Organizations

Abstract

The Human Settlements Programme of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) arose out of the Institute's involvement in Habitat, the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements in Vancouver in 1976. Before the conference, the Canadian government had invited the Institute's President, Barbara Ward, 1 1 Barbara Ward retired as President in 1980 and died in 1981. to write a popular book on the issues the conference should be tackling and this was published just before the conference as The Home of Man. 2 2 Published by W.W. Norton (USA), Penguin (UK) and McClelland and Stewart (Canada). While various IIED members took part both in the official conference and in the non-government ‘Habitat Forum’, it was through Canadian government support after the conference that a Human Settlements Programme was started. 3 3 At present, the Programme is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency, the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries, the Swedish Building Research Council and the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat). This article is the first in a series of reports from settlements- and urban-related organizations .