EKYL continues to work as UN Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Housing in Tallinn

18.05.2021

In February 2021, Olga Algayerova, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, and Andres Jaadla, Chairman of EKYL, signed an extension of Memorandum of Understanding between UNECE and EKYL until 2023. The first memorandum of cooperation was signed in 2017, when EKYL, together with the centers in Glasgow and Tirana, became one of the world’s first three UN Centers of Excellence in the field of housing. The network of centers of excellence has now been extended to Norway, Switzerland and Canada. The establishment of centers is also planned in Italy and Spain, but today EKÜL is the only UN Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Housing in the European Union.

As a UN Competence Center, EKYL is focused on supporting the housing sector in countries-in-transition, where housing reforms are still being prepared or underway, and where the experience of the Estonia and EKYL can be taken as an example in this process. The Competence Center shares know-how on issues concerning the management and administration of housing associations outside Estonia: in the Member States of the European Union, in the Eastern Partnership countries of the European Union, in the countries of the United Nations Development Program and elsewhere. The experts of the Center of Excellence participate in the development of UN training programs and guidance materials for the countries of UNECE. The Competence Center organizes study programs and trainings that meet the needs of students from different countries to introduce the experience of Estonian housing reforms and renovation of the housing stock.

Geneva UN Charter Centres of Excellence | UNECE