Dr. Pietro Garau

Dr. Pietro Garau is a tenured researcher at the first Faculty of Architecture of the University of Rome. From 1980 to 2002 Dr. Garau worked for the United Nations Center for Human Settlements (Habitat) most recently as director of the Habitat Office at the United Nations in New York. Prior to that he worked as Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of Habitat in Nairobi, Director of the Habitat II Conference Secretariat, and Chief of the Research and Development Division. His research contributions focused on settlement management, institutions and policies. They include the first issue of Habitat's flagship report, the "Global Report on Human Settlements", and the "Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000." While in Geneva as head of Habitat's Europe office, Dr. Garau set up the Maison de l'Habitat as a partnership between the UN, academia, local authorities and civil society organizations. Later, he was instrumental in the establishment of the UN Advisory Committee of Local Authorities, the first advisory body of local authorities to a United Nations agency, and was responsible for the negotiations which transformed Habitat into the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. Dr. Garau is an Italian citizen and holds a degree of Dottore in Architettura from the University of Rome. He is a member of N-AERUS, the network of European-based researchers dealing with urbanization issues in the South.