Bernhard Barth Bernhard Barth is Human Settlements Officer at UN-Habitat’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, based in Fukuoka Japan where he oversees the country programmes in the Philippines, Lao PDR, and in six Pacific Island Countries. He also oversees UN-Habitat’s Cities and Climate Change Initiative across the Asia and Pacific Region and is the focal point for urban planning and design, gender and capacity development. Prior to joining the Regional Office he worked for six years in UN-Habitat’s headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya in different functions: supporting local government training initiatives and training tool development, supporting the global Cities and Climate Change Initiative and coordinating UN-Habitat’s Partner University Initiative. Before joining UN-Habitat, Bernhard worked for UN ESCAP and for various NGOs in the UK, Papua New Guinea, Madagascar and Germany on a broad range of governance, rights and development issues. Bernhard holds Master’s degrees in Economics and in Environmental Policy.