Is Habitat alive and well, and living in Nairobi? The answers in that order must be Yes, Not Quite, and Soon. When Governments at the Vancouver Conference called for greater coherence and effectiveness in Human Settlement activities within the United Nations system they set in motion an onerous yet necessary process of planning and reconstruction. Now, two years after Vancouver, the creation and funding of a central Secretariat to serve as focal point for all UN work in the improvement of living areas is in hand, scheduled to move to Nairobi under its recently-appointed head: UN Secretary-General Waldheim has appointed Arcot Ramachandran as Executive Director of the UN Centre for Human Settlements at the level of Under-Secretary-General. (Mr Ramachandran is at present Permanent Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Science and Technology.) A 58-member Commission on Human Settlements which is to oversee this international effort has held its inaugural session and set its targets under its Administrator; the UN Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation is functioning, albeit with inadequate funds and a new UN Audio-Visual Information Centre for Human Settlements thrives with healthy Canadian support.