Current projects, initiatives and partnerships: June 2022 2022
Communiqué of the Expert Group Meeting Urban Regeneration as a tool for Inclusive and Sustainable Recovery 2022
Cities and Nature: Planning for the Future 2022 In preparation for the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to adopt the Global Biodiversity Framework, UN-Habitat has prepared a white paper Cities and Nature: Planning for the Future, which highlights new principles and actions to improve the quality of urbanization, recognizing the importance of nature in cities and the preventative role of spatial planning. It also offers a novel methodology to prioritize interventions along a preserve-conserve-restore-create spectrum that responds to varying states of natural habitat around and within cities. The goal is to help cities to make educated decisions about where and how to develop with minimal impact on nature and people. Urbanists and ecologists in policy and practice alike will benefit from its action-based approaches and catalogue of preventative practices.
Capacity Development Strategy for Regional Technical Offices 2022 Regional Technical Offices (RTOs) were established by UN-Habitat in 2007 in order to empower unions of municipalities (UoMs) in emergency responses, planning, and development, and specifically to support reconstruction and development in Lebanon.
Unions of Municipalities as Enablers of Local Economic Development – Union of Tyre Municipalities 2022 The ‘Municipal Empowerment and Resilience Project’ (MERP) is a joint project by UN-Habitat and UNDP funded by the European Union. The project aims to strengthen the long-term resilience of subnational authorities in Lebanon as well as host communities, refugees and displaced persons affected by the Syrian Crisis.
UN-Habitat Iraq Newsletter – February 2022 2022 UN-Habitat Iraq February 2022 Newsletter: Provides an update on UN-Habitat’s activities in Iraq as well as relevant policy and advocacy topics.
Integrating the SDGs in Urban Project Design: Recommendations from the Global Future Cities Programme 2022 Based on experiences from the Kingdom's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (UK FCDO) funded UN-Habitat’s Global Future Cities Programme (GFCP), this report is one of a two-part series that shares insights and recommendations for global programmes that seek to drive transformative impact and accelerate SDG implementation in rapidly urbanising contexts.
Urban Recovery Framework publication series 2022 The Urban Recovery Framework (URF) is a key instrument to enhance responses to urban crises. The aim of the URF is to create an enabling environment for more effective recovery in urban areas, affected by natural or man-made crises, including conflict. It clarifies institutional and multi-level governance arrangements, policies and plans, the coordination mechanisms and the financing instruments needed to drive and steer the implementation of immediate and medium-term urban recovery intervention
Evaluation of National Urban Policy Programme 2014-2021 (2022/5) 2022
National Urban Policy for Palestine 2022 The NUP constitutes a framework and reference for the implementation of public interventions in urban areas in Palestine by the ministries and service-providing institutions of the State of Palestine, in addition to being an awareness tool focusing on the promotion of sustainable urban development.

In Palestine, urbanization exceeds the global average given the particularity of its complex geopolitical situation, standing at 77 per cent (71 per cent in the West Bank and 87 per cent in Gaza Strip) with an additional 8 per cent of the population living in refugee camps, which are characterized by high levels of informality and considered of urban nature, thus making the de facto urban population in Palestine about 85 per cent, with the remaining 15 per cent living in rural settings. With a 2.8 per cent urban population growth rate in 2021, Palestine is classified among the top 25 per cent of urbanizing countries.

In 2022, the Ministry of Local Government (MoLG) and partners led a consultative process in identifying the main priorities and pillars of the NUP. The consultation process was administered by a task team including the Association of Palestinian Local Authorities, the consultant team from An-Najah National University, with technical support from UN-Habitat at the bequest of the European Union. The consultations included stakeholders from the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Refugee camps were not excluded but were not directly involved in the NUP process. The main pillars identified are housing, transportation, natural and cultural heritage, sustainable urban-rural development, disaster risk management, urban governance, and urban economy. Climate change was a cross-cutting issue in the discussions between stakeholders and was considered when formulating policies related to all the pillars mentioned above, especially, the fifth pillar related to disaster risk management.