KABUL (Pajhwok): UN Habitat chief Maimunah Mohammad Sharif on Monday said the organization was ready to assist the Afghan government in surveying and registration of properties and property ownership documents of houses built in unplanned areas.
Maimunah on her four-day trip to Kabul told reporters today that she was happy traveling to Afghanistan for the first time and talked about the organization’s strategic cooperation with the Afghan government.
She said the UN Habitat, which assists Afghans in social and physical reconstruction areas, had been active for the past two decades in Afghanistan.
Sharif said she met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and some other officials and discussed with them issues such as strategic importance of urbanization, creating work opportunities, prosperity, development and peace.
She called unplanned residential buildings ‘a challenge’ in the world and said she also talked in this regard with the Afghan officials.
“The UN Habitat supports the Afghan government’s land reforms, particularly property registration in unplanned areas and allocation of government land for displaced families and returnees,” she said.
She said UN Habitat would provide technical assistance to Afghanistan in programs such as ‘City for All’ survey and registration of properties in 12 cities of Afghanistan and distribution of property ownership documents to houses built in unplanned areas.
“We attended an event on Saturday where the president was distributing ownership documents to people, I welcome this initiative, most families and women would be helped to have ownership documents of their properties,” she added.
Sharif said the UN Habitat was working together with the Afghan government on specifying land for internally displaced families and returning refugees.
Mds/ma
