The Urban Law and Conflict Series (Volume 2, Emergency Response): Enhancing Urban Law to Protect Housing, Land and Property Across the Conflict Cycle 2026 As global urbanization accelerates, cities are increasingly on the front lines of humanitarian crises and post-conflict recovery, while bearing a growing responsibility to uphold the right to adequate housing. Conflict is now predominantly unfolding in urban settings, as seen in recent crises in Palestine, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen, where widespread housing destruction and mass displacement have placed large civilian populations at risk of losing their homes, land, and tenure security. Many of the resulting challenges, such as safe return, restitution, adjudication, and dispute resolution, are rooted in pre-existing tenure insecurity linked to weak governance, unplanned urbanization, fragile land administration systems, and inadequate housing laws and policies.

Against this backdrop, urban law plays a critical role in creating the conditions for peace, security, and recovery during emergencies and in post-conflict contexts. As the second publication in the Urban Law and Conflict Series, this report explores how urban law can support accountable, inclusive, and responsive urban governance, spatial planning, land administration, and housing law and policy to mitigate the immediate impacts of conflict on housing, land, and property (HLP) rights. This includes, among other measures, reducing residential disruption and displacement, safeguarding land records, enabling emergency shelter, and regulating secondary occupation.
Evaluating the Impact of New Urban Legislation: A Guide to Ex-Ante Analysis 2026 This guide is designed to be adaptable to different legal, institutional, and resource contexts. It may be applied at various stages of the legislative cycle, including during the drafting of new laws, the revision of existing legislation, or the evaluation of proposed amendments. While the full methodology is intended for comprehensive impact assessments, elements of the guide can also be applied in a simplified manner where time, data, or institutional capacity is limited. By offering a modular and scalable approach, the guide supports national and local authorities in strengthening the quality and effectiveness of urban legislation, regardless of context.
Digital Metropolis - Working Paper: Projects for Metropolitan Digital Transition 2026 Projects for Metropolitan Digital Transition is a Working Paper jointly developed by UN-Habitat’s MetroHUB initiative and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) to guide metropolitan and local authorities, urban experts and practitioners, as well as technology solution developers, in shaping a metropolitan-scale digital transition. The document provides a practical framework to move from standalone initiatives to integrated projects that create public value, strengthen inter-municipal coordination, and build institutional capacity.

Throughout the paper, digital transformation is understood as far more than adopting technology: it requires strengthening capabilities, clarifying institutional arrangements, and improving coordination across jurisdictions to tackle challenges that no single municipality can solve alone.

The paper also brings together a set of pilot project ideas designed to accelerate digital transition from a metropolitan perspective. These proposals are framed as enabling, adaptable projects suited to different institutional and territorial realities, aimed at creating the conditions for inter-municipal integration, shared data use, and better decision-making. Broadly, the proposed lines of work include: artificial intelligence for anticipatory and targeted interventions; IoT and sensor networks for real-time monitoring and management; GIS and 3D visualization for integrated spatial analysis; urban digital twins for scenario simulation and policy testing; and multichannel digital services to expand access to procedures, services, and participation across the metropolitan system.

Overall, the document calls for a step change: from sector-by-sector or municipality-by-municipality digitalization to a metropolitan project agenda that is interoperable, scalable, and public-value driven, strengthening governance, reducing internal gaps, and enabling more coordinated, inclusive, and resilient management.
Metropolitan Diplomacy 2026 Metropolises are at the forefront of many global crises, such as climate change, food security, and migration. For this reason, they are increasingly assuming a proactive role within the international ecosystem. Their international engagement is becoming ever more necessary to formulate policies aimed at strengthening the management of metropolitan territories, particularly beyond the current cycle of global agendas concluding in 2030 and in anticipation of new international contexts that may arise in the future.

The “Metropolitan Diplomacy" report, published by UN-Habitat in collaboration with the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), establishes a strategic framework for metropolitan areas to serve as decisive actors in global governance. It defines metropolitan diplomacy as the actions and strategies used by metropolitan regions to influence international spheres and cooperate beyond municipal boundaries to address systemic challenges such as climate change, migration, and inequality.

