The Ministry of Infrastructure hosted the World Habitat Day Commemoration on the 05^th October 2014 atunder the theme “Voices from Slums.” The Minister of Infrastructure, Hon. James Musoni officiated this event which started at 15:00pm.

Rwanda endeavored to innovatively put in place a national theme relevant to the existing local situation, alongside the world theme.  The national theme is stated as “Voices from Slums: Informal settlement upgrading and community empowerment for sustainable development.

The national theme enhanced the commencement of the Habitat week that started on the 27^th September, 2014 Country wide and secondary cities respectively during the community work participation (Umuganda) with focus to improve informal settlements into grouped settlements.

The United Nations has designated the first Monday of October every year as UN- World Habitat Day. This day provides an excellent opportunity to highlight key human settlements issues. Commemorations of this day is to enable all the stakeholders in the human settlement arena to come together and share challenges they face in their quest to improve living standards in slums.

According to the Honourable Minister of Infrastructure, the aim of the day is to raise awareness about the problems of rapid urbanization, its impact on the environment, the growth of slums, and the urbanization of poverty as more and more people migrate to towns and cities looking for jobs. This day is meant to reflect on the state of human settlements world-wide, as well as the achievements made to improve the lives of humans living in slums.  It is also intended to remind the world of its collective responsibility for humans living conditions.