Reforming Urban Laws in Africa: A Practical Guide 2017 This guide aims to create and strengthen law-making processes that build and secure the legal rights of all people living in all urban areas to be governed fairly, live safely, earn a living and participate fully in the economic and cultural offerings of cities. It does not aim to address all the problems of African cities. Rather, it focuses on strengthening efforts to improve the legal framework within which urban areas are managed, planned, governed and financed to create cities that are more sustainable, inclusive and efficient.
Building Sustainability Assessment and Benchmarking 2017 Over the past 30 years, the number, scope and complexity of tools for assessing the environmental impact of buildings has increased dramatically. Examining the emergence of building sustainability assessment and benchmarking as a global phenomenon as well as some of their political and practical barriers can be useful in order to understand their possible role in realizing objectives of the ‘New Urban Agenda’ and the policies to be influenced by it.
Steering the Metropolis: Metropolitan Governance for Sustainable Urban Development 2017 A distinctive feature of urbanization in the last 50 years is the expansion of urban populations and built development well beyond what was earlier conceived as the city limit, resulting in metropolitan areas. This is challenging the relevance of traditional municipal boundaries, and by extension, traditional governing structures and institutions. "Steering the Metropolis: Metropolitan Governance for Sustainable Urban Development,” encompasses the reflections of thought and practice leaders on the underlying premises for governing metropolitan space, sectoral adaptations of those premises, and dynamic applications in a wide variety of contexts. Those reflections are structured into three sections. Section 1 discusses the conceptual underpinnings of metropolitan governance, analyzing why political, technical, and administrative arrangements at this level of government are needed. Section 2 deepens the discussion by addressing specific sectoral themes of mobility, land use planning, environmental management, and economic production, as well as crosscutting topics of metropolitan governance finance, and monitoring and evaluation. Section 3 tests the concepts and their sectoral adaptations against the practice, with cases from Africa, America, Asia, and Europe.
The Human Rights in Cities Handbook Series: Volume I: The Human Rights-Based Approach to Housing and Slum Upgrading 2017 Human rights are important as they set the minimum standards that are essential for people to live in freedom, equality and dignity. They give everyone the freedom of choice and expression and the rights to basic needs necessary for their full development and enjoyment of their rights, including education, water, sanitation, food, health, and housing. Human rights also protect against their abuse by people or entities that are more powerful. Furthermore, human rights inform the relationship that exists between individuals and their governments, distinguishing between every human being and governmental and non-governmental actors obligated to respect, protect, and fulfil these rights.
Supporting Revenue Enhancement in Kiambu County, Kenya 2017 This publication summarizes the work that UN-Habitat carried out in Kiambu County to increase the own-source revenue of the county. It highlights the significant impact of the project.
This publication describes the intervention that was carried out by UN-Habitat in Nampula. It explains the impact of the project and what can be done differently in the future.
Global Public Space Programme Annual report 2016 2017 Launched in 2011, UN-Habitat's Global Public Space Programme works to improve the quality of public spaces worldwide. The programme brings together knowledge, good approaches, tools and methodologies on public space and makes them availably to local authorities and other partners. It also demonstrates, through pilot projects in partnership with cities, the importance of public spaces in achieving sustainable urban development. The programme works in more than 25 countries, including Bangladesh, India, Kenya, South Africa, Peru, Haiti, Kosovo and Mexico.
Profile for the State of Palestine 2017 The profile provides a synopsis on the main urbanization trends and challenges facing the people of Palestine, and the interventions coordinated and spearheaded by UN-Habitat in partnership with local and national stakeholders to localize the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 11 and the New Urban Agenda.
Implementing the IG-UTP 2015 – 2017 2017 The report provides the Governing Council with an overview of UN-Habitat’s progress during the period 2015 – 2017. The information presented builds upon UN-Habitat’s perspective throughout this process and the accounts of member States and IG-UTP partners in adopting and using the Guidelines within their specific contexts.
Economic Foundations for Sustainable Urbanization: A Study on Three-Pronged Approach: Planned City Extensions, Legal Framework, and Municipal Finance 2017 Sustainable urbanization requires integrated planning, as it allows cities to come up with a common vision for their development. Lack of integrated action often leads to sub-optimal results and undermines a city’s economy and quality of life. As a result, UN-Habitat promotes the Three Pronged-Approach to achieve sustainable urban development, which is founded on a policy triangle comprised of good governance, urban design and municipal finance.
Regional Action Plan for the implementation of the New Urban Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean 2016-2036 2017 The Regional Action Plan (RAP) is a regional proposal that builds on the global framework for the implementation of the New Urban Agenda. The New Urban Agenda is the principal outcome document of the third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, Habitat III, held in Quito, Ecuador in October 2016.