The United Nations Habitat and the Kenya Editors Guild will work closely to accelerate the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Officials from the two organisations met on Tuesday in Nairobi to discuss urban issues and the media.
The UN-Habitat said they had noted that many Kenyans are not aware of the work the international body does in the country thus the need to work closely with the media.
This is despite the body working with the Kenyan government for more than four decades.
UN-Habitat Executive Director Maimunah Sharif said the media is the bridge connecting the international body to society.
"Media play a very crucial role. We need to work closely with the media to help us disseminate the work that we are doing and also to gain feedback from you on what is needed on the ground," Sharif said.
Sharif said the body has been working in Kenya to better lives and took part in working with slum dwellers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
She noted that after the pandemic, slum dwellers increased from 800 million to 1 billion.
"The increase in the number of people living in slums guided this year's theme for the UN Assembly summit which will be held from June 5-9."
The theme for the UN Assembly will be a sustainable urban future through inclusive and effective multilateralism: achieving sustainable development goals in times of global crises.
UN-Habitat has been at the forefront of supporting the affordable housing project being touted by President William Ruto. This is as rural-to-urban migration continues to be on the rise.
Deputy Executive Director of UN-Habitat Michal Mlyna'r said as more people move into cities, it has become important to ensure adequate housing, water, sanitation and fulfilling the needs of citizens.
He said by 2050, there will be 1.3 billion people living in cities from 800 million as is now.
According to him, governments need to prepare how they are going to anticipate these growing cities.
"The UN-Habitat has four key areas of focus in Kenya. The first is land management planning, the second is planning and basic services, the third is urban planning and financing and lastly is climate change and resilience," he said.
Kenya Editors Guild Vice Chair Ruth Nesoba who was speaking on behalf of the Guild's president Zubeida Kananu said it would be good if journalists can access experts in various fields that the UN-Habitat has.
"Whether on research, any current issue, the trends that are going on on matters to do with urban sustainable developments and settlement. If they can make that kind of information available to us I think it will go a long way in helping journalists to put out more factual and solid evidence-based reporting," Nesoba said.
She added that an opportunity to offer training to build capacity for journalists so that they are able to report stories to do with settlement and urban development in a more informed way.
Nesoba said scribes can get skills from the UN-Habitat to be able to talk about the nuances that are involved in matters to do with settlements.
She also called for networking opportunities with the UN body.
"Let's have engagements with them here in the country and beyond. Places where we can get best practices, best examples of things that have worked and where they haven't worked we point it out," she explained.
Further, Nesoba urged the UN-Habitat to avail data on the work they have done in Kenya.
She said the data should not just be numbers, but rather, that the UN explain the data to make them resonate with everyone.