| Child-responsive urban policies, laws and standards: a guidance | 2023 | UN-Habitat and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have developed this Guidance on Child-Responsive Urban Policies, Laws and Standards to support governments at all levels to create urban spaces where children can access basic services, clean air and water; where children feel safe to play, learn and grow, which includes ensuring their voices are heard and their needs are integrated into public policies and decision-making processes. The guidance highlights the important role that policy and legislation play as drivers of change; they set normative standards and minimum expectations for duty-bearers in all aspects of children’s life, survival and development. Hence, the rights and interests of children in the urban context should be considered and mainstreamed in planning, financing, administrative and structural reforms at all levels of government, including at the local level. Thus, this tool contains a succinct but comprehensive summary of the best practices, country-specific, practical examples, including a set of global child-rights frameworks that are necessary to grant children equal value and to guarantee them the necessary protection and opportunities for participation. This guidance has been developed in such a way that it is useful for governments at all levels, children-led institutions, young peoples’ associations, sectoral institutions, urban practitioners, non-state actors, and community-based organizations and children. clinma |
| Semarang Spatial Profile | 2023 | UN-Habitat, partnered with the World Bank, Indonesian Government, and Semarang's City, to advise and support in implementing a joint urban vision. UN-Habitat's Urban Lab conducted a 12-week rapid planning studio and masterclass series to rapidly simulate an evidence-based spatial planning process linked to capital investment while enhancing local capacity for sustainable urban development. |
| Benchmarking Case Studies on Public Participation in Spatial Planning Processes In Four Countries: Australia, Chile, South Africa And The United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland: Urban Governance Case Studies, Volume 2 | 2023 | UN-Habitat provides technical assistance and advisory services to member states in legal reform processes to bring about social and economic transformation and enhance effective service delivery for sustainable urban development. Benchmarking case studies and comparative analysis are key aspects of the UN-Habitat methodology for legal and governance reform. This report showcases benchmarking case studies on public participation in four countries prepared for the project “Strengthening the Urban Planning Legal and Institutional Frameworks in the Sultanate of Oman”. It includes a comparative analysis of best practices for meaningful public participation in spatial planning to make urban development more inclusive, equitable, sustainable, active and meaningful. The selection of the country case studies is based on the principles of effective public participation derived from the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda, which contain both quantitative and qualitative selection criteria. These criteria aim to ensure that the study contains relevant and innovative practices on public participation and that the selected countries are comparable to Oman with respect to their social, economic and political contexts. In sum, these case studies provide a spectrum of regulatory and governance models on public participation for the country’s legal and institutional reform agenda. |
| UN-Habitat Flagship Programmes | 2023 | |
| Voluntary Local Review, Municipality of Agadir, Morocco | 2023 | The Voluntary Local Review (VLR) of the city of Agadir marks an important milestone for Morocco as it is the first in the country and in North Africa. It is the result of the collaboration between the Municipality of Agadir, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UNESCWA), the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) and the United Cities and Local Governments Middle East and West Asia Section (UCLG-MEWA). Agadir’s VLR rests on evidence-based, participatory, reflective and actionable principles. It focuses on a review of the city’s progress towards SDG 5, SDG 6, SDG 7, SDG 8, SDG 11, SDG 13 and SDG 17. This VLR ensures both complementarity and close alignment with the 2020 VNR of Morocco, depicting the country’s progress towards the SDGs. It provides a complementary perspective with the VNR by discussing the local development challenges and disparities, and development objectives vis a vis the national development challenges and ways to address them. |
| Future Cities Advisory Outlook 2023: Digital Innovations Empower Urban Net-Zero Carbon Transition | 2023 | The “Future Cities Advisory Outlook 2023: Digital Innovations Empower Urban Net-Zero Carbon Transition” is the third flagship report of UN-Habitat China Future Cities Council. The report summarizes six main scenarios and a roadmap of digital solutions to achieve urban net-zero carbon, and collects 10 good practice cases from Chinese cities and enterprises. Meanwhile, it also calling for the urban net-zero carbon transition through the application of digital solutions. |
| Global Public Space Programme Annual Report 2021 | 2022 | Launched in 2012, UN-Habitat’s Global Public Space Programme supports cities to take actions for safe, inclusive, and accessible public space for all. As a Programme, we promote the crucial role of green and quality public spaces in cities, acting as an enabler for social justice, prosperity, and environmental change. The Global Public Space Programme adopts an integrated and iterative approach for sustainable public space development and management. |
| Regional Assessment on Urban Vulnerability and Resilience in Southern African Development Community Member States | 2022 | This publication provides the basis for a much-needed Urban Resilience Framework, including an examination of urban disaster risk and resilience in the SADC region, vulnerability profiles for each country, city level analyses of vulnerability, and measures to foster institutional and policy discussions. |
| Research Briefing Vol 1: Socio-Economic Conditions in Turkana West, Kenya | 2022 | These briefs are based on a study designed to establish prevailing socio-economic conditions, the nature of businesses and the local economic development in Turkana West, and the trends of urbanization in North Rift Kenya. The research is available as three volumes: (1) Volume 1 focused on Households’ Socio-Economic Conditions, (2) Volume 2 is on Businesses and Local Economic Development (LED), and Volume 3 is a profile of the Urbanization Trends in North Rift region of Kenya. |
| Land Governance, Natural Resources and Climate Change in the Arab Region | 2022 | This report explores some of the critical challenges that converge at the intersection of climate change and land governance. Some of these challenges are droughts, desertification, disaster risk, land and water management, land degradation and restoration, soil erosion and conservation, biodiversity, and food security. |