office in Nairobi. Anaclaudia’s experience in developing cleaner, resilient, and greener sustainable cities is exactly what the world needs,” remarked UNEP boss Inger Andersen in an X post.

Various members of the diplomatic corps in Nairobi, including ambassadors and high commissioners, attended the event.

Kenya’s Permanent Representative to UN-Habitat, Grace Okara, stated, “As host country, Kenya remains committed to supporting the achievement of its mandate.”

Rossbach succeeds Malaysian Maimunah Mohd Sharif, whose term ended and was not renewed. Sharif has since been appointed Mayor of Kuala Lumpur.

In a recent UN article, Rossbach expressed optimism about the role of urban planning in meeting the need for adequate housing while protecting the planet.

“The dimensions of the housing challenge that we face are huge,” Rossbach told UN News during a recent visit to New York.

“We say that we need to build 96,000 houses a day in order to meet the 2030 targets.”

The new UN-Habitat chief also emphasized the importance of long-term planning to ensure that proper policies are in place to provide shelter for those in need and to address the threat of climate change.

“We need to overcome structural problems, structural inequalities, structural spatial segregation, and basically change the way we have done policies until now,” she added.

“So, we have to strengthen the policies, but also change perspective a little bit, and really target people, recognizing that people should be at the center.”