UN-Habitat’s first Policy, Legislation and Governance (PLGS) Annual Report highlights the section’s implementation of the Strategic Plan 2020-2023 for 2020. The Annual Report features the section’s and its partners’ contributions and results realized across various key programmes and projects at the local, national, regional and global levels between November 2019 and the end of 2020.

To promote evidence-based programming and coordination among state and non-state actors, UN-Habitat and UNICEF have jointly completed 28 profiles of disadvantaged neighbourhoods across Lebanon. This collaboration responds to the long-standing need for reliable, multi-sectoral spatial data required to inform sustainable development and humanitarian response by all actors.

This paper sets out how working towards sustainable urbanization is crucial for the sustaining peace agenda. It builds on the ongoing reforms of the peace, security and development pillars of the United Nations and it illustrates how UN-Habitat’s expertise and experiences add value to the humanitarian development- peace actions of the UN in the region.

Riverbank Filtration is a water provision solution that uses riverbank soil as a natural filter. Having implemented more than 30 units in Egypt, UN-Habitat supported the drafting of the “Guideline on Riverbank Filtration in Egypt” to support effective and accurate institutionalization of the technology in the Egyptian codes and practices. The guideline supports planning, site selection, designing, construction, monitoring and maintenance of RBF units in Egypt.

The report “Marib Urban Profile” - developed over the course of one year and the fifth in a series of urban profiles developed by UN-Habitat in the Arab States Region - examines how in the past five years, Marib have ushered in Marib’s transformation into one of the fastest growing cities in the Arab Region and catapulted from the periphery to the very core of Yemen’s political, economic and security dynamics.

The report provides an overview of UN-Habitat’s work in the Arab region during 2020. It outlines how we responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and provides snapshots of our projects and highlighted interventions under each of the four domains of change of UN-Habitat Strategic Plan 2020-2023

The urbanization of the Arab States Region has led to migration, displacement, and climatic conditions due to population growth, development, and economic imbalance. The Arab Strategy for Housing and Sustainable Urban Development 2030 identifies challenges such as high population growth, rural-urban immigration, displacement due to political instability and natural disasters, and security issues. Policies involving governance and dialogue can promote sustainable urbanization. UN-Habitat's…

In 2019, as part of Afghanistan Urban Safety and Security Programme (AUSSP) the first Public Space Safety Audit was undertaken in the country to enable better consideration of safety and security issues through more evidence-based policy planning and implementations. The Audit was done to understand gaps in distribution, quality, safety, accessibility, inclusivity of public spaces, to celebrate and support ongoing initiatives and programmes of the National Government and UN-Habitat.

This end-term Project evaluation of the “Fostering Tenure Security and Resilience of Palestinian Communities through Spatial-Economic Planning Interventions in Area C”, West Bank, Palestine for the period of 2017-2020 focused on the assessment of the results achieved and the lessons learnt from the implementation of the of the Project.