As part of its expansion programmes so as to effectively address human settlements concerns globally, UN-HABITAT with the support from the Government of Poland opened, in October 2006, an office in Warsaw in order to conduct operations in Central, Eastern and Southern European countries. Its opening was a result of an Agreement signed on April 7, 2005 between the Government of the Republic of Poland and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme on establishment of a UN-HABITAT Office in the Republic of Poland.
Since May 2008, Mr. Krzysztof Mularczyk has been performing his duties as Chief of the Office. He replaced Mr Marek Bryx, who worked for the Office during the first two years. He is assisted by three substantial and administrative staff members
The Office is to enable UN-HABITAT to work more efficiently in the region, coordinating programmes in interested countries. It does advocacy and networking, organizes workshops and high-level and expert meetings, and is tasked to prepare and implement technical cooperation projects.
It also assists countries in the region in developing national and local capacities to systematically address urban poverty and shelter shortfalls. It facilitates the promotion of the Habitat Agenda and of the global normative messages of UN-HABITAT in the region. Moreover, it seeks to improve the flow of human settlements information and boost policy making, planning and management in the urban and housing sectors.
The Office is there to respond to national and local demands and can provide, upon request, country and city partners with policy options, technical expertise, information management and can support their project implementation efforts.
One of the first tasks of the new office was to set up a regional Advisory Council of government officials responsible for housing and human settlements. The first meeting of the Council took place in Warsaw on 25-26 February, 2007, an Extraordinary Meeting of the Council was held on 21-22 June, 2007 in Bucharest (Romania).