Dr Omoayena Odunbaku is a Human Settlements Officer in the Regional Office for Africa, UN- Habitat. She is the Human Settlements Officer responsible for the Africa Urban Agenda (AUA) and Anglophone West African Countries (Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone and Liberia). She is also UN-Habitat’s affiliate to the Africa Union Commission (AUC), Africa Development Bank (AfDB) and UNECA, Regional Economic Commissions for Africa.
Her previous portfolio in UN-Habitat entailed holding a dual position of Acting Head, Governance Unit and Project Officer for the AUA in the External Relations Division where she worked closely with National governments, relevant stakeholders and Habitat Agenda Partners (HAPS) in implementing the AUA by advocating through several high level and stake holders meetings, policy dialogues, expert group meetings and capacity building workshops for the formulation and adoption of the Common Africa Position to Habitat III (CAPHIII), adoption of National Urban policies by national governments, policy formulation and development with guidelines designed to contextualize housing policies that proffer finance and investment solutions for citizens especially the poor. She has a good understanding of the normative and operational mandates of local, national, sub regional, regional and global agencies with emphasis on how policies, plans and agendas are formulated, negotiated and implemented.
Prior to her appointment in UN-Habitat, Omoh as she is fondly called by her professional colleagues and peers, was a lecturer in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Lagos, Nigeria; Senior Human Settlements Consultant with indigenous private urban planning consortiums- Geo Trans Nigerian Limited (Urban and Transport Planners) and MasterPlan Consults Nig Ltd. She also briefly consulted for with Henrich Boll Stitfung Nigeria- a German foundation. She consulted on several human settlements and slum upgrading projects in Afica, published in several international learned journals and National journals, presented academic and nonacademic papers at international conferences, lectured several undergraduate courses and supervised undergraduate theses.
Omoh spent most of her formative years in the intense Lagos urban environment where she developed an inherent interest and engagement in urban issues that led to enthusiasm and embracing of innovative and dynamic approaches to urban narratives, discuss and research which in turn propelled her quest in attaining higher academic qualifications. She holds a Ph.D in Urban and Regional Planning from the prestigious University of Lagos and is a Registered Town Planner (RTP).