UN-HABITAT Role & Background

Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, the Executive Director of UN HABITAT first visited
Bahrain in 2000 to attend the Arab Regional Conference of UN HABITAT as her
first assignment following her appointment as Executive Director of HABITAT
by the then UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan.

That visit gave her the
opportunity to meet with His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa,
Prime Minister of the, Kingdom of Bahrain and His Highness the Crown Prince and to see to see was being done in Bahrain to relieve poverty in accordance with the aims of the 'UN HABITAT.

In February 2007, Mrs. Tibaijuka made a return to Bahrain and was able to see the progress That has been made in the intervening period and to assess for
herself the ongoing program of cooperation between the Government of Bahrain
and UN HABITAT. During her visit Mrs. Tibaijuka had the opportunity to hold
extensive discussions with Hi s Highness the Prime Minister as well as the
Ministers of the Prime Minister's Court, Works and Housing, Municipalities and
Agriculture, and the Minister or State for Foreign Affairs. She Also met 'with the
Regional Representative of the UNDP and made site visits to a number of Housing and development projects.

Following her visit to Bahrain, Mrs. Tibaijuka wrote to His Highness the Prime
Minister and advised 'that she had been extremely impressed by the strides that
Bahrain had made to improve the conditions of people living and working in
Poverty.
She said That under the leadership of the Prime Minister, enormous
' efforts bad been made to house the poor and disadvantaged as was shown by a 50 percent increase since 1971, in the supply of accommodation for the citizens of very low
income.

Mrs. Tibaijuka also noted That under the Prime Minister's leadership there had been an encouragement of citizens to participate in urban governance particularly through the introduction of directly elected Municipal Councils and
by including citizens in planning and decision making about village and city
development.

Mrs. Tibaijuka expressed confidence that Bahrain's laudable achievements would be an inspiration to other countries in the region and
beyond.

As a result of the development that she had seen in Bahrain over a number of years,
Mrs. Tibaijuka advised the Prime Minister that U.N HABITAT had
decided to bestow on him the Special Citation of tile UN HABITAT Scroll of
Honour for His Highness' ''impressive efforts in lifting the living standards of all Bahrainis through an active focus on poverty alleviation and modernization while preserving the cultural heritage of your country".

His Highness, in accepting notice of the Award, said that the bestowal reflected
the wise leadership of the Late Amir and His Majesty the King, and brought credit to the achievements of the people of Bahrain.

UN HABITAT Background

The UN HABITAT's role, as mandated by the U.N. General Assembly, is to promote
socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing shelter for all (Habitat's slogan).

Habitat's budget is $300 million annually. Most of the funds are drawn from contributions by bilateral and multilateral partners for technical
cooperation and contributions by governments.

HABITAT started in 1978 after a meeting in Vancouver known as Habitat
1). Its focus was largely on the spread of urban development when humanity was over 60% rurally based.

In 1996, Habitat 2 in Turkey reviewed the progress and set goals for new millennium and adopted the City Summit which was signed by 171
countries.

HABITAT's headquarters are in Nairobi and is run by an Executive Director, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, who reports to a Governing Council drawn from
country nominees which in turn reports to the General Assembly through
ECOSOC - which coordinates the work of all UN agencies.

Mrs. Tibaijuka is also an Undersecretary General of the United Nations Organization.