UN-Habitat drives global discourse and agenda on sustainable urban development, leads policy discussions and contributes to a wide range of reports. Its latest flagship report World Cities Report 2020: The Value of Sustainable Urbanization, shows the intrinsic value of sustainable urbanization and how to harness it for universal well-being.

In 2020, UN-Habitat worked with partners to launch the Urban Agenda Platform and developed the joint Global Urban Monitoring Framework to track progress of implementation of the New Urban Agenda, urban dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other global agendas.

A Capacity Building Strategy approved in October 2020 will improve implementation of the New Urban Agenda and the urban dimension of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and allows UN-Habitat to increase urban stakeholder empowerment and impact. An internal digital learning strategy teaches various approaches and tools around capacity-building and identifying partners, solutions and a roadmap to accelerate the digital transformation of UN-Habitat’s learning activities.

To adjust its support to national and local governments and communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, UN-Habitat moved meetings to virtual platforms, provided remote advice and ran 175 days of workshops and training events to support the New Urban Agenda and the SDGs.