Urban Resilience Action Plan (URAP) for Pasto, Colombia: Planning for Climate, Urban, and Biodiversity Action 2026
Townships in Afghanistan: Lessons Learned for Advancing Durable Solutions and Re-integration 2026
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.
​​Global Trends and Insights on Urban Rural Linkages – Key Highlights Booklet​ 2026 This Key Highlights Booklet is a summarized version of the Global Trends and Insights on Urban-Rural Linkages Report. The booklet provides a concise overview of the evolving relationship between urban and rural areas, emphasizing their growing importance in sustainable development. It also explores global events, frameworks and processes that have contributed to strengthening urban-rural linkages (URLs), while highlighting emerging issues in urban-rural linkages.

Drawing on survey responses from Member States, the booklet synthesizes how URLs are incorporated into national and subnational frameworks and showcases diverse global actions aimed at enhancing these connections.

This resource not only serves as a quick source of knowledge on the state of urban-rural linkages but also proposes actionable recommendations for advancing integrated and inclusive development across urban and rural landscapes.
GWOPA Annual Report 2025 2026 The GWOPA Annual Report 2025 presents the Alliance’s work to strengthen water and sanitation operators through solidarity-based, peer-to-peer cooperation. The report highlights how Water Operators’ Partnerships are helping utilities address operational challenges, improve service delivery and contribute to more inclusive, resilient and sustainable cities. The report captures a year of major milestones, including the continued implementation of Water Operators’ Partnerships across regions, the completion of the first phase of the European Union Water Operators’ Partnerships Programme, the launch of its second phase, the Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Congress in Bonn and the continued growth of the Global WOPs Community.
Quality of Life Initiative - Brochure 2026 ​​The Quality of Life Initiative introduces UN-Habitat’s global effort to help cities measure and improve urban well-being through a people-centered, data-driven approach. Centered on the Quality of Life Index, the brochure showcases how objective indicators and residents’ lived experiences are combined to inform more inclusive, locally relevant decision-making, while highlighting the Initiative’s expanding knowledge ecosystem, digital platform, and global network supporting sustainable urban development.​
​​Progress made in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda in Africa (2022 - 2026)​ 2026 ​​This publication assesses Africa’s progress in implementing the New Urban Agenda between 2022 and 2026. It highlights advances in urban governance, planning, climate resilience, digital innovation, and local economic development, while examining persistent challenges including housing deficits, urban poverty, informality, infrastructure financing gaps, and unequal access to services.
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.
​​Socially Inclusive National Urban Policies: ​A Guide​ 2026 Social inclusion remains a pivotal measure of sustainable urban development. This is because people in cities and communities serve as both givers and takers of various urbanization components and resulting impacts. On the one hand, effective integration of all urban and community residents through meaningful participation, capacity building, and demonstration projects leads to realization of seamless urbanization policy processes. On the other hand, the results through improved quality of life from aspects like spatial equity, improved provision of urban basic services, affordable and inclusive housing, and fairer employment opportunities all contribute to the realization of inclusive, sustainable and resilient cities and communities. This guide has been developed with an objective to support national and local governments and other actors to mainstream social inclusion as a fabric of their respective national and sub-national urban policies thus subsequently contribute to global development agendas.

First, the guide analyzes the various aspects of social inclusion, highlighting cases studies on how countries across the globe have integrated these aspects into their urban development process. Further, it proposes means through which countries can mainstream social inclusion in the NUP phases (feasibility, diagnosis, formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation) and pillars (participation, capacity building, acupuncture projects) using examples from countries that have integrated social inclusion aspects in their various NUP stages. It finally recommends a summary through a ten-step pathway to achieve an inclusive urbanization process.

In the spirit of ‘Leaving No One Behind’, this guide envisions that national and local government officials, urban experts, academia, civil society, researchers and community at the grassroots will enhance inclusive urban policy processes. Through this guiding framework, cities and communities can achieve effective, inclusive, and sustainable urbanization outcomes.
The Spatial Development Plan for Karak Governorate (2024–2028) 2026 The Spatial Development Plan for Karak Governorate (2024–2028) provides a strategic roadmap for sustainable development, grounded in comprehensive spatial analysis and a participatory visioning process. It defines development priorities, identifies key growth sectors, and outlines priority investment projects to enhance socio-economic progress over the next five years.