The report emphasizes that while city diplomacy focuses on bilateral municipal cooperation, metropolitan diplomacy addresses a broader range of issues - like regional mobility and territorial planning - that require collective solutions across entire metropolitan territories. It details a decade of diplomatic evolution, from the Montreal Declaration (2015) to the Barcelona Metropolitan Declaration (2025), the latter of which calls for the formal recognition of metropolitan areas as full partners in global governance.

The report provides a roadmap for the future, recommending the institutionalization of diplomacy within metropolitan structures and the development of Voluntary Metropolitan Reports (VMRs) to monitor SDG progress. By aligning metropolitan actions with emerging global frameworks such as the Pact for the Future and the Global Digital Compact, this document provides a comprehensive guidance for advancing inclusive, resilient, and multi-level governance in the post-2030 agenda.
Activating food-tech ecosystems in intermediary cities for sustainable food security 2026 Transforming agro-food to advance food security while promoting sustainable industrialisation in developing countries is an urgent priority. Intermediary cities, as vital connectors between urban and rural areas, are piloting innovative solutions to drive this transformation through food-tech. This policy brief examines how innovation ecosystems in intermediary cities can contribute to achieving net-zero emissions and zero hunger and presents key recommendations for development policy. It has been prepared within the framework of the G20 Platform on SDG Localisation and Intermediary Cities (PLIC) under the South African G20 Presidency.
Guide to creating urban public SPACES for children 2026 Public spaces to play are important to children's health and development and are a core right. Yet with increasing urbanization, access to public spaces to play is shrinking, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This guide, developed by UN-Habitat, WHO and UNICEF, highlights the importance of public spaces for optimizing children's health and well-being, and realizing their comprehensive rights. It provides support for practitioners in developing and improving public spaces for children in planned urban contexts, informal contexts as well as in crisis/resilience-building settings.
Building resilience through disaster risk management in intermediary cities 2026 Natural disasters and extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity globally. Local governments, including intermediary cities, are on the frontline of disaster risk management. Increasing their resilience is critical to protect lives and support economic development. This is particularly true in developing countries where local governments, especially in intermediary cities, lack financing and management capacities to prevent, react and rebuild in an inclusive and sustainable way. Drawing on the OECD Compendium of Good Practices for Quality Infrastructure 2024, this policy brief provides an overview of good practices to ensure infrastructure resilience and shares recommendations for development partners to embed disaster risk management as a foundation for safer, more equitable, and resilient societies. It has been prepared within the framework of the G20 Platform on SDG Localisation and Intermediary Cities (PLIC) under the South African G20 Presidency.
Guide to creating urban public SPACES for children 2026 Public spaces to play are important to children's health and development and are a core right. Yet with increasing urbanization, access to public spaces to play is shrinking, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This guide, developed by UN-Habitat, WHO and UNICEF, highlights the importance of public spaces for optimizing children's health and well-being, and realizing their comprehensive rights. It provides support for practitioners in developing and improving public spaces for children in planned urban contexts, informal contexts as well as in crisis/resilience-building settings.
Vision, Area Planning, and Action Plan Report for Kafr El-Battikh City-Egypt 2025 In the light of the analytical work and the exchanges carried out during the first part of the UPIMC programme in Damietta Governorate, this report developed a strategic vision based on an urban strategy developed in full engagement of all stakeholders. This report, which is the output of the second component, draws on the spatial profile that has been created to generate a common strategic vision and scenario and to provide an action plan for accomplishing it by identifying priority infrastructure investments which seek to enhance the living conditions for both local communities and refugees. This method is fully described in the report’s chapters.
WUF12 Report 2025 The WUF12 Report provides an overview of the programme, participation and strategic highlights from the twelfth session of the World Urban Forum, held in Cairo, Egypt. It showcases the sustainability, inclusivity and diversity of the Forum, reflecting the collective efforts to advance sustainable urban development and implement the New Urban Agenda.